The Faith FAQ

Here are some questions:

Why does God(s) allow suffering?
Why did God create the human race (if your religion professes that he did)?
Who created God?
Why is there something, rather than nothing?
How does God(s) explain consciousness?
If morals are dictated from God, then if God decreed murder to be virtuous, would it be so?
If morals aren't dictated from God, then where do they come from?
God says to love my neighbour, but my neighbour is a muslim extremist bent on jihad. Should I love him anyway, or report him to the police?
 
If you'll pardon the removal of the rest it all effectively leads to the same place although I do still disagree about science trying to explain god, it tries to explain many things - one of which is how we came to be. It doesn't preclude that a god or gods could have started the whole shebang.

cleanbluesky said:
Personal religion - i.e. the relationship between an individual and the gods

Creed - the obedience and compliance to your pastor/preacher and religious peers

Spirituality - belief in one's own spirit
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I was thinking of it more in terms of personal religion than either of the others which is why many scientists can consider themselves religious and believe in god (however they define it/them) while holding that it does not interfere with their scientific pursuits. I suppose one of the points of personal religion is that many people just take the parts they feel apply to them and disregard the rest much like people do every day in respect of other 'laws' or just in their daily life.

cleanbluesky said:
When a part of a religious text is shown to be contradictory, it casts doubt upon an entire religious text. This does not preclude that God does not exist, just that he has left inaccurate records therefore no record is guaranteed. We then know nothing about him, or that He exists at all.
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I'd say it depends how it is shown to be contradictory, if we assume that science has shown something to be false (Young Earth Creationism) then we also assume that God has been contradicted - this isn't automatically so, if someone is omnipotent and all-powerful then who is to say that they could not also alter the results of carbon dating etc. However after this point it becomes a rather circular argument because you either accept the possibility that if there is a God then He can do anything he wants and we would never be any wiser unless He chose to show us this evidence or you don't and no-one can be proven right or wrong - it again comes down to a certain degree of faith.
 
Anim said:
Why do people kill others in the name of faith when every religion promotes kindness?
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Most people who kill in the name of faith have usually distorted teachings from their faith. Which is why most religious people don't find the nearest opportunity of banging someone over the head with a stick because they think the messiah only had one sandal. And that he was a very naughty boy.

Religious wars are usually just an excuse to nick some land or resources.
 
semi-pro waster said:
I'd say it depends how it is shown to be contradictory, if we assume that science has shown something to be false (Young Earth Creationism) then we also assume that God has been contradicted - this isn't automatically so, if someone is omnipotent and all-powerful then who is to say that they could not also alter the results of carbon dating etc. However after this point it becomes a rather circular argument because you either accept the possibility that if there is a God then He can do anything he wants and we would never be any wiser unless He chose to show us this evidence or you don't and no-one can be proven right or wrong - it again comes down to a certain degree of faith.
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There are contradictions within the individual texts themselves. Then there is the concept of taking the most obvious explanation. Then there is also the idea that if God were to 'alter' carbon dating, it would contradict what has been said within the bible or make the bible's information inspecific. If the bible is proven inspecific then the only information we have of God is inspecific, therefore we have no reason to believe.
 
many thanks for your contributions and responses, keep them coming :)

Penski - they go silicon heaven. As far as I know, silicon hell also exists but only photocopiers go there.
 
Arcade Fire said:
Why does God(s) allow suffering?
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I've heard this question answered by several Christians.

Something like:

"God created man. Much in the same way man created his son. Does man interfere with everything his son does? Even when it's dangerous? Or does man simply let his son learn from his own mistakes and pass judgement on himself? God is simply letting man learn from his own mistakes."

I answered back asking would he interfere if full scale nuclear war kicked off? Seeing as the chances of anybody being around to learn from the mistake might be quite low. They didn't answer me. :(
 
Arcade Fire said:
Why does God(s) allow suffering?
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Becasue God represents an authority over man, and is neither benevolent nor malevolent exclusively.

If you want to retain the idea that God is benevolent, you can claim that God promised to give mankind free will - and it is through this that we welcome evil into the world. Therefore suffering becomes the shared responsiblilty of Satan and mankind
 
cleanbluesky said:
Muslims wear rags on their head, you know :p make sure that's in there
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Yup, infact I've created a quick reference to show what religions wear which headgear.

Christians: Hair LOL
Catholics: Pointy white thing, pope has one.
Islams: Rag. Any colour.
Jewish: Drinks coaster.
 
cleanbluesky said:
You mean our random spew has been of value? What have you got so far?

Muslims wear rags on their head, you know :p make sure that's in there
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Some of it has, yes.

some... :)
 
iCraig said:
Yup, infact I've created a quick reference to show what religions wear which headgear.

Christians: Hair LOL
Catholics: Pointy white thing, pope has one.
Islams: Rag. Any colour.
Jewish: Drinks coaster.
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lol

I think I'll include that to clarify...
 
What is the stance on the rest of the universe by religious people?

Did God create only one planet creating life?
Did he create all of the universe we can see, including all the billions of planets and stars?
Are they all void of life?
If so, why create them?
If not, then why are we so apparently so special?
 
iCraig said:
What is the stance on the rest of the universe by religious people?

Did God create only one planet creating life?
Did he create all of the universe we can see, including all the billions of planets and stars?
Are they all void of life?
If so, why create them?
If not, then why are we so apparently so special?
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ok, I know some of that but will include them aswell.
 
This FAQ idea is starting to look more interesting - if you are going to be the exclusive editor may I ask whether you are going to tow the Islamic line on this thing? If so, it could be a wasted oportunity.

I'm willing to offer editorial skills once you've completed it. Also, I'd like to see every point put in context, rather than just have every religious doctrine portrayed in a positive light
 
cleanbluesky said:
This FAQ idea is starting to look more interesting - if you are going to be the exclusive editor may I ask whether you are going to tow the Islamic line on this thing? If so, it could be a wasted oportunity.
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In what way? A genuine question will get an genuine answer.

cleanbluesky said:
I'm willing to offer editorial skills once you've completed it. Also, I'd like to see every point put in context, rather than just have every religious doctrine portrayed in a positive light
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This is a long term project for me, something I hope I can use to explain other faiths and beliefs to others, muslim and non-muslim. Some questions may seem offensive, but will be answered.
 
cleanbluesky said:
This FAQ idea is starting to look more interesting - if you are going to be the exclusive editor may I ask whether you are going to tow the Islamic line on this thing? If so, it could be a wasted oportunity.
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I think you mean "toe the line" unless you expect Raz to drag the Islamic line somewhere. This FAQ could indeed be interesting but now I'm unsure how serious a discussion of religion it will end up although whether that matters is another question entirely.

cleanbluesky said:
I'm willing to offer editorial skills once you've completed it. Also, I'd like to see every point put in context, rather than just have every religious doctrine portrayed in a positive light
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This is going to be one almight tome if you do all that. To place every religion in the context of others and charting the development etc is a massive task. I originally thought that this was just intended as a FAQ to cover quite a few basic questions and give a starting point for more learning but maybe not. :)

//edit personally I'd also throw in some famous quotes on religion - Voltaire has a couple but then again what doesn't he have a quote for, Stephen F. Roberts for another etc etc.
 
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semi-pro waster said:
This is going to be one almight tome if you do all that. To place every religion in the context of others and charting the development etc is a massive task. I originally thought that this was just intended as a FAQ to cover quite a few basic questions and give a starting point for more learning but maybe not. :)
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I'm doing an essay on mythology at the moment which has required me to do a lot of reading, it might be worthwhile to do some more reading and then contribute to this

There are also a few psycholgoical theories that describe religion, and a few that have arisen from psychotherapy that describe the value of personal religion
 
Raz said:
In what way? A genuine question will get an genuine answer.
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Well, if you wanted to decribe each religion - probably the most obvious way to describe it would be to do so in the way that it would like to be described.

I'd also wonder whether you would have trouble incorporating reasoned criticism of Islam, in the same way a Christian might refuse to criticise Christianity
 
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