Religious/Philosophical discussion, your thoughts Options

[TetraGrammaton C...]

this thread was inspired by the atheist video thread

we have not had one of these in a while. i thought it would be interesting if people wanted to have an ungoing discussion about what beliefs/morals/religious ideas/scruples they have and why they have them.

i will try to interject myself as a catalyst when i have time.

i would ask that no one is too inconsiderate of other people's ideas. however, i do not think their is anything wrong with light humor or logical criticism.



as for religious trends, it seems that our generation is having difficulties with Christianity, ranging from "I'm spiritual, not religious" to the casual "Christian" that does not really believe in Jesus, but believes in the Christian god. I have met several people who treat religion like a buffet, picking and choosing which particular characteristics of the ethos that seem most suitable. this seems to be indicative of a deterioration of religion in general, as if what was once considered dogmatic is now flexible and relative. aside from the particular personal relevance to our own lives, there also exists a greater societal relevance. what will change in our country if we are on a religious downslope? can religion die out or is it cyclical? who will win flying shark vs. flying crocodile? what about a flying spaghetti monster? does it come with breadsticks? when was the last time you ate at olive garden? etc. etc.

[Trespass]

Flying souls through space?.... sounds good enough to me, now market it and sell it!


I'd say Islam.... sure some people say its a violent religion, but hey its a violent world why would the religion be different. Basically it takes christianity and says that god sent a new prophet to clear shit up that the jews and christians messed up (sounds reasonable to me considering the hack job constantine did by completely changing the christian religion etc.).

Oh and also it shows hell as one would believe a "loving" god would make it... a lack of god's love/presence, not just some random burning punishment thing. A place where one goes to learn from their pride that they were wrong, and they eventually take steps towards finding god, and then its just a progressing journey of enlightenment from there.

But it could all be a explosion of matter that formed a solar system and planet with water which we formed from elements being effected by electrical impulses... im not really the one to say.

OR Zues could really be pissed right now waiting to zapp our ungreatful asses with lightning.

But i think we can all admit that mormons and scientologists have it right!

[Billy]

Flying souls through space?....

Once again I have proven myself incapable of explaining a thought. So let me try again, but this time in the form of Q&A.

Q: Do you believe souls can fly through space?
A: No. I believe there must be some sort of transporting medium.

Q: What do you think happens when you die?
A: You reincarnate.

Q: Can you reincarnate into anything?
A: I don't think so. I don't think you can reincarnate into non-biological things like rocks. But I also don't think you can reincarnate into things like trees, plants, or someone's kidney. I won't rule these out however, as I do not know what all is involved to have the "biological capacity" to store....you.

Q: So in the past 50 years, we've been sending people up into outter space. What happens if they die out there? Do they magically come back to earth and inherit another body?
A: No. Again, I think there must be some sort of conducting transporting medium for your "soul" to travel through, much like electricity. It doesn't magically go from point A to point B. So let's say one of these astronauts dies on his craft. What I believe is his "soul" travels throughout that spacecraft until it can find a body to inherit. Since, as we know, it will never find one, it will be "stuck" on that craft until that craft crashes into something, like back to earth, or something else that doesn't have life.

Q: What do you mean it travels? Like it walks around and you're a ghost?
A: No. I think you are in the form of something similar to electricity. You are not conscious and your movement is likely pretty random.

Q: So NASA is making plans to send people to Mars for 18 month intervals. Are you telling me that if one of those people die on that planet, which is currently believed to not have any life on it, they will never regain consciousness?
A: Yes and no. While Mars remains Mars, and if it really doesn't have life and never gains life (Earth doesn't colonize it), those people who die there will never inherit a body until the universe contracts, and all matter becomes approximately together for a very short period. At that point, those "souls" may conduct to a part of the total matter that splits off into a planet, which may one day have life. If that happens, they may gain consciousness again. However, if they end up on something that doesn't ever evolve life, like an astroid, they will have to wait another 100 billion or so years before they get another chance.

Q: So you believe the universe is in a perpectual contraction and expasion?
A: Yes. As all matter runs out of kinetic energy, the gravity of everything pulls the universe back together. At some point, all the planets, stars, etc will collide again, causing a brief moment of one giant mass, at which point the elasticity of matter as well as the explosions caused from the collision force this matter to break apart again into the stars, planets, etc. Essentially restarting the universe. I believe this process always happens, and nothing can ever really escape this system.

[Trespass]

Once again I have proven myself incapable of explaining a thought. So let me try again, but this time in the form of Q&A.

Q: Do you believe souls can fly through space?
A: No. I believe there must be some sort of transporting medium.

Q: What do you think happens when you die?
A: You reincarnate.

Q: Can you reincarnate into anything?
A: I don't think so. I don't think you can reincarnate into non-biological things like rocks. But I also don't think you can reincarnate into things like trees, plants, or someone's kidney. I won't rule these out however, as I do not know what all is involved to have the "biological capacity" to store....you.

Q: So in the past 50 years, we've been sending people up into outter space. What happens if they die out there? Do they magically come back to earth and inherit another body?
A: No. Again, I think there must be some sort of conducting transporting medium for your "soul" to travel through, much like electricity. It doesn't magically go from point A to point B. So let's say one of these astronauts dies on his craft. What I believe is his "soul" travels throughout that spacecraft until it can find a body to inherit. Since, as we know, it will never find one, it will be "stuck" on that craft until that craft crashes into something, like back to earth, or something else that doesn't have life.

Q: What do you mean it travels? Like it walks around and you're a ghost?
A: No. I think you are in the form of something similar to electricity. You are not conscious and your movement is likely pretty random.

Q: So NASA is making plans to send people to Mars for 18 month intervals. Are you telling me that if one of those people die on that planet, which is currently believed to not have any life on it, they will never regain consciousness?
A: Yes and no. While Mars remains Mars, and if it really doesn't have life and never gains life (Earth doesn't colonize it), those people who die there will never inherit a body until the universe contracts, and all matter becomes approximately together for a very short period. At that point, those "souls" may conduct to a part of the total matter that splits off into a planet, which may one day have life. If that happens, they may gain consciousness again. However, if they end up on something that doesn't ever evolve life, like an astroid, they will have to wait another 100 billion or so years before they get another chance.

Q: So you believe the universe is in a perpectual contraction and expasion?
A: Yes. As all matter runs out of kinetic energy, the gravity of everything pulls the universe back together. At some point, all the planets, stars, etc will collide again, causing a brief moment of one giant mass, at which point the elasticity of matter as well as the explosions caused from the collision force this matter to break apart again into the stars, planets, etc. Essentially restarting the universe. I believe this process always happens, and nothing can ever really escape this system.

All that over a joke, i feel special.

Anyway, so do you think the energy deteriorates over time (like electricity losing power the farther away from the source (life) it goes? Because all energy can do is be expended, energy can't create MORE energy (thus is our understanding of normal science) so that might explain why reincarnation wouldn't be a "re-birth" of sorts, more just an echo of prior self. But would you say eventually the energy would deteroriate at some point as to hold no charge anymore?

Oh and this just reminds me of final fantasy VII with all the "planet force" stuff... heh