The Danger Of Believing

Beliefs are very similar to prejudice. They play a normal part in our daily brain activity and up to a certain extent, they're quite harmless. However, the minute we start taking a prejudice too literally or seriously, conceptions about racial/sexual/social matters quickly turn into racism, homophobia and intolerance. A strong belief about something as innocent as UFOs can lead someone into getting exploited (think: Scientology) and cut him off from his family, his friends and his reality. The belief that if you keep inserting coins, a casino machine will eventually make you rich, can turn your life into a social/financial nightmare. The belief that Jewish people are less-than-nothing was gradually taught to Germans (who ironically have quite a decent IQ average) and eventually led a majority of them into accepting and supporting the slaughter of millions.

Healthy questioning can often turn into a fear of not finding the answer. This fear of uncertainty often seems to turn people into fighting over whose answer is the best, based on whose answer is the oldest. Questioning stops. Evolution is put on hold. They'll even go as far as teaching these beliefs to their children as "facts". We have to be careful with beliefs.

Beliefs that are designed to be exploited are very dangerous and the only way to avoid getting trapped is to approach every belief critically. Whatever feeling of security people get from clinging to unchanging opinions is... easily disputable. At the most, its an artificial feeling of comfort that can easily turn into deception.

Those who elevate faith into a virtue need to be made aware of the numerous advantages of actively questioning VS believing passively : Improved planning VS believing that success is about positive thinking, luck or destiny. Less gullibility meaning less chance of being deceived by fraudulent marketing schemes and more chance of succeeding in a competitive environment. Religious people need to realize that religion removes a large sense of responsibility from their actions and the belief that God will save them, no matter how miserable they let their "mortal" existence become, might actually be making them less likely to enjoy their actual life on Earth.

About this final judgment they so badly want you to be saved from, they'll tell you "But what if its true?" and inevitably, a critical thinker out there will shout back, as if feeling an uncontrollable urge to provide the wake up call :

"What if it's not..?"

I believe nothing!

tl;dr version - people believe in things faithfully w/o questioning. this leads to exploitation. (e.g. holocaust, scientology.) question beliefs.

Just go 2 skewl and believe in common sense damnit

My god, it got near the TV again. Go aweh Psyence D:

Didn't you start this exact same thread about two weeks ago? Wtf are you, the Jehovah's Witness of atheists? GTF off my door.

^this
We've already heard your annoying bigotry before.

[Take Care.] It will start playing the "I'm an athiest and I'm being opressed!" card if we throw too many bricks at her.

"Literate strangers do not talk politics or religion."

Actually...editing this to be less "gtfo" and more blunt. Unless this is for a college essay or something? Nobody will give a ***what you believe. Just saying, that was a waste of text.

Can play that card as much as s/he wants, I'm an atheist too because basically, I agree with what s/he's saying. The difference is that I don't preach about it.

As I said last time, you can't change what someone believes in, you can't, and shouldn't have any control over someone elses thoughts, and in my opinion, it's wrong to try. I don't care if you believe in Jesus, Harry Potter, Unicorns or the flying spaghetti monster religion, it's your belief, not mine.

I understand that the majority of wars in human history have been because of religion, but the only way to truly change what someone believes in is to kill them, which is kinda the point.

So unless you're about to lead a holy crusade to kill everyone that believes in santa, stfu. And if you are about to lead a holy crusade, start with yourself, because no matter what your religion, you're out-numbered by all the others.

Well, I didn't compose this text for ffxiah specifically, but copy/pasting it was kind of tempting since some people actually read and think on this forum... I've seen it happen, often, so why not share when it's easy. So well, if it makes several feel better to comment it negatively, I guess you're having a good time so I can't blame ya! If you brought arguments it would be a bit more relevant, but if you actually enjoy replying to posts containing subjects that don't even interest you (hint: there are hundreds of threads in these forums)... I know I like putting my thoughts into text... What about you, what do you like? :O

I like it when your keyboard is unplugged.

[Generic troll comment]

Seriously Dude you need to *** stop with these threads

[Normal response to troll comment]

It's wireless (you know, the Logitech one for PS3). It's kind of hard to unplug.

Then please proceed to beat yourself across the head with it repetitively. It'd be a lot more entertaining than your drivel.

[Witty response making the previous poster feel ridiculous]

You gotta admit though, this whole thing about prejudice ... it's so ironically true. Because I genuinely feel like convincing my peers to think differently and question religion, I'm branded an atheist preacher, even by other pessimistic atheists... and not once did I deny the possibility of a superior being's existence... in any of my threads, I always said you should doubt, and religion doesn't want you to, therefore, it's wrong. And I did say it in a lot of different ways but I tried to bring good points to discuss.

I kind of expected this reaction since I posted several of my texts about the same stuff, just didn't think it'd be that bad lol (maybe people are in a bad mood on Monday nights) Well, I want to play FF XIII now, still not done with exploring Pulse :x Take care people, I'll try and pretend not to be sad at your general response. But I'll stay rational too, I won't be depressed, promised.