No FACTS = NO god !

[Cobblestones]

Would you say the same of music? Philosophy? History?

Music? No.

Philosophy? Yes. Absolutely. Huge waste of time and one big rabbit trail after another.

History? To a point. The thing with re-writing history is that the purpose of re-writing is it generally to help people who no longer think the way people in the past did to understand why thy did the things they did. That is valuable knowledge. However, how many times does one need to watch the History Channel to get a "new perspective" on WWII?

I've asked before and got a flip answer, I'll ask again: if you think the topic of religion is so worthless, why did you join a forum devoted to it? It's not a backhanded way of telling you to go away, I'm genuinely curious.

Curiosity, mostly, because I don't understand how someone can base their life and being on something that is as unknowable as the idea of "god." It honestly makes me sad that very intelligent people waste their talents when they could be using them to help advance things that are actually beneficial to mankind whether that be medicine, cosmology, chemistry, etc.

Partly, too, this is borne out of regret. My parents were hyper-religious people and did not see the value of pursuing medicine or cosmology etc and so I was never challenged to focus my energies in those directions. Indeed, if there was anything about such studies it was a sense of complacency. Certainly it never entered their minds that I might actually be skilled in any such worthy endeavor. Religion was all that mattered to them. I never understood it. And now that I am passionate about such things I am too overwhelmed with responsibilities to actually do anything about it. I cannot change careers or get another degree or seek the necessary education to do anything useful to the human race. And that, to me, is a shame.

 

[Smoke]

Philosophy? Yes. Absolutely. Huge waste of time and one big rabbit trail after another.

I wouldn't say that philosophy as such is a waste of time, but I've spent enough of my life reading philosophy to understand and sympathize with your point of view.

History? To a point. The thing with re-writing history is that the purpose of re-writing is it generally to help people who no longer think the way people in the past did to understand why thy did the things they did. That is valuable knowledge. However, how many times does one need to watch the History Channel to get a "new perspective" on WWII?

History, like fiction or music, is its own justification.

Partly, too, this is borne out of regret. My parents were hyper-religious people and did not see the value of pursuing medicine or cosmology etc and so I was never challenged to focus my energies in those directions.

I was fortunate to have a grandmother who was very religious and was also interested in everything. She taught me about evolution at a time when my school was teaching Genesis in science class. (Seriously, in a public school.) She taught me the Bible wasn't literally true. She taught me the names of the constellations in English and Latin, and tried valiantly to encourage my curiosity in every direction. She taught me about civil rights and the struggle of African-Americans at a time when most of the adults I knew still used the n-word in what was considered polite conversation. Religion doesn't have to make you a dunce. But I recognize, too, that in many cases it does.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

2,500 year old explanations of that which I cannot reasonably presume to exist is not really helpful. It's great literature, certainly, but to accept that premise is to ignore two and a half millennia of human advancement.

 

[Riverwolf]

2,500 year old explanations of that which I cannot reasonably presume to exist is not really helpful. It's great literature, certainly, but to accept that premise is to ignore two and a half millennia of human advancement.

What advancement? All we've done that hasn't been done before is control electricity.