Religions/Beliefs of Browncoats
POSTED BY: EngineAngel
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 01:24
VIEWED: 30205
PAGE 8 of 16
BTW, NV, I love the animation:
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It's kind of hypnotic.
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I'm the president. I don't need to listen.
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IMHO, science and religion describe the same phenomenon (spelling?); they just use differing vocabulary to describe the world.
And, everyone here has behaved admirably. I'm proud of us all!!
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Thanks. "Borrowed" from Photobucket.
Also, it is a bit funny no one mentioned the affirmation of a demon in the Christian Soundoff board.
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Sadly, I see the church as lagging behind, and accepting the observations of science only when they absolutely can't deny it anymore. (Galileo anyone?)
And I don't see the church stating any kind of theorem that can be agreed upon be anyone, no matter their personal background or beliefs. Religion cannot be verified by observation of nature, science can.
Edit: sorry, don't mean to be hijacking with the science/religion argument. I just find it so interesting! But it's 5, so I'll stop now.
G'night all!
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I'm the president. I don't need to listen.
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Born and raised a (LCA Lutheran) preacher's kid. However, never quite got the hang of it, and today have no religious faith.
Whether or not I accept even the possibility of a God or gods depends on the particular definition thereof.
The traditional idea of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenificent deity makes no sense to me. Too many contradictions there! But if you want to think of God as "the laws of Physics that allow the Universe to exist", well, that I have no problem with.
One of the defining moments in my life was reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle", in which he describes a new religion: The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. One of their prayers went something like this: Oh great Creator and Master of the Universe, what could a puny human like me ever say or do that would be of the slightest interest to You?
All that aside, I love my folks dearly and get along pretty well with most religious folk, with the same proviso about proselytizers as others have made in this thread.
Here's an amusin' tale. A friend of mine was drafted back in the 1960s. He was required to name his religion so that it could be placed on his dog tags for the convenience of the chaplains. Being an atheist, he answered "none". Nope, that wouldn't do. "Atheist," he tried. No ruttin' way. Nor "Agnostic". Seems the Army wasn't going to allow any of *those* in its foxholes.
Finally he tried "Humanist". That was accepted. He has those dog tags to this day.
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I'm pointin' right at it!
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Quote:
Originally posted by nvghostrider:
Just like 2+2 and the theory of relativity, religion and dogma are also controllable, repeatable, and very useful tools. They are based on neccessity and usefulness of men.
Um, I have to disagree. I can go into a church and chow down on holy wafers, guzzle wine, say Hail Marys until I'm hoarse, and bathe in holy water for eternity and never have a religious experience. On the other hand, every time you put two big pieces of enriched uranium together, they're gonna explode, every time you drop a chunk of pure sodium into water it's gonna put on a show. Religion is, by its very nature, impossible to recreate. If I had a revelation, I can't tell someone exactly what I did and where I did it, and expect them to be able to have the same revelation. If I invent a new chemical, or oberve a new physical phenomena I can tell someone else where and how I made or observed it, and they will be able to do the same, provided that I know how I did it in the first place of course.
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That is my point. We can argue for eternity and end up running the same circle. How is science concrete if there is no one to observr it,
Um, people do observe it? The only things that science can't really observe are things like the creation of new elements in a supercollider, most of the tenets of science are easily confirmable by someone with a little bit of money.
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Science has hinted that the earth will pretty much be destroyed again, and life may or may not reappear. With no one to observe or calculate, math and science are as useless as bone awls and stone axes.
So one part of science is not observable and thus science as a whole is useless? Predictions should always be considered suspect, but most of science is not predictions, most of science is repeatable observable phenomena.
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When you return:
It depends on the religion you speak of.
I know many things can be told of many religions,
Oh to hell with it. You win.
Was just trying to state a case for the beliefs of my people and the answers found within nature.
And I guess I meant to say that science can be understood by the human brain only with abstract thought. But that gets back to whats real and what ain't.
Anyways, thanks again for shining your big spotlight brought to us thanks to science and technology. Glad to have you by.
May need to bring snacks and drinks next time.
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I'm pagan, lean toward asatru. i really like the tone of this discussion.
See the thing with religion is that ultimately, it's a political tool to control people. it's a social-historical construct humanity can't get out of. i ain't met a group yet, pagan or christian, that didn't end up in a "us/them" discussion instead of "this is what resonates for me". organized religion is the root of all evil, and that goes for the athiests, pagans, anyone who thinks they got the answers and other people who think different are Not To Be Trusted.
if more people in the world were like "here's some basic philosophical questions that may or may not add meaning to your life, and here's a bunch of ways to reflect on these questions, now go and do your own cogitating... live well and prosper" religion could be a thing of beauty. but the herd mentality just can't do that. humanity is a social creature and they can't abide other packs that aren't part of their own.
except browncoats. who know enough not to meddle and let people be.
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Quote:
Originally posted by DonCoat:
Here's an amusin' tale. A friend of mine was drafted back in the 1960s. He was required to name his religion so that it could be placed on his dog tags for the convenience of the chaplains. Being an atheist, he answered "none". Nope, that wouldn't do. "Atheist," he tried. No ruttin' way. Nor "Agnostic". Seems the Army wasn't going to allow any of *those* in its foxholes.
Finally he tried "Humanist". That was accepted. He has those dog tags to this day.
Actually I've heard of things like this, from what I have heard it really depends not on the Army, but rather the specific person that he was giving his information to. I have heard of people who were forced to put a religion on their dog tags, then later went to someone else to get new tags and got them with "Atheist" or "None".
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I think the point flew over your head. Thats okay, it hit the guy lurking in the bushes waitin' to steal your wallet.
My point is that when all is said and done. When the Earth is ready to purify its self of all the pollution we helped create or a big gorram rock collides with our mortal asses and there is nothing left but dust and wasted energy, no amount of science or religion will matter. It will all be over. We will not live forever. They may never find the cure for cancer. And Pepsi may never bring back Crystal Pepsi.
Kinda sucks too. I never got to taste Crystal Pepsi.
Guess theres something to have faith in.
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