[Yorick]

Originally posted by Darkman: quote: There is a big difference between "inspired by God" and "written in heaven". One allows for the human creative element, the other doesn't.

But both are fantasy.

You haven't named any books or religions yet.

There are no books that were inspired or written by god.

Regarding religion as being made up by humans: 1.Humans cannot create outside that which is experienced. Impossible. A God without a biggining or end - eternal - is a concept totally outside the human experience (as we have a beggining), and is so incomprehendible that humans could not have created it.

It's called imagination. I've never experienced a wizard in a pointy hat shooting fireballs out of his finger tips before, but I can easily imagine that scenario. We as humans who have a definate beginning and end (we all die right?), so why shouldn't we want to believe in eternal life? That would be great. That means we no longer are meaningless specs of life doomed to some day die. We can pretend that we live forever in heaven or nirvana or whatever makes us feel good about ourselves. Anyway, your argument makes no sense. Just because we can't comprehend the infinity of time does not automatically mean that there is a god figure. We can't see into the past nor the future, so why not make believe there is a god that has existed for all time? It doesn't take a god to make one up.

2.Religions seek to curb the destructive elements of human nature.

So they act like a set of morals? What's the point? You can be a moral person without practicing a religion.[/QUOTE]You're missing my point. Name one BELIEVED to be the inspired word of a God independent from creation, apart from the Bible. You can't do it can you. You generalised and said "All religions have a book inspired by God", yet now can't name one other than the Bible. C'mon do your research

Now, regarding morals, there is a whole thread devoted to that very subject. Perhaps MagiK could bring it up.

However, for here, you made a pronouncement about how I would be.

Firstly you don't know me so how can you speak about who I am.

Secondly and more importantly, you are using an "if so" argument. "If this then that" Totally non-quantifiable, provable and unscientific. All we know is what DOES exist, not what would if some other existance were so.

Thus, in this reality, I get my morals from knowing God. Without my faith, I would exist in a survival of the fittest/law of the jungle headspace.

I am also existing in a Judeo-Christian society, which bases it's principles of justice, right and wrong, on the foundations of these faiths. For example: we do not have the ritual human sacrifice of Inca or Aztec cultures, our Judeo-Christian foundations created an atmosphere of horror towards such practices.

Seeing as western culture is based on religious principles it's very difficult to comment on how moral a person would be without the influence of religious ideas. All we can know is what we have before us, not "what if".