Divine revelation through scripture is stupid.

Believing in the existence of a supreme being isnt.

"What we get from religion in modern days is stuff like "sex is evil unless you're married," "gays can't be equals without making straight couples less special," and "abortion must be handled with an iron fist, rather than the gentle urging of a friend."

Don't confuse the "Moral Majority/Christian Right" with the actual majority of Christians.

edit: The "Christian Right" is home to people like Ann Coulter and her unholy minions. The woman is a complete loon.

Is it actually atheists or agnostics which the game attracts? I am far, far more into the "don't care" than the "don't believe" category; as are most gamers I know.

I'm pretty militantly atheistic personally, but that's mainly because I have faith in mankind and believe that we can find way more to praise in the collective achievements of our race than some ephemeral cosmic non-entity. I'm the first to admit, however, that most of my beliefs are pretty twisted: I'm a firm proponent of the cathartic value of hatred, for example.

Most people on the internet are atheists. I imagine it is because they can't really find groups of like minded people in the real world, and they tend to be more anti-social, thus wanting to break away from the ideals of the social people around them in all shape and form.

You'll find that most are also materialists, but not materialistic, because most of society are spiritualists and materialistic. all very ironic.

Why?

I'm sorry but this just isn't true. This may be what the media feeds you, but it isn't what "religion in modern days" is. Religion in modern days is stuff like "continual revelation", and "become aware of your inner emotion to help augment your rational thought" and thing such as "an antidote to narcissism and the strengthening of community"

What you described is what modern demagogues and politicians like to pretend what religion is. But those aren't things that are coming out of modern centers of religious study.

Not all religions. Buddhism doesn't preach that, for example. (I'm not a Buddhist)

Blergh, I don't know what prompted me to post that. Usually, I'm not offended by such stuff, but I guess a series of actions my RL friends made have made me a little more twitchy these few days.

Even though I'm a Christian, religion does not not mean Christianity. Also, religion does play a rather large role in culture and tradition.

Some people use Christianity as their cover to push their own agenda. Personally, I disagree with those points above. Does that make me any less Christian? It's not issues like this which defines religion, but rather on issues of faith and such.

You are doing a majority of Christian sects a disservice by believing that this is what they argue.

What Xavius basically wrote, would be the equivilent of some religious person writing that "what we get from modern atheism is that "people are monkies", "kill all believers", and "free will is an illusion"

As a person knowledgeable in Buddhist Teaching, let me cut off the "as a religion" example. Buddhism is not a religion in that we worship a divinity. Praputaejaew/Sakiyamony/The Boddhisatva etc etc etc is not a God/Divinity/Spiritual Entity that we commune with. He is a teacher, and we learn from what he did.

Please don't bring them/us into this argument. =(

It's highly more likely for Xavius to follow my point the way I proposed it than trying to dissuade him of his beliefs about Christianity. I can't really fight for Christians. But I can fight to have his generalization of "all religions" down to "just a couple of religions" so it can be narrowed down further to "this bigoted bunch of people".

I know some buddhists that follow Buddha as a God. Sorry, though.

religion doesn't mean worship of a divinity anymore. It's more of just a meta-culture.

It's like trying to explain to people that Judaism only cares about what you do, not what you believe, and thus the idea of religion = faith becomes a difficult conversation as well. So instead in the modern era we view religion as a type of meta-cultural classification helps define who you are along with your political culture.

Technically, philosophy isn't religion either, but it has become very blurred.

There are just as many Buddhism sects as there are Christian denominations.

>_>

My opinion on religion is that it is a tool. The ancient peoples used this tool as a reason for people to follow a set of rules, so they would behave in a certain manner, for fear of ultimate repercussion, or desire of ultimate reward. Not everybody is altruistic, and most people need motivation, whether it be negative or positive. As we, as the entirety of the human race, move forward in thinking, in technology, this dependence on a god and a heaven/hell dwindles, as the value of human life, or rational thinking, in the collective concience raises. (see that as altruistic hedonism. It's no fun for me to see other people suffer)

That being said, I know a lot of atheists that are very anti-religion, and anti-spirituality in general. I like to think of myself as open minded when it comes to religion and spirituality, but then again, I tend to view all deities as equally preposterous as the flying spaghetti monster. I would never go out of my way to insult somebody to their face, or behind their back, about being religious, but it's just not for me, or most of the people I associate with.

The Dammayut Order, being the most technically 'religious' sect of Buddhism, does not refer to him as God. Tell me what branch refers to Buddha as a divinity, please? Having not read of such it would be very eye opening.

EDIT: Caerulo, no, they're aren't, not by a long shot. A 'sect' in Buddhism has a definitive definition, in that it must have its own set of Sanga and laypeople to support the monkhood, etc. I really doubt that statement could be true. Not being mean, but it would be unfair to Buddhism to make such a statement if it is indeed false.

In the west there are many groups of people who mix and match buddhism within the theological frame work that they know.

I for example know of people who call themselves Jubus (for Jewish buddhists) (but I doubt they see buddah himself as a god, but I just know of their existence not their actual beliefs)) When asked what religion they belong to, they also self identify as "none"

That is odd... coming from a Buddhist nation I find that idea really... difficult to grasp onto. Judaism was always a beautiful religion, I thought though.