Religion, Faith & Theology

reply to post by SplitInfinity

I suppose the theology forum provides a purpose ... it keeps all the scripture spitting contests off the main conspiracy boards.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Yeah..there certainly is more than enough of that!

I will be posting about Quantum Mechanics and the next thing I know...someone is telling me to stop worshipping Science as it is the Devil's work and to pray to Jesus. LOL!

On average...I believe those who are deep into their religious beliefs are both more numerous and disruptive than those who post one liners who don't believe in GOD.

Hey at least it is only a one liner! The religious people will go on FOREVER! LOL!

Split Infinity

I would agree on one condition. Religion STAYS in its own subforum.

Since ATS is all about denying ignorance, and faith/religion is kind of the opposite because it's all about subjective feelings and unquestioning belief in one rigid dogma, then that would seem like a good compromise to me. Faith, God and religion STAY in the Spirituality Forum, and the rest of ATS can converse about whatever they like without people turning up with bible quotes.

/Inflamatory sacarsm off/

Failing that, the Op could just accept that eveyone has the right to disagree with his/her own ideas, and that if he/she wants to converse with like-minded believers, there are plenty of other forums out there where people ARE actually banned if they don't accept the existence of God.

In my humble opinion, it is not the Op's buisiness to tell others where and what they are allowed to post, simply because some of what is said offends her/his beliefs. I mean come on, whats next ? No skeptics in the UFO threads ? This is just plain silly. We progess as a species by confronting our opinions, not by comfortably marinating in our own immobile brain-juices.

reply to post by sk0rpi0n


circular argument.

go into the UFO forum and you will see the replies that do state something is fake or not real and most of the time, they are right

religion, beliefs of all sorts are just that... 'beliefs' and it doesn't necessarily mean the belief is true or correct.

why don't you post up examples of all of the religious zealot's replies? Easy answer that one... hard to know what to pick out and use... there are so many of them..

reply to post by Ismail

Failing that, the Op could just accept that eveyone has the right to disagree with his/her own ideas,

Everybody has the right to disagree, yes.

Lets say I start a thread stating my interpretation of a particular verse. Anybody can disagree with my interpretation of it so long as its backed up by an explanation. It is part of any discussion. I'm not opposing that.

However, a poster who outright dismisses the basic premise of God can really adds nothing to the thread. I don't need to first convince him that God exists before we start discussing the verse in question. I'd rather respond to other users who stay focused on the particular verse in question.

reply to post by Thurisaz

religion, beliefs of all sorts are just that... 'beliefs' and it doesn't necessarily mean the belief is true or correct.

Whether or not its "true" or "false, is a matter of perception. Just because you are irreligious doesn't mean everybody needs to think the way you do.

The religion section exists for a particular audience. If every user were to voice their opinions on speculative subjects like UFOs, cryptids, NWO etc every single thread would be littered with one liners such as "UFOs are a hoax", "NWO isn't real" and "no, they aren't"- "yes, they are" responses.

please delete.

this is ATS and it is open to everyone.

If you don't like it, then go and start a discussion at your closest church online forum... that way you can have everyone agree with your 'beliefs'

issue is religious people want to force others to agree with their beliefs and convert others... and anyone who doesn't believe it, is labelled.

pathetic.

reply to post by Thurisaz

ssue is religious people want to force others to agree with their beliefs and convert others... and anyone who doesn't believe it, is labelled

Nobody is trying to force their beliefs on others or convert anybody.
Most discussions revolve around around very specific scriptural issues and concepts.

Besides, with this thread, I'm only re-iterating what has already been said by a "super moderator".

ALL MEMBERS READ - Moving Past Religion 101 and Staying on Topic

Venturing into this forum and participating in these discussions implies that you are interested in these topics.

We can't begin to truly discuss these topics if we're constantly arguing about if God is real or not.

Imagine discussing algebra while someone keeps interjecting that they still don’t believe in addition. The very reason that classes such as these have prerequisites is so new ground can be covered in the subject.

To sum things up. Let's stay on topic and allow discussions to take place without constant interference.

reply to post by Thurisaz

You're missing the point here.
The OP is not objecting to disagreement, but to deliberate derailment of discussion.

Supposing you were trying to have a political debate, and every other post was coming from a solipsist saying "You want to argue whether one politician is better than another, but we can't possibly do that until we've sorted out whether other people really exist".
You would soon want to start saying "Just for the purpose of this discussion, can we just take it for granted that people do exist".

IThe OP is quoting a thread which was written and made sticky by the Mods, talking about allowing a discussion to get beyond the basics, and move on from "Religion 101".
Please allow that to happen.

By all means disagree, but disagree "on-topic". If the topic of a thread is "That passage in the Bible has this meaning", the only on-topic way of disagreeing is to say "That passage in the Bible has a different meaning",
it's all about "on-topic", which is just as fundamental to this forum as disagreement.

reply to post by DISRAELI


Exactly. You worded the point I was making rather well.

Some people here have misunderstood the OP as meaning one should not be allowed to disagree with threads in the Religion forums. All I am speaking against are the one liners rejecting the overall premise... refusing to go beyond Religion 101.

reply to post by sk0rpi0n


I think it's rather healthy that someone can enter your argument on the true meaning of Revelations 12:9 and just say something like : "well argue all you want, but be aware that you're probably arguing over nothing, because nothing actually proves that God exists". Puts things into perspective.