How strong is your faith if you can't ask good questions.

kick his ass seabass!

Great statement. I wonder how it would sound as a question.
How strong it would sound as a question I wonder.

Why do you need faith when you can get a best estimate by asking questions?

Faith rides on a best estimate.. why ask questions, when you have faith. Faith in short term gains.. faith that everything our forefathers taught us is acceptable.. slavery (read the bible right after the ten commandments) bigotry, hypocrisy, ignorance of our history. Good question.

Let's just believe in ANYTHING we want cause we have faith. Flying spaghetti monster, yep. Loch ness monster, for sure! Let's just invest in penny stock cause of faith without analysis. Faith is only useful for a handful of tasks after analysis has been done first.

That is an exceptional quote. who is the author?

was just having this discussion with my mom. who's a staunch x'tian but asks all the right questions. you hit the nail right on it's head

"Mythologies are yesterday's religions, religions are tomorrow's mythologies."

All religions are mythologies to me.

shit guys, he's sooo cool and has such a UNIQUE point of view...idiot

balbohoh, I understand your sarcasm.
The way that you attacked his statement and called him an idiot really showed how much insight and intelligence you have....
Are you good at communicating to someone when you disagree with them?

yeah but hey this is how most people probaly have psychotic breaks

I'm not sure what you mean by "psychotic breaks", Brandon Roberts.

A myth is a story told throughout generations, like an epic, and most religions are compromised of myths, there is no negative connotation to the word.

Surely not, it's just a description. The negativity only lies in people whose mental disabilities allow them to believe in them.

How smart, to be able to quote someone else.

"How smart, to be able to quote someone else."

how smart, to be able to mock someone using a quote.

" "How smart, to be able to quote someone else." "How smart, to be able to quote someone else." how smart, to be able to mock someone using a quote. "

I'm trying to think of something really dumb to say here, but I think you guys took the words right out of my mouth.

Drumjod such a great mixture of intelligence and sense of humor; I really enjoyed Laughing Out Loud!

“Mythology” and “religion” are actually two completely different things.

Mythology is the body of traditional stories and tales associated with a particular culture that have been passed down from generation to generation and have profound cultural and/or religious significance to the members of that culture. Myths can sometimes be religious in nature, but they can also be important to other aspects of the culture. Ultimately, “myth” is a genre of folklore.

Although, in colloquial usage, the word myth often bears the connotation that the thing it is being applied to is false or erroneous, under its strict, academic definition, the word myth bears no implication whatsoever on whether or not a story is true. Instead, the word indicates the story’s traditional nature and its cultural importance. Thus, while Christianity is a religion, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a myth, not necessarily because it is false, but rather because of the immense importance it holds within Christianity.

The story of the Mayflower Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620 is a myth to most Americans, because it is a traditional story that has defining cultural significance and versions of the story have been passed down through folklore. Likewise, the story of Zeus overthrowing his father Kronos in Hesiod’s Theogony is a myth, because of the cultural importance it had in ancient Greek society.

Modern subcultures have their own myths that are important within those cultures; for instance, you could make an argument that nerd subculture is centered around science fiction films and television shows, like Star Wars and Star Trek and that those stories have thereby become myths for nerds. Even though those stories were originally written by known individuals, they have, in a sense, come to belong more to their respective subcultures than to their original creators and have, in a sense, become part of the folklore of those subcultures.

All cultures have myths. Myths are simply an intrinsic part of the human identity. They are inescapable. However, myths can be interpreted in a variety of different ways; they can be interpreted literally, as allegories for spiritual truths, or as simply entertaining stories. Different cultures often treat their myths in different ways.

Religion, on the other hand, is something quite a bit more complex than mythology. Religion encompasses both a worldview, which usually includes at least some level of mythology, but also the attitudes, ritual practices, and moral teachings associated with that worldview. If you have ever been religious, then you know there is more to a religion than just a bunch of stories; a religion also involves an array of actions, practices, and attitudes.

Lots of people mistakenly believe that the difference between “religion” and “myth” is that “myths” are just old religions that no one practices anymore. This is incorrect. We call still ancient Greek religious beliefs and practices “religion.” For instance, ritually sacrificing a pig to the goddess Demeter is a religious act for a practitioner of ancient Greek religion every bit as much as taking communion is for a Christian or reciting the Shema Yishra’el is for a Jew. On the other hand, the story of Demeter and the abduction of Persephone by Hades is a myth; it is a religious myth, but it is still a myth.

It is also worth noting that some people still worship the Greek, Roman, and Norse gods, but this is, of course, totally irrelevant to whether or not the stories associated with the ancient Greek, Roman, and Norse religions are considered “myths.” The traditional nature and cultural significance of the stories are what define them as belonging to the genre of myth. Whether or not people believe the stories are true anymore is irrelevant.

no their not and who cares it makes people happy and if you don't beleive that look up the story of a man named danny wallace you don't have a right to complain till you had his childhood

No, they're not. And who cares? It makes people happy, and if you don't believe that, look up the story of a man named Danny Wallace. You don't have a right to complain until you've had his childhood.

seriously this was posted a long time ago & yeah i was being really ridiculous here

I was going to make a post that said "I can complain as much as I want and you have no authority to stop me" but then I saw your comment that said you were being ridiculous here.

yeah i'm a big enough person to admit when i'm being stupid or silly or overreacting

Possible... Yes. I agree with that.
Though I'm not sure if man can create a time-machine OR live on the moon...

Well, that's kinda the point. What would appear and be regarded as a miracle by today's knowledge base, may in fact be something that we can do and understand fully as fact tomorrow.

Flying was a thing only angels and birds could do. And until we got planes. And living on the moon is possible, we have the tech, but we don't have the funding. Time machines, sort of possible, they are more like time traveling while creating an alternative world.

This list was very interesting; hopefully no one gets overly offended over it. If you are uncomfortable learning about other religions, your faith in your own is probably not very strong. I like reading of similarities in religion because it makes me remember that we are all connected as human beings and searching for the same goal, although I would still never denounce my faith.

Although I do wish he had mentioned that there are a lot of flood stories: Hindu, Roman, Aztec, Mayan, etc. They aren't all exactly alike, but they all mention a great flood.

So even if your faith is proven to be wrong you will never denounce your faith? What a perfect example of religious brain-washing.

You can't prove "faith" wrong because it is not something that needs to be proven.

It's like when I get to taste an apple, and I say it's delicious, no one can argue with that, right? :)

I challenge you to a duel sir. That apple does not, in fact, taste delicious :P JK - it does.

Many people of faith have an impenetrable mental wall, smokes. That wall prevents them from considering any idea that contradicts what they have committed their life (soul) to believing.

Theoretically, fire is doused with water.

Using the term Brainwashing, we would have to un-wash something that has been "made clean". The person who has been brainwashed would consider every attempt to be a contamination of their cleanliness.

Ca.Va.Blonde, I agree that you can not disprove faith.

How can you convince a mysophobic that their germ cleanser is not necessary?

Can you convince a mysophobic that the antibacterial soap they use is actually bad for humanity?

We better use the term mind control than ?

Faith is just a fancy word for wishful thinking and what people rely on when they don't have the goods to prove their point. As Richard Dawkins said, "faith is a cop_out, it's the great need to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence".

Oh yes it needs to be proven and certainly if we have critic on it and are skeptic on it ! You have the burden of proof ! It is religions own idea made up that it does not have to have proof, it is a made up statement by humans itself.. It is a fallacious argument even for that would be a cop out ! Faith = believing in something without proof.. Dumbo

I know Atheists that still believe that the Universe is Eternal when the Big Bang is established as a Fact. Atheists put reason over faith while for Atheism the whole Universe exists without a reason of existence...yeap sounds legit!

Your paragraph caused me all kinds of confusion after I started thinking about what you said. Sure, a lot of Atheists and Agnostics claim that they know facts such as the Big Bang. They are making the same mistake that most religious believers do though: They are using faith to believe in something that they cannot prove! To those non-believers, I say: you need to learn more and come up with a better argument. To the religious folks out their, I say: please don't allow any other person to tell you what to believe - instead, learn as much as you can and make your decision based on the evidence that you've seen.

Best reply here!

So, you know Atheists that can also act illogically. Great story.

"Atheists do x, so that means I have every right to do x, too".
Easily one of the weakest, yet massively overused excuses, which backfires the second they contemplate it.
Ararxos may have realized by now that he already admitted to acting illogically.

Your statement is wrong so wrong. YOu must be a dumb christian apologist ? We do not say that the universe exist without reason of existence. Secondly we also do not say that energy/matter just happened to be at big bang but not before.. well it is just a matter (pun intended) of semantic. Before the big bang or any other theory whereby the mechanisme started what resulted what we now call the universe with matter and stars planets etc, there was already quantum particles in a certain state a state which changed into what we now know to be matter / energy and exactly why and what it was that changed it ''we dont know'' and we have not your christian silly answer .. that ''God '' did it .. fallacy God of the gaps ! Stupid believer do some study

proof of heaven book boom

yeah i love the mythology stories and i think hindu and buhdist (sorry if they are mispelled) and jewish have good ideas and just because some one disagrees does not mean they are evil

Nope they dont have good ideas at all nor christians for they believe in something that was fantasized , not historical but they think they were literal and historical. Well guess what they based their believe on pagan concepts which were pure fantasy in the first place.. and this is a proven fact !

sure but technically most stories are pure fantasized.

Nope they do not mention a great flood, they just mention a flood based on local small floods not a kind of flood as the babble depicts as in Noah Flood, first Noah did not even exist 2. Such a ark is not feasable. 3. 2 of all animals on the ship ? Not possible ! . 4. After the flood replenishing the world in relative short time and with all the races which existed before the flood is fully impossible and it is not even what we see in dna research let alone Adam and Eve were the first humans and that is a fact. So Ca va Blonde forget it. Even Yaweh your sky daddy the psychotic maniacal bloodthirsty jealous mass murderer was based upon polytheistic sun god concept ! Angel with wings is based on Sumerian cherubs myth characters etc.. Do some study.

Without getting stuck in a religious argument wouldn't one expect Jesus' teachings and Buddah to correlate when it comes to the way we should treat each other? I don't buy that they necessarily influenced each other writings, and I think the same can be said of a few of the other entries.