Cyprus-Forum.com

[Maximus]

Supporters of religion usually get back to a few arguments to support their doctrine without question.

They describe all that is bad as God's Will, the bad choices of man as God giving man free will, and that Science has not disproven the existence of God. Sorry, if God is real I expect nothing but perfection. He has failed miserably at being a real God.

In my opinion, everyone has an equal amount of good happen to them and an equal amount of bad happen to them in their lifetime. What goes around comes around. This is, in my opinion a universal law of the how the universe works. A divine creation. This is perfection or as perfect as it is going to get. Without experiencing the bad you can not be grateful for and experience the good because you will not know the difference between good or bad or right from wrong if it was any other way. The difference between good and bad is how one perceives the circumstances.

Do you believe humanity needs religion to be good and have hope? Are Atheists therefore bad and without hope?

I believe that man needs hope to cope. Hope is essentially religion in this sense but man, as we know him cannot remove this emotion from his being. It is a part of his hardware so to speak. When you hope, you are expecting someone to answer your desires. Who are they making the request to? Who are Atheists talking to when their hoping?

Some Athiests are some of the most intelligent people on the planet but if they do not believe in God, then I ask, why haven't they managed to remove the emotion of hope from their being? who do they expect to answer their desire or wish?

Who is more likely to start a war? Let's look at America which, according to many here is a war mongering nation trying to steal everyone's natural resources to feed the insatiable appetite of their economic machine. Those who have started all the wars in the last 30 odd years were the Republicans, not the Democrats.

Yes that is right! The gun toting right wing US Nationalists who believe it is their God given right and who form the religious right wing of America's heartland.

God bless America, isn't this is every (practically) Americans mantra? Even the British ask God to save their gracious Queen but this does not prove that the underlying motive to start a war is driven by religion. Its usually economic or political interests to gain power in the 'modern secular' world that manufactures and starts wars.

But of course they are not Orthodox. Well, a far worse equivalent in Greece would be Golden Dawn and in Cyprus it would be ELAM. These are also right wing nutters who are very religious or use religion for their purposes.

Some proof needed....

One only needs to look at the views of Kurupetos, YiaLoser and now Get Real to understand that the hate these putrid individuals spout about Jews etc make them even worse that the most benevolent Neo Christian Republicans who are the driving force behind most wars.

Some proof is needed that what your saying is primarily driven by religion.

[Paphitis]

Supporters of religion usually get back to a few arguments to support their doctrine without question.

They describe all that is bad as God's Will, the bad choices of man as God giving man free will, and that Science has not disproven the existence of God. Sorry, if God is real I expect nothing but perfection. He has failed miserably at being a real God.

In my opinion, everyone has an equal amount of good happen to them and an equal amount of bad happen to them in their lifetime. What goes around comes around. This is, in my opinion a universal law of the how the universe works. A divine creation. This is perfection or as perfect as it is going to get. Without experiencing the bad you can not be grateful for and experience the good because you will not know the difference between good or bad or right from wrong if it was any other way. The difference between good and bad is how one perceives the circumstances.

Do you believe humanity needs religion to be good and have hope? Are Atheists therefore bad and without hope?

I believe that man needs hope to cope. Hope is essentially religion in this sense but man, as we know him cannot remove this emotion from his being. It is a part of his hardware so to speak. When you hope, you are expecting someone to answer your desires. Who are they making the request to? Who are Atheists talking to when their hoping?

Some Athiests are some of the most intelligent people on the planet but if they do not believe in God, then I ask, why haven't they managed to remove the emotion of hope from their being? who do they expect to answer their desire or wish?

Who is more likely to start a war? Let's look at America which, according to many here is a war mongering nation trying to steal everyone's natural resources to feed the insatiable appetite of their economic machine. Those who have started all the wars in the last 30 odd years were the Republicans, not the Democrats.

Yes that is right! The gun toting right wing US Nationalists who believe it is their God given right and who form the religious right wing of America's heartland.

God bless America, isn't this is every (practically) Americans mantra? Even the British ask God to save their gracious Queen but this does not prove that the underlying motive to start a war is driven by religion. Its usually economic or political interests to gain power in the 'modern secular' world that manufactures and starts wars.

But of course they are not Orthodox. Well, a far worse equivalent in Greece would be Golden Dawn and in Cyprus it would be ELAM. These are also right wing nutters who are very religious or use religion for their purposes.

Some proof needed....

One only needs to look at the views of Kurupetos, YiaLoser and now Get Real to understand that the hate these putrid individuals spout about Jews etc make them even worse that the most benevolent Neo Christian Republicans who are the driving force behind most wars.

Some proof is needed that what your saying is primarily driven by religion.

You're entitled to your opinion of course but what you believein as a universal law does not make it so.

Hope is a perfectly normal human emotion. You do not need religion to be filled with any hope. Atheists hope for betterment and look to the future living their lives as best they can and the vast majority treat their neighbour like they would like to be treated.

God is also mentioned in the Australian Constitution and in both it is open to the reader's interpretation as to who they think that God might be. It could be the Christian God, the Muslim God or Mother Nature. It's up to the individual.

When you look at American Politics and visit the place you come to understand that the Republicans are heavily influenced by the religious right and the Gun Lobbies. It is they who have started all the wars so the mantra expressed by Get Real that religions will some how prevent wars and human suffering is no doubt a false one. On the contrary, religion is used as the divine right (by some) to kill a few "ragheads". Obviously this is not the norm but it is an interesting phenomena which can't be put down to circumstance. Incidentally, the Middle East conflict between Israel and Palestinians is another example of how zealots on both sides will not allow a peace process to solve the issues and allow Palestinians a State of their own.

The proof is all around you. You just need to open your mind.

It's usually not the Atheists who start or perpetuate the hatred that then inevitably starts wars. It's the fundamentalist religious nut cases in America, the fundamentalist Jews or the Mujahideen etc etc.

So Atheists can only hope.

[supporttheunderdog]

Buddhists seem to manage very well without a god and I am not aware of any major war where Buddhists have resorted to religion to justify it. They have hope through the possibility of reincarnation into a better state.

[miltiades]

Buddhists seem to manage very well without a god and I am not aware of any major war where Buddhists have resorted to religion to justify it. They have hope through the possibility of reincarnation into a better state.

Hope, like love, hate, ambition, is part of the human make up. Some need to place their hopes in the hands of their god, its Gods will, often quoted or misquoted when all seems lost. when a loved one is in need of much hope, people turn to prayers, it comforts them and gives them futile hope.

I have faced this situation with my late wife's illness which inevitably led to her death. I placed my hope in the hands of science, the dedicated doctors and hospital staff. I knew her condition was terminal, she too, neither I nor her turned to God as we both rejected the notion of a super power that could offer a cure. Since both of us were content with the efforts made scientifically, there was no need to give up and place her fate in the hands of a non existent entity.

Medical care administered by man gave her a great deal, not least the ability to attend our daughters marriage in Cyprus, and the birth of two of our grandchildren.

More than 60 years ago, on kneeling at my mothers lifeless body, the village priest put his hand on my head telling me " its God's will"

That was the start of my questioning period that eventually led to my enlightenment.

[Get Real!]

That was the start of my questioning period that eventually led to my enlightenment.

Old geezer, you’re as enlightened as a sclerotic amoeba!

[miltiades]

Driven by their false beliefs, their religions contribution to humanity:

"After taking it off the road, gunmen separated out those they thought were non-Muslim before killing them, officials said."

Some religion, some god !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30157581

[puffik]

i think Depeche Mode had it right about any god having a sick sense of humour....which leads me to think that there is no god, at least not of the sort invented by man...

[miltiades]

What is astonishingly absurd is that in the 21st century billions of people are still following stone age mentality.

There is not, and never has been a single iota of proof that god is not a creation by prehistoric man.

[GreekIslandGirl]

It's very short-sighted to "curse" religion because the belief system you revere today is the product of religion.

Like I said earlier, the ancient gods and their habits have been influencing philosophy/ethics/morals and science, from early on to this day (with doses of evil injected by the Roman Catholic "Church" and Islam some centuries after inception).

Greek/Hellenic Orthodoxy carries with it all the goodness the ancient philosophers initiated (on which our Western laws are based) - to which has been added over time by wondrous individuals like Epictetus. You need only abandon the brainwashing the Catholics spread which has done so much harm in turning people against their spiritual enrichment, as found in Orthodoxy.

[miltiades]

It's very short-sighted to "curse" religion because the belief system you revere today is the product of religion.

Like I said earlier, the ancient gods and their habits have been influencing philosophy/ethics/morals and science, from early on to this day (with doses of evil injected by the Roman Catholic "Church" and Islam some centuries after inception).

Greek/Hellenic Orthodoxy carries with it all the goodness the ancient philosophers initiated (on which our Western laws are based) - to which has been added over time by wondrous individuals like Epictetus. You need only abandon the brainwashing the Catholics spread which has done so much harm in turning people against their spiritual enrichment, as found in Orthodoxy.

That might be the case but it does not alter the irrefutable fact that ancient man created god.