How can rational people believe in any religion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also Buddhism isn't deistic. Rational people are practitioners.

Reincarnation is rational?

There is as much empirical evidence for reincarnation as there is against. Flip a coin.

“Empirical evidence”? Such as?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree, OP.

I don't have any issue with personal faith.

But religion? Organized religions? Absolute corruption, completely embedded with man's selfishness and agenda.

That's a very narrow, ignorant view of what goes on. Who do you think feeds people in need? It's not the government.

It certainly is. And the government is people. People feed people.

+1

We don’t need religion to support people.

DMARC receives 40,000-pound donation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

https://www.kcci.com/article/dmarc-receives-40000-pound-donation-from-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints/71030230

DES MOINES, Iowa —
“The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) received 40,000 pounds of food from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Wednesday morning.

The donation is part of the church's America 250 Celebration. The semi dropping off food in Iowa is one of 250 being delivered to food banks in all 50 states, according to DMARC. The food was donated by farmers and other members of the church's congregation nationwide.

"The need continues to rise in Greater Des Moines as we're seeing higher fuel prices, as we're seeing higher food costs, families' budgets are getting stretched thinner and thinner," said DMARC CEO Kathy Underhill.

DMARC said nearly 29,000 Iowans visited its locations last month to access food, marking the highest monthly total since 2025, with the exception of October and November, when the federal government shutdown affected food assistance programs.“

You are lying to yourself.

I am not a Mormon, but it’s straight up false that religious and institutions aren’t a significant support for society, and is unmatched.

The government doesn’t support and help people; taxpayers do. The government just makes programs to hand out taxpayer money while taking credit for it.

The Mormons have enough taxpayer sheltered money to feed everyone in America for the next decade, and they hoard it. They don’t even help their own in need. Tax them.

Mormons also have a religious obligation to hoard food. Their "donations" are just their routinely rotating their supply, which is also in their doctrine. Good Mormons are supposed to keep either a 1 or 2 year supply of food in reserve in anticipation of hardship like earthly catastrophes or economic collapse or another religious persecution.

Taxing churches should be a no-brainer. The "faithful" have enormous amounts of wealth, which they give away to their churches for the benefit of the church and pastors. Then the "faithful" apply for federal benefits to replace this wealth when they can't pay their mortgage or fix their vehicles with "god vouchers"

I have a ton of Jesus cousins who have squandered all their resources on guns and ammunition and giving to their churches so that they don't disgrace their pastors by making them "travel on the ground" when they should be high in the sky on wings with their God.

My one cousin can't pay the mortgage on his 1 story ranch home at 65.

I do. not. care.

See, if anti-religion bigots made sense, I'd have more respect for them. Which is it? Do the faithful have "enormous amounts of wealth," or are they all on the dole? And if, as you claim, "the faithful" (can you say massive over-generalization?) are all "squandering" their enormous wealth, is that because they're giving it away to churches, or because they're buying guns and ammunition? Or maybe flat-screen TVs and new wheels?

[Anonymous]

Oh ye of little faith.

Where does EVERYTHING come from then???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh ye of little faith.

Where does EVERYTHING come from then???

Where do gods come from?

[Anonymous]

Why is there perfect physics down to the stone and then subatomic particles? Why are their physical universes that follow patterns? Why are there tiny cells with amazing functions? Believing all this happened at random takes faith. Believing all this is knitted together by God takes faith. At least the later has the Bible as evidence and the places and events of the Bible are traced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is there perfect physics down to the stone and then subatomic particles? Why are their physical universes that follow patterns? Why are there tiny cells with amazing functions? Believing all this happened at random takes faith. Believing all this is knitted together by God takes faith. At least the later has the Bible as evidence and the places and events of the Bible are traced.

^atom, not stone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh ye of little faith.

Where does EVERYTHING come from then???

Where do gods come from?

God is the beginning and the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree, OP.

I don't have any issue with personal faith.

But religion? Organized religions? Absolute corruption, completely embedded with man's selfishness and agenda.

That's a very narrow, ignorant view of what goes on. Who do you think feeds people in need? It's not the government.

It certainly is. And the government is people. People feed people.

The government is funded by taxpayers. The government doesn’t have any money; it takes money in the form of taxes from taxpayers.

The government is elected officials who vote to give out taxpayer money.

Religion is funded by both taxpayers and their congregation. There was just something in the news about Trump pulling back money for catholic charities. Many religions are not charitable btw just like many governments are not charitable. You can pretend both government and religion are not people but it's not true. There is no God running either of these types of institutions and these are just organizations of people with different agendas doing stuff for people.

[Anonymous]

And because there is no God or special person at the head of government with more intrinsic value and ability than the congregation or citizen group, people can help other people out no matter the organization's cornerstone. The fact that some religion groups feed people is not an argument for the truth that there is a God anymore than the government feeding people directly is somehow a necessity of life and a truth that a government needs to act in a particular way. Food is a necessity of life. The issue of food comes up again and again because people need food to live. Religions and governments respond to this need, not some overarching power above humans. How it's obtained is limited to ways we can harvest and eat food on this earth, not to any particular institution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree, OP.

I don't have any issue with personal faith.

But religion? Organized religions? Absolute corruption, completely embedded with man's selfishness and agenda.

That's a very narrow, ignorant view of what goes on. Who do you think feeds people in need? It's not the government.

It certainly is. And the government is people. People feed people.

+1

We don’t need religion to support people.

DMARC receives 40,000-pound donation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

https://www.kcci.com/article/dmarc-receives-40000-pound-donation-from-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints/71030230

DES MOINES, Iowa —
“The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) received 40,000 pounds of food from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Wednesday morning.

The donation is part of the church's America 250 Celebration. The semi dropping off food in Iowa is one of 250 being delivered to food banks in all 50 states, according to DMARC. The food was donated by farmers and other members of the church's congregation nationwide.

"The need continues to rise in Greater Des Moines as we're seeing higher fuel prices, as we're seeing higher food costs, families' budgets are getting stretched thinner and thinner," said DMARC CEO Kathy Underhill.

DMARC said nearly 29,000 Iowans visited its locations last month to access food, marking the highest monthly total since 2025, with the exception of October and November, when the federal government shutdown affected food assistance programs.“

You are lying to yourself.

I am not a Mormon, but it’s straight up false that religious and institutions aren’t a significant support for society, and is unmatched.

The government doesn’t support and help people; taxpayers do. The government just makes programs to hand out taxpayer money while taking credit for it.

The Mormons have enough taxpayer sheltered money to feed everyone in America for the next decade, and they hoard it. They don’t even help their own in need. Tax them.

Mormons also have a religious obligation to hoard food. Their "donations" are just their routinely rotating their supply, which is also in their doctrine. Good Mormons are supposed to keep either a 1 or 2 year supply of food in reserve in anticipation of hardship like earthly catastrophes or economic collapse or another religious persecution.

Taxing churches should be a no-brainer. The "faithful" have enormous amounts of wealth, which they give away to their churches for the benefit of the church and pastors. Then the "faithful" apply for federal benefits to replace this wealth when they can't pay their mortgage or fix their vehicles with "god vouchers"

I have a ton of Jesus cousins who have squandered all their resources on guns and ammunition and giving to their churches so that they don't disgrace their pastors by making them "travel on the ground" when they should be high in the sky on wings with their God.

My one cousin can't pay the mortgage on his 1 story ranch home at 65.

I do. not. care.

See, if anti-religion bigots made sense, I'd have more respect for them. Which is it? Do the faithful have "enormous amounts of wealth," or are they all on the dole? And if, as you claim, "the faithful" (can you say massive over-generalization?) are all "squandering" their enormous wealth, is that because they're giving it away to churches, or because they're buying guns and ammunition? Or maybe flat-screen TVs and new wheels?

NP. I have relatives that ended up dying relatively poor with their kids paying for their nursing care because they could not stop giving to churches and scammy televangelists. This was after a lifetime of UMC professional wages and investments. So yes, both things can be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh ye of little faith.

Where does EVERYTHING come from then???

Where do gods come from?

God is the beginning and the end.

If you can just claim that without evidence, why can't nature be the answer as well? "Nature is the beginning and the end"?

And since we know nature exists and have vast evidence of it, and none for a god, that makes nature the much more likely answer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh ye of little faith.

Where does EVERYTHING come from then???

Where do gods come from?

God is the beginning and the end.

Same answer would also explain “where everything comes from”.

[Anonymous]

People with weak minds believe in that BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is there perfect physics down to the stone and then subatomic particles? Why are their physical universes that follow patterns? Why are there tiny cells with amazing functions? Believing all this happened at random takes faith. Believing all this is knitted together by God takes faith. At least the later has the Bible as evidence and the places and events of the Bible are traced.

Then who made this perfect “god”?

Adding a layer of mythology in there doesn’t really add anything. It’s just a coping mechanism for people who can’t deal with uncertainty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is there perfect physics down to the stone and then subatomic particles? Why are their physical universes that follow patterns? Why are there tiny cells with amazing functions? Believing all this happened at random takes faith. Believing all this is knitted together by God takes faith. At least the later has the Bible as evidence and the places and events of the Bible are traced.

It does not take any faith whatsoever.

All of the physics things are explained by the big bang. If evidence is found of a better explanation, we'll switch to that one.

All of those biological things are explained by evolution, with the exception of abiogenesis, and there is mountains of evidence explaining how that might have happened.

Asking how it "happened" implies there was a before it happened. There is no evidence of that, and no reason to think there was. It's quite likely time began with the big bang so there was nothing for it to come from.

None of this is simple, but it is all easy to believe once you understand.

You know what is hard to believe? A magic man in the sky who existed forever outside of time but then decided to create time and everything in it on a nearly infinite scale but place his personal fishtank on the third stone from a sun in the corner of one of billions of galaxies. And he stays hidden except for a short while to a bunch of illiterate shepherds 2 millennia before mass media. And he allowed thousands of similar stories of gods to exist but those are all false and just his is true.

That is the definition of preposterous.