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Forums - General - Why Ricky Gervais is an atheist

Zim on 05 May 2012
sad.man.loves.vgc said:

99% of believers spent more time choosing their college major than choosing their religion. Baffling!

You believe in something that is going to change your life for good yet you hardly know anything about religions, or at least, your own bloody religion. You are either really lazy or plain stupid.

Good read OP, thanks!


I know you simply made that statistic up. However I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to the truth. How many people do you meet who are a different religion to their family? Very very few. In fact of the top of my head the only thing I can think of are friends who have christian families but they are atheist. How many people do you meet who despite being one religion have read deeply into another? A very small percentage. 

I remember having a discussion with a friend in university where they got insanely angry at me. They were talking about how they had chosen to be Christian (CoE iirc) and if they didn't want to be Christian their parents would be fine with it. To which I pointed out that since the day they were born their parents had taken them to church nigh on every single week, put them in a christian school, read to them from the bible etc. Since a child they had been taught this as a fact and that to question it was bad. And not believing it would have dreadful consequences. Is it really any surprise that they then 'Chose' to be Christian? When they had effectively been indoctrinated into it. 

My parents didn't take me to church or force a religion on me. However if I asked about one they would tell me about it. If I wanted to try religious things then that was fine and they would take me to church etc. I went to a school that although traditionally Christian had started to try and become multi-faith and so while it had a chaplin we would as often get talks from people of different religions.  So then I was free to make my own choice about religion, nothing had been forced on me. 

Ricky's statistic about the amount of atheists in prison is interesting though. Will have to take a look at where he got that from. I have always associated being christian with the less educated and his statistic would seemingly support that. 



Turkish says and I'm allowed to quote that: Uncharted 3 and God Of War 3 look better than Unreal Engine 4 games will or the tech demo does. Also the Naughty Dog PS3 ENGINE PLAYS better than the UE4 ENGINE.

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NintendoPie on 05 May 2012

I am Christian (always will be) and I approve of this. (Based of the first few paragraphs.) At least he isn't like some members on here that are just rude in their ways about it.



IIIIITHE1IIIII on 05 May 2012
sundin13 said:
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

And there we have it. You don't need to believe in God to reach Heaven, making the entire system collapse (keeping the ten Commandments in mind).

And if your answer that he ends up in Heaven is wrong, then he was born to end up wherever he did. Luck brought him to his final destination.

I dont have a specific religion so i just call myself a theist...

Anyways, Id say that they wouldn't go to heaven but they also wouldnt go to hell...because there is no hell. Hell is just a consequence constructed out of symbolism to scare people into believing when the church realized how hard it is to keep power. "Heaven" (im not sure what heaven is but i hope i will find out someday) is a gift to people who lived their lives in the way a person should. Belief is not a requirement imo. I find it highly illogical to say "you have to believe in the right thing to go to heaven" when theres millions of people in different religions living their lives better than any christian i know

Bolded: That's another reason to why I left Christianity; because the existence of Hell wouldn't make any sense at all. The unfortunate people who grow up in an unfortunate family that is unable to help them live a future legal life don't deserve hell once they die, they would deserve heaven as a compensation for what God has put them through.

Italics: Which means that atheists can go to Heaven. Forget about God and all of his bullshit demands, having faith in him does not affect your afterlife. Just make sure you're good to others and yourself, and don't harm anyone in the process.

 

(Guess I should note that I don't believe in Heaven or any of that stuff. Just making a point.)



Andrespetmonkey on 05 May 2012
NintendoPie said:

I am Christian (always will be) and I approve of this. (Based of the first few paragraphs.) At least he isn't like some members on here that are just rude in their ways about it.

We'll see :P I thought the same more or less 2 years ago.

Maybe you will always be christian, but maybe you won't, an open mind is always healthy.



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IIIIITHE1IIIII on 05 May 2012
NintendoPie said:

I am Christian (always will be) and I approve of this. (Based of the first few paragraphs.) At least he isn't like some members on here that are just rude in their ways about it.


Don't worry, I thought so too during my first fifteen years.

 

Edit: Looks like Andres beat me to it :P



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NintendoPie on 05 May 2012
Andrespetmonkey said:
NintendoPie said:

I am Christian (always will be) and I approve of this. (Based of the first few paragraphs.) At least he isn't like some members on here that are just rude in their ways about it.

We'll see :P I thought the same more or less 2 years ago.

Maybe you will always be christian, but maybe you won't, an open mind is always healthy.

I always will be. You can call me stubborn or a "Normal American Hick" but I don't care. I always will.



NintendoPie on 05 May 2012

I like how you people are focusing on that one part of my post. I'm pretty sure the last part is way more important.



Andrespetmonkey on 05 May 2012
NintendoPie said:
Andrespetmonkey said:
NintendoPie said:

I am Christian (always will be) and I approve of this. (Based of the first few paragraphs.) At least he isn't like some members on here that are just rude in their ways about it.

We'll see :P I thought the same more or less 2 years ago.

Maybe you will always be christian, but maybe you won't, an open mind is always healthy.

I always will be. You can call me stubborn or a "Normal American Hick" but I don't care. I always will.

You aren't stubborn and you certainly aren't an American Hick lol. You're just young, like me, and us young people often change drastically. Who you are now is not who you will be in a year, not at all, so there's no point in speaking with absolute certainty.



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sad.man.loves.vgc on 05 May 2012
Zim said:
sad.man.loves.vgc said:

99% of believers spent more time choosing their college major than choosing their religion. Baffling!

You believe in something that is going to change your life for good yet you hardly know anything about religions, or at least, your own bloody religion. You are either really lazy or plain stupid.

Good read OP, thanks!


I know you simply made that statistic up. However I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to the truth. How many people do you meet who are a different religion to their family? Very very few. In fact of the top of my head the only thing I can think of are friends who have christian families but they are atheist. How many people do you meet who despite being one religion have read deeply into another? A very small percentage. 

I remember having a discussion with a friend in university where they got insanely angry at me. They were talking about how they had chosen to be Christian (CoE iirc) and if they didn't want to be Christian their parents would be fine with it. To which I pointed out that since the day they were born their parents had taken them to church nigh on every single week, put them in a christian school, read to them from the bible etc. Since a child they had been taught this as a fact and that to question it was bad. And not believing it would have dreadful consequences. Is it really any surprise that they then 'Chose' to be Christian? When they had effectively been indoctrinated into it. 

My parents didn't take me to church or force a religion on me. However if I asked about one they would tell me about it. If I wanted to try religious things then that was fine and they would take me to church etc. I went to a school that although traditionally Christian had started to try and become multi-faith and so while it had a chaplin we would as often get talks from people of different religions.  So then I was free to make my own choice about religion, nothing had been forced on me. 

Ricky's statistic about the amount of atheists in prison is interesting though. Will have to take a look at where he got that from. I have always associated being christian with the less educated and his statistic would seemingly support that. 


Yeah , I admitted it already, I made it up. However, I never met a Muslim who switched from Christianity , or a Muslim who really chose Islam, it's like everyone is being "coached". Also, I only have few Christian friends but the same observation applies.

Also, good for you for making your own choice. I am reading more about Islam and I want to read about Christianity next.  I assume you chose to be a Christian?



sundin13 on 05 May 2012
IIIIITHE1IIIII said:
sundin13 said:

I dont have a specific religion so i just call myself a theist...

Anyways, Id say that they wouldn't go to heaven but they also wouldnt go to hell...because there is no hell. Hell is just a consequence constructed out of symbolism to scare people into believing when the church realized how hard it is to keep power. "Heaven" (im not sure what heaven is but i hope i will find out someday) is a gift to people who lived their lives in the way a person should. Belief is not a requirement imo. I find it highly illogical to say "you have to believe in the right thing to go to heaven" when theres millions of people in different religions living their lives better than any christian i know

Bolded: That's another reason to why I left Christianity; because the existence of Hell wouldn't make any sense at all. The unfortunate people who grow up in an unfortunate family that is unable to help them live a future legal life don't deserve hell once they die, they would deserve heaven as a compensation for what God has put them through.

Italics: Which means that atheists can go to Heaven. Forget about God and all of his bullshit demands, having faith in him does not affect your afterlife. Just make sure you're good to others and yourself, and don't harm anyone in the process.

 

(Guess I should note that I don't believe in Heaven or any of that stuff. Just making a point.)

I pretty much agree with what you are saying so I have nothing to argue. I hope to see you in heaven (whatever it may be) :P