to be surprised that a scientist with a doctorate is religious

[Margaritapracataz]

I assumed she was joking, but no she's a very intelligent woman (double first) but she has deeply religious beliefs.

Aibu to think this is a bit strange and to think less of her professionally?

Organised religion is about the human community and their relationship with god.
Humans are social creatures and tend to get together to do things in a community.
They do create rituals and develop common interpretations that help bring people together and guide each other in their relationship with God.
Being a human construct (religion) of course sometimes certain behaviours lose their original meaning and become sometimes absurd rituals to us.
It is possible to come together with other humans as a religious community without forgetting that it is a human construct not the absolute truth as given directly from God.

Btw, not eating pork is a health measure, taken to an extreme. Pigs are involved in the transmission of a few diseases.

A lot of people want the ritual- there is a lot of comfort in it in a busy world. People take what suits them, if you don't want swinging incense etc then you don't go to that sort of church. Whichever you choose you need to understand it is a human construction and interpretation.
It is equally valid to have a faith without it.

Back to the very first post, tagging on.

YABU

You don't really understand how research works, I suspect ...

Mehitabel- do you consider the Bible to be a human construct? Nothing divine or prophetic in it at all?

I agree with Lweji. I think there are a lot of reasons to get into religion that have nothing to do with the religion itself.

So whilst I wouldn't say YABU I also think believing in God as well as science doesn't show a lack of intelligence, just a very strong desire to believe.

For me the bible is a collection of people's experiences of God, both as a group and individually.
It should help us interpret god, but it's still written by humans about what they can apprehend, their actions and experiences.
As for prophetic, prophecies tend to be vague and when they are considered to be filled we don't know if there was a bias in interpretation.
I find Christ an interesting case, though. The message breaks away from a lot of what was conventional then. It's a difficult message to apply to our lives. Is this closer to what God is about? Or was he just a crazy person? Who knows. Can we test this? Do we have to make a judgement about it without proper evidence?

The Bible tells us that god promised to drown every living thing on the planet that can't survive in seawater (including countless million babies, puppies and kitten) aside for a few pairs or certain species. Something to do with his anger issues and lack of forgiveness. The Bible then says he did exactly that, with a global flood.

Surely you understand that the flood story is a common myth in many religions probably because of the region where those traditions developed and as an explanation to what people observed and experienced. Certainly as a means of trying to bring some sense to these natural events that felt so unfair.
Only very literal people take that story at face value.
What we have been saying is that these are interpretations by people. Not the direct word from god (or actions for that matter - there has been no worldwide flood to start with).

The flood happened in some ancient historical sense and was passed on and recorded as a folk memory/story in many cultures and religious texts.

However in the Bible it's a story about God being unconscionably vengeful, vindictive and illogically unfair (all puppies must die, orcas get let off? riiiiggght) God even regrets it afterwards!

None of it reflects the things Christians are supposed to believe about God - all -powerful, all-knowing (he would have known he'd regret it), merciful, forgiving, just etc etc.

Yes I know it's the Old Testament but that bugs me too. Oh Jesus sorted it all out and God's nicer in the New Testament.

They are just old stories, but why do the old stories show God as so unpleasant?

Maybe because the world is a dangerous unpleasant place, particularly then?

who stated that God had not done the list of things he said that he was going to do. I was not aware that he ever gave a list and have repeatedly asked for it

if you believe in the major religions, he certainly has made promises. look in the books. If you are a christian, he promised the second coming and armaggedon.

I am sure that if there is a God 'he' (for want of a better word) isn't confined by human interests, interpretations, rules, imagination etc.

given how much he cares about what we do when we are naked, i don't know how he has time for anything but our affairs.

As for prophetic, prophecies tend to be vague and when they are considered to be filled we don't know if there was a bias in interpretation.

of course they are vague. Whenever people nail down an interpretation and it doesn't come true, you have the wiggle room to say it was misinterpreted.

is any of that a surprise? once you accept it's not a magical book, all of that makes sense.

If you are a christian, he promised the second coming and armaggedon.
But not when. It will come eventually, best case scenario in about 4 000 million years or so. :)

But not when. It will come eventually, best case scenario in about 4 000 million years or so.

of course it didn't say when (as such, the prediction is not falsifiable). if it did, you could then test predictions of the bible and they would almost certainly be false. that's the beauty of being vague. you can't test any of the predictions.

of course, the downside of being vague is that, in my view, it isn't worth much.

But I (we) aren't even the ones who think god has spoken directly on the bible and want any predictions to be true.

It is clearly not a map of the future, nor has anyone of faith or religion claimed that it was so on this thread.
We asked which predictions had failed to come true. That was the only one put forward so far and it's clearly one without a time stamp and one that will certainly come about. So why complain now that it doesn't have a time stamp and that it's vague? You chose that "prediction".

For those who like to be logical about that which defies logic:

www.thepoke.co.uk/2014/01/03/choose-your-religion-flowchart/

Disclaimer: theological accuracy certainly not guaranteed.

Of course the Bible is human construction- making sense of the World as they saw it at the time. E.g. All societies had creation stories.
His promises were written down by men. I am surprised that people are so ready to take the word of anyone who lived thousands of years ago as certain.

A simple explanation of the Bible here
We move on - we don't have the same reasoning they did 1000s of years ago!

Mehitabel- so what is God to you? If the bible and organised religion are both irrelevant where do you get your concept of God?

And how on earth can you defend society giving privilege to people of faith if Christianity at least is a personal construct.

Of course the Bible is human construction- making sense of the World as they saw it at the time

And the work of Enlightenment scholars working on the Bible in an analytical way - known in Germany as the "Higher Criticism" - was foundational for the formation of the modern disciplines of history and philosophy, and "Natural Philosophy" which is what we now call science.

God is what gives reason to why we are here and what happens after we are dead.( only to me- we are all different) Having seen dead bodies the person is not there- the body is a shell.
I didn't say that organised religion is irrelevant- I merely said that many people had a belief in God without being involved in organised religion.
I wasn't defending society giving privilege to people of faith. Since it is human construction a lot of self interest comes into it!

I always find it puzzling that when people of faith are asked about their faith,many of them immediately say "Oh no, we don't believe any of that! Good Lord- why on earth would you think that Christians take anything in the bible seriously/ No, that's not what the Koran says at all. It's all a human construct/cultural issue. It's nothing to do with God/Allah/other deity when people do bad things in his/insert pronoun of choice name- that all to do with free will."

I always find it puzzling when people prefer to use caricatures instead or arguments.