<p>1) huehuehue
2) But how many practice? The answer to that question is very few. For example, many British people “belong” to the Church, few are religious. I once saw Dawkins speak and he said that remarkably few “Christians” in the UK believed in God (not sure how this works?) and even fewer could name the first book of the Bible (the FIRST one!!). It’s similar in Greece. </p>
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<p>Yeah, it is a horrible term. I don’t really like labels at all but I had to go with something. I guess “nonreligious” would be better.</p>
<p>ANYWAY, I don’t hate religion/religious people/anyone, really. If it makes you happy and doesn’t hurt anyone else, then I think it’s great.</p>
<p>What a hilarious thread this has been!! I’ve been following for a few days and wanted to join.</p>
<p>Anyways for the religious topic, I think if you’re truly atheist, you’re fooling yourself, as you are putting faith into the lack of a deity. You can be as agnostic as possible but it is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a God.</p>
<p>“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
… Sir Winston is my life coach”</p>
<p>So I should publicly disobey drug laws?</p>
<p>“Selfishness is the only real atheism”</p>
<p>Amen.</p>
<p>@Holocene: Touche. I’m still having trouble accepting the general level of intelligence of the human population. Lol wow that sounds way too conceited, but I don’t know how to say it. Perhaps it would be better to say, “I find it shocking people associate themselves with things they have little to no understanding of, often to such a point that they actually disagree with the principles they are defending/associating themselves with”. Whack.</p>
<p>I think a lot people who identify as atheist misuse the word. I see atheist just as it’s roots would imply a=without theist=god. In other words, they live their life without God or as if there is no God. Agnostic atheist is probably more accurate.</p>
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<p>It’s a bit weird, I know. One time this girl and I were debating over “Obamacare” in gov. I started talking about the Affordable Care Act and she kept saying she agreed with * every * one of my points and that she completely supports the Affordable Care Act, just not Obamacare. I was like :o</p>
<p>But at the same time, I am constantly amazed by the brilliance of some people I meet. Musicians, artists, scientists, just humans in general. We suck a lot sometimes, but we also rock.</p>
<p>@Gallardo : It is entirely impossible to prove anything for certain (the so-called black swan paradigm). All scientific ‘facts’ are simply extremely well supported hypotheses and theories. Calling yourself atheist simply means that as far as you can tell, the preponderance of evidence points towards the nonexistence any sort of deity.</p>
<p>To live one’s live within a framework of complete indecision (as following your reasoning to its logical conclusion would inevitably lead to), paralyzed into total inaction, is surely the most excruciating form of torture imaginable.</p>
<p>Atheist/Rationalist/Skeptic here, by the way.</p>
<p>Yes! And my personal experience, though obviously subject to confirmation bias and plenty of other scientific flaws, blah blah blah, is that there is definitely 1) laws that govern reality, at levels we’re aware of and many others we don’t yet understand, 2) That there is some sort of guiding intelligence or force which may just be an accumulation of laws creating intelligence, aka God, but regardless, there is much more then meets the eye., 3) we have the ability to evolve the level of consciousness we experience, both within this life- i have experienced!- and in my “religious” view/experience, over many experiences of consciousness. In other words, we all eventually return to the source, which becomes a very real experience- tho obviously incomprehensible.</p>
<p>But, can a spider comprehend the consciousness of a human? And that is on a relatively close scale. I mean, our physiology’s are negligible in comparison to the entirety, so we must live the cosmic/god in the micro-cosmic by tuning our physiology into these higher orders of existence… in my humble opinion.</p>
<p>I’m sorry I shall sleep now. The clarity in my thoughts begins to diminish and this causes a laziness in creating clarity in my writings, and thus rather poor expressions of my experience. I would love to dive into this another time, though.</p>
<p>Night all! My tea was delicious btw- I recommend.</p>
<p>I understand religion=/=morals; anyone can be considered religious but not necessarily act morally, and those who act morally are not always religious. I can’t really expand on my thoughts at the moment since I’m supposed to be doing homework, but I suppose that sums up most of what I was going to say.</p>
<p>@justiniee: thanks lol hopefully “smart” enough to get an acceptance I’m pretty desperate now, seeing how great this group of people is and how “not smart” I am…But I hope you get in. I kinda give up already lol</p>
<p>@yorie: You never know honestly. They reject people with perfect SAT every year~
anddd you must be really smart! 2 years and applied to stanford! wowww
I feel ashamed of myself now :"D you and my best friend are beasts. Time to study more?</p>
<p>And seeing as I missed the relationship discussion, I should sayyyyy:
My ex and I were together for 2 years (1 year she was a senior, the other year she was in college), long-distance. Was pretty good while it lasted =) So I’m going to try to hold onto my current girlfriend in college too (I guess I’ll be tested T_T).</p>
you? LOLL we must be the only 2 viet girls in here xD</p>
my best friend came here in sophomore year too and now she’s in top 1% of our class 
I’m pretty desperate now, seeing how great this group of people is and how “not smart” I am…But I hope you get in. I kinda give up already lol</p>