Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All of us are born into a culture, it is unavoidable.
Some cultures are better than others.
Do you have a belief system that is not entirely based on reason?
Many of us were born into a 'christian culture'. Yet, many of us have become Buddhists or atheists or other spiritual belief systems. One isn't locked in...at least not in this country.
You want to know my belief system...go to my blog section. I make it clear what type of Buddhism I practice.
Smarter? I only know I know nothing.
Do you think atheists are smarter than believers?
People that claim something as fact, when in reality they have no way of proving or disproving it, are just ignorant, in my opinion. I believe in God, personally. But I don't claim it as fact that He exists.
People that claim something as fact, when in reality they have no way of proving or disproving it, are just ignorant, in my opinion. I believe in God, personally. But I don't claim it as fact that He exists.
I'm in my mid 30s, so still pretty young. However, I will say I have grown increasingly repelled by religion as I have grown older, not the other way around.
In my childhood and teens I tried being a Christian as I was raised to be so. I never enjoyed any of it. On Sunday mornings I'd rather be anywhere other than listening to those boring sermons. I am darn well near immune to whatever makes people feel things in church because I never felt a thing no matter how hard I tried.
Gradually I was woken up to how I had no reason to believe any of it to begin with. In my early 20s I finally completely broke out of Christianity and any theistic beliefs.
I can't tell you the future, but I don't see myself ever becoming religious. If not just because it's against my nature. As I said, whatever people experience in church just doesn't work for me. I realized I had no reason to believe pretty thoroughly. Even if I were given reason to believe, I wouldn't be given reason to go to church and "worship". I find the God of the Bible to be completely and totally despicable, immoral. And I have enough experience with churches nowadays to also know I don't want a single thing to do with them, their churchgoers, and the depraved orange God that they now worship.
I am not a perfect skeptic, I can be swayed by emotions here and there. That's why I posted that last bit... because not only rationally, but emotionally I'm completely repelled from Christianity, which is the dominant religion in my country (and I don't see me ever living somewhere with a different dominant religion, just speaking in terms of chances. Although I hope very much that nonbelief becomes the majority soon).
I think us younger generations may buck the trend on getting more religious as they get older. I don't put much faith in my generation or younger generations, but hopefully they'll at least continue to move away from religion.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57734
I never fell for the religion taught by my Catholic upbringing, and now at 71 I'm still a non-believer. Of my 6 siblings, 5 are the same as me, one has always been religious. The other outlier is an older brother who at about age 68 suddenly started to do religious posts on social media, and with his past history, that is totally out of character. I have no idea what happened to change him, or if he actually goes to church. I only see him 1-2 times a year at family gatherings and then we avoid discussions of politics and religion.
To me, the biggest thing in me not being religious as I get older is watching more quickly mankind has progressed.
I graduated high school in 2004. Look at how quickly technology has changed since then. Back then, cell phones were uncommon. The ones we had were extremely primitive. Something like ChatGPT would have seemed like science fiction.
Meanwhile, culture has regressed. There are so many legal and government decisions that are basically legislating morality, as defined by the religion of the party making those decisions, that it's difficult to keep up with these days. In a nation increasingly of "nones," major life decisions and government decisions are increasingly be defined by religious ideology.
To me, the biggest thing in me not being religious as I get older is watching more quickly mankind has progressed.
I graduated high school in 2004. Look at how quickly technology has changed since then. Back then, cell phones were uncommon. The ones we had were extremely primitive. Something like ChatGPT would have seemed like science fiction.
Meanwhile, culture has regressed. There are so many legal and government decisions that are basically legislating morality, as defined by the religion of the party making those decisions, that it's difficult to keep up with these days. In a nation increasingly of "nones," major life decisions and government decisions are increasingly be defined by religious ideology.
And you see the progression as a good thing?
What I see is high levels of anxiety, depression, and suicide amongst our teens. Levels that were unthinkable 20 years ago. Mainly this is caused by social media. https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfe...d%20behaviors.
Or what about AI? Sure ChatGPT is fun to use right now, and surely has some positive effects. But, as usual, they need to keep making it bigger and more powerful. What happens when it is smarter than us? https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...scious-or-not/
My list of how progression is killing our society could go on and on, but I don't have time to sit here and type it all out. But I will say that I long for the days before technology has ruined us as a species. I'll take my flip phone and go talk to my neighbor.
You have to be diplomatic to your theistic fellow Arizonan
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I only know I know nothing.
