Religious people are less intelligent than atheists

I don't have a problem with people having religious beliefs as long as they don't force their beliefs on other people. Unfortunately few believers seem able to resist this, particularly when it comes to raising their own children.

I do find it very difficult to understand how religious belief includes so much that is contradicted by other religions and makes no sense at all to non-believers. Two examples of this are not eating pork (Jews and Muslims) and Papal infallibility. So for Catholics using contraception is a sin but turning a blind eye to child abuse is just fine.

For someone to devote their life to something with no evidence and based on faith alone, there surely must be an unbelievably profound reason.

If it's just a case of practising or carrying on the faith bestowed on you from your parents, it's just a case of happenstance of who you were born too and where.

And there's no "prejudice" against any particular religion, I'm talking about all religions when I'm asking these questions and making my statements.

Bit of a generalisation there xmiles. Being a Catholic I can definitely say I am against child abuse. It is one of the worst things I can think of. I have two kids myself and if anyone upset them in anyway at all it would be the last thing they did.  

I think the "god bothering" thing is annoying. I have had so many people say to me in the past "your not religious" and then the shock after I tell them I am. I wont ever try to get anyone  to believe what I do. That's upto them. I had my son christened Church of England  so we could get him in a decent school and will allow him to have his own mind too. It was never forced on me. No one in my family went to church. Just me.

James Randi is the best man to ask, how many times has he exposed Religious people, faith healers, Uri geller , and other physics .

He's Atheist and you can see why, he's had a check in his pocket for 20 years for 10K if anyone can pass a few tests for him, watch him on youtube.

He'll explain in simple terms for simple people like Nat.

Aliens are real though.

scottjames30 wrote:
Aliens are real though.

 Agreed, do you think they've visited earth?

Boggersbelief wrote:

scottjames30 wrote:
Aliens are real though.

 Agreed, do you think they've visited earth?

It is an interesting question boggers. You would think in the history of time, considering the world is like 4.5billion years old, surely aliens have been to earth before - maybe like 200m years ago and their world has since been wiped out?

Boggersbelief wrote:

scottjames30 wrote:
Aliens are real though.

 Agreed, do you think they've visited earth?

Yeah, cavemen have drawn them in caves , they have space crafts and are more advanced than us.

I watched a program the other day about sightings, and aircraft control even say now, did you see a UFO and stuff like that, the government for some reason cover most of it up for some reason though, then when it gets out it makes them look even worse .

Aliens must have built the pyramids. Humans would struggle even today to make just one.

Boggersbelief wrote:Aliens must have built the pyramids. Humans would struggle even today to make just one.

Yeah, the pyramids in alignment with the stars and stuff is weird .

They haven't destroyed us yet, surely that means they want to be our friends?

y2johnny wrote:Bit of a generalisation there xmiles. Being a Catholic I can definitely say I am against child abuse. It is one of the worst things I can think of. I have two kids myself and if anyone upset them in anyway at all it would be the last thing they did.  

I think the "god bothering" thing is annoying. I have had so many people say to me in the past "your not religious" and then the shock after I tell them I am. I wont ever try to get anyone  to believe what I do. That's upto them. I had my son christened Church of England  so we could get him in a decent school and will allow him to have his own mind too. It was never forced on me. No one in my family went to church. Just me.

I am sure the vast majority of Catholics are against child abuse. What I find offensive is that previous Popes have repeatedly insisted that contraception is a sin whilst covering up the child abuse committed by Catholic priests despite being infallible.

I have no problem with your personal beliefs.

I'm an atheist but for me the problem isn't religions but the way they are used and interpreted by many of the people that profess to follow them. Take Chritianity for instance, if everybody lived their lives in a TRULY Christian way the world would be a much better place to live in. I'm not talking about worshipping God/Jesus,praying,singing hymns,going to church etc. I'm talking about loving thy neighbour,concern for others,less selfishness etc.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

doffcocker wrote:

Natasha wrote:Fuck off CD

Natasha wrote:You sad, deluded, brainwashed bellend.

Natasha wrote:You deluded wanker.

Natasha wrote:What an absolute load of utter shite.

Natasha wrote:You absolute bellend Doffcocker...You wanker.

Just a few quotes from our resident devout Christian.

I don't get your point. There's nothing about swearing in the bible.

 But people 'swear' on it

Michael Bolton wrote:Angry, of course it is evolution and life just develops if the conditions are right - things grow and develop. If it wasn't for the giant asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, there would be dinosaurs as the dominant species on Earth. If Jesus is the son of God why did God create dinosaurs?
As we can see other planets don't have the right conditions to support life. Look at the pictures of Mars, nothing grows there, the conditions don't support life. Earth is an amazing planet.
If space never ends then there will be infinite planets with life on them.

 As of 1999 Mars had a population of 551 and here is the proof

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars,_Loire

Hip Priest wrote:I'm an atheist but for me the problem isn't religions but the way they are used and interpreted by many of the people that profess to follow them. Take Chritianity for instance, if everybody lived their lives in a TRULY Christian way the world would be a much better place to live in. I'm not talking about worshipping God/Jesus,praying,singing hymns,going to church etc. I'm talking about loving thy neighbour,concern for others,less selfishness etc.

 Couldn't agree more HP. But we need do discriminate between the religion and what it stands for,and its adherents, As a simple analogy- take Greater Manchester police. What they stand for is for the best and safest society that we can achieve. Therefore, it itself it's a good thing. But there are police officers, professing to be good coppers, who are on the take, corrupt and helping the criminal confraternity. They're evil- but that doesn't imply that GM police are evil.
Simply that its officers are human and can be seduced into immoral and criminal activity.
Same with religions- all the  Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity)  in themselves preach the principles for a better society. But all three seem to fail because the ideals are high -and the members let them down. Thus some Jews are quite prepared to thieve land from impotent Palestinian farmers, some Muslims are prepared to butcher people in the street, some catholic priests commit vile acts against kids. The vast majority of the adherents of all three faiths would condemn these acts as disgraceful and contradictory to the tenets of their faiths. . The problem is people- wherever you go you'll find sad misguided evil people who are members of religions committing gross acts- because they are human. This shouldn't then be foisted on to the religions themselves- its the adherents who deserve the criticism.

xmiles wrote:

y2johnny wrote:Bit of a generalisation there xmiles. Being a Catholic I can definitely say I am against child abuse. It is one of the worst things I can think of. I have two kids myself and if anyone upset them in anyway at all it would be the last thing they did.  

I think the "god bothering" thing is annoying. I have had so many people say to me in the past "your not religious" and then the shock after I tell them I am. I wont ever try to get anyone  to believe what I do. That's upto them. I had my son christened Church of England  so we could get him in a decent school and will allow him to have his own mind too. It was never forced on me. No one in my family went to church. Just me.

I am sure the vast majority of Catholics are against child abuse. What I find offensive is that previous Popes have repeatedly insisted that contraception is a sin whilst covering up the child abuse committed by Catholic priests despite being infallible.

I have no problem with your personal beliefs.

 Xmiles- you're not alone in this. Every catholic is against child abuse- and both the popes and bishops who have 'protected' the perpetrators of these evil acts have a lot of explaining to do. The protection was given from a misguided sense of 'loyalty' to the Church, of damage limitation The excuse often given that the gravity of the offence and the damage it could do, wasn't understood is almost equally embarrassing. The same thing is happening, but equally evil, in other areas- as well. In the US rabbis and scout masters have been seen to be equally abusive. It just seems that when men ( and it's invariably men) find themselves in positions of power over kids ,there is a number with a tendency to become abusive. Bear in mind that the vast amount of child abuse takes place in families- so its probably happened, is still happening and will happen in the future in your street.
I'm not defending anything here- but any priest who is accused of abuse now, is immediately suspended and reported to the police. There is now no protection. Note-  it's not found guilty of abuse- it's simply accused of abuse -and that leaves many completely innocent men in a difficult position. That has actually happened in Bolton in the last couple of years.
I don't really expect people to believe that, as its much more fun to say that nothing has changed. But it has, whether sceptical believe it or not.
It's nothing to do with infallibility. It's all to do with power- and what powerful people ,of whatever guise , think they can get away with

y2johnny wrote:

Michael Bolton wrote:

y2johnny wrote:Did I once say I was special. No. Did I say I know something you don't. No. I have a belief. I chose to believe what I do.  And people like hipster and Michael Bolton who revert to getting personal to try and prove a point are pathetic.

I too don't like those people Soul kitchen. Mob bosses,  gangsters, rappers who think they can do what they want and then repent on their death bed.

And Michael. .....I live in weaste in salford pal. Anytime. Only difference is im not a keyboard warrior. So be very careful

johnny, you live in Salford? Shit sorry man, I take it all back, I couldn't handle someone from Salford.
You prat. Just watch yourself or I may be forced to drive over to Salford with one of my suitcases.

 anytime.  Ill pm you my address and mobile number now if you like big man.

Very wise move to not pm me your address. I like your thinking in giving me a wide berth. Just watch yourself in future.

Check your inbox

Michael Bolton wrote:I like your thinking in giving me a wide berth.

Is there any other berth to give you?