What do you believe?

I didn't see where she discredited anything actually. She just said so as if that made some point.

Oh...and by the way, your post was: I always thought i was a 'dont believe it till you prove it' person, but i guess i fall into the stereotypical religious person, in the way that all things happen for a reason etc..... No where does this say you used to be and are not now. If you are going to argue your point, make it clear. "I always thought" and "I guess" are not words that describe definitively.

What do I believe? Hmmm... Well, I believe in evolution. I believe in science. I believe that 99.999999% of unexplainable things are only unexplainable because science hasn't caught up yet. The problem I have is with that last .000001%. I have hard time with organized religion. The dogma. Repent, be forgiven, an you're going to heaven. Eat some wafers, drink some grape juice, you're one with Christ. "Better to spill your seed in a ***** than on the ground." Loving another human is an abomination in the eyes of God. And so on. Then, there's the belief that we are so tied to a diety that we have no control over our own lives, it's all mapped out in some diety's mind, like a dream. Yeah, right. The reason I still consider myself an agnostic is BECAUSE of that last .000001%. I feel we all have free will. I feel that the choices we make, the people we are, determine our life, in some way or another. Kind of like those Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a kid. But still, there's that .000001%. Do I believe in a diety? No. More like a 'force' - not totally unlike that described in Star Wars. I don't think that this 'force' exerts any real amount of influence on our lives, more like it just coexists with us on some level. Loved Atlas Shrugged, btw. Also loved Anthem, although I should re-read it. I haven't read Ayn Rand since HS...

Hi Becky---I've noticed that for a lot of people there's that one tiny detail that's keeping them on some middle ground and eventually they have a life experience or realization that provides an answer one way or the other. It's an intimate and very personal experience and judgment that we all have our own set of reasons for. It has to make sense to YOU. Which is actually my philosophy about religious beliefs! If somebody tells me they feel comforted when they talk to their god and they believe he really hears them, they think their god "speaks" to them, OK, great. Who am I to say that's not reality for them. For whatever reason, it's working for them. Great. It doesn't work for me and it's never going to. But like you point out, along comes organized religion to complicate things! Can we all do what we know in our hearts makes us happy and find our own ways to live a positive life? Some would say NO. We are self-destructive and even dangerous to society unless we're just like them! Their way or the highway! No wonder many people turn away from that! I am not much for sentiments and self-help pop psychology stuff but I heard something once that made sense to me: There are many paths to the mountaintop and we all must find the path we can walk in joy every day. Good luck on your journey of self-discovery. If you have an issue you want to discuss, I hope you will feel welcome to do so on this board.

I consider myself a "skeptical rationalist" (instead of "realist") Also, an agnostic atheist, since pure atheism is a claim of the non-existence of god, and since that's impossible to prove, it is a belief. On the evolution thing, A) calling an idea a theory is not a mark against that idea, it is a mark of respect for that idea's predictive power and success. B) evolution is not a theory, it is an observed fact. Speciation and evolution by natural selection are theories.

"Skeptical rationalist" hhmmmm.... that's a good one. I like that! Personally, I don't really think of a non-belief as a belief. I don't have a non-belief that there's a monster under my bed....!!

Athiesm is a belief, but it is not a religion, if you see the distinction. You believe there is not a monster under your bed. It is a belief until you prove it is or isn't (generally by looking). BUT, if you believe the monster may be invisible, or may be non-corporial, then you are left with the belief that it is not there. It is not the existence of non-belief... It is a belief in non-existence. Tek

I use "Functional Athiest" as I am technically agnostic. I don't believe one can assert the existence or non-existence of god. However, since I don't believe there is a diety that meddles in human affairs, functionally I am athiestic. I am not sure how life started, but evelotion (by whatever means or purposes uknown) has occurred. I think alien intervention is more likely than the common concept of "God", but any technology sufficiently advanced beyond ours will seem like magic (or god?). Tek