Pope: Stephen Hawking is wrong

[uls]

i see religion as ancient man's attempt at trying to explain the world around them, how the world (and universe) began

the same way ancient people thought a solar eclipse was caused by a dragon swallowing the sun and they would beat drums to scare away the dragon (and it worked everytime)

religion is outdated

[uls]

i watched a documentary about hurricanes in the Florida wherein scientists are puzzled how some houses are destroyed to the ground and others are intact despite a category 5 storm.

they are even more puzzled na most of the time eh neighbors pa ang mga ito.

let me give you this scenario, suppose you're my neighbor and there's this perfect storm, after the storm, your house is pulverized to the ground while my house is unscatched.

how will you explain this? ask your scientists, they themselves can't explain this phenomenon.

really?

maybe better construction

here's another example, when Hurricane Katrina attacked, the weather system predicted that Florida will be hit and so the great evacuation started. and just when all Florida was evacuated, Katrina instead hit New Orleans.

i guess maybe because the direction of a typhoon can be altered when there are changes in atmospheric pressure near the typhoon

[uls]

follow up to my post above:

religion is outdated

here are some of ancient man's creation stories --

from ancient China: A cosmic egg containing the opposing forces of yin and yang. From the egg, Pan-gu emerged. The heavy parts (yin) of the egg drifted downwards to form the earth. The lighter parts (yang) rose to form the sky

from ancient India: they have a trinity: Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), Shiva (destroyer). Brahma creates the universe, Shiva destroys the universe... in 4 billion year cycles

from ancient Greece: they have Gaia (Mother Nature), Uranus, Cronus, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon... a highly dysfunctional bunch of gods

from ancient Israel: Genesis from the Jewish Torah is accepted as creation of the world by today's Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths. On the first day, God created light. In the next 5 days, everything else

[valvura]

...religion is outdated

Disagree. Believers agree that the Word of God (Christ in the Bible) is timeless.

Why until now, there's no concrete proof of alien existence? Nasa X-files pa ba? Or coming soon sa 'science-fiction' movies?

Theories on Evolution, Big Bang, Relativity, etc., when will these be proven and become SCIENTIFIC LAWS? Not in any living human being's lifetime, I think. For the mean time, I'll just stick to my faith and belief. We only have 1 life to live, and I will still strive as not to jeopardize chances of having life after death.

[oliver1013]

At the end of the day and in real life,it will all boil down to this......."whatever works for you"

Wala talaga nananalo sa ganitong usapan, lalo na sa inuman. I have buddies who argue like the guys here about God being non existent and all that, pero nung magka dengue biglang nagdasal, or nung mamatay yung tatay kesyo nagparamdam daw (WTF no God but may multo)

Or die hard Catholics who know everything yet the next topic would be the prettiest GRO in the Metro

[jut703]

religion is all about faith. what do you expect?

this debate is actually useless.

Nope. That applies only to blind believers.

Most of us were baptized as Catholics because that's what the Filipino tradition is, dating back centuries. But when you get older, should you just really let it stay that way? Obviously, when you're 5, you can't really do a theological and critical analysis of the Bible or the teachings of the church. But when you're in your teenage years, you can obviously understand more. Pero ayun yung problema eh. A lot of people don't even bother.

Sure they do all the rituals, they go to Church every Sunday, they read the Bible daily. But they can be practical atheists, simply following ritual but not understanding the true meaning of Christianity. They fail to integrate Christianity in their lives. Ang daming nagsasabi, "God is with me", "All for God's Glory", "God is so important", pero if you would ask them, do you think your life is vastly different if God was never there? You'd realize how superficial Christians some are.

To those who say that Religion is outdated. Just remember that the Bible is absolutely true in MEANING. It doesn't matter if there are inconsistencies here and there, it doesn't matter if some dates or facts aren't right. Because what you're really looking for is the Word of God. And obviously the Bible was written in the past, with a totally different context. And yet when people try to read the Bible, a lot of them don't even consider this.

[jimnyeatworld]

Belief in God didn't stop many of the faithful from commiting crimes against their fellow man.





http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm

Hitler was silently supported by the Pope himself during WWII. despite the Pope's pleadings that time that Hitler be excommunicated against his crimes against humanity, Hitler's army never attacked the Vatican.

ni wala man lang ba nagtanong kumbakit Mussolini was a henchman of Hitler? Vatican is Italy, Mussolini is Italy, the old Roman Empire is Italy, even the Cosa Nostra is Italy. kaya nga nakapasok ang mga Nazi's sa US eh, bec they had help from the mob.

if we are to analyze the results of WWII, Hitler purged Europe and the entire world ( of some 65M people, while his side only suffered a mere 16M. i was always wondering why he singled out the Jews. the only closest theory i can get is Jews are always too open-minded, sa ***uality and are always corruptible. even in Jesus' time, they failed to get the New Testament message and instead killed the Christ. the Nazis were disciplined, objective and united. a trait that we always want to have in the Phils. in order for us to progress.

the Nazis were soldiers of God na expendables. they fought for a cause that resulted in a balance of forces in the world. kung hindi nila ginawa ito, hanggang ngaun nag-gyera pa din tayo.

there always comes a time in history that the Fundamentalists (soldiers of religion) will rise to cut out the bullshit/crap of the world. and sadly, after the campaign, they die with it and be branded as evil, but were in fact, they were instrumental to a renewed/refreshed/resetted world.




===========

now here's the million dollar question, if the Nazis (Germany), the Italians and the Japanese were truly evil in the eyes of God. How come shortly after World War II, they progressed even faster than the rest of war-ravaged us.

kahit san mo tignan sa Christianity and sa Karma, these people should suffer for eternity for what they have done. pero look at them now, they killed us, ransacked us, pero sila pa ang isang sa mga pinakamamagaling na/progressive na tao sa mundo. your cars is just but one example of that.

[jimnyeatworld]

Disagree. Believers agree that the Word of God (Christ in the Bible) is timeless.

Why until now, there's no concrete proof of alien existence? Nasa X-files pa ba? Or coming soon sa 'science-fiction' movies?

Theories on Evolution, Big Bang, Relativity, etc., when will these be proven and become SCIENTIFIC LAWS? Not in any living human being's lifetime, I think. For the mean time, I'll just stick to my faith and belief. We only have 1 life to live, and I will still strive as not to jeopardize chances of having life after death.

the Word of God (the Bible) is timeless indeed.

those who live today and claim that they can understand it and say it's crap are just people who cling on to Science.

nakakapagtaka nga eh, Science proved the Food Chain system. sa food chain system pa lang you'll know that it's a dog eat dog out there. eat or be eaten.

Hell and Demons and Satan are also characterized by the Food Chain System, no holds barred, no rules eat or be eaten world.

so by deductive reasoning, Science is Evil bec. it doesn't give a rat's ass about your existence if YOU'RE NOT USEFUL. at least with God, if you're weak, not useful, a sinner, you can still be forgiven and become a new man again.

=========

those who wonder why we the faithful have this "blind" faith simply can't get the message. we don't want that odds in our lives. we think that we are important enough, not have the same fate as is science/hell/food chain system/urban jungle/eat or be eaten world.

with *uls and *tidus, i can understand why they think this way. ang DIYOS nila ay ang pera. for them that's the basic necessity for survival or not to be eaten.

materialistic i suppose, oh well, most people are just like that. if we are to analyze deeper, takot lang silang mawalan, mawalan ng pera, opportunity, pangalan, respect etc etc. and they'll do anything to keep it.

well newsflash, Losing is a good teacher, Losing makes you desperate but it also makes your adrenalin rush up. adrenalin is energy. an energy that can never be jumpstarted by money (you dont have any to begin with) and hence the term Leap of Faith.

[uls]

Disagree. Believers agree that the Word of God (Christ in the Bible) is timeless.

Why until now, there's no concrete proof of alien existence? Nasa X-files pa ba? Or coming soon sa 'science-fiction' movies?

Theories on Evolution, Big Bang, Relativity, etc., when will these be proven and become SCIENTIFIC LAWS? Not in any living human being's lifetime, I think. For the mean time, I'll just stick to my faith and belief. We only have 1 life to live, and I will still strive as not to jeopardize chances of having life after death.

it's not about proof

it's about what makes sense

in explaining a solar eclipse, i rather go with the moon passing between the sun and earth explanation than a dragon swallowing the sun

in explaining disease, i'd rather go with biological causes than disease being caused by unclean spirits

in explaining death and destruction caused by earthquakes, typhoons, tsunami, etc. i'd rather go with the natural phenomenon explanation than punishment from God

in explaining why there's war and evil in the world and why God didnt just kill Satan and eliminate evil, i'd rather go for the explanation that humans are advanced apes and we still have in us brutal animal nature

Humans are very capable of violence coz of our animal nature. what makes things worse is that we have intelligence. we are capable of making weapons

there's war and evil not coz Satan is behind it or God is allowing it coz humans are given free will

there's war and evil coz humans are brutal by nature

that's why man invented laws to keep behavior in check

man invented moral values and codes of conduct to teach people how to behave

humans are still evolving

again, it's not about proof

i'm not looking for proof

it's about what makes more sense

[uls]

now here's the million dollar question, if the Nazis (Germany), the Italians and the Japanese were truly evil in the eyes of God. How come shortly after World War II, they progressed even faster than the rest of war-ravaged us.

kahit san mo tignan sa Christianity and sa Karma, these people should suffer for eternity for what they have done. pero look at them now, they killed us, ransacked us, pero sila pa ang isang sa mga pinakamamagaling na/progressive na tao sa mundo. your cars is just but one example of that.

and to take your point further, why are most Catholic countries poor?

coz God loves poor people so He made so many of them?

take religion out of the equation

countries prosper not coz of the religion of its people

it's due to the economic output of its people (Germany, Japan, China, SK, Taiwan, Singapore) or its natural resources (oil producers, mineral/raw material producers like Australia, Brazil etc)

it has nothing to do with religion