Religious affiliation poll

Capitalism most certainly encouraged slavery and still does in the developing world.

With the Atlantic Slave Trade, it was all about cheap labor. Selling prisoners of war and just people captured for the purpose of slavery is about as capitalistic as it gets, and there was plenty of competition as far as where to buy slaves went.

In the modern context, it mostly applies to developing nations, where companies force laborers into conditions so oppressive that some commit suicide or attempt to. The incidents at the Foxconn factory are of particular significance.

Of course, we have a similar arrangement with certain migrant labor communities here. It's no so bad that people commit suicide, but they are put in vulnerable positions due to immigration laws.

 

I didn't "attack" science. I told you we should embrace "true" science... not politically driven, societal-demoralizing half-truths and blatant falsities. Evolution is a lie, perpetuated by Atheists, Socialists, Communists and any other antagonist of freedom and God. I've studied it... there's nothing in any scientific database that proves the Theory of Evolution... and there's nothing that can disprove it. It fails the test of falsifiability and relies on unreliable methods of dating. It relies, solely on the findings of fractured skeletal structures, teeth, skulls and the assumption that these skeletal fragments are somehow related to human beings, despite there being no evidence to suggest it. No one was present at the origin of the species of our supposed ancestors, and no one was present throughout any of our supposed evolutions... nor was any of it documented, save for findings in the ground... which tells us very little.

If you're going to believe in Evolution, then you might as well call Darwinism a religion, because it's based on blind faith and belief, and Darwin your God, because he's the originator of the theory.

Global warming is real... man-made global warming is a facade. 20yrs ago, we were warned of a looming Ice Age.... 30yrs ago, we were warned of the harms of Acid Rain... years before that, there were similar warnings. Warnings by who? Politicians. Who decided that CO2 was a pollutant? That's right, the Supreme Court and the EPA. A department of the government and a branch of the government. We're supposed to believe them, because they outlawed a naturally occurring gas, which ironically is used by plants during photosynthesis?

The fact that people still believe in man-made global warming is truly sad, since Climate Gate was exposed several years ago and it's been proven that the glaciers are fine, the rainforests are fine, the polar bears are fine, and there's actually been a recent trend in cooling. The Earth has warming/cooling cycles - it always has and it always will, and it will never be dependent on the human condition. To think we can manipulate the weather and control the global temperature (without giving any credence to the Core of the Earth, the Sun or the orbit of the Earth around the Sun), is actually quite arrogant. In this Universe, we are but ants to the planetoid Demigods/Nature.

Gravity has been tested to be true and can be tested for falsifiability. If an apple drops from a tree and hits the ground, that suggests gravity is present. If the apple were to float or drift away from the Earth, then you could disprove it. That hasn't happened yet. We have also tested gravity and lack-thereof in space. If Gravity was disproven, I'd argue against it... It hasn't been. It exists/occurs and I accept it as fact.

They focus on Global Warming, because it's a lie... the only ones who are benefiting from the lie of Global Warming is Al Gore and the green movement. Solyndra ring any bells? Cap and Trade system ring any bells? The only people who have something to gain by the facade are liberals... and usually just rich liberals. Notice how Al Gore is a billionaire now, has a mansion on the coast of CA which has a significant carbon footprint, still flies jets to wherever he wants to go... and a yacht that's fueled by gasoline. Give me a break...

Liberals have been indoctrinated by institutions, such as colleges/universities to forget God and believe whatever it is the professor tells them.

Yes, Science = knowledge, Biology = Study of Life, Anthropology = Study of Humans...

What is knowledge? I would argue that you can be well informed about a subject and completely misunderstand it, be misled about it and/or understand it completely and factually. Unfortunately, the knowledge gained from universities about evolution is false, just as is global warming.

 

"In part because science has no morality."

Oh, really?

"• The Principle of Uncertainty is a bad name. In science, or outside of it, we are not uncertain; our knowledge is merely confined, within a certain tolerance. We should call it the Principle of Tolerance. And I propose that name in two senses. First, in the engineering sense: Science has progressed, step by step, the most successful enterprise in the ascent of man, because it has understood that the exchange of information between man and nature, and man and man, can only take place with a certain tolerance. But second, I also use the word, passionately, about the real world. All knowledge – all information between human beings – can only be exchanged within a play of tolerance. And that is true whether the exchange is in science, or in literature, or in religion, or in politics, or in any form of thought that aspires to dogma. It's a major tragedy of my lifetime and yours that scientists were refining, to the most exquisite precision, the Principle of Tolerance – and turning their backs on the fact that all around them, tolerance was crashing to the ground beyond repair. The Principle of Uncertainty or, in my phrase, the Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out, there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930s, it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it – the ascent of man against the throwback to the despots' belief that they have absolute certainty.

o From the "Knowledge or Certainty" episode from The Ascent of Man

• It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That's false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken."

I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.

o From the "Knowledge or Certainty" episode from The Ascent of Man"

 

I am a fundamental independent born-again church-going Bible( KJV )-believing Christian and proud of it.Period.

 

Yeah, exactly. You say "Period." because you know there is absolutely no talking you out of it, why? Because in religion there is no need to question, only follow the Celestial Dictator we call God. Period indeed.

 

Strawman question, being an atheist I have no religious affiliation or association.

 

Many of our founding fathers were Deists. Good enough for me, by golly.

 

I am an agnostic atheist, but I chose the atheist category. I chose it because I am not an agnostic with an atheist lean. I am both an agnostic and an atheist. I do not believe god exists, but I don't believe I can know if God exists or not. Another way of describing it, would be to say that I am a soft atheist and not a hard atheist. I am also NOT an anti-theist, like many atheists seem to be these days. I never really saw the point and find it to be an unjustifiable position to take....

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At the end, why did you put a period, then write the word period, and then put another period? Question Mark?

 

The bolded part is the most quintessentially religious statement I've ever heard. Very Eastern. It sounds extremely deep BECAUSE it makes no sense at all.

 

You're such a narrow-minded, intolerant Darwinist. Is there any "talking you out" of believing the false God, Evolution? Yeah, I didn't think so. Your God is an unproven unscientific belief.

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I wish more atheists were like you.

 

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Gravity is also a unproven scientific belief, it doesnt mean im going to live everyday questioning its existence. You misunderstand what "theory" and "fact" even means, there are facts of evolution but evolution as a whole has not been proven, just as there are facts about gravity yet the theory of gravity is still just a theory, supported by many facts.

"Many scientists and philosophers of science have described evolution as fact and theory, a phrase which was used as the title of an article by Stephen Jay Gould in 1981. He describes fact in science as meaning data, not absolute certainty but "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of such facts. The facts of evolution come from observational evidence of current processes, from imperfections in organisms recording historical common descent, and from transitions in the fossil record. Theories of evolution provide a provisional explanation for these facts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_as_fact_and_theory

Seriously though, denying Evolution for God is like saying the Earth is flat because the Church told you. Not surprisingly its mostly Churches who are the ones saying not to believe in Evolution, and sadly they focus that message on Children to indoctrinate them.

Of course a Theist would wish more atheists were not Anti-theist, that goes without saying buddy.

 

Theism is losing badly. Excellent news.

 

Do we really have to keep going in circles? We've visited gravity before. It's like a room full of mental patients, where we just keep trying the same things, expecting different results. Gravity can be tested. Evolution cannot. There are no "facts" of evolution. Mutations during development are not "facts" in support of Evolution. They're pure, natural mistakes for any number of reasons. The fossil record does not show any transitions... They show fossils without any proof of transitions having occurred. These are pure assumptions, made up by faux scientists who need to prove they're relevant.

There's no "denying evolution for God." There's denying evolution, because the facts don't add up and it can't be tested or proven. I'll say it again... believing in evolution is just as faith-driven as believing in God. Isn't it funny that every civilization known to man has developed some form of religion, separated by other populations? Norse mythology developed at the same time as Greek and Egyptian mythologies... though, they never met each other at the time, so they couldn't have built their theologies off each other. They were independently driven. Why are humans driven to religion? There's no indoctrination involved... it's as natural and instinctive as the need to hunt, gather, socialize and eat.

If you want to talk about indoctrination, then let's talk about modern-day universities. Capitalism = bad / Socialism = good / Evolution = true / Creationism = false / Republicans = evil / Democrats = good / Welfare = good / Corporations = bad. Did you think all of that up on your own? I think not. You go in with a head full of mush and you come out with an indoctrinated mind full of ideas.

When I graduated college, I didn't believe in the institution of marriage. I believed that we were here to do one thing and that was to procreate with as many people as possible to ensure the survival of the species. I also believed that man evolved from a common ancestor as the other great apes. I believed that all religions were myths, including Christianity, because they all had similar stories to explain the different seasons, the beginning and ending of the world, etc. I believed in a lot of bull(*)(*)(*)(*) that I didn't go in believing. I grew up in a Christian family and I went to church with my parents every Sunday. I believed in God, Jesus, the institution of marriage, baptism, etc. Then all of a sudden, 4yrs later I'm a new person with new beliefs. It took a few years after moving to VA with my girlfriend to finally come to terms with reality. I did more research, questioned everything I learned, started paying more attention to current events, politics, etc... and now I'm a Christian, Constitutional Conservative.

I don't think you can be an Atheist and understand the founding of this country. I've looked, time and time again, and argued for years for and against evolution. I started out for it, completely. I then started to believe that God was the spark of life, but we evolved on our own... then after further research and reading, I've come to the conclusion that Evolution is complete bunk.

Believe what you want, but I believe we all go through a coming of age even, where we start questioning things more boldly and with more objectivity. Maybe you already have and you're just a firm believer in Atheism and Evolution, but my research suggests otherwise.

No, I just wish more atheists would be more accepting of others and tolerant, rather than pushing for the belittlement of religious people. That's all.

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Yeah, that's real great.

 

I like the part where "evolution can not be tested" it is not that 40% of your genes are identical to a banana and 80% to a cat .... or that the only mammals that can see three colors are primates and marsupials HINT HINT : common ancestor !

 

It can be tested, but what the hell is it? A warping of the fabric of space/time? Cool. What the hell is that?

Evolution cannot be tested; only observed. I have observed that it exists.

 

Go study physics. It can not only be tested by measured and predicted.

Can you point me to where God has been measured, observed, predicted under scientific conditions? And if God exist explain why he just doesn't come out and present himself? He did so pretty regularly it seems until mankind developed the means to record with some accuracy historical events.

 

So what? The question was not whether it could be tested (or measured), the question was "what is it?"

 

Wow! Proof positive that we're all related! I have DNA resembling that of a tree. So, let me get this straight... we're related to trees, but plant life was here before the supposed single-cell organism that we all originated from, right? How does that work? Did a tree birth the single-cell organism? Or did the single-cell organism grow legs, walk onto land and then sprout roots and grow into a tree?

You know what's funny? Weeds. Weeds are funny. You know why? They just grow out of nothing... Nothing, of course, being the Earth. Remember Chernobyl? You'd think that all of that uranium would have killed off any weeds, plants or seeds from the mother plants, however... there's overgrowth of plant life there, now.

So here's my thinking... plants grow out of the Earth, right? That means that the Earth is alive, right? So maybe the Earth just got tired of growing plants one day and started to create animals, in the form of a single-cell organism, of course, which resulted in the evolution that you believe in. Therefore, we're all related to the planet... which makes you wonder... where'd the planet come from? Did it grow? From what? Is the Universe alive? ;] Are we all related to a single-cell organism that the Universe is made up of? Does the Earth have DNA, I wonder? We'd probably need a core sample to figure that out... or maybe just some lava.

You do realize that humans are categorized as primates, right? Not sure about you, but I'm fairly certain I can see all of the colors of the rainbow, with exception to those ever elusive infrared/ultraviolet varieties. "HINT HINT: we're supposed to be common ancestors!"

 

Observed what, exactly? There's nothing observable that could say something evolved or not. There's sheer speculation. Looking at a group of fossils and saying, "Hey, look it here! We look a lot like gorillas and other monkeys. We must be related and have evolved from a single-cell organism!"

 

That is truly hilarious, when you see evidence for something you dismiss it as pure speculation. You do realize Evolution has been taken to court against Creationism to see if both should be taught in school right? It completely destroyed Creationism in the court case, and the Judge even said it felt like a science class because everyone was taught about the actual facts of evolution in a courtroom. You can argue against evolution and in favor of creationism all you want, people who were not indoctrinated into creationism as a child will not fall for your religious propaganda.

Also I can tell you are lying about your time as a believer in evolution, I have not even heard of a single person who claimed "I believed that we were here to do one thing and that was to procreate with as many people as possible to ensure the survival of the species." You have such a simple minded view of evolutionists that you actually believe all we care about is procreation so when you went on a rant about how you used to be the same you completely ruined it with that sentence now we all know you are lying. You honestly expect us to believe that is all you cared about when you lost your faith in Christianity? And now that you are a Christian again you have good morals just like every other Christian and marriage now means something to you when it used to mean nothing? Well I call bull(*)(*)(*)(*).

Its a common religious tactic to say "If your not religious where do you get your morals from?" You used the same tactic but in a slightly different way, instead you acted as if you were once an atheist thus you had no morals lol. That is truly hilarious. As for you being a Conservative "Christian" I dont believe even Christ was a Conservative/Republican, he seemed much more like a communist in my opinion. He spoke against the rich constantly and even says they will not make it into heaven, he also spoke of giving money to the poor which is a main theme of Communism, no rich people and free food for the poor.

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians" - Gandhi

 

You're missing the point about religion. Religion is based on faith and belief in God. God's existence cannot be tested by science, nor is it for you to decide how His existence can be proven.

According to ancient writings of religion, God(s) have never presented His or themselves to humanity, directly. The stories have never claimed this, and Christianity has never claimed this, save for the presentation of Jesus (who is supposed to be the Son of God).

 

They dont just look like Gorilla's, you can see skulls that are clearly Ape skulls yet with very clear human features that no living Ape today possesses such as a very large brain. Mind you its not just one fossil they have tons showing a clear gradual evolution from ape to human with many species in between. They can see the hip bones on these fossils and determine that they also walked up right, something Apes do not do. Essentially they have found tons and tons of fossils that are mostly ape and part human, than half ape and half human, and mostly human but part ape etc. Its a gradual evolution that we can see VERY CLEARLY, if that is not evidence than you are obviously being bias in your conclusion. On top of that we can look at the DNA and see we are related, if you say that is a lie than you are claiming every time they do a blood test on a child to see who the father is that they made up the results, because they use the same genetic testing for that as they do with evolution. They can tell you if someone is your sister or not, how can they do that without a great understanding of DNA? If they have such an amazing understanding of DNA and can see who is related to who, why dont you believe they can see if we are cousins to Apes? I dont understand your "logic".

So you gave up evolution because there was not enough proof for it, so to replace it you take up a religion you know there is absolutely no evidence for? You cant expect me to take this concept seriously without dismissing it as the usual religious babble about how God is Great and evolution is a lie.

 

Oh, so now I'm supposed to trust the same justice system that allowed for Bibles to be printed for schools, that banned Christianity from being taught in schools. Interesting. You do realize that progressivism has been dismantling morals and religion in this country for decades now? Progressives are Socialists/Communists -> Socialists/Communists are Atheists -> Atheists are Darwinists/Evolutionists... Starting to make sense?

Abortion, which is just a form of eugenics, was made legal in the court system, too. I guess I should be a believer in abortion, too, huh? Do you think Judges are all scientists and doctors or something?

I'm a liar about myself, now? What is with you idiots not believing personal accounts? You just heard of a single claim right now and refuted it, because you didn't like it. How open-minded of you. Perhaps if you studied Anthropology, like I did, you'd have had professors argue for procreation as a means to survival, in addition to marriage being a facade, because our natural tendencies tell us to procreate with as many people as possible. This was the argument for why divorces and adultery have been on the rise for years. Oh yes, everything is scientifically explainable when it comes to the Study of Humans.

I find it "truly hilarious" that you proclaim to know so much about evolution, but little about the argument for natural selection and survival of the species, as it pertains to human beings. I have a degree in Anthropology, because I originally wanted to be an Archaeologist (which I later found out was not as lucrative as I'd hoped, so I pursued business after graduation). So you're talking to someone that claims to have believed in evolution, because I studied it and believed what I read and was told... then I grew up and decided for myself what to believe, due to a variety of reasons.

I never said I was an atheist - I always claimed to be a Christian, but I was questioning my faith. It only took a few years from graduation to realization, that I went from questioning my faith to understanding it more and discrediting evolution. I never mentioned I didn't have any morals, either... Morals come from religion. Our society has been touched by religion for centuries. You think the morals from those religions (even embedded into our government structure) can just be wiped away due to a small rise in Atheism?

 

Have you even been in an Anthropology course where you studied samples from the fossil record of supposedly different homindae species? I have... in the course Biological Bases of Human Behavior. We were able to "observe" variances from the skeletal structures from one hominid to the next in the evolutionary ladder. It's all very believable from a student's perspective. The professor teaching has a PhD in his field of study... why would you question his authority on the subject? Surely he must know the truth of what he's talking about.

You're right, there are similarities between human beings and other apes. There are similarities between cats and dogs, lions and tigers, chimps and lemurs, etc. So what? It doesn't mean that any of them are related. It just means they bare certain resemblances to one another.

You're also right that homo sapien sapiens bare resemblances to their supposed "ancestors"... but that's all. You live side-by-side with gorillas, orangutans, lemurs, chimpanzees, tamarins, capuchins, and a multitude of monkeys... Why is it you can't believe that our supposed "ancestors" could not have been a variety of different great apes that are now extinct? Is that so beyond the possibilities of science?

Yep, we look at DNA, and we can see that DNA is found in any living being. We share sequences with almost every living thing. They're the building blocks of life. Why can't they just be building blocks of life, rather than a determining factor in our relations to others? Yes, DNA is very specific, so it's very helpful in determining inter-species phenomenons, but it doesn't tell us anything about evolution. It's just another "observed fact" of life and an assumption that it can tell us something about evolution. How do you know there isn't a species on another planet that shares similar DNA structure as us?

I didn't replace it, I just negated it as fact. I've always been a Christian... as I mentioned previously.

 

Your entire argument stands on one false notion, "Morals comes from Religion". First of all, there are thousands of years of evidence that say otherwise, and secondly are you claiming all religions are moral? If not, which ones are oh grand master of Religion and Evolution?

Also the "morals" from religion are not just being wiped away by Atheists, but all secularists and that includes Christians. America is a secular country, and we have the separation of Church and State.