Jolly 2011-10-04 23:47:36

1. Some people can't eat right after they've woken up until they've been awake for an hour.

2. If people always felt the need to go against the norm there would be no normal. You should add the word "some" between "do" and "people".

3. Because when people think of pop they think of boy bands and shitty disney music rather than people like Michael Jackson. (Or any good pop music)

4. When people say they're Atheist they usually mean they're not religious. Who cares.

5. Question five.

2012 2011-10-05 00:43:04

1. Lack of time, cuts into your sleep, those really are the only reasons to skip breakfast on a consistent basis.

2. This question is contradictory. If people felt the need to go against the norm, then these people would constitute what makes up the norm.. And the people who intentionally do so just for the sake of it probably feel the need to be rebellious/show how bored and/or superior they are to common culture/draw attention to themselves/mask their insecurities. all traits that are almost exclusive to most teenagers and young adults.

3. The people who are more vocal about their opinions on music are the ones with more "sophisticated" tastes. These are the people you hear. There's significantly more casual listeners than serious listeners. Also, it's a pretty wide accusation to say the everyone hates pop music as a whole, as pop music can be defined as Justin Bieber to Kanye West to John Mayer to the Beatles to Michael Jackson. Those are all very different styles of music.

4. Are you seriously implying that ancient texts that over millenniums are mistranlated, corrupted, and left wide open for a reader's interpretation are more credible than a Wikipedia article? Are you implying that just because one is an atheist, they automatically believe in the theory of Darwinism? Are you equating the theory of Darwinism with biological evolution? Evolution may be taught in school as "scientific fact", the same way the Earth is not round, the force of gravity, and the law of conservation of matter is tought as fact. Scientific fact is based on human speculation, which is fallible, and altered as we know more about the universe. Things we may initially see as fact (such as a God as described in Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Hinduism, etc.) become less likely as we develop more tools and knowledge to discover the universe. The more appropriate question to ask is "how many self-professed teenage theists have actually studied religion and spirituality outside of their sacred/holy texts and how many of these theists would hold different beliefs if they had not been brought up by religious families, who implement scare tactics (i.e. if you don't pray to god or sacrifice you will go to hell) from an early age and discourage people for looking at viewpoints and studies that lay outside their holy huddles?

2012 2011-10-05 00:57:57

Let's also consider that evolution and similar theories are not addressed in public schools until you are around the ages of 13-16. (For me, this subject was taught in a beginning biology class when I was 15). Religion is usually instilled into people when they are born, and what you are told/brought with a child has a significantly stronger weight than what you are told as an adult. Besides, most schools offer religious classes whether they are actual seminary classes or religious studies. Not to mention, the pledge of allegiance you say every day mentions a "god".

Most families that are religious disallow their children to change or neglect their familial religion(s). But if you're from an atheist family, does it really matter if you decide to accept Jesus as your savior/reach a buddha-like state of enlightment/sell your soul to satan? Rarely. I'm not trying to knock religion at all, it has many, many benefits and encourages peace when used and interpreted correctly. But one group certainly places seriously restrictions in being able to think for yourself and truly learn about the world.

These people that you also "see" as atheists may not actually be atheist based on a system of beliefs, but instead are simply apathetic about religion as a whole and therefore may be by default classified as atheists.

5. Your questions are the independent variable, plot the answers on a graph and you're answer to this question is a power function with a positive slope.

Jolly 2011-10-05 01:04:06

I applaud the effort you put into answering these questions, 2012.

Xarnor 2011-10-05 02:28:26

2012, my news post was a humorous poke at how easy it is to get people to get fired up over religious discussion, not a well thought out inquiry about the secrets of the universe. However, seeing as how you've answered question five with a fine example, I feel the need to do so myself.

I've written pages of religious debate on the forums (now deleted) but I'm going to make this as short and to the point as possible, so I will only address the part that actually matters:

The Bible is accurate and you've been brought up in an atmosphere indirectly influenced by Satan to cause you to question truths that should have never been questioned. Whether you like it or not, your spirit will remain living after your body has died, and it will go to heaven or to hell. THAT is what everything is about; life on earth is short compared to fucking eternity, wouldn't you say? But oh wait, you probably don't believe in eternal life after death, which means that the spiritual battle for your soul has been all but won by Satan. But don't worry, there's still more hope for you than you think; Jesus didn't die for nothing, the point of his death was to make it easier for people to go to heaven, so no matter you do you're always only a prayer away from eternity in heaven.

Also, didn't you used to have BBS posts or something?