Quote from: Casper on March 21, 2015, 11:03:24 AM

I don't understand how anyone praying affects you.

They could be donating money to charities instead of donating it to their church. They could be doing something instead of sitting there and saying they're doing something. They could be doing things out of the goodness of their heart instead of because they think they're going to be rewarded by god.

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on March 21, 2015, 11:36:46 AM

Religious people generally don't pray because they want something, they do it as a means of  communion and faith.

Right, you're communicating with god, I understand that makes perfect sense. Let me know how that works out for you and stuff. Your faith must be getting you great places, whatever gets you through the day. Your faith is just a sad attempt at making yourself feel secure in the universe that's too complicated for you to understand. Maybe if you actually thought about the universe then you'd realize that with a little observation you can learn a lot. You don't need these archaic lessons being taught to you out of a 2000 year old book to understand it. You don't need to believe in this god that you have to tell yourself exists so you feel more comfortable in the world. It's not that difficult to get over your religiosity of you just put in a little effort to it. When I was a kid I didn't really take it seriously anyways so it was easy for me to realize that i didn't believe in it when I discovered atheism.

Quote from: Loaf on March 21, 2015, 11:44:25 AM

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on March 21, 2015, 11:36:46 AM

Religious people generally don't pray because they want something, they do it as a means of  communion and faith.

Right, you're communicating with god, I understand that makes perfect sense. Let me know how that works out for you and stuff. Your faith must be getting you great places, whatever gets you through the day. Your faith is just a sad attempt at making yourself feel secure in the universe that's too complicated for you to understand. Maybe if you actually thought about the universe then you'd realize that with a little observation you can learn a lot. You don't need these archaic lessons being taught to you out of a 2000 year old book to understand it. You don't need to believe in this god that you have to tell yourself exists so you feel more comfortable in the world. It's not that difficult to get over your religiosity of you just put in a little effort to it. When I was a kid I didn't really take it seriously anyways so it was easy for me to realize that i didn't believe in it when I discovered atheism.

Then please enlighten me on how the universe works.

Quote from: Casper on March 21, 2015, 11:54:16 AM

Quote from: Loaf on March 21, 2015, 11:44:25 AM

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on March 21, 2015, 11:36:46 AM

Religious people generally don't pray because they want something, they do it as a means of  communion and faith.

Right, you're communicating with god, I understand that makes perfect sense. Let me know how that works out for you and stuff. Your faith must be getting you great places, whatever gets you through the day. Your faith is just a sad attempt at making yourself feel secure in the universe that's too complicated for you to understand. Maybe if you actually thought about the universe then you'd realize that with a little observation you can learn a lot. You don't need these archaic lessons being taught to you out of a 2000 year old book to understand it. You don't need to believe in this god that you have to tell yourself exists so you feel more comfortable in the world. It's not that difficult to get over your religiosity of you just put in a little effort to it. When I was a kid I didn't really take it seriously anyways so it was easy for me to realize that i didn't believe in it when I discovered atheism.

Then please enlighten me on how the universe works.

What if I told you...

It doesn't.

Quote from: Casper on March 21, 2015, 11:03:24 AM

I don't understand how anyone praying affects you.

They could be donating money to charities instead of donating it to their church. They could be doing something instead of sitting there and saying they're doing something. They could be doing things out of the goodness of their heart instead of because they think they're going to be rewarded by god.

Honestly, it doesn't matter if God is real or not

What matters is that this belief unites people as a community and has improved their own lives

That's all that really needs to be said

Quote from: Loaf on March 21, 2015, 12:23:04 PM

Quote from: Ingloriouswho98 on March 21, 2015, 12:17:32 PM

Honestly, it doesn't matter if God is real or not

What matters is that this belief unites people as a community and has improved their own lives

That's all that really needs to be said

Belief unites people as a community in the name of superstitious nonsense? You don't see it as really lame that people get together over the church which worships things that don't exist? Not to mention the thing religion has against gay people. Church isn't a place where people need to be united over. People can find some common interest in something that isn't really toxic to rational thinking. Plenty of people are raised atheist and grow up to be just fine as people. Just go research successful atheists on google or something and I'm sure if you really try you will find countless. As well as the untold amount of other atheists who aren't famous who are just as good. I think that your notion that we all need to get together over god is a really cringeworthy one to tell you the truth.

It doesn't matter if it's lame or not

People have donated billions in the name of their god and some people have turned from murdering junkies to respectable people through their belief in a god

If their belief inspires them to be good people and come together then why does it matter if it's real or silly?

Of course people can be good without the incentive of a god but would you really want to take away something that gives hope to people and inspires kindness?

Plus
Neil DeGrass Tyson makes a good point

Why do atheists even exist?

Is there a group of people who oppose skiing?
Do they come together and talk about why skiing is so bad?
Do they have to state that being anti skiing is a part of their identity?

That's basically the atheist mentality [I'm generalizing here]

To put it out there, I'm an atheist too

Religious people generally don't pray because they want something, they do it as a means of  communion and faith.

Quote from: Ingloriouswho98 on March 21, 2015, 12:33:43 PM

Quote from: Loaf on March 21, 2015, 12:23:04 PM

Quote from: Ingloriouswho98 on March 21, 2015, 12:17:32 PM

Honestly, it doesn't matter if God is real or not

What matters is that this belief unites people as a community and has improved their own lives

That's all that really needs to be said

Belief unites people as a community in the name of superstitious nonsense? You don't see it as really lame that people get together over the church which worships things that don't exist? Not to mention the thing religion has against gay people. Church isn't a place where people need to be united over. People can find some common interest in something that isn't really toxic to rational thinking. Plenty of people are raised atheist and grow up to be just fine as people. Just go research successful atheists on google or something and I'm sure if you really try you will find countless. As well as the untold amount of other atheists who aren't famous who are just as good. I think that your notion that we all need to get together over god is a really cringeworthy one to tell you the truth.

It doesn't matter if it's lame or not

People have donated billions in the name of their god and some people have turned from murdering junkies to respectable people through their belief in a god

If their belief inspires them to be good people and come together then why does it matter if it's real or silly?

Of course people can be good without the incentive of a god but would you really want to take away something that gives hope to people and inspires kindness?

Plus
Neil DeGrass Tyson makes a good point

Why do atheists even exist?

Is there a group of people who oppose skiing?
Do they come together and talk about why skiing is so bad?
Do they have to state that being anti skiing is a part of their identity?

That's basically the atheist mentality [I'm generalizing here]

To put it out there, I'm an atheist too

Religion is on the way out. In a few hundred years society will be stable and we won't need these kinds of things to keep people happy. People will be intelligent enough to handle the world without crutches like religion. Until that time you can keep going around doing things "in the name of god". It really doesn't make a difference whether you did it in the name of god. The fact is that you did charity work which has nothing to do with god, because god doesn't exist. You did it because there's an invisible man who you believe to be real who you are doing favors for.  If you really give so much a fuck about charity then why don't you care about people who are lying to themselves about things like religion? The world can work perfectly independently of religion if you give it a chance. Just look at bill gates. He's donated so much of his money to charity that he's set up his own foundation. He's an atheist.

The fact is that you did charity work which has nothing to do with god

Quote from: Loaf on March 21, 2015, 12:40:53 PM

Quote from: Ingloriouswho98 on March 21, 2015, 12:33:43 PM

Quote from: Loaf on March 21, 2015, 12:23:04 PM

Quote from: Ingloriouswho98 on March 21, 2015, 12:17:32 PM

Honestly, it doesn't matter if God is real or not

What matters is that this belief unites people as a community and has improved their own lives

That's all that really needs to be said

Belief unites people as a community in the name of superstitious nonsense? You don't see it as really lame that people get together over the church which worships things that don't exist? Not to mention the thing religion has against gay people. Church isn't a place where people need to be united over. People can find some common interest in something that isn't really toxic to rational thinking. Plenty of people are raised atheist and grow up to be just fine as people. Just go research successful atheists on google or something and I'm sure if you really try you will find countless. As well as the untold amount of other atheists who aren't famous who are just as good. I think that your notion that we all need to get together over god is a really cringeworthy one to tell you the truth.

It doesn't matter if it's lame or not

People have donated billions in the name of their god and some people have turned from murdering junkies to respectable people through their belief in a god

If their belief inspires them to be good people and come together then why does it matter if it's real or silly?

Of course people can be good without the incentive of a god but would you really want to take away something that gives hope to people and inspires kindness?

Plus
Neil DeGrass Tyson makes a good point

Why do atheists even exist?

Is there a group of people who oppose skiing?
Do they come together and talk about why skiing is so bad?
Do they have to state that being anti skiing is a part of their identity?

That's basically the atheist mentality [I'm generalizing here]

To put it out there, I'm an atheist too

Religion is on the way out. In a few hundred years society will be stable and we won't need these kinds of things to keep people happy. People will be intelligent enough to handle the world without crutches like religion. Until that time you can keep going around doing things "in the name of god". It really doesn't make a difference whether you did it in the name of god. The fact is that you did charity work which has nothing to do with god, because god doesn't exist. You did it because there's an invisible man who you believe to be real who you are doing favors for.  If you really give so much a fuck about charity then why don't you care about people who are lying to themselves about things like religion? The world can work perfectly independently of religion if you give it a chance. Just look at bill gates. He's donated so much of his money to charity that he's set up his own foundation. He's an atheist.

Quote

The fact is that you did charity work which has nothing to do with god

That's what I'm saying

They did it so why does it matter what their motivation is?

And just because atheists do good things too doesn't discredit the things that religious people do

You can't say that religion is on its way out

It's been around since the beginning of mankind and has been ingrained deep within our culture