If there was a god, we wouldn't be subjected to posts like these.
Ask YC: Are you religous?
31–40 of 125 posts
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#32deeply, but i'll argue against it until i die! err, unless you really wanna know why deeply.
I am too confused to either up or down vote you. Well played, sir, well played.
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#33Yes. About vim and unit testing.
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#34The distribution here, if you believe this sample, is more biased to the heathens! than is the general population:
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#35I'm not religious and religion makes me somewhat uncomfortable . This may be in part since religion is largely considered a private/personal matter in Canada (or at least Ontario :P).
I do believe in God and religion makes me somewhat uncomfortable as well! I find nearly all of it to be a bunch of superstitions that people would like to believe, both without evidence or logic.
I respect people of every faith, (and no faith) that have developed for themselves a systematic theology/cosmology that has some modicum of internal consistency. I have no time to talk to or debate those who can't be bothered and just go around believing "by faith" whatever they feel like.
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#36Sort of, I believe that there is probably a higher being that created that initial micron of matter. But I don't believe that there is a "god" that watches our every move. And I believe that organized religion is nothing more than a huge thousand year old scam. Make lots of money and convert as many people as you can to make even more money. 400 years from now Scientology will be on the same level as Christianity.
Well, what happened to him?
I think any serious answer would be preposterous and probably irrelevant. Even if it was spot on. Let's say we could prove we live in a computer simulation. Would you really stop living your life? Would you try to talk with the admins of the universe? Isn't that a bit pointless? Reminds me of the South Park episode where they discover the Earth is a giant reality show for aliens.
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#37meh, I think religion in this context is merely morality side-taking.
morality is one of the great unsolved dilemma's of our kind, I can see the appeal of taking a shortcut. I myself have struggled with the balance between objective and subjective morals. I take an evolutionary psychology approach to why humans behave how they do, but that doesn't answer what we should do. I think this question is very relevant to hackers who work on AI. What happens when an artificial consciousness wakes up and it doesn't do anything because it doesn't have any idea of what it "should" do? there's axiometry, but in the absence of perfect information about the future you have to resort to Bayesian statistical models in order to choose between likely outcomes. I also think it's pretty clear that a 100% consistent interpretation of any axiomatic rule would have unintended consequences.
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/11/terminal-values.html
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#38Sort of, I believe that there is probably a higher being that created that initial micron of matter. But I don't believe that there is a "god" that watches our every move. And I believe that organized religion is nothing more than a huge thousand year old scam. Make lots of money and convert as many people as you can to make even more money. 400 years from now Scientology will be on the same level as Christianity.
Well, what happened to him?
it moved on to create the next trillion parallel universes
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#39You could just say "online applications and communities are pretty poor" and be mostly right, too.
My wife participates in several online communities associated with our faith. They're technically a lot like most other such (could be better but quite adequate), and they cover a range in quality of discussion.
I run an online community of Christian web professionals/volunteers/whatever.. Our website is awful. I inherited it from the previous operators and haven't had time to redo it. I'll be taking the site in a whole new direction--i.e., new applications, not just a prettier face--but it's not there yet. Our community (which operates mostly via mailing list) is quite pleasant and mutually helpful.
You'll see competition and innovation most anywhere there's money, which is why you can find any number of automated website management services directed at churches (for example). But a lot of religion either is inappropriate to online expression, has no easy path to monetization, or both.
Re: Ask YC: Are you religous?
#40Sort of, I believe that there is probably a higher being that created that initial micron of matter. But I don't believe that there is a "god" that watches our every move. And I believe that organized religion is nothing more than a huge thousand year old scam. Make lots of money and convert as many people as you can to make even more money. 400 years from now Scientology will be on the same level as Christianity.
created that initial micron of matter Just curious, does this mean you believe there was an absolute, finite beginning of time/space?
its more of the evolution approach, the belief is more of: it probably started out with a tiny spec that was created due to special circumstances and the universe grew from it