At 12/23/12 07:08 PM, TheMajormel wrote: This may sound stupid but for me, pre xmas is when i through religion into it and on christmas is all about the family and presents.

Doesn't sound stupid to me. That's actually what my family does, too. They go to church on the Sunday before, and they go to a night service on Christmas eve. Despite being agnostic, I usually tag along with them because my father likes having the family together, and also I like the singing the Christmas hymns. But once Christmas day comes around, it's all about presents.

Luna seems like cool people.

At 12/23/12 12:54 PM, Decky wrote: As somebody that sees all religions as highly paranoid attempts of answering the questions "where do we come from?"

It's a coping mechanism for the fear of death.

But, I love my religious friends and family.

At 12/24/12 12:20 AM, Boomstick wrote: They were developing the characters, showing how Clay is really selfish asshole. I wish they would have gotten their 4th season, it would have tied even more loose ends.

That's completely unnecessary. The viewer already knows anything that they could have been trying to portray in that godawful episode.

I do agree that they should have gotten another season,

At 12/23/12 02:36 PM, InsertFunnyUserName wrote: All of this shows how it is actually a legitimate argument to take a figurative and selective view on the bible. Taking into consideration all of these factors, it's natural to come to the conclusion that it's possible to disregard the parts of the bible that were most likely to have been warped by culture.

The issue with that logic is that boils down to the admittance that there is a lack of evidence to support the bible. It's merely just recycled mythology and fables. So why would one worship and base their lives off it?

Picking and choosing what parts you think are true isn't intellectually honest, it's simply cherry picking and weak philosophy.

Funny how the pagans and a host of other cultures had a celebration for the winter solstice and the summer solstice for hundreds of years, then the catholic church comes along and decides that Jesus was born on one and raised from the dead on the other, what a coincidence! Not that people really care that much about religion with Christmas so much anyway, it's more of a celebration of capitalism rather than Christianity.

Fun fact for you all, back in Roman times, they had their own version of carol singing where they would go around on the streets singing songs, but completely stark bollock naked, and drunk! Which sounds infinitely better than what we do these days.

At 12/24/12 05:54 AM, PrincessLuna wrote: The issue with that logic is that boils down to the admittance that there is a lack of evidence to support the bible. It's merely just recycled mythology and fables. So why would one worship and base their lives off it?

Picking and choosing what parts you think are true isn't intellectually honest, it's simply cherry picking and weak philosophy.

That is a good point, and that's why I'm personally not religious. There may or may not be a godlike entity out there but I can't subscribe to a religion based on a text for which there's no evidence that it was actually written by God.

For a lot of people, though, it comes down to faith that there are parts of these texts that are true. Most religions are based around the idea of faith. Honestly, I can't get myself to empathize with this way of thinking. I can't ascribe myself to something that doesn't have evidence behind it. But I accept that a number of people don't believe that it's always right to be of the mindset that I am. A number of people believe that there are some aspects of the universe for which scientific thinking shouldn't and can't apply. I can disagree and debate with them about this but I can't call them objectively wrong. They have an entirely different mindset than I do. I think it would be arrogant of me to say that they're objectively wrong, foolish, or ignorant because I would be applying conclusions based on the paradigm of my outlook to the entirely different paradigm of theirs.