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Poll: How religious is hacker news?
141–150 of 168 posts
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#142I consider myself a truthist for lack of a better word. One who seeks the truth, however, more specially, a monothiest.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you believe in the literal story of Noahs flood? As in, the whole world was covered in water?
I can't say one way or the other. There is enough water to cover most of the earths surface if it's not tied up in ice at the poles so it's physically possible. And there is also evidence of water coverage over many parts of the earth that are not near any ocean. However the story could also be interpreted in terms of a localized flood covering all of the known earth. I do believe Noah was a literal person and I do b…
Its true that a lot of land would be covered by melted ice but even then, over 90% of earth would still be above sea level as shown here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2488452/Map-r...
Also, fossil evidence doesn't not support a worldwide flood. If a worldwide flood would have happened you have have fossils from that era all over the place in sediments of rock, but you don't. They are all found neatly organized in their own respective layers. Here is some more info if you are interested: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Global_flood#Fossil_layers
I think a localized flood is a much better explanation for people who believe that part of the bible.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not what agnostic means. Most people who believe in God wouldn't say they can prove God exists, and they aren't agnostic.
Sorry, but designNERD is right. Agnosticism has the greek root "gnosis", which means "knowledge". It's technically defined as a view that some things ("God" being a common, but not sole example) are unknowable. It's an epistemological concept. Theism has the greek root "theos", meaning "God". Its primary concern is with the actual existence of God, so it's an ontological concept. It's possible to think of agnosticism…
Saying you know something and saying you can prove something are two different things.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not what agnostic means. Most people who believe in God wouldn't say they can prove God exists, and they aren't agnostic.
No, that is exactly what it means. It doesnt take very long to look something up (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism ). Agnosticism is not about being uncertain, it's the position that the answer is unknowable or unknown - which is much stronger than merely being uncertain.
There is a difference between saying you can prove something and saying you know something. Your own Wikipedia article disagrees with you.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that is exactly what it means. It doesnt take very long to look something up (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism ). Agnosticism is not about being uncertain, it's the position that the answer is unknowable or unknown - which is much stronger than merely being uncertain.
You have a point, but the person you're responding to makes a more important one - the colloquial definition of agnostic, in reference to religion, is a person who's not sure what they think about the existence of gods. When you call yourself an agnostic, that's what people typically understand by it.
I am not making a point about the colloquial definition. The wikipedia article he linked disagrees with him too.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#147Having grown up in the church, I have honestly never found a good replacement for the sense of community and support that a church offers. Its a shame that no other non-religious organizations have been able to replicate it.
Alain de Botton writes more generally about taking the goods bits from religion in 'Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion'.
It's an interesting thought experiment, and de Botton writes engagingly. Well worth a read for his lateral thinking and, if nothing else, a starting point for your own thoughts.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#148It looks like this thread is being moderated off the front page, but it's something that I think is interesting too. I was astonished about the overwhelming response the church software got. Don't get me wrong, it's a great effort, but the sheer amount of votes it received seems somewhat out of proportion for what you'd expect a comparable project to get. So I'm curious if this Show HN maybe released some pressure in…
> allowed people to self-identify as non-religious, somewhat religious, and very religious.
The word 'religious' has enough negative connotations that even many religions like to challenge its use to apply to themselves.
I did a module of comparative religion a while ago which involved interviews with deeply devout practitioners of a number of religions. All of them said something like 'it's not really a religion, it's a way of life', or 'it's not a religion, it's a relationship', or words to that effect.
This poll, at least avoids that problem.
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#149Sometimes we make assumptions about a particular group of people and this poll seems like a great way to challenge those assumptions and take a closer look at who makes up the hacker news community. HN polls haven't been trustworthy for years. Too many people giving too many false results. Pg noticed this when there was a poll asking about the age of HNers and a bunch of people responded with "Over 80." He mentioned…
Correction: HN polls were never trustworthy because they are all voluntary-response polls.[1]
Re: Poll: How religious is hacker news?
#150[deleted]