Cyprus-Forum.com

[NeverSayGoodbye]

Thinkings good..

Not too much although.

[Sotos]

At least we're thinking

Thinking too much of such things is a waste of brain cells

[Natty]

Thinkings good..

I have to say, I agree....

[unique_earthling]

i dont want to lie on my deathbed and think ... 'I never thought of that'.

[reportfromcyprus]

Brain cells are for thinking. There's even a part of the brain that is dedicated to thinking about spiritual things. It's a need like any other, hunger, thirst.

So it's not a waste of brain cells...what else would they do?

Aerobics?

[miltiades]

The largest religions in the world , Christianity first (2.1 bln ) and Islam second ( 1.3bln ) have survived and in many ways still thriving by putting the fear of God into people. If any one would care to spend a little time reading Exodus , old testament , and specifically the deadly sins that God brought up on the Pharaohs of Egypt in order to scare the shit out of them and let His people GO (Israelites ) Can any body really accept that if there was a creator , a master of Universe , a designer of such diverse and complicated structures , the entire living world , the Moon and the Stars , a revolving earth and millions of other Galaxies , and yet he could not make one Egyptian change his mind and let His people go. What does He do. Sends his Angels down to earth to KILL the first born Egyptian child, but just to make certain that no bloody angel kills a Jew , he asks that the Jews mark with red paint the front of their door. (Passover still celebrated)
As if that was not enough to scare the shit out of the Pharaohs He sends the locusts to destroy their food crops , and as measure of vindictiveness He turns the river Nile into Blood. But still the bastard Pharoes do not let His people go. He decides in his all mighty wisdom to kill all animals etc etc etc AND PIGS DO FLY !
If I offended the believers I humbly apologise I'm merely exercising my right to free expression .
And I do know that the New testament changed all that.
Other Religions doctrines talk of people as if they were vermin and their lives worthless and scaring people to death if they dare question the All mighty.

Every one knows the story of Abraham been asked by God to sacrifice his own son in order to prove his faith to God. What a horrible utterly barbaric request , the poor bastard must have shit him self but went ahead just the same , lucky for the son the bloody angel , who earlier on massacred the Jewish first born , was there in time to save the boy , and we all praise the Lord.
I think I will go to Church and pray for forgiveness , untill next time.

[reportfromcyprus]

I agree a lot of the bible is scare tactics and propaganda. Still, any literature should be read metaphorically and in context with the time it was written.

I also think that religion and its trappings shouldn't be taken for the real thing. They are expressions of it, like a play, and can be interpreted a thousand different ways.

[Piratis]

People do not believe in Gods because they know, they believe because they hope. It is impossible for most people to realize/accept the extent of their insignificance and therefore they imagine/adopt theories that make them feel more important.

Such beliefs are based on two "weaknesses" of the human nature:

1) Fear in general and especially fear from death. People can not accept that they are in fact so vulnerable and they can simply disappear. They want to believe that there is something more. And if you want to believe something very much, you believe it.

2) Low IQ. Several 100 years ago the sun would momentarily disappear from the cloudless sky. Most (all) people would say "God", while the correct answer would have been "We don't know why that happened. Maybe in the future science will be able to explain it. Maybe not." Unfortunately most people can not accept that there are many things that the insignificant humans can not know about and therefore they fill in the gabs with "God".

However one of the few things we know is that our existence is very physical and directly related with our brain activity (the neurons that Sotos said). You can even emulate death by being put in a deep narcosis were your brain activity comes to almost a complete stop. When you do that, time "freezes" for you. In other words you do not exist. Death is the complete stop of all brain activity, and unlike narcosis, your brain gets destroyed so you can never "come back".

Still, as the song says: "Don't worry, be happy". So if believing in Gods and spirits makes you feel better, then by all means continue. After all it is much more important to be happy than correct, and if you can not be both then certainly choose the first one.

[reportfromcyprus]

There are organising forces in the universe that seem to fall in line with an underlying intelligence; they are creative and destructive.

This is what interests me about spirituality, in its broadest interpretation.

I'm not very worried about fear or death. Taken in the creative/destructive cycle I mentioned above, there's no such thing as death, just an endless recycling of matter.

We are born part of nature and go back to nature. That's a law of physics. Metaphysics are a matter of personal opinion, and as you say, Piratis, it's what makes you feel good that counts.

[andri_cy]

Brain cells are for thinking. There's even a part of the brain that is dedicated to thinking about spiritual things. It's a need like any other, hunger, thirst.

So it's not a waste of brain cells...what else would they do?

Aerobics?

They can put sunglasses on and sit in the sun and tan?