do you believe there is a GOD?

College Life
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<p>Holy Cow I have been gone too long. I had to dig this sucker up from page 9. I’ve been busy and haven’t had any time to get on here. I don’t even feel like goin back and reading what I missed. Heck, I cant even rememeber where I left off. I’ll just provide the list I promised. Its not all that great because I haven’t had much time to think about it but here on the spot this is what I can come up with for benfits.</p>

<p>-Religion is an outstanding unifier. People grow and bond to each other because of it. America is here because people felt united in their need for religion.</p>

<p>-Poverty would be much higher without religion. Religious instituitions provide NUMEROUS humanitarian efforts. </p>

<p>-Many people would be lost with out religion. Depression would be higher, suicide would be higher, murder would be higher, etc. “Finding god” helps MANY people get through life.</p>

<p>-Morals would be out the window if it weren’t for religion. The vast majority of those who advocate for various moral stances are religious, both in politics and every day life. Religious leaders are steadfast in there efforts to promote morality.</p>

<p>-Education would be inhibited a bit. This isn’t as prevalent now as before in the 1800’s but scriptures, for example, is a great tool to teach people how to read/write/comprehend. I feel a lot of my ability to read is because I read scriptures as a child. I mean there are some pretty hard words in there. Learning to pronounce and figure out what they meant as a kid was beneficial.</p>

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<p>I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Moster.</p>

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<p>

Lol. Thanks for delivering (finally), but it’s not exactly what I meant… For instance, there are several ways to unite people without using religion; patriotism is an easy example. There are a significant amount of atheists in this country, and they all have morals that probably don’t coincide with any specific religion’s moral code. Education is currently inhibited by religion, so I’m really not sure how that made your list. The archaic words found in the Christian bible are outdated and misused, so it’s really only useful to learn them if you plan to read the Christian bible (or similar texts). The public education system strongly emphasizes reading in the curriculum, so it is a skill absolutely obtainable without religion.</p>

<p>The list should read differently anyway. You wrote a list of the detriments of a world without religion, but the true opposite list is the benefits not obtainable in religion’s absence. Like this (using your items):
-Unified people
-Financial prosperity due to humanitarian efforts
-Low rates of suicide, murder, depression
-Morality
-Increased reading comprehension</p>

<p>When you word the list like that, it should be obvious that most of those are all obtainable without religion.</p>

<p>As far as suicide, murder, depression, which I think can be argued to be a valid point, I do know that the statistic is something like the least violent countries are relatively non-religious. I don’t know about the prevalence of depression or suicide in those countries, though. I should look into it :).</p>

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<p>OK I think I get your goal now. </p>

<p>side note: This thread has completely died… we’re the only ones left :)</p>

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<p>I’m here too! I agree with Gotakun :)</p>

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<p>:p Thanks, NonAnti. I looked through every page for your responses lol. Have you really been silently keeping up? You kind of disappeared early on ;). It’s weird to see the early posts… It feels like they were just a couple pages ago… Oh yeah… I think I forgot to respond to you, Oakland. Sorry :). I’ll do that now…</p>

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<p>Yeah, I think I contributed one or two posts in the beginning. I’ve been reading (almost) all the posts, though :)</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.boegerweb.com/files/images/flying-spaghetti-monster.jpg[/url]”>http://www.boegerweb.com/files/images/flying-spaghetti-monster.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Who believes God exist? lol Welcome to the 21st century.</p>

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<p>Will people kindly stop mention the bloody Flying Spaghetti Monster in every argument about religion? It doesn’t make sense and never did. Really.</p>

<p>The only thing stupider than thinking that ID should be taught in schools is thinking that FSM is an effective argument against this.
</p>

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<p>my pastor just did a sermon yesterday about why he thinks the bible is real and truth. I’ll post the link to the video once it comes out on tomorrow and you can watch it if you want.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>I know, I thought religion would just die out round the turn of the century and God would be replaced with Google. Guess not.</p>

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<p>

Not yet, but soon! I’ll do my part :).</p>

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<p>I wouldn’t hold your breath lol:</p>

<p>“According to the report, the number of Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 11 million in 1900 to 234 million in 2010. Christians have grown from 7 million in 1900 to the current 470 million”</p>

<p>[Report</a> recounts rise of Islam and Christianity in Africa | EnerPub - Energy Publisher](<a href=“http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=30986]Report”>http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=30986)</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Population of Earth in 1900: 1.6 Billion
Population of Earth now: 6.7 Billion</p>

<p>Your count also doesn’t take into the account that pretty much all of those who acquired Islam/Christianity were converted or influenced to join those religions from their indigenous religious beliefs. This could have very well been by force or necessity for survival or simply cultural or economic reasons.</p>

<p>I think more Africans are far more concerned with surviving these days than theology.</p>

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<p>Just because Christianity is on the rise doesn’t mean religiosity is. I’d be curious to know the percentage of atheists in America in 1900 compared to 2010.</p>

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<p>Or, Gotakun, the percent of people in Europe who describe themselves as religious as opposed to 1900. I think Europe has been quicker to shed religion than North/South America.</p>

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<p>I remember when I studied abroad in Australia there were a remarkable number of atheist students there.</p>

<p>Actually, I just checked wikipedia and it seems my personal experience is the reality:</p>

<p>From wikipedia:</p>

<p>2006 census: 30% have no religion/ did not declare religion</p>

<p>In a 2008 global Gallup poll, nearly 70% of Australians stated religion as having no importance,[14] much higher than their American counterparts, and on par with similarly secular countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Finland, and France. Only a few Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and post-Soviet states (Estonia) are markedly less religious. </p>

<p>The Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian newspaper with a centrist viewpoint, asked its readers “Would the world be better off without religion?”. 81% responded in the affirmative.[15] </p>

<p>A 2006 study by Monash University, the Australian Catholic University and the Christian Research Association found that 52 per cent of Australians born between 1976 and 1990 have no belief in a God.[16] </p>

<p>A 2008 Christian Science Monitor survey of 17 countries reported that youth from Australia and the United Kingdom were the least likely to observe religious practice or see any “spiritual dimension” to life.[17] </p>

<p>Secular marriages are growing increasingly popular in Australia. In 2008, 65 per cent of marriages were celebrated by civil celebrants.[18] This was up from 62.9% in 2007, 56.6% in 2003, 49.5% in 1998 and 41.3% in 1988.[19]</p>

<p>***Look at the middle statistic. A --majority-- 52% — of young people in Australia do not believe in God. I wonder how much parents and/ or a teaparty society in the US make people believe in God here.</p>

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<p>The tea party in its original form was very secular and much more libertarian. It has been hijacked by the religious right recently.</p>

<p>It really annoys me because I thought I might have found a political movement to identify with… Nope.</p>

<p>Bunch of morons hijack it in an attempt to re-brand themselves and seem politically relevant.</p>

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<p>i am god</p>

<p>and so are you</p>