No matter how open-minded...

[Ohhi]

The thought of having empathy, sympathy, and generally caring for your fellow man I just don't understand what the point is, if my feelings and actions are not going to benefit me then why have those feelings or do those actions that is something I just can't comprehend.

 

[texanarob]

Those of you who say they can't understand religious people who have no evidence for their faith, neither do I. That's because there are a small selection of religious people who fit this bill, the others have sense. There is an entire field of study known as apologetics that deals with evidence for the Christian faith. I can't explain all of it now, because comments are limited in scope and open to misunderstandings. Look it up.

And for those of you who claim religion is stupid, or for the weak who need a crutch of comfort, I ask that you do some research, rather than deciding what you want to be true.

A simple point of apologetics as an example. Creation is a belief system that predicts many unrelated dead fossils. Evolution is a faith system that predicts infinite connecting fossils using an as of yet undefined mechanism to improve upon DNA through harmful mutations.

I dunno if my email address is available to those who view this comment, but answers are readily available online. If you won't ask the questions, don't claim there isn't an answer.

 

[Fanta Grape]

snip

Regarding the categorical imperative, I think I expressed it poorly.

I meant to say that the standard, non-religious ideology of people come from an "instinct" to preserve their race and what they've been told by society. That in it of itself has no basis for decision making. You bring up the Jehovah's witness situation but who's to say that death is wrong? It's natural, surely, so why is it so stigmatised? On the other hand, those who create some sort of artificial ruleset are, while logically sound in its sense of reason, don't actually have a proper basis. When you consider the whole universe and the laws of physics it follows, you would could only come to the conclusion that without a higher being, there's simply no general intent for our creation. A random sequence of events that happened to spawn life, which are still restricted by the same physics they were made by. Ethics are purely artificial for this reason but they're necessary in a society where complex thought processes are made. My point was that by following a religion, there's rules that can be relied upon for peace of mind or decision making. Whether someone believes in the religion or not is irrelevant because you must at least acknowledge the possibility of it, and that possibility grants more logical reasoning. Utilitarianism is an interesting concept, but there's even less reason to follow it than religion. These kind of things dwindle down to:

Killing is bad because society will collapse
Society must be strong or else people will suffer
Suffering is bad because ...
Suffering is bad because I don't like it.

As for the Tim Minchin thing, I suppose there isn't really a reason to live. But in contrast, there isn't a reason to die, either (sorry if I misinterpreted it, I just woke up). What happens in the universe is a sequence of events where (possibly) the only truly random things in the universe are radioactive decay and other quantum physics phenomenons. People will make decisions based on their past and knowledge, which have already been determined by the randomness of the universe and the initial big bang. I'm not completely sure as to whether the human thought process allows people to have free will, and without a deep knowledge of neurological science, I probably won't ever know, but acts which people do have no good, bad, right or wrong.

And in case you're wondering, I believe that humanity should try and balance a functional society which optimises happiness and wellbeing of not only humans but the environment and animals. That's just the way I was brought up, I suppose.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

Idiots. I just don't understand why they're so dumb.

 

[Janktrio]

There are plenty of things I don't understand. But nearly everything I don't understand about other people can be conquered by this:

http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

Read it, and suddenly humanity makes sense.

HOLY CRAP! There was a Cracked article about my world view? And a scientific theory to boot? I always tried to explain this to my friends but I could never get my words right, now I can show them properly how I think of the world.

OT: Really, there never was something I couldn't comprehend. I might not understand something in its entirety but I always knew there was some reasoning behind it, otherwise it wouldn't exist. Anything people do or believe in has a proper reason and motive behind it, it might seem foreign and stupid to us but some of the things we do also seem foreign and stupid to other people. That incredibly religious person you meet in a forum has friends and family too, they think that their beliefs are right and others are wrong and they just want to show others what they believe to be the truth of the world, which is just the same for the extreme athiest who thinks religious people are all idiots and that he just wants them to open their eyes to science and embrace the real world. Both of them just want to help others by showing other people their version of what they believe to be true. We all just have to learn to live and let live.

 

[theultimateend]

Hopefully dleting this will stop the quotes.

SO MANY QUOTES......

(I didnt reply to any of them! I think Ive grown )

99% of the time I don't reply to what people say to me on the Escapist. I'm not here to fight so its not worth my time.

98% of the time I don't even read what they said.

There is nothing I can't wrap my head around because I'm willing to think about anything abstractly. I still won't think its correct or even logical but I don't mind trying out any thought experiment.

Those of you who say they can't understand religious people who have no evidence for their faith, neither do I. That's because there are a small selection of religious people who fit this bill, the others have sense.

There are as many different kinds of Christianity or any other faith as there are people practicing that faith. The greatest failure in discussing the topic is to make the error that it is at any time a single entity.

We label it as such to feel as part of a group but no two people ever express their beliefs in the same way. Groups are inherently silly and become less relevant as you add more people. 2 people tend to be close, 3 is a little looser, 4 even moreso, 8 is a stretch, 16 is unlikely, 32 is highly unlikely, and anything beyond is probably less likely to actually be on the same page than say...the sun is a marshmallow and we just don't know it.

Metal, I just can't understand what's so amazing about it and I can't get into it.

It's more resilient than wood. Wooden cars tend to fare much worse in auto accidents.

On the other, Atheists: They run on rationalism, proof, and scientific method (and no, that scripture doesn't count, you smelly caveman skyworshiper); and patently refuse to acknowledge that there is no way to disprove the Divine and that no matter how infinitesimally small the probability of the Divine's existence, it is not disprovable, plug their ears and go lalala whenever the religious are doing things other than molesting children and fighting the infidels.

This is a special point. Because Athiesm has two sides (It has many more than 2 but let me simplify please): People who follow the scientific method and people who are anti religion.

The first group is just folks who value knowledge and science. They are all related by the fairly straight forward concept of the scientific method. A big part of that is that there is no reason to believe in something that has no evidence, because it basically invalidates the system. If all reality is is making stuff up for lulz and comfort then why even bother? It's not anti religious because it doesn't have anything to do with religion.

Most of the frustration these folks have is when people try to pass off religion as if its the same thing. Religion simply tells us "How to go to Heaven, and not how the heavens go?" - Galileo Galilei

It's utterly harmless when it is treated as such and I doubt anyone would mind if that was all it ever was. It's no more beneficial than optimism from a psychological standpoint but it isn't necessarily harmful unless it interferes with learning.

Now the second group are militant anti-religious people. As I said before there are TONS of different people, but I'm lazy and probably won't come back so I'm just being binary. These people are (online) genuinely annoying and (offline) usually pretty interesting. I really like listening to folks like Dawkins, or Hitchens (very sad that he has cancer), or Silverman. I enjoy hearing their rationale for what moves them.

The hardest part about Athiesm, besides the fact that the name is retarded (since it suggests to some that it is a system of beliefs), is that it requires work. There is no additional research needed to defend a faith in debate. Bible (or related book), we are here, can't disprove it, and it was all because of god. But to discuss the merits of science you need to actually read, be versed in physics, chemistry, biology, history, and even be versed in the faith you are discussing/debating.

It's a very very skewed and unfair debate. I applaud anyone willing to actually enter in a "why I'm not a believer" discussion because they have the mountain to climb.

It is much harder to explain the fundamental operations occurring in your microwave than to just say "god makes your food warm".

So yeah. The reason "they can't disprove it" is a naive and annoying point to bring up is that that isn't the point of science. There are an infinitely many things you can disprove, it is a waste of time and utterly moronic. However seeing what you can prove, what you can repeat, and what you can improve are noble efforts.

I like to tell folks that if there is a god I find it highly unlikely that god built this entire universe merely so that people could chill on Earth for 100 or less years as a stepping stone to an afterlife. This would make god highly irrational and I'd have a great difficulty finding them acceptable of my respect or prayers. It would seem much more reasonable that this universe was created for us to uncover its secrets, to stretch beyond our planet and to colonize the galaxy and beyond.

The universe was not made to give a man a fish, it was made to teach a man to fish. (apologies for male centric line)

Perhaps we are not meant to die and move on to live with god but to become gods ourselves. To truly raise ourselves into the image of what so many praise as perfection.

ANYWHO that's the thought experimenter in me leaking out, I'm willing to propose that there could be a cognitive base to the universe (as unlikely as that is) but the odds of it having been involved in writing any book for humans specifically is far less likely than its existence at all. But none of that helps us understand a bacteria any better.

(If we ever replace evolution with creationism exclusively we literally kill any chance of children understanding biology when they grow up, because it doesn't answer anything, its just taking credit for a process.)

 

[Piorn]

I don't understand when people outright refuse to try something they have never heard of. It's both insulting and narrow-minded.
Whenever someone mentions anything I haven't heard of, I listen to them, do some research and then decide.

Yet a simple "I don't feel like it" should be enough. I'm not gonna waste my time researching something I never really wanted to do in the first place. When it comes down to trying new foods you never heard off before it's a better off not trying it then trying it and getting sick. Also you gotta be considerate that some people just don't like being forced to do something they haven't done before.

I can certainly understand and respect that, yet I always die a little inside when I try to show somebody something I like, be it music, tv shows, games, or whatever, and even before I start, I get a: "It's shit." Obviously, those people aren't exactly my closest friends, but it still disappoints me.

 

[ffs-dontcare]

I cannot wrap my head around smoking.

I seriously just can't.

When I was a bit younger I was willing to try it out just so I could honestly say, "yes I know exactly what smoking is like and that's why I would not recommend it".

But not now. Not anymore. If I start smoking I will have failed myself big time.

I cannot even begin to describe just how much I despise/hate/loath it.

 

[theultimateend]

I cannot wrap my head around smoking.

I seriously just can't.

Lots of marketing .

It took a HUGE amount of money to keep smoking as popular as it is. If they had never been able to market tobacco in the US it would by now be a very uncommon sight.

As far as I know anytime a drug is legal but not marketed heavily its fairly uninteresting to people.

Tobacco and Alcohol spent phenomenal amounts of money over the last 200 years in the US to be household names, plus Alcohol had the good fortune of being made illegal for a short while which spiked demand to levels they couldn't have dreamed of in their wildest wet dreams.

 

[Eventidal]

Sex.

No joke. I can't understand any of it. What makes a man/woman attracted to the opposite/same sex, what turns people on, why some people are turned on by completely different things... None of it makes any sense to me. Yes, our brains are wired on a very basic level in such a way that this is a normal response to stimuli. Yes, I have my own share of fetishes and I'm bisexual. But almost all of it is nasty. Butts, feet, reproductive organs, breasts... some of the dirtiest or creepiest parts of the body, and yet the most commonly lusted after. It's really hard to wrap my head around it.

 

[BOOM headshot65]

People who say that the South fought to protect slavery, when everyone who studies the Civil War knows it was over States rights

oh... oh COME ON. Don't give me that. The whole reason behind it was because the south wanted to preserve their way of life, which was focused around the plantation elite slaveholders. In fact, south seceded in the first place was because Abraham Lincoln's election was considered the last straw, and why? Because he endorsed the non-extension of slavery. I'll be fair, it was about states' rights... but you forgot to finish your sentence. It was about states' rights to allow slaves in the state. The entire conflict revolved around slavery, don't try and ignore it. In fact, none of it would have happened if slavery had stopped after 20 years like it was supposed to, but no, there had to be congressional compromises, debates (which at points turned violent), and a bunch of other bullsh*t just to pacify the southern slaveholders and... and...



You know what... forget it.

Alright then, Maybe I jumped the gun. Here, let me rephrase that...

People who still want southern culture and the south in general to still suffer from the civil war

Bottom line...the wars been over for 200 years. The North won, the South lost, and while nothing will change the fact that most of the generals I like were on the Southern side (Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet, just to name a few), Its over. Slaverys bad, the good guys won. No let them go and live in peace and forget what they've done.

 

[flamingjimmy]

I don't get art. I can appreciate realistic drawings and paintings, and think some look cool, but it doesn't really evoke much emotion.

Also poetry. Again I can appreciate a clever rhyme, or a funny poem, but I can't ever imagine myself reading a book of poetry for pleasure or anything.

It's not that I'm not an artsy kind of guy, I love music, and play and write my own, and I showed an aptitude for drawing when I was younger, and at time's I can be quite eloquent, and I love wordplay. I just don't get it, I wish I could appreciate art and poetry, I feel like I'm missing out.

 

[Death God]

People willingly taking drugs and alcohol. They know that it kills them, how bad it is, why they should never do, but they choose to do it anyways. It makes no sense why killing themselves sounds in the least bit logical.

 

[mongolloid]

I don't understand people who aren't hedonists. I mean, what else is there to life than pleasure?

 

[mongolloid]

People willingly taking drugs and alcohol. They know that it kills them, how bad it is, why they should never do, but they choose to do it anyways. It makes no sense why killing themselves sounds in the least bit logical.

Well, in moderation alcohol can be a great enhancer to certain social situations while simultaneously having little to no ill effects. Drugs, though, I have no comment on.

 

[Raven_Operative]

Should have know that the first few pages would be full of "ZOMG RELIGION IS TEH ST00PID".

For me: Why atheists cant seem to understand that not everyone who believes in a religion blatantly ignores science. Its all a matter of interpretation and if you think about it in a different way, lots of scientific theories and facts actually fit right in with some religions.

 

[Raven_Operative]

Religion isn't the cause of millions of deaths, it's us. We created religion. blame the people using it for selfish reasons instead of the religion itself. Religion is a blank slate, and like many other things, it can be morphed in ways that can benefit, or hurt others. We should be using it for the betterment of society, but there are a lot of people who use and abuse religion to insane levels. We are the most advanced species on the planet, and yet we are scared religion (to clarify, the extreme kind) will corrupt us all.

You just made my day. Thankyou.

 

[Mariakko]

I don't understand how people can say they are always happy and nothing makes them angry. You can't be happy all the time.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Homeopathy. I don't get it. How can less of something make it more concentrated? It makes no sense! How can the bark of a tree with trace amounts of something be more potent than the raw, distilled form? Water has a memory? When *maybe* a single molecule of the original material remains in the dilution, how can this said to be an effective amount? Don't waste my time. You want to believe in anything else, go for it. This? Don't tell me about it. Ever. I'll find new languages to call you dumb.

Its not always about such incredibly small doses, but yeah, that particular branch at the very least is idiotic, but hey, placebos are frequently nearly as powerful as the real thing, so at least its got that.

No. Placebos are for people who think they are sick, and have convinced themselves of such, and are therefore as effective as getting them to think otherwise.

Actual medicine is for people who are actually sick. No amount of being told you're doing better will help you, if you're not actually doing better.

 

[salinv]

Two things really,

1) Churches. No, sorry, not churches, but Mega-Churches. They take my slightly apathetic (or possibly atheistic?) view of some religions and throws it out the window in the favor of the image of sheep. I mean no offence toward the religious, the non-religious, the apathetic (for my consorting), or the anti-religious; after reading so many comments on this thread, I feel the need for political correctness.

On that note, add political correctness. PC means nothing specific to me anymore other than my computer, that atrocity of appearing to have tact while having none of it, and that other meaning I got from watching The League.

2) The term "all but." Every time I see it, I read something to the use of "everything but," implying that they are saying something is everything with the one sole exception of what they mention, but it always seems to be used as a phrase that adds emphasis to it being that one thing.

To quote something said a lot earlier: "diseases we have all but eradicated in the Western World" reads something to the effect of "diseases we haven't yet eradicated in the Western World" to me rather than "diseases that were eradicated in the Western World."

Please correct me if I am wrong. Please...