Disprove

I am not trying to disprove anything here. The main purpose of this blog is to show my views and things I find important. There was mainly one view that was taught to me by people that really cared for me all my life. I understand that. However, I want to show my view. I want to show my side. I don't feel like people on the other side ever really think about things in my way nor want to. I just feel like my opinion is important and worthwhile and valid and I want to talk about it here. I really don't even care if you agree with me. I'm not trying to convert anyone as much as I am trying to just show how I feel. Thanks for reading.

Religion in Europe

Below are countries in Europe listed by their belief in a God (first row), Belief in a spirit or life force (second row), and Belief in Neither a Spirit or Life Force or God(third row). As you can see, Western Europe has pretty much been the more progressive side.

Estonia 16% 54% 26%
Czech Republic 19% 50% 30%
Sweden 23% 53% 23%
Denmark 31% 49% 19%
Norway 32% 47% 17%
Netherlands 34% 37% 27%
France 34% 27% 33%
Slovenia 37% 46% 16%
Latvia 37% 49% 10%
United Kingdom 38% 40% 20%
Iceland 38% 48% 11%
Bulgaria 40% 40% 13%
Finland 41% 41% 16%
Belgium 43% 29% 27%
Hungary 44% 31% 19%
Luxembourg 44% 28% 22%
Switzerland 48% 39% 9%
Lithuania 49% 36% 12%
Austria 54% 34% 8%
Spain 59% 21% 18%
Slovakia 61% 26% 11%
Croatia 67% 25% 7%
Ireland 73% 22% 4%
Italy 74% 16% 6%
Poland 80% 15% 1%
Portugal 81% 12% 6%
Greece 81% 16% 3%
Cyprus 90% 7% 2%
Romania 90% 8% 1%
Turkey 95% 2% 1%
Malta 95% 3% 1%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_European_Union

This Sums It Up

This wasn't in the final cut of the movie but it's really good.

Faith and Reason

Faith and religion is something that is completely immune from most modes of discourse in America. This is a real problem. We have Iron Age philosophy with 21st century weaponry.

Sean Hannity VS Christopher Hitchens


Religulous Clip


Faith and Reason Debates

Prayer and Faith

Let me just say this first: I feel very fortunate that I have people that care about me. I do not think there is anything better than that.

With that out of the way.

Prayer has always seemed a bit weird to me. People say things like "No matter what, God's gonna do what he's gonna do and that's that." If you say this, then why is there any need for prayer? How does it work in the system? You need to pray to show that you care? If God is going to do what he's going to do and He already has a Divine Plan for everything then A.) Is there any free will under that system if you assume that? and B.) Why does praying even matter? Why do you need to show that you care? Why are you trying to change things and cater to the heart of God by showing that you're true worshippers by praying? If it's already said and done in God's eyes, then how is catering to the heart of God going to change things? Why do you think it's going to? The bottom line is this:

If you think it's already all planned out, then why are you praying? 

Why do you think you can change it by praying? Even if God likes hearing it, it doesn't matter because it's all planned out anyway. 

Also, on a side note:

Faith is a SCAM. In any other arena other than religion, is faith ever an issue. Sure, you can guess and it feels good to take risks sometimes but to say that God likes faith feels like a SCAM to me now. As soon as you start asking about things too deeply and get to the point that true believers haven't really thought out things too thoroughly or just didn't want to or just couldn't or just haven't yet, they'll say "It's faith" and then wait for you to be amazed. The next question is "Why is faith good?" Then they'll basically not understand that. "Faith brings you closer to God" "God says faith is good." But why? You can't really answer that. No Christian I have ever met really can. "It's just faith." "God requires that you take a leap of faith." Why do you think that requirement is there? Is there some ulterior motive from the church? When people talk about the leap of faith, I feel like I would be jumping for no reason into nothingness...into an archaic set of a beliefs that even most of our forefathers in America didn't believe in. (More people go to church now than they did in colonial America.) Christians will admire faith for its simplicity but I'd say there's really no meaning in what they're saying and the argument could go on forever after that.

The Best of 2008

Rock Album: 

Appeal to Reason by Rise Against



Rap Album:

Paper Trail by T.I.



Runner-Up

The Renaissance by Q-Tip



Video Game (Console):

Gears of War 2



Video Game (Arcade):

Street Fighter 4



Movie:

The Dark Knight



TV Show:

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (tie)

Prop 8 the Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Zeitgeist Addendum

This one is a little more tame than the first one. I say that because it doesn't really hit on religions and conspiracy theories as much. It's much more solid in that way as well. The main focus is how economies and money work. It breaks down a lot of how world economy functions and how systems destroy the third world etc. It also proposes a solution for the modern era. It's pretty awesome. 


Download at:
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/dloads.htm

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1900850 


Or watch in chunks on YouTube:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=NT-2fenmLnc

Here's the first clip: