Are we one side of the coin where there has to be black, where the believers are white?

Is it our destiny to be marginalised because we dont, wont or cant conform to a regimen of supplication, subjugation and acceptance?

Is it genetic that they believe, and we are missing a "god/goddess" gene?

I wonder, as I live in a fervently muslim country, how is it that my lack of faith isnt questioned more often.

I have rarely been asked if I believe in god (they mean Allah) and when I say I do not, they assume its because I am a xtian.

When I clarify that it isn't, the look of horror on their faces is incredible.

Maybe its because I know the right phrases to get around.

When wishing someone good morning and asking them how they are, I add the equivalent of "Thanks be to god" and when I want them to do something or I am going to do something, I add the equivalent of "if god wills it", but I obviously dont believe in these things.
Although it does make life a lot easier that I do this.

Is that hypocritical or is that just making my existence more smooth?

Hope y'all have a great day ... the sun is just peeking above the Saudi mountains and is turning the sea from black to a silvery metallic colour ... an hour and it will be a deep blue ... just the way I like it

God and heaven are answers to most people, the answer to death, life, and thereafter. It is a confort to know they go somewhere surrounded by people of the same ideals...personally as an agnostic I can't go wrong, if I die and go to hell then I just mold my ideas that way...if I die and stay in the ground, well that's ok as well. Now if a person of a certain faith dies and stays in the ground...well now they have a lot of questions, don't they?

Doing as the Romans do when in Rome isn't hypocritical or a cop out-- it may be no more or no less than a matter of being polite and not crashing other peoples' boundaries.

I just wish more religious extremists could learn that politeness is the opposite of the friction they cause in society by insisting on monocultures.

Belushi, correct me if I'm wrong about this, but aren't many Muslims horrorfied at the thought of being uncourteous to strangers or visitors?

-Kerry O.

Hello all,

This is my first post and I think I might like it here. A very brief background on me--I'm a science student so I tend to look at topics like this from a science angle.

In questioning why most people seem to *have* to believe in a god, I think there are two main relative points:

1) The number one determining factor of what religion someone will be is what religion their parents belong to. Sure, people convert but the parental religiosity is still the best way to predict someone's religion.

2) Many (if not most) cultures in our planet's history have had some sort of superstitious belief system. Even when isolated, it seems our species comes up with something. While believing / not believing certainly isn't a gene that gets flipped on or not, it does suggest that it is related to our genetics. Though probably just a by-product of our intelligence and creativity.

So I'd say most people *have* believe in a god because our minds are likely predisposed to the idea and social pressures combined with training from parents reinforce the idea.

Maybe they have to believe because they don't have enough sex in their life

Just a hint of dry humor I thought I add in here

I think it might help to realize that we humans are slow learners, for one thing. Add to that that we are also emotional creatures and scared of our own shadow more than not. That fear since the first man was considered some offense against something more powerful then we are, or so we assumed.

God is a crutch and frankly not one that I don't some times wish I had myself when things are as intense and ugly as they are right now in the world. Our civilization when you think about it hasn't evolved socially as other things have evolved, and I believe that one day a belief in god will be a strange thing.

I think one day we will learn that all we ever had was each other, and we payed little attention to the things that really mattered which is each other. We used a belief in god to justify our prejudices and bias's and the of killing each other and causing suffering in many other ways. We used it to gain power and to steal land and riches all things that in the end mattered little.

If I am wrong and there is a higher power, I will never believe it's the God of the Christians, who acts as immature and selfishly as his supporters.

With Christianity it seems like most people choose to take childhood's immaturity and couple it with the ferocity of an adult protecting something.

I don't think anybody needs gods to believe in to behave morally but a lot of people need to grow up first.


What's more frustrating is seeing the people who can show that they know how to be critical and reason and so forth but who refuse to turn those things on any aspect of their faith. Well, I suppose that behavior is probably the key component required for faith of the sort we see today to be so wide spread.

we never HAVE to believe one way or another. everything is black or white but most appear grey. if you don't see the black or white of an issue and consider it grey, you haven't given it enough thought.

I pray that you are right.

THAT, my dear good sir, is a very narrow minded view. Almost nothing is either black or white. Absolutism is the kind of thinking that gets us into wars, gets people to commit atrocities, and generally discourages independant thought. It's the kind of thinking most religious zealots engage in.

the notion of black or white is every bit as absurd as the glass being seen as either half full or half empty. the reality is that it is both. and guess what, a watched pot WILL boil if the contents are heated enough.