Sorry if I have caused offense in this thread already BTW, but I am just giving my opinion on the matter. I know it isn't what a lot of people want to hear. I do appologise.

Mathematically, it's almost a certainty that lifeforms exist elsewhere in the Universe. The pure number of mathematical combination's is so high that somewhere life exists. Is it intelligent as us? Or more so? Who knows.


As for Life after Death? There is no proof of this. There isn't tangible proof of ghosts. Humans have shown the propensity to over complicate or mystify something they don't understand. So what if every religion believes in an after life?

The after-life is the one control mechanism that almost EVERY religion contains. Why would you follow a religion if there was absolutely no tangible benefit to it? You wouldn't. That's why if you don't believe in Jesus then you are told you are destined to go to Hell. That's why if you're a bad person and not Buddhist you will 'reincarnate' as a lower life form. These are all ways to get you to make sure you live a good life according the words in these books. No one wants to go to Hell or Re-incarnate as a Dung Beetle. This is why religion is effective.

This isn't an attack on religion. It's more a line of thought of general logic. How do you keep people to stay faithful and obey a religion? You need control over them in some way. By making them think there is perks to being a part of a certain religion and consequences for not, You effectively have mind control over them.

One thing I know with almost certainty. There are tons of different religions on this planet, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Etc. What makes anyone of these specific religions truly believe that they are better or their god is better than the others? If there is a God and we were all created by him, We sure as hell don't know a damn thing about him. And we certainly don't know enough about him so that there is 150 different conflicting stories of him.  And lastly,  we CERTAINLY don't know specifically that he believed in some derivation of any religion or if he even gave us religion.

Much more likely that aliens of some kind exist. I agree with many others here that religion itself was invented by people to make themselves feel better about their lives and to actually believe that there is something other than just life here. Most religious aspects are some of the most intangible things and can neither be proven or denied. But overall aliens are a lot more probable than an after life. The universe is how big and you think that we are the only little rock that has life on it?

You are right about that. In Islam we believe that Islam, Jewism and Christianity were originally the same religions with their respective books also very similar, but Jewism and Christianity have been changed a little to suit some people's needs.

And regarding the thousands of variations, as a Muslim I believe in the Islamic one. I am assuming that Christianity and Jewism describe Hell and Heaven in a similar fashion. We believe that these three religions are the only true ones, the religions of the Book, but we do not acknowledge the others.

Sorry for going into the intricacies and I do not want to cause anyone offence, I am merely stating my views.

The reason for the original spiritual beliefs in the first man was basically there to explain the inexplicable, imo. In this age of science this is no longer really needed.

I read a really good book by Ben Bova lately called Saturn, where a team of scientists, while exploring the rings of Saturn, found micro organisms present. They were considering harvesting this ice, but decided that it should remain unmolested because of the life forms.

Kind of reminds me of following the prime directive...

If anyone has seen the BBC series Blue Planet, we see that there are very severe conditions in even our ecosystem which support life against all probability. This goes to show just how much life wants to happen. I think that this could be added as further evidence that life exists when any untold amount of conditions are met.

How did Mafoos statement show ignorance or false-logic? it was his opinion. It didn't show ignorance as he didn't ignore any fact and his perspective of logic in this case was sound.

very interesting...

I'm currently studying the first known religions in Egypt and Mesopotamia as my breadth subject for my Bachelor of Science so please don't dare call me ignorant. That fact that humans have invented religion throughout time suggests that they've always wanted to believe that something happens to their loved ones after they die, it's human instinct really. It was also used to explain things that couldn't be explained and to take power over people by priests or kings. 

The ancient Egyptians thought that when you died, your heart would be weighed against a feather and if it was heavier then your heart was heavy because you lead a bad life, therefore you could not go on to the afterlife. They prepared meals for their dead kings when they were dead thinking that they needed this for the afterlife, they buried them with boats because they saw the sky as a celestial ocean that the kings would travel. 

They had many gods but the Egyptians also had the first monotheistic religion in which they worshipped Aten the solar disk (the sun). Tutankaten then changed the religion back to what it was previously with the god Amun reinstated as the supreme diety and he changed his name to Tutankamun. The Greeks had a similar religeous system of many gods but a monotheistic approach has been adopted in modern times..

I think with all of the evidence we have today to point to things happening differently than what is said in the religious texts and the ability to reflect on the past and see that humans have had the nature to explain things in terms of supernatural forces, it's not the most solid of ground to stand on anymore..Many things in the bible have been scientifically explained and I think it was the famous Moses parting the water that was proven to actually be an area of low tide that would have occured in the right general area at the time that it was said to have happened.. So a lot of over exaggeration and books written many many years ago, compiled by someone who didn't know these people, who knows what he might have added in or edited slightly..

I'm not against people believing and a god could indeed exist with an after life etc but I don't think people should base their entire lives around it..

I'm out of this thread. This is heading towards a flamewar fast, with a few claiming that all relgions are made up

I think he gave a pretty well thought out response?  No one is technically right or wrong in this discussion as there is no proof of either side.