That was very offensive and unnecessary. An ignorant statement to make.

That was a relly interesting read. If you get a chance I'd love to look at what references you used.

I have to agree, there is much more reason to believe in Santa Claus than God.  What an insulting remark.

Which are those reasons? Besides trying to insult people and ignite unnecessary flames, if you want to troll or insult people intelligence this is not the place. Add something to the conversation, dont fucking troll.

Which are those reasons? Besides trying to insult people and ignite unnecessary flames, if you want to troll or insult people intelligence this is not the place. Add something to the conversation, dont fucking troll.

Well let's break down the properties of a god and the properties of a santa claus

God:

-Has abilities outside laws of the universe

-knows everything

-has no known form

-has no known location of habitation

Santa Claus

-Has a list of everyones children

-Knows what said childrens behaviour is

-Rides on a sled

-Wears red and white

-has elves make all of his equipment

-lives on the north pole

Now we all know child labor is still a problem in this world and these so called "elves" are working for barely nothing, basically just enough to stay alive on the frigid climate of the north pole (which is also a real place.)  Some would say that it's not possible that he gives all the worlds children presents in a single night using only a reindeer pulled sled.  What they don't realize is that santa claus had to adapt to the changing times, people weren't asking for toy trains and teddy bears anymore, they started asking for PS3s, iPhone 3Gs, and LCD TVs.  Not only did he invest in educating more skilled workers to make these products he also invested in the same jet technology that powered the SR-71 blackbird.  He can get from the east coast to the west in only an hour and 7 minutes with that tech fueling his sleds.  Yeah that's right I said sleds, plural, with more sleds he can get himself (or one of his santy representitives) in and out of every house in a single night in the world, well I mean only the christian ones of course.

God however, we don't know of anything that can operate outside our universal laws, strike one.  We don't know of anything that has complete knowledge of the universe, strike two.  Finally he has no form or place of habitation (other than heaven, and where the heck is that?) strikes three and four.  Imo the God theory is out and the Santa theory is in.

"I agree with you. There is no more reason to believe in Santa Claus than god and that 'dribble told by the ignorant' sentence was just plain trolling."

Oh it was just a joke, but I don't agree that all religious people lack logic and are inherently ignorant.  Just that there's no more reason to believe in God than Santa Claus.

(code fractured) " There's also the fact that people of all religions experience them. And what are "spiritual" experiences anyways? Aren't they just some form of high, like when you take drugs?"

They indeed are, you should research DMT, I did a school report on it last summer as a final.  DMT is DiMethylTryptamine and it may very well be the most important chemical that we have studied in relation to human consciousness.  DMT can be made in the brain quite easily, but our brain has defenses that keep that from happening.  You see we have a gland in our brains called the Pineal gland (so called because it resembles a pine cone, it is the only part of the brain that is singular and does not have a part for each half of the brain) which produces melatonin.  Melatonin is released when there is a perceived absence of light and causes somnolence, drop in body temperature, and at extreme doses mild hallucination (hallucination from sleep deprivation is more caused by exhaustion than by the continued release of this chemical.)

To form DMT all you need is two melatonin molecules to bind together (melatonin being acetyl5-methoxytryptamine) and the conditions for this bonding is superb within the human brain.  But like I said our brain has defenses against the accidental production of DMT.  Now I wish I was at home (I'm at work) so I could pull out a couple of sources I have (DMT:the spirit molecule is an excellent read and I reccommend it to everyone who has attended the discussion in this thread) but I'm not so I can't delve into the specifics about the defenses. 

However I can describe the effects of DMT.  It is a powerful psychedelic drug (yes a powerful psychedelic drug can be easily made within your own brain, shocking I know), in fact it can be easily considered the most powerful of all psychedelics.  DMT in America is commonly smoked or eaten, but when eaten it must be consumed with an MAOI (monoamine oxidase inihibitor) or else these enzymes will break it down before it reaches the brain (I believe they're the same enzymes that are used as a defense in the brain but not totally sure.)  Outside of the US/EU shamans having been using it ritualistically for millenia in the form of Ayahuasca and Yage (these are drinks that contain both an MAOI and DMT, some cultures also include psilocybin mushrooms.)  The effects of smoking or injecting (which I've only heard of being done in test subjects) are a rapid onset occurring within 30 seconds a peak at 5 minutes and a return to normal after 30.  The experience is highly spiritual (thus it's classification as an entheogen) usually involves the vision of a diety or perfect being, oftentimes visions of creatures from distant worlds who will even engage in conversations.  Time becomes altered and subjects often report feeling as if they had spent an hour or even a couple where they were when in reality it lasted not more than 5-10 minutes and everyone who has done it has reported feeling a freedom from fear of death (even if that fear was not prevalent before hand.)

It's quite clear to me that these religious experiences are the product of accident DMT production within the human brain, DMT relieves anxiety (the definition of an anxiety attack is an overwhelming sense of impending doom) and stress, we know now that DMT releases when we sleep.  Thus sleep, and DMT release, is necessary for a healthy human psyche.  Large doses of DMT causes memory to stop being recorded during it's effects, this is why we don't remember our trip to the stars we take every night, just the lingering after effect of a dream.  So from the observed data we can understand why we have DMT, why it is important enough to our species for evolution to have kept it within our genetic structure, and now we not only have a plausible solution to the question of 'why is there religion?' we have the answer to 'where do religious experiences come from?'

I also did another report on the correlation of DMT release and glossolalia (which through some effort I was able to induce in myself.)

DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman

Inner Paths ot Outer Space by Rick Strassman, Slawek Wojtowicz, Luis Eduardo Luna, and Ede Frecska

Those two books are what I directly  reference in what I wrote, to get a full understanding of psychedelics and their influence on human consciousness and culture I also reccommend Food of the Gods by Terrence McKenna, and the psychology of speeking in tongues by John P. Kildahl.  I also used some online sources in my report but I can't find the paper and I wrote it on my old pc which I threw out but if you search for DMT and sleep you should be able to find something.  DMT: the spirit molecule is the best book out of all of those though.

Heaven is not a place, is a state of the soul. Plus you need to read a lot of philosophy basics before stating things as fact.