The Flat Earth Society

[leprechaun]

In general, though, I think my point stands. It's a kind of fixation. You'll know the philosophy that religion is simply the result of humans trying to invent meaning. When one person thinks they've found meaning, why are they then going to question it? Your family's beliefs changed within a religion - still Christianity. The difficulty comes from the greater differences between separate religions.

 

[13 Spider Bloody Chain]

Hmm...a friend of mine once mentioned that neuroscientists are starting to think that some peoples' brains are "more inclined" towards religion or religious experiences, and thus, well, they become more religious.

 

[calandale]

That is something that always eluded me ... how can people see inconsistencies in other religions, but not the one they believe in?

I don't now that this is absolute. Not having something that really qualifies as a religion, I'm not a great example (athough I definitely see inconsistencies in my fundemental views). Many of the early Christian Philosophers saw just such problems, and corrected (or attempted to explain) them. I suspect the same is true of most religions - and this interpretations is how we get our schisms. On a modern note, I've met priests who would point out the flaws of Catholicism and discuss them, as well as (at least moderately) devout Jews who would do the same - often in an attempt to find a way to understand the issue, but still....

 

[Merentha]

Hmm...a friend of mine once mentioned that neuroscientists are starting to think that some peoples' brains are "more inclined" towards religion or religious experiences, and thus, well, they become more religious.

The concept of a soul appears innate to humans, I posted an article on it recently.  It was from a good source, too, I'll try and dig it up.

 

[calandale]

And, in the news again:

http://www.wtfsrsly.com/flatearth.php

 

[Kissaki]

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forums/index.php?sid=969976391de427eecc7bbb3bade30422

That's it, the internet's closed, everyone go home.

I want somebody to explain this **** to me.

Guys, it's not funny anymore, would the last person to leave the internet please turn out the lights.

The Muslim Radicals still believe in a flat earth because the koran says so, they say the landing on the moon is a video made in hollywood, they are a culture that was left behind in the middle ages.

That explains it all. And nothing will change their minds.

As opposed to Christianity?

Have you read the book of Job in the Bible?
It says the earth is not flat and is "hung" on nothing, explain how stone age men knew that!

Do you realize that the Old Testament is in the Muslim Koran too? Christianity and Islam are both equally absurd.

Then why dont conservative muslims believe in a spherecal earth, I've read the Koran and it says that the earth is flat, and the old testament is not in there, the sun goes down in a muddy puddle, and the earth is flat (according to the Koran).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckMwbVmMkIw
Look out for 3:40. If fringe groups of Muslims choose to interpret the Koran differently from the rest, I really don't see how this is different from fringe groups of Christians doing the same thing.

 

[Cirdan]

That's the thing - religion, it seems, hasn't become the search for a truth from any source, it's become the search for truth in the religion you choose or are born into.

I disagree though.  My family and I are perfect examples of how that isn't true.

I was born into a Baptist family.  We were Baptists for the majority of my younger life.  Then my parents changed religion to Seventh Day Adventists as many of those beliefs coincided with my the ones my parents believed to be true.  I stayed Baptist for maybe a year (?) before I started realizing that the SDA beliefs were actually closer to my own.

After a year or so, I dropped the SDA religion because I found too many things that couldn't be explained (with logic anyways).  My parents refuse to even think about changing religions as they rationalize everything that they can't explain with logic.  This was one of the biggest reasons (including the loss of my brother) that I have lost faith in religion ... it seems that there is some type of barrier that prevents them from seeing the same problem that they had several years ago.

So I honostly think that there must be something else ... some wierd human quirk in regards to religion, that prevents a person from seeing clearly.  My parents changed religions because they saw that the religion they followed was too different from their own beliefs.  Now, they refuse to change religions even though they are constantly running into differences between their beliefs and the religion that they follow.  They reason the differences out and refuse to even consider that they might not be following the right religion (according to their own beliefs).

Not sure if that explained what I mean any better, but I think that it does.  It seems like a subconcious barrier almost ...

Narcissus

Not trying to be offensive or anything, but IMO that in no way contradicts Lep. SDA and Baptists are both sub-sects of Protestantism, itself a Christian sect...so really, while the changes are no doubt important to you, when seen from an oustider's perspective it only represents relatively minor differences in the way you interpret the corpus of Christian religious texts. If you had converted to Buddhism or something, you would have coounted as changing religions, but SDA/Baptist to me sounds like changing sides in an internal argument, within the same religion.