[socialkiiii]

There would have still been religion. Evolution doesn't answer all questions, and is not mutually exclusive with the concept of god(s) or the afterlife.

[Ephedrine]

Originally posted by FrostyBoy
Religion opened up mathematics, engineering, war - which lead to important inventions, the printing press, it even opened up our minds to imagine in that which doesn't exist. Are you serious? War is brutal, yet you're saying that if there were no religion we would be more brutal. I don't think you're thinking clearly.

What makes you think we aren't brutal? We're very brutal.

[joeyCanada]

There have always been ideas about evolution.
If I'm correct, the epcurians from Greece believed in a form of materialism, they were debating this all the time.

Evolution is not *new*
There's always been believe in evolution. Except perhaps the middle ages.

[XinordiX]

One could also say, that evolution was god´s way to create...

[hernkingAnank]

What's left of god?

What will we never know?

Identity!

[Thifiadardivy]

Originally posted by FrostyBoy

Religion opened up mathematics, engineering, war - which lead to important inventions, the printing press, it even opened up our minds to imagine in that which doesn't exist. Bullshit. People had plently of self-interested motives having nothing to do with metaphysical or moral quandries to create tools or methods to improve their basic material lives. The most crucial human discoveries were agriculture and animal husbandry, and those had far more to do with the fact people get hungry than praying to any deity.

Religion, as opposed to mysticism or basic superstition, is a creation of civilization, not the cause of it.

[Patamuta]

Come on, the internet is great at finding funny videos, pirated copyrighted materials, and wasting time reading blogs and other opinion pieces.

[HomePageOEMfreeSOFTWARE]

I forgot about the one other use for the internet -- finding videos of people playing rock band drums all by themselves in their squalid apartments.

[Mimsykzr]

You heard wrong.

[seawolferr]

Does it really matter? Is your faith so weak it needs validation from other gullible fools?

[SinyugiN]

No, it doesn't. Because there are always people like you and BK to reinforce it. In any event, Hawking is agnostic.

[Chooriwrocafn]

I don't sit on the fence. I believe in God, and as a Christian, believe in Jesus Christ.

I just don't interpret the Bible literally in believing the Earth is only 6,000 years old or that God created life itself.

Thankfully, I'm not looking for support from fundamentalists nor am I seeking support from arrogant atheists.

[w4HPpbSW]

Originally posted by MrFun
Thankfully, I'm not looking for support from fundamentalists nor am I seeking support from arrogant atheists. If you say so, I'll take your word for it. Just seems like your looking for some kind of justification by looking at who else believes. There is no sympathy here for that. You can be as liberal as you want to be but there is no acceptance from those "arrogant atheists" if you believe in anything more than this short life.

[SaamanthaSterlyng]

Originally posted by Sprayber


If you say so, I'll take your word for it. Just seems like your looking for some kind of justification by looking at who else believes. There is no sympathy here for that. You can be as liberal as you want to be but there is no acceptance from those "arrogant atheists" if you believe in anything more than this short life. It would be nice if more atheists respect the beliefs of religious people, that's all.

But, that won't happen in this millenium.

[cheesypeetyz]

Originally posted by MrFun
It would be nice if more atheists respect the beliefs of religious people, that's all.

But, that won't happen in this millenium.

It will never happen, because the beliefs are no more worthy of respect than the belief that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the creator of the world or that there is an invisible pink unicorn behind the Moon. The only reasons to believe in a creator are irrational, and irrationality is not worthy of respect.

[alexbookhyip]

Both atheists and religious people feel sorry for the other because the lost do not know the truth. Of course, if either side gets turned loose they create concentration camps and burn at the stake those deemed to be incorrect. The odds that either side will respect the views of the other seem rather low in that light.

[antipenq]

Originally posted by GePap
As I have said before, this utter inability of the religious after 5500 years of writings to agree on even basic principles is some of the best evidence about why all of them are wrong nad basing all their beliefs on nothing more than blind faith. Also, given humanity's continuing political and cultural disagreements, we should all be anarcho-primitivists.

[Dreqsqse]

Originally posted by GePap
Cultural differences are a function of distance and environment As opposed to religious disagreements, which are somehow not?

while political disagreements have direct material causes. In the U.S. at least, the causes of political disagreements are rarely direct or material.

They aren't metaphysical disagreements based on nothing but someone's opinion. So philosophy's all a pile of bullshit too? Just so you're consistent.

[BinasiDombrs]

Originally posted by Elok
So philosophy's all a pile of bullshit too? Just so you're consistent. Much of it is, but logic is also philosophy, as is science.

[huylibizonoff]

Originally posted by MrFun


Environment, eh? While not always the case, specific types of religious beliefs or customs actually can arise from the environment.

Note the prevalence of the flood stories for example from ancient Near East and Egyptian religions. Reason for this was that Egyptian, Sumerian and other civilizations in this region obviously relied on river systems and their flooding patterns. Flood myths (or any ohter particular story) do not equal a "Religion".