cool_guy543

School is needed, to some extent, but to a much shorter extent. People do not need to spend the first 22 years of their lives being INDOCTRINATED to a system that does nothing but force children to play "hide and seek" to find information, and force them to do meaningless task after task, of which they will retain little of. Anybody who watches "Jaywalking" sees that most people are as dumb when they get out of school as when they get in (literally), so this indocrtination is incredibly unnecessary, in my opinion. I'm pretty sure, at least, that the system should be completely revamped so that MORE kids actually get an education (not just the well-to-do), and that school teaches tasks students actually need. Also, the school seems to cater more to "intelligent" students than average-to-below average; these students often feel "inferior" to their other classmates, and many times cannot handle the pressure; this needs to change, as well.

Oh, look at me. I'm an individual part of a group. A lot of people think I'm strange, and I think I'm pretty great. But, at the end of the day, I'm just a down-to-earth kinda guy. Oh, shut up.

@bibamat: A lot of us who consider ourselves "agnostic" are agnostic to the origin of the universe, and our thoughts fluctuate between the beliefs of agnostic theists/deists/atheists. We tend to be open-minded about the origin of existence, and not to claim we even BELIEVE we know where we came from. We can't quite "complete the puzzle" to any set of belief, and therefore do not draw any hasty conclusions to the matter.

@Zithe said:

@nail1080 said:

The people in this thread who say they're 'agnostic' or 'agnostic atheists' are even more deluded than those that believe in some made up fictional character watching over them. I mean what or who are you actually 'agnostic' about? You're either a person of reason and know well that there is zero evidence for such nonesense or you believe in some made up crap. Make up your mind already and if you say you're agnostic, at least state what you are agnostic too...Santa Claus, some God, Jesus etc.

I can only speak for myself, but when I say that I'm an agnostic atheist, I'm claiming to be agnostic to the origin of the universe. I think most others would say the same. It's not like I'm saying there's a 50/50 shot at the Christian God existing.

I believe the same thing. I know the Bible is full of some ridiculous stories, but as an agnostic, since I don't know, I don't deny the possibility of it being true. Also, a lot of modern Christians I live around view the stories more as allegorical and less and literal truth, so that helps me understand where a lot of these people are coming from. The religious "crazy person" seems to be a dying breed, even among religious people, and these people are starting to think more logically about their beliefs, without necessarily having to deny their beliefs. I understand that the origin of the universe/life is unknown, so I don't try to jump to conclusions on what is/isn't true.

@doublezeroduck: And mocking the beliefs just hardens the other party. It's similar to someone hanging on the side of the ledge; if someone tries to pull them down, they're going to hang on tighter than ever. You aren't doing anyone any favors. People have a right to believe what they want to believe. I believe in tolerance for all religions, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, ect. If everybody just accepted that no outside force created the universe, even though it hasn't been proven, then we would be suspending logic just as much as someone who says he's 100% sure the Christian/Jewish/Islamic god did. People are divirse in what they believe...and I'm okay with that.

@TruthTellah said:

@tranquilchaos said:

Gnostic Atheist

Wait, do you mean Agnostic Atheist? Because Gnostic is most definitely a theist religion where knowledge is God. It has all sorts of beliefs built around it. Though maybe you have a different interpretation of Gnosticism? :o

Gnosticism means he is 100% sure there is no god. Agnostic means that one is uncertain, hence the "a," meaning not, gnostic meaning certain, so naturally gnostic means the opposite of that.

@sopranosfan said:

@cool_guy543 said:

@sopranosfan said:

People at the church I used to attend were pretty much against all of my favorite things so as of right now I don't really know. Plus they were really racist and intolerant of other religions which I always found hypocritical considering that is almost exactly the opposite of what I got out of the Bible.

I'm actually surprised by that. We live in a modern era, and it seems that Christians (at least where I grew up) were more accepting of science and progress, and, dare I say, liberal ideology. Might I ask where (as in country, not too specific) you live, and what kind of church it was?

I live in the south in the USA and it is a Baptist church. I don't think most churches in the area are as bad as the one I attended and I am sure not everybody that went there held those views but it was entirely too many that did.

I'm from Canada, and the church I attended held extremely liberal views regarding acceptance, creation, and views about Biblical events (mostly in an allegorical snese). In a way it actually ENCOURAGED its members to be agnostic to the matter, a fact that I enjoyed about it. But, yeah, there are a lot of churches, unfortunately, who favor suspending logic and discriminating against people who don't "fit their mold."

@sopranosfan said:

People at the church I used to attend were pretty much against all of my favorite things so as of right now I don't really know. Plus they were really racist and intolerant of other religions which I always found hypocritical considering that is almost exactly the opposite of what I got out of the Bible.

I'm actually surprised by that. We live in a modern era, and it seems that Christians (at least where I grew up) were more accepting of science and progress, and, dare I say, liberal ideology. Might I ask where (as in country, not too specific) you live, and what kind of church it was?

@Eviternal said:

I'm agnostic.

It's nice to see tolerance and understanding in here.

I agree. People here seem (at least on here) civil about their beliefs. Unlike other sites. *cough* Gamespot *cough*

@theguy said:

@Subjugation said:

I'm Christian. Come at me bro.

IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZOR!

OT: Just something I have noticed and pointed out a few times after I learned it myself.

Agnosticism != On the fence.

Agnosticism is believing that there is no way to know for sure whether there is a higher power.

Atheism and theism are about what you believe. It's perfectly feasible to be agnostic and theistic. Just wanted to put that out there because I didn't know that untill I looked it up.

To be fair, an agnostic is an intellectually honest person. No one truly knows (although some believe they do) the origin of life, and an agnostic, like myself, is someone who doesn't deny the possibility of some kind of divine creator (be it deistic or theistic), but there isn't enough evidence to truly put my faith in.