Religulous Trailer

[Smoking Guns]

Is it just me or is it really true...I see many more of my friends, including me, much less religious as age and educational levels add up. 

No it's not just you. It's been consistently shown in studies over the last 100 years that higher educational levels correlate with lower levels of religious belief.

That is true TAP.

You know what still gets me though is our planet and the story about how it was created. This is the ultimate jack pot.  It is too mind boggling to think science alone created this planet and that we came from bacteria in the ocean to humans....  Also, science creating this beautiful planet, its just too perfect.  The animals are too perfect.  The humans are too perfect and complex to just come from a fucking bacteria think a few billion years ago.  Its just so crazy.  That is when I am like, "even science can't back this shit up" maybe something else is involved.  Earth is just close enough to the sun.  The perfect location.  Too many things are just tooo perfect for all these things to just "happen".  Is nature that perfect?  And its hard to beleive another planet could be as perfect as Earth unless of coarse, there was something else involved. 

This plant is too well thought out and too well place and everything was just created too perfectly for it all to have happened by pure chance.  If you think we are here because of the "big bang" great, but what created the stuff for the big bang to take place? 

[TAP]

Is it just me or is it really true...I see many more of my friends, including me, much less religious as age and educational levels add up. 

No it's not just you. It's been consistently shown in studies over the last 100 years that higher educational levels correlate with lower levels of religious belief.

That is true TAP.

You know what still gets me though is our planet and the story about how it was created. This is the ultimate jack pot.  It is too mind boggling to think science alone created this planet and that we came from bacteria in the ocean to humans....  Also, science creating this beautiful planet, its just too perfect.  The animals are too perfect.  The humans are too perfect and complex to just come from a fucking bacteria think a few billion years ago.  Its just so crazy.  That is when I am like, "even science can't back this shit up" maybe something else is involved.  Earth is just close enough to the sun.  The perfect location.  Too many things are just tooo perfect for all these things to just "happen".  Is nature that perfect?  And its hard to beleive another planet could be as perfect as Earth unless of coarse, there was something else involved. 

This plant is too well thought out and too well place and everything was just created too perfectly for it all to have happened by pure chance.  If you think we are here because of the "big bang" great, but what created the stuff for the big bang to take place? 

I'll agree that it's hard to get your head around a lot of this stuff, and I won't pretend to have answers or understand most of it. But one key is in your post 'a few billion years ago'. We think in time spans of hours, days, years - things happen quickly in our frame of reference. The stuff you are talking about happened really, really slowly.

The humans are too perfect and complex to just come from a fucking bacteria think a few billion years ago.

Humans are far from perfect in my opinion. For one thing we die, but there's lots more besides that - childbirth is fundamental to our survival for example and that is far from a perfect process. Anyway, for me random mutation and natural selection is so elegant and simple once you get your head round what it really says, that no other explanation comes close.

Earth is just close enough to the sun.  The perfect location.

There are an estimated 30000000000000000 stars in the universe. The probability of a planet having the right properties for the appearance and survival of life are very small for one sun, but rather higher for 3 thousand million billion suns. We're lucky in a sense that Earth is one of those, but the fact that a species somewhere in the universe has evolved enough  to quantify luck isn't unlikely.

This plant is too well thought out and too well place and everything was just created too perfectly for it all to have happened by pure chance

Evolution is not chance. The vast majority of species are extinct, we just happen to belong to one that adapted to our environment and survived.

"big bang"

I won't pretend to understand the big bang, but it is one of many competing theories about the origins of the universe. It's hard to even comprehend what it would mean for such an event to happen by chance, but if you believe it didn't happen by chance then it requires something which is more complex and advanced than the universe, and then you've just made the question infinitely harder....what/who created the creator?

[Smoking Guns]

Tap!!!!!!!  Holy Smokes, check out these images from the hubble.  Simply amazing.  Our universe is so awesome.

http://www.parade.com/index.jsp

Beautiful Pictures

Tap, I don't know what the hell happened either.  I really don't.  My brain hurts thinking about it all.  You are right it it a very slow process.  This may be a dumb question, but if we came from monkeys or apes, why are there still apes?

[TAP]

This may be a dumb question, but if we came from monkeys or apes, why are there still apes?

We don't come from monkeys or apes, we have a common ancestor.

[Smoking Guns]

This may be a dumb question, but if we came from monkeys or apes, why are there still apes?

We don't come from monkeys or apes, we have a common ancestor.

Thanks!  I thought we "evolved" from apes.  Thanks for the clarification. Check out the pics from the hubble.

[Jim Bob]

kind of off topic, but how come everytime i see those commericals for christian music cds, everyone in the crowd has their eyes closed and their hands raised up to the air?   

i want to listen to some arm raisin, eye closin jesus rock.

[Axl4Prez2004]

kind of off topic, but how come everytime i see those commericals for christian music cds, everyone in the crowd has their eyes closed and their hands raised up to the air?   

i want to listen to some arm raisin, eye closin jesus rock.

You aint seen nuthin' till you've seen John Tesh on Trinity Broadcast Network!!  He does some sort of hip-hop, opera, rock deal (hip-hopera-rock)  Trust me, Jesus must be very happy!   

The thing I don't get about that crap, is why all the praising?  Does God have low confidence?  Is he the guy everybody always has to remind how great he is?  I just don't understand that.  Perhaps I'll have to pray to get the answer.  Hold my calls please, I'm gonna need some time with this.   

[Smoking Guns]

kind of off topic, but how come everytime i see those commericals for christian music cds, everyone in the crowd has their eyes closed and their hands raised up to the air?   

i want to listen to some arm raisin, eye closin jesus rock.

You aint seen nuthin' till you've seen John Tesh on Trinity Broadcast Network!!  He does some sort of hip-hop, opera, rock deal (hip-hopera-rock)  Trust me, Jesus must be very happy!   

The thing I don't get about that crap, is why all the praising?  Does God have low confidence?  Is he the guy everybody always has to remind how great he is?  I just don't understand that.  Perhaps I'll have to pray to get the answer.  Hold my calls please, I'm gonna need some time with this.   

Its called faith.  Why does Jarmo praise to Axl so much?  Do he have confidence issues?

[TAP]

There's no open and honest dialogue. No one exchanging their ideas in a respectful arena. Then the fighting continues and everything stays the same.

The same old Civil War we've been fighting for decades.

The Pope is helping....

?Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached?

?Christian denominations outside Roman Catholicism are either defective or are not full churches of Jesus Christ"

"Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord Our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men."

"[modern-day atheism] has led to some of the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice ever known to mankind."

[TAP]

kind of off topic, but how come everytime i see those commericals for christian music cds, everyone in the crowd has their eyes closed and their hands raised up to the air?   

i want to listen to some arm raisin, eye closin jesus rock.

You aint seen nuthin' till you've seen John Tesh on Trinity Broadcast Network!!  He does some sort of hip-hop, opera, rock deal (hip-hopera-rock)  Trust me, Jesus must be very happy!   

The thing I don't get about that crap, is why all the praising?  Does God have low confidence?  Is he the guy everybody always has to remind how great he is?  I just don't understand that.  Perhaps I'll have to pray to get the answer.  Hold my calls please, I'm gonna need some time with this.   

Its called faith.  Why does Jarmo praise to Axl so much?  Do he have confidence issues?

Does Axl have confidence issues? I'd say so.

[Mama Kin]

Is it just me or is it really true...I see many more of my friends, including me, much less religious as age and educational levels add up. 

No it's not just you. It's been consistently shown in studies over the last 100 years that higher educational levels correlate with lower levels of religious belief.

That is true TAP.

You know what still gets me though is our planet and the story about how it was created. This is the ultimate jack pot.  It is too mind boggling to think science alone created this planet and that we came from bacteria in the ocean to humans....  Also, science creating this beautiful planet, its just too perfect.  The animals are too perfect.  The humans are too perfect and complex to just come from a fucking bacteria think a few billion years ago.  Its just so crazy.  That is when I am like, "even science can't back this shit up" maybe something else is involved.  Earth is just close enough to the sun.  The perfect location.  Too many things are just tooo perfect for all these things to just "happen".  Is nature that perfect?  And its hard to beleive another planet could be as perfect as Earth unless of coarse, there was something else involved. 

This plant is too well thought out and too well place and everything was just created too perfectly for it all to have happened by pure chance.  If you think we are here because of the "big bang" great, but what created the stuff for the big bang to take place? 

We don't know, but they're looking. Just because something is unknown, doesn't mean it didn't happen. I don't know exatcly how a TV works, but I don't assume God did it. As far as things being "too perfect" yeah, well, there ya go. You're right, if certain things weren't exactly as they are, there would not be life, but it doesn't rule out chance. No one was around to count the number of times the Universe expanded and contracted (if it did) before life could arise.

[TAP]

I stand corrected 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/23/turkey.islam

A hitherto largely unknown Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah G?len, has been voted the world's top intellectual in a poll to find the leading 100 thinkers.

G?len, the author of more than 60 books, won a landslide triumph after the survey - which is organised by the British magazine, Prospect, and Foreign Policy, a US publication - attracted more than 500,000 votes.

The top 10 individuals were all Muslim and included two Nobel laureates, the novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is also Turkish, at No 4, and the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, in 10th.

The result surprised organisers, who attributed it to a sustained campaign by G?len's followers, known as the G?len Movement, after Turkey's biggest-selling newspaper, Zaman, publicised the poll.

[Axl4Prez2004]

kind of off topic, but how come everytime i see those commericals for christian music cds, everyone in the crowd has their eyes closed and their hands raised up to the air?   

i want to listen to some arm raisin, eye closin jesus rock.

You aint seen nuthin' till you've seen John Tesh on Trinity Broadcast Network!!  He does some sort of hip-hop, opera, rock deal (hip-hopera-rock)  Trust me, Jesus must be very happy!   

The thing I don't get about that crap, is why all the praising?  Does God have low confidence?  Is he the guy everybody always has to remind how great he is?  I just don't understand that.  Perhaps I'll have to pray to get the answer.  Hold my calls please, I'm gonna need some time with this.   

Its called faith.  Why does Jarmo praise to Axl so much?  Do he have confidence issues?

Does Axl have confidence issues? I'd say so.

Smoking Guns
...faith is great.  It's the praise concept that's all fucked-up.  

Faith:  belief and trust in and loyalty to God.  (that's Webster's Dictionary)

Why does it have to be repeated over and over and over and over?  Think of all that wasted time.  If religious folks spent more time doing rather than praying, we'd have a lot less problems.  Just an idea.  

btw, I don't think Jarmo runs around all day with his arms up praising Axl...and no, I don't think he has shrines to Axl either.

[mrbucketfoot]

The Pope is helping....

(*removed quotes for length's sake*)

Like I said before the problem with religion is when people intermix their opinion and take religion 'into their own hands' and out of God's and what their scriptures say. This is the case with all extremists of every religion. This is why you see so many denominations of Christianity in America. A whole lot of "opinion" involved in that.

And sadly there is more emphasis on the extremist crazies than the legitimate people. It's like in music. Do you judge rock n' roll music by the standard of horrible emo/hipster bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco or do you judge it by bands like Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses, and The Rolling Stones, etc.?

Same with religion, you need to judge it by those living it properly and proper study of that religion's scriptures. The problem is that people see the extremists and think that is what that religion teaches and are turned off by that.

It's ironic that Christianity is so popular in America because most of things that Christianity is derided for: the xenophobia, racism, homophobia, etc. would all be rooted out if these "American Christians" would just live by what their scriptures taught them. But like I said, they wouldn't know what The Bible says, because they don't read it.

Hypocrisy, xenophobia, and contradiction has been with America since her inception, somehow we've found a way to sweep it into the corner and pretend that it's not there, so this documentary (as shown by the trailer) is justified in it's intentions, but not in the way it's going about executing them.

Who knows, the movie could be totally different, but it's presented in a very "extremist" way and that's why I took issue with it.

[TAP]

The Pope is helping....

(*removed quotes for length's sake*)

Like I said before the problem with religion is when people intermix their opinion and take religion 'into their own hands' and out of God's and what their scriptures say.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not sure why I should take mrbucketfoot from the HTGTH forum's version of what religion really is over the pope's. You haven't presented any compelling arguments.

[mrbucketfoot]

See: the long history of corruption in the Popes and Clergy.

Point - Bucketfoot. 

But I gotta get going, talk to you later.

[Smoking Guns]

kind of off topic, but how come everytime i see those commericals for christian music cds, everyone in the crowd has their eyes closed and their hands raised up to the air?   

i want to listen to some arm raisin, eye closin jesus rock.

You aint seen nuthin' till you've seen John Tesh on Trinity Broadcast Network!!  He does some sort of hip-hop, opera, rock deal (hip-hopera-rock)  Trust me, Jesus must be very happy!   

The thing I don't get about that crap, is why all the praising?  Does God have low confidence?  Is he the guy everybody always has to remind how great he is?  I just don't understand that.  Perhaps I'll have to pray to get the answer.  Hold my calls please, I'm gonna need some time with this.   

Its called faith.  Why does Jarmo praise to Axl so much?  Do he have confidence issues?

Does Axl have confidence issues? I'd say so.

Smoking Guns
...faith is great.  It's the praise concept that's all fucked-up.  

Faith:  belief and trust in and loyalty to God.  (that's Webster's Dictionary)

Why does it have to be repeated over and over and over and over?  Think of all that wasted time.  If religious folks spent more time doing rather than praying, we'd have a lot less problems.  Just an idea.  

btw, I don't think Jarmo runs around all day with his arms up praising Axl...and no, I don't think he has shrines to Axl either.

   Guys, I WAS JOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Axl4Prez2004]

My bad!     Like I said, too much heat yesterday...fried my brain...especially the region controlling comprehension of sarcasm!   

[norway]

Anyway, for me random mutation and natural selection is so elegant and simple once you get your head round what it really says, that no other explanation comes close.

A lot of religions embraces this selection.

Imo, religions diferent take on the creation (Cosmology) is quite fun. Obviously it should be taken with a big grain of salt

Like I said before the problem with religion is when people intermix their opinion and take religion 'into their own hands' and out of God's and what their scriptures say.

I don't agree too much with that,
- scriptures interpret into practise today stemming from religious fundaments are all "right" in one way or another.

The problem I see is when people don't take responsebillety for their own actions and hold the ethics within a religion responsible.

Both this is somewhat related of course, but adults support this by choice (or thats how it should be maybe).

People with downs, dwarfs, defects etc...I think any healthy and sane person should support abortion on this matter.
But thats my opinions, that there are religions that correspond with that standpoint is just an addition.

One must be careful and not be too conservative to any of this, but thats how it is with everything.

Statistical studies of religious belief vs education/intelligence from 1927 to recent times.

http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Jesus/Intelligence%20&%20religion.htm

Yeah, but then again, since then politicial and similar groups have grown and adopted (and with that, replaced) those parts of religion and just rejected the spritiual parts.
I still think there is place of sensible religious practise in a modern world.

[TAP]

See: the long history of corruption in the Popes and Clergy.

Your underlying point seems to be that religion isn't bad, it's just that most people have got religion wrong because they don't understand it. But religion is, pretty much by definition, what people do rather than what is 'correct'.