Two things:
Do you believe in destiny?
Are you religious?
And.. why?
My own answers will come later.
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Tantalus wrote: Religion has sparked holy wars, racism, xenophobia, sexism and slavery and that is not the way I want to live my life with an establishment based on that.
On that note I would like to rephrase my opinion slightly. I do not judge people who have chosen to live their life in such a way or follow a religion. And would like to say that people who use the Bible (for example) as stories for an example to the way they should behave and aspire to I have the utmost respect for because they are trying a method to improve themselves. Furthermore the Bible does have a lot to offer in the ways of morals, just when they are interpreted as a magna carta is where negative effects can spawn from religion. But "treat my outlooks with respect and I shall return the favour" is my ultimate outlook.MænMan wrote:I don't believe in destiny, or predestination, because I like to feel as though I have power over my life.
I am religious (Christian), but I think you're wrong in asking for reasoning behind it ("And.. why?").
You can't 'explain' faith. Perhaps it gives me something to aim for, I don't know.
Science writer Gregg Easterbrook explains the required explosive power-balance of the Big Bang, saying that, "Researchers have calculated that, if the ratio of matter and energy to the volume of space ...had not been within about one-quadrillionth of one percent of ideal at the moment of the Big Bang, the incipient universe would have collapsed back on itself or suffered runaway relativity effects" (My emphasis.) (ref. G.Easterbrook, "Science Sees the Light", The New Republic, Oct.12, 1998, p.26).
THE PROBABILITY: The chances we can conservatively assign to this: It was about one chance out of 10 to the power of 20 that the force of the Big Bang could have randomly been properly balanced with the mass & gravity of the universe, in order for stars and planets to form, so that life could exist here in our cosmos.
Cozmo wrote:I don't believe in a certain religion, but I believe in something. I can't see how religions can be so specific, seeing as how we don't really have any solid evidence of a God.
It's not because I think "the world's beautiful etc" that's just how we percieve it, but the fact organic life and evolution are even possible is just strange.