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Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

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Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#41

Post by tboyd47 »

I am a practicing Salafi Muslim, but also a Ruby on Rails developer of 7 years.

I have noticed this about the Ruby on Rails world. After working in Rails jobs at 5 different companies in 2 cities, I've met and worked with scores of other Rails devs, but I've only known only one other Rails dev who was even Muslim, and no one who was Salafi. Some would be disheartened by this, but I take it as a source of pride.

I was not born into a Muslim family, but I embraced it later in life. So I love Islam a great deal and consider it to be the best thing that has ever happened to me. But I do not get into debates about religion or God with co-workers or on the internet, because I don't feel it's appropriate. When I'm at work, I'm not there to proselytize; I'm there to make great software and earn money. And on the internet, it's just too pointless. If I'm talking to you about Islam, then I'm not doing it for fun -- I'm doing it because I want you to become Muslim. I find it very unlikely that someone who never believed in God in their life would start believing just because some stranger on the internet talked them into it. Rather, the end result is always a flame war, and that doesn't really encourage good manners.

Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#42

Post by kevingoslar »

Pantheism. God is a word to describe the wholeness of reality, seen as a single living being (the One). "Living" here means complex, intelligent, interactive, responsive, loving, joyful, prospering, creative, amplifying, mysterious. To me (PhD, philosopher, entrepreneur, developer) these are the best attributes to describe the world I live in. Science describes this world in excruciating detail and beauty for my mind, religion makes the same available for my intuition.

If I would say "I don't believe in God", I wouldn't be talking about God, because then I no longer talk about the One, but about two things: myself and God. Then I merely criticize my own limited image of God. Which is fine.

Besides that, my religion is a school for love. Loving is tricky: strong emotions, complex beings with individual edges and blind spots, very close to each other, causing friction. Much more tricky than for example driving cars. Yet, we all agree that attempting to learn to drive cars all on our own is not a good idea. Sure, like love, in the end driving cars is about developing intuition and following our instincts, and we can make it work somehow after lots of bruises, but its better to have some guidance and mentoring along the way. We need to learn about the basic rules that make traffic safe, or we'll end up hurting ourselves or others. The same is true for love. Wisdom traditions that provide guidance on how to love (aka religions) are useful tools that add value here.

Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#43

Post by cpursley »

tboyd47 wrote: post #41

I am a practicing Salafi Muslim, but also a Ruby on Rails developer of 7 years. I have noticed this about the Ruby on Rails world. After working in Rails jobs at 5 different companies in 2 cities, I've met and worked with scores of other Rails devs, but I've only known only one other Rails dev who was even Muslim, and no one who was Salafi. Some would be disheartened by this, but I take it as a source of pride. I was…

I'm not familiar with Salafi. What are it's basic tenants?

Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#44

Post by Red_Tarsius »

gamechangr wrote: post #35
Red_Tarsius wrote: post #27

Everyone has their own ways of thinking and believing. Once you start to get rid of the labels — agnostic , atheist and believer — you can really listen to others. I’ve met far too many people who called themselves one way and later understood how unfitting was such label to their assumptions. Unfortunately, the quest for the true nature of the universe has been reduced to Scriptures and the yes/no question "Do you b…

Looks like you are in the wrong forum friend. The question is "Who believes?". Your response covered essentially what you "don't believe in". I am genuinely interested in hearing what "you believe in"?

I think the origin of everything has nothing to do with human morality and It didn't send any sons/prophets. I do not think God HAS memories and even human-like consciousness as Scriptures suggest. However, everything IS part of It.

Another way to put it is that God is always and everywhere: the matter you touch, the thoughts you have, the questions you ask and answers you get. :)

Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#46

Post by gliese1337 »

maxerickson wrote: post #12
gliese1337 wrote: post #6

An actual poll seems to be missing here, so I'll just add my comment. I am a practicing Mormon (member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and do in fact believe in God and the specific doctrines of my religions. I go to church every Sunday, pray and read the scriptures regularly, and plenty of other things besides. The majority of tech people I know in person are also religious, although I am very w…

There are at least branches of theology that utilize the tools of philosophy (I suppose theology in general does, but some of it uses the approach more carefully). I guess there is an endless argument available in deciding what the average Christian apologist is, but I think you might be selling their rigor a bit short.

I did not mean to question the rigor of more traditional apologetics; merely to note that there are certain approaches and points of view that they tend not to use, which is entirely understandable. Apologies if it seemed that I did (question their rigor).

Beyond that, though, I had in mind more the amateur Facebook/Tumblr apologist than the more professional, philosophically-educated sort.

Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#47

Post by tboyd47 »

cpursley wrote: post #43
tboyd47 wrote: post #41

I am a practicing Salafi Muslim, but also a Ruby on Rails developer of 7 years. I have noticed this about the Ruby on Rails world. After working in Rails jobs at 5 different companies in 2 cities, I've met and worked with scores of other Rails devs, but I've only known only one other Rails dev who was even Muslim, and no one who was Salafi. Some would be disheartened by this, but I take it as a source of pride. I was…

I'm not familiar with Salafi. What are it's basic tenants?

Salafi Islam is really just like mainstream Islam, meaning we believe like the other Muslims, pray the same way, etc. The only difference is how we view the companions of the Prophet (sall Allah alaihi wa sallam). We consider them to be authoritative sources on Islam, while a lot of Muslims see them as just regular people. So for example, say here we are living many centuries after Islam started, and someone comes and says they have a "new interpretation" of the Quran -- well, it's not really possible for that person to know the Quran better than the people who actually met the Prophet (sall Allah alaihi wa sallam) and learned it from him directly, while seeing him implement it in his life and hearing him explain it. That's the main tenet, I guess, and it's really just a logical and common-sense way of looking at things. That's probably the best I can do without going into too much detail. Thanks for showing interest.

Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#49

Post by DougN7 »

vhogemann wrote: post #21

There is no God. My parents come from different religious backgrounds, my father was raised as a Lutheran while my mother as a Kardecist. Neither cared a lot about their religions, so while they tried to give me the general notions of their religions I was free to make my own mind. So, having no pressure to follow my parents beliefs, and founding no logic reason or need for the existence of a God, I found myself an A…

> knowing how much evil was done in the name of religion

I always wonder about this stance. Are you against property ownership because of the evil done by those wanting to own what others own? Against money (lots of evil done in it's quest), etc? This really seems like a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Re: Poll: How many HN readers are believers?

#50

Post by richmarr »

WorldWideWayne wrote: post #32
richmarr wrote: post #22

There may well be a god, even a judeo-christian style one. He might even have a beard. But there isn't enough rational evidence for one. Even supposedly rational arguments like Intelligent Design fall laughably short, arguing that life is too complex and sophisticated not to have been created by something even more complex and sophisticated. My take is that anyone who does 'believe' is either doing so out of cognitiv…

Every major religion defines God as the one and only thing that exists. The thing that every other thing is made out of. So, wouldn't existence itself be rational evidence for the existence of a thing that makes up all other things? What if we find something that looks like it's the single cause of all observable phenomena? (The most fundamental building-block of nature.) Have we found God? The idea of God is so sing…

It sounds like you're trying to engage me in a debate, but there really isn't one to be had here.

To have any kind of rational discussion about whether God exists, you first have to define what a God is. Either that or have some pretty strong evidence that can be used to draw a box around the question you're asking.

The existence of God is a non-question, because we have neither a definition, nor evidence, nor a way to prove or disprove even if we could agree what it was that we thought we were talking about. You, me, nor anybody else has the slightest figment of a clue, not a scrap. Nor apparently can we, because conveniently all major religions also define God as unknowable and untestable.

Sure people can have faith if they like, maybe they've been touched by a deity and I haven't (personally I doubt it), but anyone taking a rational position that there either is, or isn't, a God, is just expressing a fantasy that originates in their own emotional needs.

To try and dress up either atheism or theism in rational arguments is absurd.

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