I believe because it brings me comfort. Praying makes me feel good and connected to something beyond myself. That's all I need. We really don't know if there is a "Soul" or not, or where a "Soul" goes after the body has passed. Faith and belief get me through each day with the idea that the daily struggle, if not rewarded in life, is rewarded in the afterlife. I think that precludes a religion, and a religion is just a matter of choice. I think their issue is more organized religion, especially some of the born again Christian groups which drive me crazy in their zealous righteousness. I think you can have faith and belief without excluding and without judging. If God and Jesus can accept and love a prostitute, then why the hell can't a Christian love a gay man or an atheist?
I have total respect to all and any beliefs or the lack there of. But I can not tolerate ignorance and closed mindedness.

Brilliant! Valhalla would be a frickin' awesome afterlife, wouldn't it?

As usual, it didn't take long for people to start justifying their views on reality by how they'd like things to be. I'm disappointed it was the skeptic who did it first.

If you believe in any kind of objective reality, there's no point talking about the effects of faith or lack thereof. One's ideas on how we could best live our lives have absolutely nothing to do with proving whether there's an afterlife or not.

>> ^kceaton1:I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you have no idea what "Mormon bible" really means. Since I don't believe in that one or the one with extra action with angels or the one with unicorns or the one with "x^n"... There are A LOT of bibles. Which church is the TRUE church; please enlighten me so I may rip that ONE to shreds. I'm sorry that my "Christianity"™ is not good enough for you.
As to the rest... Go ahead and link every direct observation about the Devil and Hell. It's different in each bible as well. Keep going I can't dig a grave any faster than you are already. BTW, the "Ten Commandments" are old school. So do you follow the New Testament or do you pick and choose what to like when it suites you.
I looked at my religion and others discretely and with observation and found the contradictory fallacies, logical arguments that fail, and the diversity of books, translations, and the number of religions to be enough to stop "divinity" in it's tracks for me.
You've yet to show me any logical reason to follow, somewhere I messed up, or otherwise. You are purely on the defensive. If I may say so, you need to take a hard look at religion is giving you. What would happen if you shut it down, for argument's sake? Would your life, your actions dramatically shift? All I have seen, for now, is by rote memorization quotes or otherwise I learned in seminary or Sunday school. Some of it is different of course, but I guarantee that the majority is the same.
Do you think all people that have chosen to forgo there faith and live a moral life without the fear of an afterlife reprisal all did so because they're Mormon? The only commonality we share is that we chose to question those in authority and piece things together ourselves; as we've been all lied to, which was the best reason to question in the first place.
This will be the last of my responses as I think it is on your shoulders now to logically come to your own conclusion; if you think faith/belief are the only key factors then why preach, as you will never be able to open any eyes with platitudes. If you try to defend again you will only repeat what you've already said.



Whoa there little fella. First of all, you've been asking elementry questions about the nature of God, which presupposes in our discussion that He does in fact exist. All I did was try to answer them. You gave the impression that perhaps you believed in *something*. Which Church is the true church? That would be the Body of Christ my friend. There is no institution which has exclusive rights on Christianity. This is the first fallacy of the Mormon church who has the believe they are the only true church, otherwise their "updates" would be exposed for the fraud they are.

Second, what is this that I don't understand what the Mormon bible means? Isn't that the book of Mormon? What am I not understanding? Jump to conclusions much? The true bible is the one the disciples of Christ wrote, which is the New Testament. There have been many different translations, but essentially they all say pretty much the same thing with the same quotes. The major ones which differ are funnily enough, the Mormon version and the Jehovah Witness version. These cults both started up within the last 200 years and pervert the teachings of Christ to their core. They both deny Christs divinity, with the JWs claiming Jesus was an angel, and the mormons claiming Jesus was the first creature, but not divine. As we know from the bible, anything which denies the divinity of Christ is in the spirit of the antichrist. Meaning, Mormonism by definition is a satanic religion. Worshipping the God of Mormonism is the same as worshipping Satan.

Third, you should really do some real research and gain some understanding before you just go off the cuff. The Old Testament is the original bible, in which is the wisdom of the Lord, and the prophecies which predict the coming of Christ. Christ was a jew. The Old Tesament was His bible, and also the bible of the early disciples. It isn't a matter of picking and choosing. A true Christian believes in both. Christ told us that the ten commandments are still valid, and that he was not there to overthrow the law, but to fulfill it.

Look, I'm sorry you had to grow up Mormon, but I can tell you that your upbringing didn't prepare you for this conversation. You don't seem to know even elementry conceptions about who God is, and what the bible says. For you to just turn your vitriol on me, someone who tried to answer your questions, shows your profound lack of maturity. You're going way out of your way to be as callous and insulting about it as possible. And regards to your purile question, I know what it's like to live without faith. Unlike you, I wasn't indoctrinated; for most of my life I was agnostic. I came to God independently, without religion. From there I followed God to Christianity. If you want to talk about shredding something, I think it should be your bad attitude problem. Good luck and God Bless.

@shinyblurry

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you have no idea what "Mormon bible" really means. Since I don't believe in that one or the one with extra action with angels or the one with unicorns or the one with "x^n"... There are A LOT of bibles. Which church is the TRUE church; please enlighten me so I may rip that ONE to shreds. I'm sorry that my "Christianity"™ is not good enough for you.

As to the rest... Go ahead and link every direct observation about the Devil and Hell. It's different in each bible as well. Keep going I can't dig a grave any faster than you are already. BTW, the "Ten Commandments" are old school. So do you follow the New Testament or do you pick and choose what to like when it suites you.

I looked at my religion and others discretely and with observation and found the contradictory fallacies, logical arguments that fail, and the diversity of books, translations, and the number of religions to be enough to stop "divinity" in it's tracks for me.

You've yet to show me any logical reason to follow, somewhere I messed up, or otherwise. You are purely on the defensive. If I may say so, you need to take a hard look at religion is giving you. What would happen if you shut it down, for argument's sake? Would your life, your actions dramatically shift? All I have seen, for now, is by rote memorization quotes or otherwise I learned in seminary or Sunday school. Some of it is different of course, but I guarantee that the majority is the same.

Do you think all people that have chosen to forgo there faith and live a moral life without the fear of an afterlife reprisal all did so because they're Mormon? The only commonality we share is that we chose to question those in authority and piece things together ourselves; as we've been all lied to, which was the best reason to question in the first place.

This will be the last of my responses as I think it is on your shoulders now to logically come to your own conclusion; if you think faith/belief are the only key factors then why preach, as you will never be able to open any eyes with platitudes. If you try to defend again you will only repeat what you've already said.

1. my nickname since age 6, translated into english, is "worm". no relation to dennis rodman
2. my first girlfriend's name was "buckwheat". she was 6 years older than me. she had long blonde straight hair that would smell of honey even through a cloud of shit
3. my upper front teeth are ceramic. i lost them in a bar fight, falling dead drunk on my face
4. you can't beat me at table soccer
5. i like jazz
6. i smoke a lot of weed, although i prefer hashish
7. I also deal, on and off. hence the constant supply ...
8. i was self-hospitalized to a mental hospital on 3 separate occasions for being fucking retarded
10. i'm bad at math
9. i used to do heroin for a few months. now i mostly pop pills. shrooms optional (and weed is not a drug - it's medicine)
11. i like sci-fi. and comics. and good movies. they make me feel there's hope for humanity after all
12. my all time fav sport's figure is michael jordan. i stopped watching nba after he left for good
14. i dislike nr. 13
15. i belive that at this evolutionary point in time we, as a human race, can not possibly hope to ever comprehend the true nature of reality we find ourselves in. lhc is a useless waste of money and effort
16. five years ago i got my driving licence revoked for dui
17. my penis is bent to the left. i blame masturbation
18. i never met my father. for all i know he could be lord vader
19. i like hitch-hiking
20. i lost my virginity to a fat girl. i only fuck skinny bitches from then on
21. i was brought up to be a catholic but i never really believed in anything. not even atheism
22. i hope there's no afterlife
23. unless there's 72 horny virgins waiting for me
24. i lie a lot
25. i would never ever go charter

>> ^sirex:

>> ^messenger:
Why would Ricky Gervais, one of the most proudly offensive comedians (check out the rest of his jokes that evening if you haven't already) obviously duck a question about offending people?.

I'd imagine it's because "some people are oversensitive dicks" wouldn't go down well on a talk show.


Exactly. I think he's sincere when he says he isn't trying to offend people. He just gives people the benefit of assuming they have a sense of humor about themselves. In the rest of the interview he makes the same point about the celebrity jokes. That he doesn't think any of them were cruel or mean, he's just having a go.

And to the credit of the celebrities in question, I haven't seen evidence that any of them were actually offended. It's all a media invention.

Yes there were some gasps and harrumphs and shocked expressions, but there were also a lot of laughs. Exactly what you might expect from a roast.

>> ^messenger:

Why would Ricky Gervais, one of the most proudly offensive comedians (check out the rest of his jokes that evening if you haven't already) obviously duck a question about offending people?.


I'd imagine it's because "some people are oversensitive dicks" wouldn't go down well on a talk show.

>> ^messenger:

Why would Ricky Gervais, one of the most proudly offensive comedians (check out the rest of his jokes that evening if you haven't already) obviously duck a question about offending people? The question was that he knew his comment would offend people. He did know that. His answer, however, was something about how he doesn't hate religions, which is a different thing, and you can see the squirm on his face.


Totally, I would of respected "It's a joke, get over it", but he didn't go that route...which confuzes my brain!

>> ^Mcboinkens:

I'm not sure why people would fear death. Do any of you remember what it was like before you were born? No? Exactly. It would be much more useful fearing an accident that leaves you permanently injured, or slowly growing crazy as you age.


Hasn't it always been a more intellectual fear, not one of pain, but of being non-existent. Sure the bits of matter you were comprised of will be around, but everything that made you, you will be long gone. Even the memories people have of you will no do the real you no real justice. I don't have the view myself, but I understand it for what it is.

But back to the video, the WHOLE time he was being inflammatory(hilarious), I don't know why you would single out one event over another. I mean, just the phrase, "Thank God I am an atheist" is hilarious(inflammatory), he couldn't of been serious, it would defy the sentence (that is an awesome version of the lier's paradox actually).

>> ^meggymoo:

hugh Laurie, High laurie is a state of mind!


PS. There's an [edit] link for issues such as this.

Your video, Ricky Gervais on Morality and the Afterlife on CNN, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^IAmTheBlurr:

Damn it! This is the second time I've watched a clip from this interview that got cut off just when it was getting interest!


Yeah, that is really annoying.

Of course he's an angry atheist. He was probably taught as a child that a loving God wanted nothing more than to keep him safe and make his life and afterlife wonderful, only to eventually realize that the loving God hides behind supernatural veils and treats humans like shit. Who wouldn't be angry at that worthless "God?"

What does he think, there's this religious cabal out there plotting ways to make atheists look bad? It just seems to be a bit paranoid to think of a bunch of imams, rabbis, priests, pastors, shamans, etc. getting together in some smoky room to figure out ways to screw atheists over. - SDGundamX


Um, Yes, That's exactly their plan - have you not been to church lately?
The only plan that's in place is conversion. Every "non-believer" out there has a target for religion painted on their forehead. And for those that are dissident enough to actually stand up and be vocal that something is wrong about religion, they become targets for degradation.

If you have not "found God yet", then religion takes pity on you and offers you the "Kingdom of God!"
If you see through religion, you are looked down upon as a lost soul. You will not be invited to be with all your friends and family in the afterlife and will be tortured in Hell for eternity.

So, Yes, I'd say there is some "Plotting" going on...