meta belief (36)

Or they could be using a phrase that has been around for decades, or even centuries, from a time when belief in God was taken for granted, and has come to have a clear legal meaning, and don't want to bugger around with it for no good reason. It probably hasn't occurred to them that anyone will think that the fact they still use such a phrase proves that they all, collectively, believe in God and will use this as some sort of argument for the existence of God...

There is surely only one "I Believe" song that is worth referring back to...

I expect it has,but I am not going to waste my time looking it up. Large brandy please.

Be kind to your web-footed friend, for a duck may be somebody's brother.

Nobody ever suggested that insurance companies were so stupid as to ingore the possibility of making money out of people in a way that would not stand up in court. It is in black and white,legal document - I did not invent it,just read it.Logically,therefore,they insure against Acts of The Devil. They quote an imaginary power - er,not in the real world, chum. They Believe,they say so, and that's an end of it.

Be kind to your web-footed friend, for a duck may be somebody's brother.

Edited 3 Apr 11, 11:04 PM by Cassius

I could just as usefully say....

I believe nobody is actually an atheist, they just say it to annoy the truly intelligent people, help Dawkins sell his books, and cause internet angst.

Your point?

English

"It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others" - Anon

Believing in God and insisting on speaking about it at the pub is another less than popular act. At least a punch on the nose isn't an unusual method of discourse there.

Presumably you only need prove it wasn't their escape-clause God whose act gave rise to a claim but another God whose act of wanton destruction will then be covered by the policy as it would be if a lorry had driven through your front room with the driver fast asleep at the wheel instead.

I believe it's OK to let people who can't deal with the intellectual challenge that we arrive in life from nothing and return afterwards to nothing have their comfort blanket of faith in something everlasting to which they can earn an entitlement during their mortal existence. If you work backwards from that you end up with having to have a God.

Similarly if you feel an absolute need to know where the Universe came from then God is a humdinger of an explanation sorted in a couple of minutes which, for the mathematically challenged, sure is easier than 11-dimensional space of membrane string theory and an infinite number of parallel universes in a continuous expansion-contraction cycle.

If neither of those two means by which to instantiate God have done it for you, then you have to have the bottle to face and accept that "life's a bitch and then you die" is the entire extent and pointlessness of being alive, once you've moved beyond procreation that is.

However the benefit of having a God-concept accrues to the non-believers and far outweighs the main disadvantage described by Steve Weinberg:

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion."

because what he doesn't recognise is the real mess the world would be in if all the millions who need their faith-comforter actually had to try and deal with life's truth by thinking about it. The lack of a God-concept would have the world full of frigging nutters unable to deal with the pointlessness of it all. Neurotic would be the new normal.

Independent of a belief in God, many, many otherwise rational people have a way of persuading themselves that there is an 'afterlife' as a way of avoiding the terminal nature of life. Heaven, Hell, Nirvana, rebirth as an animal etc; as well as the various sorts of psychics in touch with the 'spirit' world. (Your body stays on earth and your energy goes somewhere for ever, type of thing).

Me, I just like the plain and simple scientific truth that my atoms get re-used in other stuff.

How cool is that?

Dead people get buried relatively shallowly (compared with the thickness of the Earth's crust) or cremated into oxides of carbon and nitrogen and then the calcium-based residues are scattered over the ground. The process of physical-remains recycling means that atomic-level re-use can be virtually instant.

You live downwind of a crematorium and your garden is photosynthesising the dead and burnt's carbon dioxide as soon as it passes by. What is so wrong about that being your afterlife? You breathe in air other people have breathed out (and who have placed their germs in it too) whereas the emanations from a crematorium are sanitised. Much healthier, much better for you.

The only thing I'd say, though, is that quality-of-death-wise, buried in some really nice soil to feed the worms sounds like it has a lot more grace to it than being convected up a chimney and wafted hither and thither on the wind, in and out of people's lungs with the attendant risk of being photosynthesised into a pelargonium or some other horrid garden abomination.

a) This is my belief system

b) I don't give a 4-X if it's true or not

"Fork handles?" "No, not 'fork handles' ... four candles."

Oh - and i believe that anyone who can't INTELLIGENTLY (that's for you, @Attitude_Adjuster) debate the existence or non-existence of God without resorting to using the words 'brainwashing', 'proof' or 'cult' is sadly not up to the task.

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln

No it isn't. A system with just a single component isn't a system.

Actually, there's that guy with the brain scans who was on Channel 4 a few years ago.

Oh, and of course it's a false inference Ironically, the strongest evidence that you might actually believe what you say is that you appear to assume that the faithful apply similar logic, and therefore appear not to have thought about faith very carefully.....

Edited 4 Apr 11, 8:07 AM by Ian_2007

I believe in vengeance

I believe in getting the bastard, getting the bastard..."

Sorry, I thought we were quoting songs with "I believe" in and noticed the New Model Army reference was missing

Well it's better than announcing "I believe in Mr Hankey"!

Well you bit my lip and drew first blood /And warmed my cold, cold heart
And your wrote your name right on my back/ Boy your nails were sharp
Don't stop /Honey don't stop

Instead of informed debate about religion, we're now just calling each other names and throwing subtle insults at each other?

IC's Trans Related Group
IC's Sock Admirers Group
Did you stop to think... and forget to start again?

Can anyone join in ? Not so sure I can do subtle.

If the above post upsets you please contact xAdamx He will punish me even if you are an idiot and I am trying to put you straight. Please note I will enjoy said punishment.