16 hours ago, save the frogs said:

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

That's just great! Love it!

21 minutes ago, connda said:

Well, the fact is I'm Buddhist. I give other religions their due respect, and I respect people who believe something that I personally don't agree with. But Buddhism has no eschatology. There truly is no beginning and no end - no creator gods, either angry & jealous or compassionate but ready to send you to hell forever and ever. But there is a rich cosmology of gods and beings in non-human realms, there are heaven and hells and everything between. But every single one of the beings, seen or unseen, are subject to the same conditions of cause and effect as well as to - change.
I have no doubt that if Mohamed believe in a heaven with 72 virgins, he'll go to a heaven with 72 virgins, and if Catholic Chris believe he's going to heaven to be with Jesus, he'll go to heaven to be with Jesus. Genocidal maniacs who lie, cheat, and steal probably go to a hell realm. However the operant condition is change - everything changes everywhere - there is no "forever." As far as eschatology, yeah, I believe that it is in the realm of possibility that some malevolent entity could come to earth and wreak havoc be it a Messiah or space aliens or Cthulhu. Do I believe this dispensationalist clap-trap that if the right conditions are created by man that <enter an entity here> will come back to Earth and send the "good" people to heaven and throw the "bad" people - including non-believers - into pits of hell-fire forever? No. Any entity who is like deserves to be tossed into hell-fire themselves. Cause and effect: you can't create suffering for others then skip by it yourself - god or naught. So I give all religions their due no matter how crazy I personally may think they are - other people believe and faith is the key.

Me personally. I believe that consciousness is indestructible. Consciousness if eternal: has always been, will always be. And consciousness is the spark of "life" that animates a being. Bodies are subject to change and die; consciousness moves on to reside in another body. That body could reside in any plane of existence, seen or unseen. Hells and Heavens, animal realm or human realm. You existence is marked by a mountain of bones.

Dont you find Jesus and Buddha to be same teachings? Dont you think jesus had buddhistic influence ?

14 hours ago, liddelljohn said:

Problem for Islam that no one called Mohammed ever existed in 6th century and also Mecca did not exist either .. The Quran was first written in 741AD by scholars in Baghdad after the Arab conquests and the current version was not completed until 1207AD in Damascus , The name mohammed means the chosen or beloved one did not exist until 8th century ....

Mecca was not on any ancient Nabotean , trade maps or, Hittite, babylonian, Bedouin . Roman , persian maps ever it was not even a watering hole or oasis , There was a pagan site there from ancient times which now has the Qabaa built over it .. mecca was not a religious site for islam until 8th century , built to fit the stories written in 741 .. its all fake and lies . more lies and untruths than even the old testament or New Bible testaments . All religions are bull<deleted> for weak minds and only help the powerful to contol the weak

Just because their religion is wrong, does not make yours right. They could both be wrong, like all of the religions that have gone before.

14 hours ago, Hummin said:

Heaven and hell is right here, you choose, and afterlife, is your offsprings

Yeah - Nihilism is a kind of religion too. You have faith in the utter absurdity of life. In fact, all branches of philosophy are religious in nature by virtue of the adherent's FAITH that his or her world-view is actually the ONLY sensible world-view and all other should be rejected and therefore are heretical.

Religion is FAITH

Why am I Buddhist? Because I can fit just about all religious world-views into my own cosmology. So I don't reject anyone's religious beliefs. And in my world, there are no heretics. So you lead your life with compassion for other. Even a twisted, lying, genocidal SOB like Donald J. Trump. Talk about someone who is fabulously wealthy and powerful on this physical plane of existence, but who is totally lost morally. Good luck when he dies as his delusions of grandeur are going to spin him into a really interesting realm of existence the next go around.

@connda

There is no real proof of 72 virgins, just a verse from one of the texts in Hadith, which was written in the 900 century, and most likely a translation error, and used for jihad later.

However Quran mentions afterlife with companions, but not specifically 72 virgins. Most religions have promises before death and in afterlife. In Valhalla where the CIA chief dreaming to go, gives also promises !

11 minutes ago, Hummin said:

@connda

There is no real proof of 72 virgins, just a verse from one of the texts in Hadith, which was written in the 900 century, and most likely a translation error, and used for jihad later.

However Quran mentions afterlife with companions, but not specifically 72 virgins. Most religions have promises before death and in afterlife. In Valhalla where the CIA chief dreaming to go, gives also promises !

I don't particularly buy the 72 virgins spiel. It gives those from other religions and philosophical bases something that they can mock and ridicule, and in the process mock and ridicule the entire religion by extension. Most religious zealots are very intolerant.

42 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Dont you find Jesus and Buddha to be same teachings? Dont you think jesus had buddhistic influence ?

Lost years of Jesus - He went to India?

Buddhism is not just Buddha. It's the combination of philosophies from hundreds, if not thousands, of monks. They dont all agree on everything and it's not meant to be absolute doctrine that you must believe or you go to Hell, just people expressing opinions to help guide your life .

But a lot of those monks were pretty smart.

49 minutes ago, connda said:

Buddhism just made more sense and I could subjectively substantiate it though deep meditation.

Not sure about Crowley.

I like Buddhism, or some of it.

Whatever works for you.

It needs to resonate with you.

5 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

Lost years of Jesus - He went to India?

Buddhism is not just Buddha. It's the combination of philosophies from hundreds, if not thousands, of monks. They dont all agree on everything and it's not meant to be absolute doctrine that you must believe or you go to Hell, just people expressing opinions to help guide your life .

But a lot of those monks were pretty smart.

We can agree that ideas and philosophies travelled far back in the days, and most likely what we hear and read about as Jesus, is many different persons who most likely not even lived at the same time, who knows,

Those who are sure, ,,,,,,,

19 hours ago, Hummin said:

You prefer Bikers and Holigans ? Somehow there is a need to collect peoples mind one way or another. Religion seems to be what works best in hard times. In good times people seems to forget what hard times gave them, and the circle is perfect

Some argue we were doing just fine under the Pagans before the
"civilising ' religions came along

28 minutes ago, Jim Blue said:

Some argue we were doing just fine under the Pagans before the
"civilising ' religions came along

The question is for who? Remember who got rid of the slavery? At least in our modern world.

And who can actually talk about the pagan world? It is an imaginary world we really know very little about.

Some Eras of religion did actually good, and I like Jimmy Carr when he speaks about religion on the last part here. I'm not religious in any way, and signed out of the church book, but still, I have travelled Norway, and even the church did rape the poor in times, there where other times they gave people school, discipline, sobered them up, gave them medicine, and more. It is not just black and white. There is also some Eras where the Muslims flourished, and a few golden Eras for the Jewish population. Why is the Jews so strong? Is it because of their heritage and strong belief?

https://youtube.com/shorts/6quxPfGX-yo?is=RXJTlUkZL1-7aEOg

20 hours ago, blaze master said:

I love me a good troll thread to start the day.

I love the smell of troll in the morning.

5 hours ago, Hummin said:

Dont you find Jesus and Buddha to be same teachings? Dont you think jesus had buddhistic influence ?

I don't rule is out. The fact Jesus disappeared from the scene and then came back preaching concepts that sound very influenced by Buddhist philosophy - well, it is relevant. We'd probably know more, but the 4th century Council of Nicaea pretty much destroyed all information that would support that idea as being heretical. I could envision Jesus spending time as a Buddhist monk or influenced by Buddha's teaching before returning to the Galilee to preach compassion, non-violence, and universal brotherhood to those who would listen. That was pretty radical back in the day when life was cheap in the Roman Empire. So I have immense respect for Jesus' teachings, but the dogma that was created in the 4th century AD - I don't buy it at all. But I respect the beliefs of true believers who "walk the talk" of Jesus' teachings. But like the Roman Empire in Palestine 2026 years ago, life in Palestine is cheap. I find those who agree with the Israeli's that the Amalek in Palestine (Palestinian and Semitic Arabs) need to be "removed" as reprehensible. They are Christians in Name Only unfortunately. Christ didn't peach genocide. He preached the exact opposite.

5 minutes ago, connda said:

I don't rule is out. The fact Jesus disappeared from the scene and then came back preaching concepts that sound very influenced by Buddhist philosophy - well, it is relevant. We'd probably know more, but the 4th century Council of Nicaea pretty much destroyed all information that would support that idea as being heretical. I could envision Jesus spending time as a Buddhist monk or influenced by Buddha's teaching before returning to the Galilee to preach compassion, non-violence, and universal brotherhood to those who would listen. That was pretty radical back in the day when life was cheap in the Roman Empire. So I have immense respect for Jesus' teachings, but the dogma that was created in the 4th century AD - I don't buy it at all. But I respect the beliefs of true believers who "walk the talk" of Jesus' teachings. But like the Roman Empire in Palestine 2026 years ago, life in Palestine is cheap. I find those who agree with the Israeli's that the Amalek in Palestine (Palestinian and Semitic Arabs) need to be "removed" as reprehensible. They are Christians in Name Only unfortunately. Christ didn't peach genocide. He preached the exact opposite.

One thing is the person Jesus, but ideas and preachers travelled, and humans brain haven't changed much the last 35 000 years or so, so we can guess they exchanged philosophical teachings long time before they had written language.

11 hours ago, cjinchiangrai said:

Just because their religion is wrong, does not make yours right. They could both be wrong, like all of the religions that have gone before.

i dont have any religion studied history and archaeology , lived and worked in catholic , islamic, and bhuddist countries , born in UK , went to christian school , my mum was jewish holocaust survivor I have concluded they are all bull<deleted> ,, dangerous and for weak minds ,,

If i did have a belief it would be ANUS Anarcho Nihilism Utopian Secularism covers everthing

12 hours ago, visalady said:

But why make up lies that show the 'perfect man' as being a slave owning thief, killer, rapist, polygamist and child abuser? according to various Islamic scriptures.

The religion was codified by the caliphs and scholars to justify the Arab conquests and control the people ,,,,remember the originators were desert warrior tribes who lived in very harsh environment

On 3/14/2026 at 6:45 PM, save the frogs said:

Each religion has a "mystical branch", which is not the same at all as the common branch.

For Islam, it's Sufis. These are the whirling Dervishes. They practice meditation. The poet Rumi, who wrote some wickedly cool poetry, was a Sufi.

For Judaism, it's Kabbalah. Some rabbis are and have written interesting stuff, but it's not the conventional knowledge most people get from Judaism.

And for Christianity, there are also some super smart dudes like Meister Eckhart.

So it's not religion so much as the interpretations adopted by most followers that are the problem.

And nobody reads these books by these super smart dudes. Nobody has time and it's too deep anyway.

That is very true and that's a wise observation. The people that the prophets would be proud of are the ones who practice spirituality rather than religion, and devotion rather than ritual.

Ritual means absolutely nothing if there is no conscious thought or devotion behind it. Whether it be praying five times a day, eating kosher food, wearing a yamulke, or giving donations at the temple, none of it means anything unless there is the right attitude behind it and conscious thought. Equally mindless are ridiculous statements like thoughts and prayers.

I think that's enough "reading" for today.

All religions are a joke, but unfortunately, most times a very debilitating and dangerous joke... ☹️

22 hours ago, connda said:

Yeah - Nihilism is a kind of religion too. You have faith in the utter absurdity of life. In fact, all branches of philosophy are religious in nature by virtue of the adherent's FAITH that his or her world-view is actually the ONLY sensible world-view and all other should be rejected and therefore are heretical.

Religion is FAITH

Why am I Buddhist? Because I can fit just about all religious world-views into my own cosmology. So I don't reject anyone's religious beliefs. And in my world, there are no heretics. So you lead your life with compassion for other. Even a twisted, lying, genocidal SOB like Donald J. Trump. Talk about someone who is fabulously wealthy and powerful on this physical plane of existence, but who is totally lost morally. Good luck when he dies as his delusions of grandeur are going to spin him into a really interesting realm of existence the next go around.

So, you don’t reject anyone’s religious belief. You’d then have no problems with the mass sacrifice of prisoners of war and children under the religion of the Aztecs?

I don’t think any philosopher worthy of the name has FAITH in his or her world view. I’m sure that just like any proper scientist, they accept that their view might not be the correct one, and would be the least likely of all people to claim that any other view must be heretical and therefore rejected.

On 3/15/2026 at 10:58 AM, Hummin said:

@connda

There is no real proof of 72 virgins, just a verse from one of the texts in Hadith, which was written in the 900 century, and most likely a translation error, and used for jihad later.

However Quran mentions afterlife with companions, but not specifically 72 virgins. Most religions have promises before death and in afterlife. In Valhalla where the CIA chief dreaming to go, gives also promises !

Although the promise of 72 virgins is appealing, I don't believe that anything can happen after death, so I try to collect all 72 virgins while still alive but I admit that it is very expensive.

10 minutes ago, Look Chang said:

Although the promise of 72 virgins is appealing, I don't believe that anything can happen after death, so I try to collect all 72 virgins while still alive but I admit that it is very expensive.

Virgins now? What so special about virgins? For a 16 year old boy, yes, but no. My experience and my opinion.

Control and abuse come in different ways/ideas.

Neither Islam nor Christianity look much beyond the formation and experience of human life on Earth. Many more questions arise when considering the origins of the universe, the multiverse, and beyond.

17 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Virgins now? What so special about virgins? For a 16 year old boy, yes, but no. My experience and my opinion.

Being the first to initiate a virgin into becoming a woman is a pride for many men.

On 3/14/2026 at 6:28 PM, save the frogs said:

Ah yes, but if many people don't believe in God, why should they believe in the Devil, whatever that means?

But yeah, I agree basically.

Just look around you (or the world rather)....the Devil kicks God's ass, day in day out.

I see and read about the work of the Devil everywhere, everyday........I never see the all powerful, omnipotent God do a damned thing.

On 3/14/2026 at 5:44 PM, MIke B Bad said:

It has always amazed me that people do this.....national teams, then city teams, then village teams.... as an example....WHO DO YOU SUPPORT!!......at its heart is evolution, a desire to belong for sure......and it is this element of evolution that leads to racism and religions.....the two worst manifestations of evolution.

Evolution is not over.

The "religion" phase of the evolution began to give way in the 17th century.

Now, after 400 years, the developed world has got to the stage where it is possible to say "there is no God" without being burned at the stake.

The great transition, the great struggle taking place, is that between the age of religion and the age of science.........that is the struggle for our infant species.

There is a long, long way to go.

1 minute ago, Enoon said:

Evolution is not over.

The "religion" phase of the evolution began to give way in the 17th century.

Now, after 400 years, the developed world has got to the stage where it is possible to say "there is no God" without being burned at the stake.

The great transition, the great struggle taking place, is that between the age of religion and the age of science.........that is the struggle for our infant species.

There is a long, long way to go.

I pray (joke) you're right.......only anti-theism can save mankind.

28 minutes ago, Look Chang said:

Being the first to initiate a virgin into becoming a woman is a pride for many men.

Not by someone who believes he is a don johan, but have to move to asia buy his virgins,

Its not only creepy, but also deleted, especially the older you get. Anyway, making old rims like new again, is good business in Asia, middle east and the catholic world, so good luck to find those virgins with your money