To our more religious members...a few questions

[corysold 0]

Male seahorses reproduce...

 

Kind of. Male seahorses carry the offspring, actually in a pretty amazing way, but they are still providing the sperm and the female the egg.

 

More sophisticated, but not much different than male penguins sitting on the egg.

[IrishNYgirl 0]

Male seahorses reproduce...

 

they're my favorite.

 

sorry for the side-track but ... I am not very religious although I was raised to be and there have times I have been angry with God and turned my back on him but I was curious for those who have no belief in any God...what do you do when things are hopeless or when a loved one is ill, when the unthinkable has happened such as the loss of a child? do you pray? how do you get your strength to get through it.?

[mcdougal93 0]

Sorry I've been absent- In the next 10 days, I have a race to run, I'm moving apartments, and I'm going on vacation, so this is at the bottom of my priority list.

 

Note: I'm not trying to convert anyone. I genuinely enjoy these discussions when everyone shows some respect to others. I like sharing my beliefs and defending them.

 

To the question about "Does evolution happen in humans"?

 

Isn't the diversity of humans proof enough? Even if you believe in creationism, the fact that there are people of so many different colors throughout the world is proof to me.

 

I could go on with the discussion of tails/vestigial structures, but I understand your point now, corysold. You were just trying to show that there will always be unanswerable questions, not spark a discussion on each of the questions posed.

 

You are correct. As you point out, it used to be assumed that Earth was the center of the universe. As science advanced, we learned this to not be the case. We have learned the distance of the stars from Earth, and we have learned that evolution, indeed, occurs (RE: E. Coli experiment I talked about earlier). This can all be attributed to science.

 

My biggest problem is, as discussed, the "God gap". The religious are often content to accept science as it is, and, instead of attempting to answer the questions that arise, they are content with claiming it to be the work of God. Science takes these difficult questions and does everything it can to answer them, even if they are wrong 100 times first.

 

I am not OK with accepting the status quo. I look at the "missing links" that you descibe, and I am motivated to find them. The string theory and multiverse theory and Big Bang- again, there are unanswered questions that you bring up, and you could attribute them to God and call it a day, OR we could hypothesize and come up with testable answers for these questions.

 

Answering questions with human ingenuity and creativity leads to technological and human advancement. Answering questions with "God" leads to stagnation.

 

 

 

This scares the hell out of me- Is your faith the only thing that keeps you from committing crimes against humanity?

 

My personal moral code: the first 4 precepts of Buddhism and the Golden Rule. Basically, don't be a dick. Just because someone doesn't believe in religion does not mean that they have no morals. Religion and morality does not go hand-in-hand. We have emotions, we feel empathy, we are raised to respect others. I don't think morality comes from religion- I think it is a mix of nature and nurture.

 

Why am I a Notre Dame fan? I was raised an Irish fan. Even though I do not believe in the religion anymore, I do believe in the high academic standards, the lack of oversigning/grayshirting, and signing RKGs. I have a ton of respect for the university, even if I don't follow its flagship religion. In fact, I still regret not attending when I had the chance. I do think Notre Dame football transcends religion. I guess I didn't realize it was a Catholic-only club...?

 

But this is a false assumption. The way that this premise is framed is that religion prevents you from asking questions and seeking answers through a scientific mode. Most religious people don't answer the question with "God" and stop, they seek answers. The paradox is that for every answer we get, we also get more questions. Whether it's through a technological breakthrough, scientific advancement, the arts, etc. Catholics have always sought to find answers to the same questions. We are not against human ingenuity and creativity, quite the opposite, we try to make the world a better place for the generations that follow using those same things. The institution of Catholic universities is a good example and as Piratey and Corysold have pointed out, some of the greatest scientists were able to do their work because of the sponsorship of the church

 

The one thing that always baffles me is the need of some atheists (not referring to you ND3 or hitch and go, because I think your responses are very articulate and respectful) like Richard Dawkins who criticize Christians but not other religions who have shown to be less inclined to support science like Islam.

[HitchandGo 0]

what do you do when things are hopeless or when a loved one is ill, when the unthinkable has happened such as the loss of a child? do you pray? how do you get your strength to get through it.?

 

 

Atheists can't believe something just because it would make us feel better, so we do what other people do besides pray. In my time of hopelessness, which religion would I pick and which god would I reach out to? Unlike religious people, I see all religions equally and therefore could not just go with one because it is popular in my region. You might see an atheist pray in these situations.. and it is always out of desperation more than actual belief. Grief, mourn, be with loved ones, ect are the ways problems may be dealt with.

 

I don't see how prayer could possibly do anything other than comfort the person/people who are praying, I can't see how it could be more than a placebo effect at best.

 

Example: Someone's friend is dying of cancer. They pray to the christian God to heal her. How can that actually make a difference? If it can't make a difference than prayer does nothing. If it does make a difference, then I am extremely disappointed in that God for healing people based on a popularity contest.

What happens to the people who don't get prayers? Do they have a less chance of getting healed?

If God can intervene and save someone's friend because of a prayer, then that means God interacts with the world to relieve suffering. This opens up a huge can of worms in terms of what God does and doesn't do and why.