When illogical supertitions and rational knowledge cohabit

One of the most basic functions of the human mind is the ability to compartmentalize. It allows people to hold completely contradictory beliefs and never feel any sense of conflict. Of course, the newly minted paleontologist is probably a total hypocrite. He had to know what he was doing, since he went directly to a teaching job as a fundamentalist college.

I think that it is funny that realistically intelligence, and intellect. Really play no part in the theory of organized religion, or at least to me they don't. I have seen and heard many an intelligent person stand on their soap box and shout about creationism, and try to disprove the theory of evolution. However to try to compartmentalize these two very different things seems next to impossible, I mean how can you say that these dinosaurs were here 65 million years ago if the earth her self is only 10,000 years old? Being a person who appreciates science I would have to give much thought before proceeding. I mean really do the math it doesn't add up, I myself am not an overly religious person, I believe in something but i am not sure what that something is. The words of the bible are antiquated and anecdotle at best,therefore I can not reconcile myself to beleive the idea, that we came from one man and one woman. How anyone else can believe such things is truly beyond me.

Thomas, you are too funny! You definetly love this conversations so people keep givig you negatives and your star rating goes down!... but I have mine reduced too! I am wondering if it is because I am your friend or because I happen to agree with you in many points! I had the oportunity to actually study Theology for 2 years, and for me it was a reafirmation of my faith in God, but it was also a confirmation that the Bible is not history but a collection of stories with better reputation than the Grimms brothers... I do believe in God, but not in any organized religion. But I believe that we evolved as species from another one.... there are too many contradictions and I rather think of other things!

Faith in God or in one's own religion can not be attributed to illogical Supertitions.

The religions do not preach supertitions. To us, the Indians our epics Ramayan & Mahabharat are not mere stories. We believe them to be part of our history. The facts that have taken place.

The knowledge of many recent scientific achivements like Radio, TV, Airoplanes, Submarines,Atom Bombs, posssible existance of life in different planets, latest achivements in Medical science etc etc figure in these age old epics.

The Atharvan Veda is said to have the references of many recent scientific achivements.

Perhaps these are not cock & bull stories.May be the result of their experiments in their time. Hence we do not consider the findings of these epics as supertitions.
Almost all religions teach us the Universal Brotherhood and service to all ceatures in the world leave apart only human beings.

Unfortunately some vested interests exploit the religion for their selfish purposes and create supertitions. And I do not see any rationality in illogical supertitions.Hence illogical supertitions & rational knowledge can not cohabit. One who takes every thing blindly can not be a rational. He will surely discard the things for which he is not convinced.

I don't see why you would expect your star rating to go down with this discussion. It is quite pertinent.
I have often wondered about that as well. How some people can conciliate things that often contradict themselves in such way. That is not a matter of compartmenting, or pair up similar ideas.. I mean you either believe in one thing or the other there is not bridge between then.
I just have trouble understanding how it works - but it obviously works for this person.

well i spent 12 years doing science at uni and my 2p on teh matter...

religion was invented to explain the world b4 science could and the more science explains the less religion is needed. Personally i believe that the more you 'believe' the more difficult it is to be a true scientist as you're more likely to let 'being human' interpret the evidence

but as for the case you mention... A PhD is granted for the work you've done and weather if follows logically from the evidence. it does not test whether you believe it.

I have no problem with Jesus but I have found several falacies in Bible which dont hold on close introspection. However, to say that due to falacies in Bible and its inconguency with modern science, we can effectively deny existence of God is very untrue. You have assumed for example (without saying it) that when the church for Galieleo executed for saying Earth revolves round the Sun and not the other way round, that all spiritual paths agreed with the church. For example, in ancient vedic scriptures it is clearly mentioned that Earth moves round the Sun long before Galileo said so. I am all for scientific introspection and evaluation of scriptures. But it does seem to be that all people have with them to deny God's existence is to find falacies in Bible which has been (WITHOUT DOUBT) altered many many times to suit the times. Once again, let mme clarify that I have nothing against Jesus. However, to make wild claims like earth is 10000 old only when for example NASA has already found a man made bridge 17000 plus old around the park strait in Indian Srilankan Border, is so wild and foolish that it will drive people to athiesm. God bless.

Thomas,We all so want the fairy tales to be true that when we're young, we believe them all. "God is on our side" and "His eye is on the sparrow."

I'm 61 and my sister is three years my junior. She has a Masters Degree and has been a teacher all her working life. Although I personally know that she is no angel, she pretends to be one. Further, as my daughter and I are "rule breakers" on all levels, my sister insists that, when anything bad happens to me, it is because I don't follow the rules.

When something bad happens to her, it's because her god loves her so much that he is teaching her to be a better person.

It is all illogical, but human beings are very good at keeping the truth from themselves.

You are welcome to join me in the cellar of star ratings.

This is the reason I do not believe in religion, God created man, man created religion. Religion is not a creation of God. My theory of how life was created is this: God has always been, God does not actually have a name, humans gave God name because they needed to identify what had created everything, God is not male or female, but a life force or pure energy, God used the "Big Bang" to create the Universe, God saw some planets and said "let's put life on some of these planets" in it's own settle language, God did it through evolution. To quote Professor Xavier of the X-Men,"Mutation, it is the key to our evolution, it is what enabled us to evolve from a single celled organism into the dominant species of the planet. This process is slow and normally taking thousands and thousands of years, but every few milennia evolution leaps forward." In simplification, we all came from a cell created in the planet, that was created by God. We did not come out of nowhere, we came into being through a process. Everything goes through a process. We all start out as cells or genes from our parents, we spend nine month changing and growing in the womb and then we are born, but the truth is, we were born the minute we were conceived because we had that life force that told us to grow.

People will believe what they want to believe. It's hard to change belief systems that are drilled into people usually at a young age, such as religion is. In your friend's case, "denial ain't just a river in Eygpt.";)

The best advice I ever heard came, ironically enough, from a TV show that was on in the mid-60s, when I was around 6 years old. I can't remember the name of the show, but Jimmy Stewart played a teacher or a college professor. He told his students, "I don't want you to answer my questions as much as I want you to question my answers."

From the moment I heard it, that line stuck with me. I realized that people should question everything their parents, teachers, priests/ministers and the whole of society tells them. Put what you're told and taught up against real life. Does it hold water? Or are there little holes in there? Or maybe big, gaping holes, like those that fill the Bible.;)

I have the feeling your friend might have attempted in his life to question somethings, but not everything he was told.;)

(BTW, I can't believe that you, of all people on mylot, are only rated a 5. Sheese! More proof that mylot's rating algorithm is flawed.):P

Algorithm= what Al Gore uses when he dances.;) Sorry, I couldn't resist.:P