h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The problem I tend to find with the "relgious" person is the cliche statement that has been quoted to me time and time again and quite frankly is beginning to get on my ________ (fill in the blank if necessery).

"But there has to be something else"

No there hasn't is the answer. Is that the lamest argument ever, I think so!

religous people tend to be happier in genral than athiests, they dont fear death in quite the same way.

when I die, i'm dead, thats it, I stop thinking, I stop breathing, my personality no longer exists.

Vakuum, perhaps you should explain to everyone why it is alright for straight people to commit as much sin as they like, but gay people can't.

Surely everyone has the same right to commit as many sins as they like, no matter what their religious beliefs, sexual preference, race, height, age, shoe size, hair colour, favourite type of cheese is.

Exactly!

And who do these people who judge others think they are, an instrument of God most probably. And these are usually the same people who believe "he who is without sin may cast the first stone".

I believe that when I'm dead, that's it.
I'm unconcious to the world. There is no need for an afterlife. There is nothing good about life anyway, so why bother?
But true Christian people should realise that God can only judge, not humans who are full of sin anyway. That's what Judgement Day is all about.

Well, there's a lot of different aspects to that, now isn't there. The mormons (apparently) belive in some sort of waiting period after death, meaning that if someone reads your name in a dead-book and decides to baptize you, you're in no matter what you belived while alive. Jehovas Witnesses go the other way, saying that only 10,000 people get to heaven no matter what.

Judgement Day is postponed. According to the pope, Hell is reduces to living your life without beliving in God. So I'm in Hell right now, and enjoying it actually....

JAR, atheist

Well that's just a little bit wrong because Jehovah's Witnesses believe that 144,000 chosen ones with go to heaven, and the other righteous ones will live on a paradise earth, like in Revelation.
But don't quote me on that...just someone else told me that JW's are very misquoted on their beliefs and many people don't really understand because they listen to people who don't really know and just want to make things bad for them, if you get what I mean...I have a friend who told me that.
I'm not exactly religious as I don't go to any church and I'm not baptised but people do have certain beliefs that other people get wrong through misinterpretation.
If you are going to be a well informed person then it's best to actully research your facts. No offense meant in this statement as many other people are exactly the same.
If we are all in Hell now then it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

My religous upbringing was as a Mormon, and I have done baptisms for the dead, this was in the temple rather than a church, we had to wear white robes, somebody read out the name of a person waiting in the afterlife, and I got dunked. Interesting experience.

Life is beautiful, I know it's a cliche, and yes there's lots of terrible things, but I think myself lucky that birdsong still makes me smile (no I'm not a hippy chick!)

oh, 144,000 it is then. I got my number from an ex-JW I met once, and a long time ago too, so...
Anyway, no offence taken. One good way to learn is to be corrected by those who know better.

I agree on the misinterpretaition-bit. It has caused wars. If only people were open to discussion and exchange of ideas/information...
*sigh*

Thanks for the fish! (Can I have a thousand loaves? (This is in no way a misinterpretation of the Bible. If it is a wrong number, it is because I never actually read that bit.))

JAR, master of parantheses

All gods were created well after the big bang and not the previous week as most religious people claim.

God... Hitler... what's the difference?

Atheists are generally happier than Christians, not the other way around. When we reject the concept of an afterlife, it leads to an embracing of this life. Carpe diem, and all that. Meanwhile, Christians are trying to deal with all the emotional baggage of having some stern judge watching over their every move. I was a Christian once, and since I got better, I've been a lot happier.

On a lighter note there is a less serious theological debate going on over here http://www.h2g2.com/A440047

If God is dead then what killed him/her? I ask this because you said God is dead, something can not be dead unless it was once alive.

And what about the beings God created, (angels, demons, sprits, elves,..) there they dead also?

The 144,000 is taken from Revelations... the JWs appear to actually believe what the verse says. Everyone else appears to either
A) not have read that bit
B) think it's metaphorical, not literal. Twelve is apparently a holy number (very pagan), and 12 12s doubly so. So it just means "lots".

144,000 would mean 1 in every 80,000 makes it. (roughly) Time to make a killing on rapture-insurance...

I just don't get these christians. What makes you think that God created anything??? And what sort of god would want people saying "Wooh, you're a god, I must worship you or I'll you'll send to a nasty horrible place filled with fire and brimstone and where everybody is miserable" (a place that goes by the name of Devon).

I seem to recall that Neitzsche saying "God is dead" was talking about the concept of God, not any particular God or Goddess... kinda like the phrase "extinct God" I've heard on h2g2.

MyRedDice - emphasises the shallowness of his knowledge...

You didn't answer the question Croz. What killed God? And if you have an answer, then do you admit there is or was a God and he/she was alive. We won't worry about the created things right now.

And lets keep the thread non-hostile. I never said anything about a God that will "send you to a nasty horrible place filled with fire and brimstone and where everybody is miserable" or even a place called Devon.

I don't know what killed god, because I'm not the one who said god was dead. I'm not sure who did because I've forgotten the backlog.

Anyway, I was slightly having a little joky rant to myself, as Devon is a county in the South West of Britain, where everyone is mostly miserable and unhelpful (especially on the English Riviera). The area is mostly granite rock (brimstone), and my family sent my little brother there (don't worry, he's doing a 4 year uni course).

I will say one thing though, how can you prove that a god exists/existed in the first place.

Actually, it would be far less than 1 in 80,000 going to heaven if you're going to do the math. Everything dead qualifies, along with everyone who is alive at Judgment Day. I doubt there's anyone willing to guess how many people have lived throughougt the entire history of mankind. In any case, the "saved" would be very rare indeed.