Meta-study shows religious people are less intelligent

[NotAllThere]

What casued it and what was there before?

I find a lot of scientific theory is just as hard to comprehend as a god, the human mind just isn’t capable.

Notwithstanding the big boing, the question was answered quite satisfactorily 1600 years ago by some thick Christian called St. Augustine. Time and space came into existence at the beginning. As time itself began at that time, there is no cause, and there is no before. The question is meaningless.

( Before Augustine got religion, he was a pagan intellectual ).

[sasguru]

Damn. Sole point of this thread is that I was trying to tempt Chico out of retirement.

[NotAllThere]

Oh, I thought you were baiting contractor79

[cailin maith]

Damn. Sole point of this thread is that I was trying to tempt Chico out of retirement.

Sas - I am not sure he will ever come back!

[Mich the Tester]

Fair enough Mich, but you were in your teens when you tried religion. Me, it's been part of my life since the start so it's not as easy as choosing not to believe.

That said out of the 3 of us (me, brother and sister) I am the only one who regularly goes to mass, even though we all had the same upbringing, me and sis same convent. Brother went to Christian Bros and De la Salle Bros schools.

I suppose it's a mega personal thing. I wouldn't dream of imposing my views and beliefs on anyone but by the same token, I wouldn't want anyone dissing my views too much.

I'm not trying to be nasty about it, just suggesting that people who are religious can try to see things a different way. Try and view the world without an assumption of a greater power; it could mean you stop believing, or it could reinforce your faith. Take a chance.

[cailin maith]

I'm not trying to be nasty about it, just suggesting that people who are religious can try to see things a different way. Try and view the world without an assumption of a greater power; it could mean you stop believing, or it could reinforce your faith. Take a chance.

I know you aren't being nasty.

I guess it's just after 32 years of believing, I am not sure I can or even want to stop. But I do take your point, maybe one day I will take a chance!

[sasguru]

Oh, I thought you were baiting contractor79

Contractor79 is but a pale shadow of the Supreme CUK Village Idiot (TM) Chico.
Imitated but never bettered IMHO.

[Mich the Tester]

What casued it and what was there before?

What caused god? What was there before?

[deano]

What casued it and what was there before?

No doubt the cosmologists will say that you have asked a nonesense question because that is when time started and therefore there is no concept of "before". That's the start.

But they don't like it when you point out that God is beyond the limitations of the universe and space/time concepts. These are human (actually Earth-based human) constructs and because we can only look at the universe from the inside, we can have no conception of the outside.

I tend to find that the Fundamentalist Christians and the Fundamentalist Atheists both want to limit God to their own size. The FC's want to limit God to 4004 BC onwards and the Atheists to the Big Bang onwards. Neither will condescend to a God bigger that they can imagine.

Never forget that no matter how fundamentalist the atheist, atheism is nothing more than faith. Just like faith in God.

[NotAllThere]

I've known a few dyed-in-the wool atheists wot got religion. Much more interesting than Christians who've "lost their faith". You can have some really good arguments.