http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7302609.stm

Religion 'linked to happy life'

Belief may make us more contended
A belief in God could lead to a more contented life, research suggests.

Given the amount of time you spend on here getting annoyed at the rest of us for not believing in your brand of fairy tale, it doesn't seem to have made you more content.

You never did answer that question about Mary's consent when God took advantage of her...

I enjoy destroying atheist myths.

I think you must have missed this the first time so I'll ask again...

You never did answer that question about Mary's consent when God took advantage of her...

you've got a sick mind

so, despite the atheist lies, it appears that faith both makes people and families happy and adds at least £2bn to our economy

Why don't you just say that she did consent and provide proof from the Bible for it?

'Sall I'm asking you to do.

You enjoy talking sh1t more like it.

Or religious people are deluded simpletons.

Ignorance is bliss.

Have you really destroyed 'atheist myths'? Or do you just think that you have? Have you convinced anyone?

No.

In which case, why bother?

Scarlets using the word "myth" to attack atheism. Priceless!

Of course Scarlets doesn't actually want to tell us that any faith will make you happier, only the xtian faith will. Scarlets would be mortified if we all went off and joined other religions instead.

Yep. Irony - like Coppery isn't it? Maybe sardonic or sarcastic - etc.....

People who believe in absolutes may be happier. They are also more likely to commit attrocities and perpetrate evil acts.

Having an open mind might be a better bet at different times though.

Anyway, this Jesus bloke, did he faint and wasn't he taken off the cross after 3 hours (instead of usual 3 days) and he did a runner to Kashmir - where he may have spent some time as a teenager and picked up lots of influences that he then brought back to Palestine to upset the local conservatives and religious fundamentalists?

Anyway everyone knows that the Flying Spaghetti Monster will lead us into salvation using the TRUE Jedi Force.

Or something.

Funny, because until I read The God Delusion I've always been slightly doubtful about sky-fairies. Now that all of that nonsense is gone from my head once and for all, and I have a better understanding as to how such a ridiculous set of myths came into being and have been perpetuated well past their sell-by date, I can honestly say I've never been happier!

Edit: Added missing word

The penny dropped when I had to start lying about Father Xmas - I then understood how religions get started and even sustained (be good or someone will punish, be good reward). Simple really.

May? Could? Possibly, perhaps, mayhap religion makes us happier.

A little vague isn't it?

aren't you glad you live in a country that contains such people, who contribute £2bn to our economy and are happy and aim to live by the teachings of Christ

Sorry scarlets, but 2 billion is a drop in the ocean these days. Look how much money it cost to "rescue" Northern Rock.

Er... no.

Bunch of demented believers of fairy tales? Definitely not.

I believe in REAL things, not stories.

A few years ago I lived in a poor part of town. I couldn't believe that one born again power seeker was generating more election literature than ALL of the other parties put together.

Then realised that both US and UK had religious nutters running them and this was when I realised that the wave of truth was being wiped out by deluded believers.

Evolve please.

it's not fairy tales, too bad for you



are you suggesting that religious people are "less evolved" than atheists?
who else do you consider less evolved than you?
how should less evolved people be dealt with- is it ok for a more evolved creature (as you believe you are) to stop then from living, or breeding?

it's more than atheist groups contribute

Scarlets79, is this you winding people up on CARM ???

http://www.christiandiscussionforums.org/v...452961#poststop

How do you know?

You forgot to add.............................................Religion is only linked to a happy life IF YOU'VE HAVEN'T GOT ANY INTELLECT AND ARE, INFACT A SHEEPLE............... BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Yes, it is a fairy tale or morality story or whatever, but it's not true.

Am I suggesting that religious people are less evolved?...

Good question. I guess that I am. I don't believe in something that isn't true. I don't cower when I see an eclipse of the sun. I don't use religion as a way to form some kind of tribal group out of fear or in hope of securing power.

I think for myself and am ready to listen to sensible arguments. Like most thinking people I have thought about religious beliefs, read up on arguments pro and con and I have decided. I didn't pick the same religion as my family and then rationalised that that particular one must be the ONE right religion, dismissing the hundreds of others in a puff of mistaken belief.

Who else do I consider less evolved.... George Bush (alcoholic drug addict who could only change by addiction to a meme).

Tony Blair who hears voices...?

Bin Laden who murders people by proxy.

Donald Rumsfeld who bullied better men into accepting a plan which was patently wrong.

Ian Paisley who stirred up trouble that then begat the 'Troubles'.

Adolf Hitler who rarely listened to reason and was steeped in Catholic hatred of Jews.

Stalin - who trained as a priest and then saw a better way to power.

Oh and all the muppets who pay a 10% tithe to a power mad local priest.

How should less evolved people be dealt with? Excluded from power would be fine. Talked out of some of their nastier traits. Both can be achieved by rational argument.

that's a faith position



all those men who you arrogantly consider "less evolved" have found their way into positions of power that you never will. Guess you're not bright enough. Maybe you're the one who's not good enough to survive and climb up the food chain into a position of power. Given your views on things, I'm quite glad. I mean if you were so much more evolved as you think you are, then you would eclipse the achievements and power of those men. You won't. Get real sunshine, atheism may fool you into beleiveing that everyone else is wrong and that you're more clever because you're an atheist but you are being conned big time into a huge delusion.

you don't know it isn't true, where's your evidence?
you have strange ideas about people who are into religion, you've been brainwashed by Dawkins, poor thing

I suspect you live a poor existence in this world Scarlets and if thinking you will get your rewards in heaven makes you feel happier and gets you through the lonely dark night - I say good on yer girlfriend. Some of us are happy having the rewards in this life. You know, just in case it's all just a load of control freakery lies.

there's not enough of you sad miserable atheist gits to achieve that, too bad
you talk of rational argument, so explain to us why there exists universal immaterial laws of logic? (usually at this point atheists throw personal attacks and leave, or start quoting Bible verses out of context)

what strange ideas you have of religious folk
you must think atheists are the only ones who have sex

Unless a catholic priests sodomises you as a child and the church behave as if you're the criminal.

Unless you find yourself having a different opinion from the most senior member of your church.

Unless your personal orientations are at odds with the church's teachings.

Unless you want to mix linen and wool, oh sorry, I forgot, they ignore that one.

Who mentioned sex ? Your are imagining things. Sex plays on the minds of those without any the most I guess.

Yes, this is true.

Mum: Why can't you be more like that nice Mr. Hitler. There's a man with some get up an go. You know he was ruling half of Europe by the time he was your age.

Bart: Yes mum.

Mum: And that Stalin, look at all he's managed. And I bet he never forgets his mum's birthday. Why can't you transform Russia from an agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse?

Bart: I'll do it this afternoon.


Yes, sadly I'm a failure. Should history ever examine my life they will see that I never invaded anywhere, killed anyone, started any illegal wars, organized terorist attacks or fermented religious discord.

No wonder a Christian like scarlets looks down on me.

Give it a go. You never know you may enjoy it.

I suppose I could start small, maybe I could annexe next door's garden and see how it goes?

Only £2bn ?

Bone-idel uesless tossers. No wonder they are happy. I would be if I skived around all day.

I seem to remember we did this a while back and discovered that while Christians may be happy the Jews are in fact happier still http://www.newspolls.org/story.php?story_id=53.

I'd love to see some stats for Buddhists too.

For me it was when I did an MSc in Evolutionary & Adaptive Systems. I had to question all my superstitions honestly and critically. It wasn't a pleasant experience but I feel freer because of it.

Actually we normally argue whether or not this is true and then find that we first need to clarify what each person means by 'logic'. We then find out that the statement is basically nonsensical.

Personally I argue that logic is an artificial construct that allows humans to reason about a subject. Logic requires the artificial values true and false. But we've been down this road before. Maybe I should just post a link here instead of repeating ourselves ...

The theory that scarlets is a computer program is starting to look quite plausible to me now.

He/she/it only seems to post during office hours, as has been mentioned before. He/she/it never seems to answer questions but makes rhetorical replies to other posters - perhaps some sort of keyword/fuzzy logic thing going on.

HPCers, we may be witnessing the birth of a new invention - the God-bot.

Religion "linked to child abuse"

Its the scat-bot actually

Catholic Child Abuse Fears Widen - BBC "News"

It will be interesting to see whether scarlets actually reads these links ...

Divorce rate higher amongst fundies

B4 you dismiss it, this info comes from the George Barna Research Group. George Barna is a born-again Christian.

Bush and Dick like to denigrate "Massachusetts liberals".

Guess which state has the lowest rate?

The reason I'm paying so much attention to scarlets is that Artificial Intelligence is my field. So far the only bot that has passed the Turing test was Parry because it modelled a paranoid schizophrenic that brought every subject being discussed back to the same thing each time. So whether or not scarlets is human or electronic, or a mixture of both (I honestly don't know), it's still worthwhile reverse engineering how it works. Imagine for example writing a chatterbot that had this same tenacity and using it to sell your products on your website for example. I worked in this area about ten years ago, and worked with Computational Linguists (cunning linguists we called them) earlier this decade. I've always felt that chatterbots haven't really been properly developed or exploited in industry and that if you put in a serious R&D effort you could develop something really useful and economically viable.

People may be happier when they believe in a religion but that does not make a belief in god(s) true.

If you are interested in understanding the truth of an idea how it makes people feel is irrelevant.

They'd probably bring back too many painful memories, e.g. of being rogered senseless by Father O'F*ckerty after choir practice...

Nice find, barry.

Now burn in hell, you heathen!

What about the myths or unknowns you take as fact?

The benefits you describe can be attributed to people being part of an organised group they feel positive about
It does not prove if their beliefs are right or wrong

Ever wonder why you have to die to discover if you are right?
It's like ancient man saying 'we dont know anything about how we got here or what the sun or stars are so there must be a god! Oh and what happens when we die? We don't know that either so it must be when we meet god!'

Another good point - Of course this effect could be observed for people belonging to various religions

I'm looking forwards to Scarlets explanation - If she has chosen the only right religion you'd expect only hers would benefit...