View Single Post
Old 11-06-2003, 12:52 PM   #3 (permalink)
phukraut
Addict
 
One of the fundamental questions of philosophy since at least the Greeks was the nature of God (or gods), death and the afterlife. This is not too surprising to see still today because God is still the easiest and most comprehensible way to think about how the world works and how human behaviour ought to be dictated. Until recently, religion and God have been linked.

At the same time, the development of empiricism and the like has really bled into popular culture and so the debate between thinking about the world in terms of a God (in a religious structure) and thinking about it without the need for God is a natural point of debate. of course that's not new, but obviously it's unresolved.

secondly, not throwing my personal convictions in, i will say that the nature of life and death, as well as the ethics of life, can be an important issue for many people. that means people will want to talk about it. when someone believes that God or a religious structure is responsible or in some way plays a part in those things, those will obviously be the points of argument.

thirdly, religion and a belief in God is generally assumed to require faith. this is not considered a rational approach but something else althogether, in the realm of feeling and emotion. Is it then surprising that people want to talk about this, and express their passions?

fourthly, some religions, particularly modern-western religions, have a tradition of "spreading the good news". hence we see some posts about it here.

one thing that i cannot explain is why atheists or even agnostics feel the need to argue over God still today. someone once told me they believed that belief in christianity (or a similar religion) is harmful to a person's wellbeing and development. that MAY a bit too socratic for today (debatable), but it could help explain why these arguments still rage on?
phukraut is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360