Hello. This is my first post. Someone with whom I have a correspondence suggested that I visit this forum, as it is somewhat amusing, as far as religious discussions go. So, with an admittedly brief perusal of some of the posts here, I find that some of the personae represented here fulfill the expectation. From the ridiculous to the sublime, the members here make for an interesting read. One of the tenants of Philosophy is that there is very little, in a metaphysical sense, which can be actually proven by the Scientific Method. Having this tenant as the foundation of my life, I find it rather amusing that the 'fundys', as they are described here, seem to be so sure of themselves. And the naturalists among you seem to find glee in pointing out the error of their ways. In all actuality, neither side will ever meet anywhere close to the middle. Religion, in all its forms and across all cultures, is a belief system that attempts to explain the nature of a creator of all things, and humanity's place within. In it's many iterations, religion has been around since the time when primates began to understand a sense of self. When the "I" concept began to arise in the mind, the next logical step was to wonder where we go when we die. It is a scary concept, and so a supreme being was invented by humans to take us back from where we came, rather than to the darkness when we simply 'cease to exist' on this world. For those of you who attack the religious for their faith by saying that there is no scientific evidence for the existence of God, bear in mind that there is an equal paucity of evidence that proves otherwise. However, in the absence of proof of a positive test to a proposition, it can be argued that without such, the notion fails the test and is therefore, until proven otherwise, false. My point is, however, that the forum members who are so certain of the lack of existence of a higher power than their own might possibly take a step back, and moderate their stance somewhat on oblivion as the only possible next step to existence in this cosmic plane.
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