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What makes you think there is someone watching out for you? Not trying to get too deep, but is there an event that has happened in your life that has swayed your decision? I guess this thread may bring people together or push them apart. Just one of my late night thoughts.

I personally don't believe in religion at all. Don't get me wrong, I would never knock anyone for their beliefs. I honestly think that in some way shape or form religion plays a big part in the worlds conflicts. (past and present).

Again this is just what I believe so please don't get offended.

Now if someone uses religion to make them feel better then more power to them.

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1993 single turbo supra
2000 Lexus sc300
2016 ram 1500

Well Rich this is a touchy subject for me. I was baptised as a Methodist along with my son (at the same church). The real turning point for me was when I was 16 and I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes) and I was told I had three months to live. I hit my bottom hard and actually turned a pistol on myself only to be stopped by my good friend and here I am today at 28 with a relatively clean bill of health (other than back problems). Then, as a side effect of chemotherapy of sterility, we found out that my wife was pregnant with my son Conner who is also a healthy kid. Not to mention that my wife is pregnant now as well and is doing good. God has been there for me and I know that I can feel him interact with me in so many ways. I'm not a bible thumper in any way and I really don't go to church that often but I am also one of those people that believes that you don't have to go to church to worship him. He's blessed me so many times and I've had so many divine interventions that its hard for me not to acknowledge his existance. But that's just me.

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2006 Pontiac Vibe 1.8L 1ZZFE 132HP
1997 Honda Civic EX Coupe 1.8L DOHC TURBO
Conner 6/23/09 8 lbs 3 ozs 20.5 inches
Caleb 3/17/12 8 lbs 15 ozs 20 inches

I believe religion is a neurological disorder and should be treated as such.

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89' Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo.
99' Infiniti Q45t. Blk on Blk, Static, full drop on JIC's.

Religion serves a purpose to those who need it. I'm happy for those it helps however I have nothing but utter disdain for those who force it upon others. Do I believe in a giant invisible man in the sky who wrote a book about dragons and floods and all kinds of weird shit? No. Do I believe in a life force that ties living things together that lives on beyond death? Yes.

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Had a:
1991 Eagle Summit ES Hatchback - 4g15 12v 5spd
1991 Dodge Colt -4g15 12v 4spd
Have a:
1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass - 468BBO TH350
Round 3:
1990 Dodge Colt-4G63T 5spd

I'm agnostic, until someone can change my mind.

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For me, its hard not to believe. I also refuse to think that we came from monkeys or cave men or whatever .

Just look around at the changing of seasons, the ocean, the mountains, even the clouds. Watch a mother give birth or a plant/flower grow from a seed. All very simple but amazing.

For me, going to church regularly, reading the bible and praying daily just makes me a better person (not saying I'm better than anyone else, I mean the old me) in general. I think before I speak, I handle stress and problems a lot better, I'm a better father and husband. Am I saying that bad things don't happen to me anymore or that I am the chosen one or something? Yeah right, I wish. I still get my fair share but I handle it differently now. Things just don't bother me like they used to.

I wish I had all the anwers but I don't. My advice would be to pick up a bible that you can understand. I read the NIV version myself. Attend a few local churches and see what happens. If you give it a fair shot and nothing happens you haven't lost anything. But it could change your life.

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93 Mitsubishi Expo LRV 1.8/manual
95 Eagle Summit DL Coupe 1.5/manual
01 Mitsubishi Mirage ES Sedan 1.8/manual

I couldn't have said it better myself. I think if a person has faith in something, and that gets them through their day that much more easily, and gives them a model by which to live their life and make decisions...as long as those decisions don't hurt anyone else, more power to them.

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91 GSX - 511fwhp and 352 lb/ft 25psi 110 octane, 7.68 @ 95.9mph 1/8th 21psi 91 octane, 11.93 @ 112.9mph, 117.7mph best trap speed, 20psi 91 octane
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ROFL, and infact they have recently released neurological studies that monitor the brain during an intense 'spiritual' moment and they trigger the same area's of the brain as LSD and other pshycological drugs. Which is basically just the brains reaction to an event or chemical. People that are constantly triggering this reaction through heavy prayer and meditation are experiencing a high that keeps bringing them back for more. It also goes along with my theories that the brain is a very capable organ and with the right mindset, has the ability to heal any disease and perform miracles. Like a 113 lb woman lifting a car off her baby, most attribute that feat to God or Angels but it was just a massive amount of adrenaline triggered by the brain in a moment of panic. For ages man has tried to explain things we don't understand by applying supernatural causes, then as time passes, science reveils what really happened and we just seem to forget that it was once attributed to God.

I find it upsetting when people place mans accomplishments as Gods work. Everything I have and built was done by me, with my own hands and using my own intelect.

There are also so many flaws in religions and the fact that there are thousands of different belief's...and yet each one thinks they are right, possibly justified to kill in the name of the God they serve.

Now if there really is a God, he is as much evil as he is good, otherwise Satan is actually a God himself and people need to realize that if God could have destroyed him at his will,why wouldn't he??? Did he actually want us to suffer, does he enjoy it, does he contain both sides?? Does he not care if a 7 year old girl or boy is brutally raped and murdered. What about the kids ripped from their mothers arms and drowned during a Psunami. Did they deserve to parrish in such a way? There is no reasonable explanation that a truely loving and all powerful God would allow these travisties to occur.

Just my opinions.

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Religion is silly. The world would be a much better place without it. Too bad I work at the largest Baptist school in the world

I really like Poe's Law, a corollary of which is:
Legitimate fundamentalist beliefs being mistaken for a parody of that belief

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

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2013 Mercedes c250 - the wife-mobile
2000 Nissan Maxima - 5 speed, 'nuff said

do you believe in God? I believe that is the most important question you will EVER have to answer.

If there is no God you can live your life however you want and there are no consequences when you die. EASY life to have this belief. at least while you are here.

If there is a God you may want to find out who he is and what he wants. cause if you ignore him you are going to hell when you die. Thats HARD.

I dont know about anyone else but this possibility of going to hell for eternity after I die is not a very pleasant thought. I dont want that for sure. So back about 25 years ago i asked the questions. Who am I ? how did i get here? and what happens when i die?

To answer the question i did not open the Bible. I turned to evolution for the answer. If evolution is how we got here than there was never a need for a creator. the answer i found is quite simple. evolution is stupid. Its simply impossible on many accounts. The more you learn about it the more you know its just a big fat lie. The best one ever to lead people away from believing there has to be a God.

if evolution is how we got here then you have to believe we were at some point very simple (like simple one cell organism) . and before being simple there was nothing really. so out of nothing came life? wow. now that would be amazing!

here is what I believe takes alot of faith.
out of nothing came the universe. then out of the universe life created itself.

as I was taught in school at early age. earth was once a primordial soup. and out of that primordial soup sprang life. this is what I have a problem with. how do you get from just chemicals to that first cell? a simple one celled organism is not simple at all. it has to eat, digest, grow, fight decease and be able to reproduce. all those things from a single cell? take a look my friend. a simple one celled organism is a miracle in itself. EXTREMELY complex.

the eye does trillions of calculations per second for you to be able to see. how do simple organisms evolve into having eyes? nothing in the universe goes from simple to complex. a creator has to be pulling the strings.

no no no no no. life did not just spring up from nothing. its a miracle we exist. its always been here and always will be here. thats far easier to believe from my research. yes there is a creator. there is a God. he is responsible for all the miracles we see.

I was not raised in a typical religious family, church was treated as more of a babysitter for my mom to send us off to than a place of spiritual healing and worship, thus I have grown up to find my own level of spirituality which I will try to summarize here.

I believe in doing good as much as possible for yourself and others, not for a carrot-on-a-stick afterlife behind the pearly gates, but because thats what people SHOULD do to make this life better for themselves and everyone else. I think that if it takes a title and/or a specifically-shaped building to make people do good for themselves and others then more power to them. I think the most "holy" part of a church or its members are the members themselves, helping one-another or organizing help for the community. Thats why I am not against the idea of organized religion, because "many hands make light work" when it comes to helping yourself and others.

Where it starts to fall apart for me is the exclusivity of the religions, where people think that their way of worship is better than any other. A perfect example is the many times in the last decade that people burning the Koran has made news.Here is one story that leaps to mind from not long ago http://tinyurl.com/6fkoq98 . Who is to say that a few extremists make any one religion bad? What religion was Ted kaczynski, any of the kids who shot up their school, or any named cereal killer? While most psychopaths fall on either end of the spectrum (atheist or devout) some were undoubtedly ordinary in their beliefs or at least their practices. Why don't we condemn the "mainstream" religions after these terrible events?

For me, I relate it to people choosing their favorite sports team. Most of the time you choose to root for A) the local team or B) the team that your family roots for. You root for them and fall in line with hating their rivals when you should ultimately just be enjoying the game. The real problem arises (in both sports and religion) when people take their beliefs to a violent level, here is a quick google search to peruse for proof. http://tinyurl.com/sports-and-violence Though most headlines are related to European football, the same violence has occurred here on a smaller scale like people beating a rival team's fan after a loss, or rioting in the streets after a win/loss.

Here is another interesting link between violence and religion: http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html

The bottom line, at least for me, is best summed up in this quote from Marcus Aurelius,
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."

~Joe