I'm an atheist, not a militant one, but I do believe we all get reincarnated in a way.
If you think about it, the quantum particles that make up our atoms were all originally a part of the singularity at the source of the big bang. These went on to form elements, nebulae, stars, planets and finally a closed loop ecosystem on earth.
On a short-term basis, we're all going to be "reincarnated" as nutrients that will go on to become a part of other living beings and will maybe shuffle their way up the food chain until being ingested by a human and joining the human race again. Maybe even a woman about to conceive, in which case that new person would experience a whole new life with a part of us inside them.
On a long-term basis, long after the human race has gone extinct our sun will eventually burn out and go supernova, scattering our atoms among the stars back where we came from. Maybe we'll be sucked into a black hole, maybe we'll fall as cosmic dust on some other life-bearing planet or maybe we'll make up a newborn star.
I find it very calming to meditate on the flitting transience of life as we know it and think about how best to enjoy it and make it enjoyable for others. Buddhism most closely approaches this, I've found.
marmot
JoinedPosts by marmot
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Is there any Religion WITHOUT a belief in an afterlife / reward?
by ThomasCovenant init's been interesting to read the various discussions that go on here particularly between those who 'believe' in a 'god' and those who don't.
in my opinion when all is said and done it seems to come down simply to.
versus .
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marmot
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Noah's ark - Can't believe I once actually thought it was true
by sam_sane_now inwhen i was a jw i didn't even question that the noah's ark story might not be true.
i didn't realise that it wasn't achievable for a handful of people to gather literally millions of animals - two of each kind - and fit them into a boat where they would all survive for many days.
i didn't think about the fact that if the highest mountain was covered with water then how could plant life like trees and flowers come to exist again, especially so soon after, with the raven grabbing an olive leaf was it?
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marmot
I once tried to rationalize the idea of a local flood, too, but there's a big problem with that.
If all the people were in that small geographical area, what explains all the human artifacts scattered around the world that pre-date the flood? Did Jehovah whisk everybody to the Black Sea so he could drown them? After all, the account says that God wanted to destroy ALL of mankind, but softened his heart because Noah was a man of righteousness. -
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CREATIONIST TEACHERS
by badboy in1 in 8 high school teachers in usa teach creationism and id as valid science.. 16% of teachers beliece humans were created less than 10,000 years ago.
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marmot
Define what it is you consider "up for debate", please.
Is it the process of species slowly changing over time and diverging due to to genetic change? That's evolution, and there is NO debate over this.
Or is it the idea of life arising out of nothing? That's abiogenesis, and it could be argued that there is debate over this, but it's something that cannot be observed, tested, or proven.
How life originally arose on earth is something nobody knows, right now, but what the scientific community DOES know is that once life began so did evolution. Fully-formed plants, animals and insects were not magically zapped into being, they came about through changes that lasted millions upon millions of years. The exact mechanism as to how this works is still a subject of research, but the underlying fact that life evolved is supported by DNA, the fossil record and comparative biology. -
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Why I became an atheist.
by IP_SEC incos its cooler than anything else.... well at least while im alive any way .
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marmot
My soul is rather stubbly as of late, do these "christians" you speak of offer any door-to-door soul shaving services?
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CREATIONIST TEACHERS
by badboy in1 in 8 high school teachers in usa teach creationism and id as valid science.. 16% of teachers beliece humans were created less than 10,000 years ago.
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marmot
Jaguar, the reason that evolutionists are against intelligent design is that ID proponents disingenuously cloud the issue. The REAL issue that is up for debate is abiogenesis, not whether god magically *POOF*ed creatures into existence with fully formed specialized organs. Even supporters of ID quoted in the Watchtower agree that there is no arguing common descent (ie: evolution). Of course, the Watchtower and other creationist publications selectively snip those bits out.
So to lay it out real clear:
- common descent, popularly known as the theory of evolution, is as scientifically sound a theory as the theory of gravity. No real scientist doubts this.
- the exact mechanism of evolution is still a subject of research, but we know without a doubt that it happens.
- abiogenesis, or the origin of life, is hotly debated.
The problem for ID proponents, especially those who consider themselves scientists, is that they can't have their cake and eat it too. Either way, if a lightning bolt in a pool of muck or the hand of God first created life, evolution has been at work ever since. Some are satisfied with this, seeing evolution as a mechanism put into place by god, but it throws a massive wrench into a literal interpretation of the Bible because it means that Adam was not created 6000 years ago as the first man, there was no original sin, no fall from grace, no global flood, and no point in Jesus' sacrifice.
I don't believe in a literal reading of the bible and I DEFINITELY don't believe in the biblical God, but I still appreciate the values it contains. Jesus' sermons, the writings of Paul on love, the poetry of King Solomon and the lamentations of Job - all of this comprises a monumental work of literature. -
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Noah's ark - Can't believe I once actually thought it was true
by sam_sane_now inwhen i was a jw i didn't even question that the noah's ark story might not be true.
i didn't realise that it wasn't achievable for a handful of people to gather literally millions of animals - two of each kind - and fit them into a boat where they would all survive for many days.
i didn't think about the fact that if the highest mountain was covered with water then how could plant life like trees and flowers come to exist again, especially so soon after, with the raven grabbing an olive leaf was it?
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marmot
Woodmorappe plays fast and loose with facts. A lot of his so-called scientific explanations fall apart under closer examination.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/woodmorappe-review.html -
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Hello everyone! New here. Born into it....ugh.
by Lady Zombie inwhere to start?.
i thought about typing out a nutshelled life history but changed my mind.
suffice it to say, i was born into "the truth," attempted suicide at 14, "lost my faith" at this time, beat into submission into carrying on as usual, endured a horrible marriage and equally horrible divorce, and am more or less still in it (appearances only!
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marmot
The fact that your dad allowed you to go to college is interesting.
My grandfather absolutely forbade my uncle from going to college and pushed the issue so far that my uncle disassociated and was shunned to the fullest extent possible. My grandparents have only met his children once, at the funeral for my great-grandmother, and they refused to go to his wedding.
All this because of higher education. -
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Hello everyone! New here. Born into it....ugh.
by Lady Zombie inwhere to start?.
i thought about typing out a nutshelled life history but changed my mind.
suffice it to say, i was born into "the truth," attempted suicide at 14, "lost my faith" at this time, beat into submission into carrying on as usual, endured a horrible marriage and equally horrible divorce, and am more or less still in it (appearances only!
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marmot
Hi there and welcome. Do you still go to the same congregation as your parents?
If so, just switch congregations and do a fade. Take some night courses that "accidentally" interfere with meetings and bam, you're out!
You might get the odd shepherding call but if you purposefully make yourself appear a bit anti-social and depressed at the new congregation and don't make much of an impression on the new elders you'll drop off the radar real fast.
Kudos on the open mind, BTW. Evolution rocks!
(Wow, re-reading my post and putting myself into a JW mindset, I come across as Satan incarnate. All that's left is for me to coerce you into using drugs and having illicit sex on top of a ouija board while listening to rap.) -
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**OUCH!!!**
by Princess Daisy Boo inso i was cooking supper a few hours ago and i broke up a dried birds eye chili with my fingers into my pasta sauce.
now supper is finished and i am relaxing and i get an itchy eye - i rub my eye... &*%$ ... it is 45 minutes later and my eye is still sore!.
what stupid self inflicted injuries have you suffered and what can you recomend for a burning eye?.
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marmot
Kinda off-topic, but the google ad displaying at the bottom of the page in my browser for this topic is for Herpes medication.
What the hell? -
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One Reason Why I Worship the God of the Bible
by snowbird inwhile this may be construed as a rebuttal to nvr's thread re: why i post about atheism, that is not my intent.. it is my intent, however, to show how i developed a belief in and love for the god of the bible.. my paternal grandfather, who died before i was born, was a baptist preacher, so you could say i cut my teeth on the bible.
i loved having it read to me, and once i learned how, reading it for myself.
i'm convinced that spirituality runs deep in my blood.. i've always had such a strong sense of right and wrong that injustices make me literally sick.
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marmot
If the bible was supposed to be God's ultimate message to humanity, why was it only available to a proportionally tiny slice of that population until relatively recently?
Also, what was god up to in the period before he started taking an interest in middle eastern sheep herders?
Did he take special note of any righteous Native Americans? Did he alternately bless or curse various populations in Asia when they went to war? What about Africa, did God not give a **** about black people until the Ethiopian eunuch?
This racial favoritism and micromanagement of human affairs attributed to the biblical god is just silly. Believing in the god of the bible is no different from believing the religious myths of any other cultural group. They're all far-fetched and carry the potential to be harmful if taken literally.
I *do* agree, however, that the bible does have some very useful lessons on life but so do many other pieces of historic literature or ancient oral traditions as well as modern writings. We should open our minds to the shards of wisdom scattered all across humanity's cultural landscape and leave the negative aspects by the wayside.