to be saddened when people tick the 'no faith' box.

[Funsponge]

on forms when there is a Religion or Faith box and people put none.

No faith.

Realy?

No faith in anything?

It makes me feel sad for them. How empty and meaningless and small they must feel. Poor things.

Numbers have got a beginning though. 1. That is the first number.

So that makes no sense.

Isn't it handy that when anyone poses a sensible question about the existence of a deity and the illogical nature of same, religious folk can always use the answer "It's God, innit, God is special and outside all rules".
Total get out of jail free card.

It's a shame Twinkle is bowing out because I was just going to ask her about her views on the loa loa worm. Apparently evolution can't explain Mozart, but can a belief in a benevolent God explain the loa loa worm?

Here's David Attenborough's take on the loa loa worm:

"My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy'."

And honestly, I think that's fine MissRepresentation.

I sort of wish more religious people would just go "I know it seems bonkers if you don't believe, but I do and that's it."

If you have faith, there is nothing to argue. So I don't really understand why religious people bother.

I love these kind of threads. I am genuinely interested in what makes people believe in whatever religion it is they believe in. I haven't yet been convinced by any of the arguements put forwards by those with 'faith' here. Some posters though, have just the most bizarre theories and beliefs.

yellow .... well, no not really. 1 is the beginning of positive integers, not all numbers.

Hack - or if Attenborough isn't your style, here is Eric Idle's contribution to the subject.

Numbers don't have a beginning. That may be where children are taught to begin counting from but there are numbers before one. They are minus one, minus two, minus three and so forth.

I KNOW, it wasn't a serious post, come on.

I've only read the op, but seriously, fuck off!

I wish you'd just come out and say what you think PooPoo

A well thought out and succinct answer from PooPoo there, as usual .

Hackmum i love that!

Well i do say what i think!

I never really thought about faith until I lost my child and then I only knew that I once had it because afterwards for a long time I didn't. I got it back though, if only in the sense that I gained faith in the concept that time does heal.

If faith can be defined like that - as a sense of trust and certainty in whatever - then yes, I have it. But faith in one or another religion - no.

I have faith that idiotic posts like this one from smug posters will be shot down in flames, clearly you have too much time on your hands, perhaps you should become a missionary (like the one that was eaten in Fiji, only the chewed soles of his shoes remained).

"Yes, atheists can have good moral compass, but I wish they were honest and come clean, the majority of their moral compass comes from being born to a culture influenced by centuries of christian thought. If it wasn't for this, their compass would be telling them to go to the arena were Simon Cowell organized a fantastic spectacle of bloody gladiator fights and people eaten by lions and to make a great day out of it."

eh?!

What about those of us who have never had any religion/faith at all and so had nothing to reject or be Atheist about. I am perfectly moral thank you.

Do as you would be done by, or agape, the foundation of Christian thought, is much older than Jesus.

The requoting of that reminds me that during the Christian era, people used to have 'days out' watching catholics or witches being burnt, or going to see public hangings. So much for 'christian thought'. Sadly I think there are still theocracies where such public spectacles still exist.

Good old Eric Idle.

Also, Grimma, good point about the witches. Getting witches to confess to having sex with Satan before burning them at the stake was a particular favourite. Difficult to take the moral upper hand when that's the kind of thing your church has been up to.

Grimma, when I lived in Saudi, it was very normal for men to go and watch public beheadings on a Friday.

Nice, eh?

God is all powerful but only with a combination of our will.

Like the Green Lantern? Does he have a magic ring? Can he be defeated by yellow?

I might have to go read the bible again, sounds more interesting than I remember...

Oh and then they crucify the body afterwards.

All in the name of religion, you understand.