How are adults talked into believing in fantasy creatures, miracles and magic?

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How are adults talked into believing in fantasy creatures, miracles and magic?

Please ignore that I do not believe in any invisible entity. I would like this thread to be about you.
I also have rejected the notion of anything being able to breach the limits of nature and physics.
No miracles allowed in my theology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2VjdpVonY

If you do not follow your religion because of culture and tradition, when did you begin to be a believer?

Can you describe how you were made to believe in fantasy or imaginary creatures?

Were you an adult at that time or a child?

If a child, could this real phenomena be what caused you to believe?

http://academia.edu/503195/_Princess_Alice_is_watching_you_Childrens_belief_in_an_invisible_person_inhibits_cheating

Regards
DL

As lazy as authors who can't be bothered to proof-read, would you say? Or more so?

oftenwrong wrote:As lazy as authors who can't be bothered to proof-read, would you say?  Or more so?

Being able to screw up in 3 languages, I don't know.

How many languages can you screw up?
Or are you generously volunteering to be a good proof writing guy and not a prick?

Regards
DL

I know somebody else who speaks three languages. All of them badly. But, you win some and you lose some. That's Life, in which there are sometimes more important things to get exercised about.

oftenwrong wrote:I know somebody else who speaks three languages.  All of them badly.  But, you win some and you lose some. That's Life, in which there are sometimes more important things to get exercised about.

Exactly. Fools talk of what there is no need to talk of.

Regards
DL

Meanwhile, back at The Ranch ....

Once again, Shirina, you miss the whole point.

Faith is based on that which one believes to be true when you take into consideration what information and experience you have.

Every time you get into a car you have faith that you will arrive at your destination but there is no certainty about it as many accidents prove.

I base my faith on the information available and there is no realistic alternative.

Just because some abuse and misuse their idea of religion does not in any way make mine less true.

In every walk of life you have those who one would be hard pressed to call human but that does not make those who lead a good life less human it just proves the diversity of human nature because man has not accepted the correct way in which to lead a normal life.

Rejecting a way of life given by an invisible super absentee genocidal son murdering God is the correct way for man to live.

You go ahead and embrace your satanic God though. That is the right way for you to live. It will insure that you end in hell.

Exactly where those with your morals belong.

Regards
DL

Even were my morals to be wrong it is far better to have morals than to be a cretin.

Even were my morals to be wrong it is far better to have morals than to be a cretin.

This is utter gibberish and concrete evidence you are the cretin.

polyglide wrote:Faith is based on that which one believes to be true when you take into consideration what information and experience you have.

Wrong.

"Faith" is belief with no evidence.

"Belief" is an assumption based on evidence and experience.

Those who say, "I believe in God" are using the wrong terminology, but that's unimportant.

polyglide wrote:I base my faith on the information available and there is no realistic alternative.

It is unfortunate that you believe in something simply because some Bronze Age desert nomads said you should.

polyglide wrote:Just because some abuse and misuse their idea of religion does not in any way make mine less true.

Religion is untrue based on its own merits (or lack thereof), not because people abuse it.

polyglide wrote:because man has not accepted the correct way in which to lead a normal life.

What, exactly, IS the "correct" way to lead a "normal" life? How is "normal" decided upon? What you seem to desire is a sort of cultural fascism - but that's not surprising given that you worship a celestial dictator who demands a master-slave relationship. Love without respect is meaningless, and that is precisely what your god offers.

Shirina, I do realy feel sorry for you and the attitude you have to life, even were I not ot believe in God I would still want humans to behave in a reasonable manner both to each other and themselves.

There has never ever been a fair way of human devised government nor will there ever be until we accept the way of life God offered.

Man is totally incapable of self government and that is because he was given the right way and decided not to take it.

If you want the right way the only way is through God and Jesus and this will eventually come about.

polyglide wrote:even were I not ot believe in God I would still want humans to behave in a reasonable manner both to each other and themselves.

That's precisely what I want, but I'm not a pie-in-the-sky fantacist. I understand that human nature will never allow us to achieve even a quasi-utopian society. What you don't seem to understand is that religious belief is one of the MAJOR impediments to that goal.

polyglide wrote:If you want the right way the only way is through God and Jesus and this will eventually come about.

It won't. I understand that your religion dictates that you must believe in a global takeover by Christianity, but, of course, the Muslims say the same thing about their religion and their god. It's no wonder, then, why religion impedes the existence of the very kind of society you would wish us to have. It only stands to reason that you believe the world will be a better place if everyone believed as you do - but it's that way of thinking that causes the cultural, religious, and theological divides that have fanned the flames of war, intolerance, tyranny, and xenophobia for thousands of years.

No, what is actually wrong, is the false religions that were predicted as inevitable due to man not adhering to God's word.

They are part and parcel of man's attempts to obtain his desires through any means possible.

polyglide wrote:No, what is actually wrong, is the false religions that were predicted as inevitable due to man not adhering to God's word.

Heh, you keep making my case for me. Thanks. It makes life easier when my opponent inadvertantly scores a point for my team.

I'd still like to know which of God's words we're supposed to follow. After all, God's word is found mostly in the Old Testament whereas Jesus's fortune cookie wisdom is found in the New Testament, and you said that the Old Testament is irrelevant.

So ... are we supposed to murder women who aren't virgins on their wedding night? Or is simply loving thy neighbor good enough? Should we also adhere to Jesus when he said to sell all of your possessions and follow him? What about when Jesus said not to bother planning for the future? Is that one of the "words" we're supposed to follow? I dunnae ... I guess we get to pick and choose, eh?

The only direct advice from God is the Ten Commandments. I thought you would realise the fact.

Faith can move mountains, or so it is said, so there must be something about the nature of reality that arises out of consciousness, and belief.

People believe all sorts of nonsense though, and make the same claim in many different religions.

The ten commandments were a pretty smart move by an exiled pharaoh who had been allowed to take some slaves with him to supply his comforts along the way, to wherever might have the best milk and honey for them to slaughter the inhabitants of.

In our world people are slaughtered for Oil.

oftenwrong wrote:In our world people are slaughtered for Oil.

Perhaps instead of milk and honey, it's oil and gasoline (petrol) in the modern world.

It is unfortunate that so much of the world's oil has to sit under an excessively volatile region of the world - a region, ironically enough, rife with religious divides that have kept the hatred alive for a thousand years or more. If God indeed exists, this was one of his sicker jokes.

Man has made all the different religions, not God.

Where there just the one true religion there would be no problems at all.

polyglide wrote:Faith is based on that which one believes to be true when you take into consideration what information and experience you have.

Nope. Absolutely not. If you are making an assessment based on information this is deductive reasoning. Faith is a leap into the unknown. If you require facts and evidence then it is not faith.

Faith is the leap into the sky you take when you reach the cliff at the edge of reason. Faith is what makes you hope you can fly. Sadly the result is usually a crash landing in the sea of ignorance and credulity but hey... each to his own.

Faith is not an adjunct of reason it is what the gullible replace reason with.

A classic example is the belief and faith in the existence of some sort of deity. Problem is you will never know how wrong you were.

[quote="polyglide"]Man has made all the different religions, not God.

Where there just the one true religion there would be no problems at all.[/quote]
There would be less problems if there were no religions (IMO) :)

polyglide wrote:Man has made all the different religions, not God. Where there just the one true religion there would be no problems at all.

Do you know that what you have written is absolutely true? Man is responsible for all the religions and not any God! Were there one TRUE religion there would be no problems but then sadly there is not even ONE true religion. They are all (as with history, thank you Henry Ford) bunk...

Bellatori wrote:

polyglide wrote:Man has made all the different religions, not God. Where there just the one true religion there would be no problems at all.

Do you know that what you have written is absolutely true? Man is responsible for all the religions and not any God! Were there one TRUE religion there would be no problems but then sadly there is not even ONE true religion. They are all (as with history, thank you Henry Ford) bunk...

Hi Bellatori, good to hear from you again, as you say humans create gods in their own image, not the other way around. It's hardly a coincidence that local cultural idiosyncrasies seem to have been anticipated by the local deity quite thoroughly in advance.

Think I like you guys

Hi Sheldon and welcome. Glad to see you made it

snowyflake wrote:Hi Sheldon and welcome. Glad to see you made it

Thanks, it's good to be here.

Hi sheldon and Bellatori I made it at last ahah. looks ok over here does it not?:

Hi Polyglide, you have not posted for a while, any particular reason why? You obviously support the biggest fantasy of all ie god and the bible, I would of thought that you would have been posting pretty regular on this thread to support your beliefs.

stu wrote:Hi sheldon and Bellatori I made it at last ahah. looks ok over here does it not?:

Nice to see you here stu...

Hi Bellatori my man, any particular thread where the old boys are posting

found you! oh that sounded a bit stalker! it's richard from Amazon.

timeout wrote:found you!   oh that sounded a bit stalker!     it's richard from Amazon.

Hi Richard...   

Best Wishes
Jo aka Nestov & Bellatori

Hi Richard mate, glad you made it good man

Hi folks from the old place, T.S.C. is coming over too, and the old place is dead haha.

I think we'll settle in here nicely, thanks Sam! I might eventually get around to posting an opinion  

Stu - love the parrots!  

Hi Kazza hope you do, and post an opinion.

Hi kazza, I thought I would pick parrots cos I never stop talking,ahah:lol:   

Bellatori wrote:

timeout wrote:found you!   oh that sounded a bit stalker!     it's richard from Amazon.

Hi Richard...   

Best Wishes
Jo aka Nestov & Bellatori

can you believe i got a post deleted for saying that there are nutters everywhere!

this site's going to take a bit of getting used to though, it feels less concise.

stu wrote:Hi Richard mate, glad you made it good man

well the amazon forum's sinking faster than Noah's ark! really fed up with their ad hoc deletions. and that's giving them the benefit of the doubt!

How are adults persuaded into believing in fantasy creatures, miracles and magic?

The answer is really simple. Get children to believe in them first. Start off with Father Christmas. the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy and it will easy to get them to believe in angels, mediums, soothsayers or witches when they are old. Surround it with pseudo-logic and sprinkle it with hope and you have a recipe fit to enslave anyone with.

If we stop telling children lies then adults will be less gullible.

Heretic