Severus Snape, this thread doesn´t say anything about if I was in Gryffindor or not, I could just as well be in Slytherin getting eduaction from someone in direct contact with the dark lord himself.

Better than anyone else I´d say.

I don´t like the concept of best friends since it tells your other friends "I think you are lesser than my best friends", but I consider anyone here on vizzed as a friend if he or she considers me to be one Even those I argue with, I don´t argue for the sake of arguing I like to argue to show others my point of view and to learn others point of view, sometimes that doesn´t go so well but that´s oki, no one is 100% open minded & right.

So yeah I kinda doubt I´m making anyones list here but know that you make mine

bigNATE : If religious schools are teaching something true or not has nothing to do with the merits of religious schools ? I beg to differ, the argument is quite important in this topic.

I already said that I stand corrected about faith, I should have said blind faith.

Atheism was not anything that was shoved down the throats of the children in my school, it´s the conclusion the children came to after studying there. And you say religious schools don´t shove religion down the kids throats ? You said it yourself that there would not be any conflicts of belief in a religious school, that can mean two things.

1: Every single kid has chosen that religion by itself.
and
2: Every single kid that did NOT choose that religion got thrown out of the school.

So tell me how excluding kids from that particular school from it if they are not of a certain religion, is not showing the religion down their throat, and if they don´t get excluded you think there is still no conflict of religions ? And did you choose your school or did your parents choose it for you, I didn´t get to choose where my first 10 years of school got spent, I just had to be in the school I was put in. And lets say there is another school around let´s say a Christian school, and there is a Islam kid living in the area, the Christian school has good education and the other school has bad education, if it was like that then is it not negative that the Christian school excludes people, would it not be better if both schools did not care about religion ?

I won´t post more in this threat since we are creating a back and forth discussion here, I will read whatever arguments you may come up with however but it´s a hopeless thing to try to force my views on you or anyone else who is religious or wishes to defend religion so I won´t try (at least not too much).

bigNATE : When you look up something in the dictionary, then read it. It´s not enough to just copy / paste it.

2. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. See Synonyms at belief, trust.

This means what it says it means, you don´t need material evidence to belief something, this also means that material evidence brought to you can be ignored with faith. Really way to shoot yourself in the leg, you mention that if material evidence is brought then if you have faith you can also accept that, well there already is plenty of material proof that there are no gods and that the Bible and any other religious scripture is false, so fine I may have picked the wrong word with faith, religious schools don´t just have "faith" they have "blind faith", I can discuss this further but only if you ask.

Just cos the Bible has scientific observations and math it does not say the ones who wrote it were very good scientists, what kind of a scientist would not be a bit skeptical about something with no tangible proof for it, such as demons and gods.

Religious "schools" can have good education, but also bad education, such as education that tells you to be 100% adamant about there being a magical being they must worship. And there won´t be adversity there, but what after ? When you have two religious schools stuffing their religion down the throats of children too young to even make their own mind, what do you think will happen when those two meet ? I was brought up in a school that doesn´t care any about if you are religious or not, it only taught facts and was able to support everything taught there if someone asked, even biology if someone needed proof that for example that a flower would grow better if it got some sunlight the teachers would often go out of their way to let us conduct an experiment to see it with our own eyes. Nearly everyone in my class had Christian parents and got forced to go to church by them as kids on days such as X-mas but not a single person in the class had any religion by the time we left the school, simply said everyone had their own freedom to decide what they wanted to belief but no one found it logical to belief in the magical sky person, and guess what, there was no adversity or trouble going on in my school, unless some kid fights and such silly things that happened only in grades 1-4 or so count.

And I really love your parents statement, the way I read it is that it´s good if there is a place where they can place their kid at where their religion will be forced upon them.

I don´t, I´m quite aware that I look kinda bad/creepy and I´m a really quiet guy so I don´t approach people since they probably would feel uncomfortable, but I´m all open for chat if someone comes chat with me, but that doesn´t happen often.

Thing is I´m quite different in terms of looks from most other people, I´m a guy with long hair (about 1 metre), my facial features seem to be a bit slow for my age so I have quite a childish face, I´ve got a small slender figure, I wear what clothes I feel comfortable so I don´t wear jeans or other kind of popular clothes, so I look like a youngish loner dude with long hair XD, not the best for first impressions.

Normally when someone does chat with me we end up becomming friends, since I don´t ever dismiss people or anything like that but it generally doesn´t last all too long since I´m not into stuff others find interesting such as late night drinking, smoking, bodybuilding, dogs(my one and only phobia) and FPSs, my good friends that I´ve know for a long time are people like me, we mostly chat online and feel comfortable with that, each playing their individual game at their individual PC and don´t feel the need to meet up that much, I can make a lot more friends online than ever IRL so I know quite a lot of nice chaps, just nearly none IRL (granted my online friends ofc exist IRL but you know what I mean).

Does it count if you were a kid ? I never really get "obsessed" so I collect stuff and such in my present age but back when I was like 4 or 5 and Hercules came out I got a little obsessed... I got the game and the movie and I got some water bottle shaped like a dumbell with "Hercules" written on it, so I´d fill it with water and spend like 2 hours a day or so (and that is a lot to a 5 year old kid) lifting the thing switching between arms, I made a "Hercules" outfit from strange stuff and wore sandals and went outside in the days running around pretending to be Hercules fighting medusa or the minataur or the hydra or just something else, and I´d re-enact scenes from the movie and from the game.

All the lifting and such made me pretty strong for my age and in kindergarden (or whatever you call it) I´d act like some sort of a cop or moden hercules and I´d beat up the bullies and help the other kids with stuff and such (the caretakers prolli thought I was mental or something XD).

So yeah... I´ve never sunk that deep though, and after all I was just a kid but that was no normal kid obsession I think.

I do like RPG and RPing in general a lot however and have plaid D&D where you roleplay in first person and I tend to play as bards and such in RPGs like the Elderscrolls, or at least a character with some certain personality, like right now I´m playing an Argonian witch monk in Oblivion, and my character is this good type of character that thinks actions are based on the individual but not the thing or race, so it´s a good character that summons deadra/undeads and doens´t attack first ever, not even creatures like bears or ghosts or goblins.

So I could be obsessed with the RP element of RPG´s.

JazzCoon : Oh I agree, but you see. Autism has a HUGE scope... not sorry let me put it in another way.

There is a HUMONGUS, GIGANTIC, ORANGEBANANA CRAZY, WTF, HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGEEEE!!!! Scope of different levels of autims.

My little brother has autism but a mild one, I treat him not like every other person but harsher, it´s better I´m mean to him for his behaviour 500 times in a row than if some stranger is mean to him because of it, because I know he can change out of his habits and such that are related to his autism, I´ve changed many things about him, forced him to repress habits and made fun of him many times, and it works, he feels bad about it and learns to stop doing it.

Am I a bad person ? Nah I don´t think so, he hates me as it is but he doesn´t act weird around his friends and classmates nearly as much as before I started acting like I do towards him, I ofc sometimes act like a good older brother should but I don´t cut him any slack.

Then there are kids with a high level of autism, those you can´t change, but those are likely not to get any special treatment for grades or any either since they are likely to be kept at home if they are very bad, but as I´ve said there are huge differences between each individual with autism and it can be hard to find out how to treat each and every different person with autism.

Oh, and special treatment doens´t have to be good treatment, but autistic people can need a bit of "special treament" now and then.

It´s pretty scary I´ve always had good eyesight but lately it has been getting gradually getting worse, I´ve heard it can be fixed if treated early and I got an appointment with a eye doctor on the 30th this month, I mainly have problems seeing stuff from a projector it seems, or on screens.

Religious schools is a stupid concept.

Religion is about belief, and to hold onto belief people have faith. Science and the act of studying is about observation, observing the world around you to see how it functions, to observe and learn.

Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved and so that religion can thrive, so a religious school is just a concept that can not exist, schools are about furthering education, it teaches you to observe and learn, the whole concept is based on the students observing what the teachers have to teach, and the teachers should teach material that has been observed and studied and confirmed to be facts.

So a school that teaches you NOT to observe ? To just belief what someone tells you on the basis that someone else told him that it was the truth ? It already exists, it´s called a church, or any other similar cultist locations that are there to keep the religion of the cult thriving.

So to the original question "Do you think that there should be religious schools?" I answer.
No, but they already exist.

Humans are already overpopulating and prisoners are costy but I don´t think the death penalty is good for minors whose brains have not yet fully matured, and neither do I think the death penalty is harsh enough a penalty for people who break the law.

Call me cruel but I think that children who comming a crime worthy of a death penalty should instead be condemned to a lifetime of prison and grown ups that do the same should be condemned to a lifetime of slavery, it would be a lot more profitable if they could be used as a workforce rather than just being freeloaders, those that refuse to work could always get the death penalty though ofc.

*Warning: The following post may contain traces of negativity towards techno, proceed with caution.*

I really, really, really hate techno. I never imagined I could hate a music genre but techno is just vile, it would be fine if they just made music from scratch but I see techno taking existing songs that are not well known that are good, raping them and then re-publishing them more than the original artist did, and everyone thinks "that" is how the song is suppoast to be, even if it´s f***ed up and even if they could enjoy the original song.

Let´s for example take Ievan or Ieva´s polka, remixed and called names like "Holly Dolly" or "Levan polka" (Levan as in a male name or... wtf) and I know people that hate the song already because they have only listened to the crap Basshunter and other techno DJ´s did.

*Rage* *Angry mumbles* *more rage*... So yeah, I really dislike techno, this song is not the only case of music being raped by techno.

I can enjoy original techno but when I hear re-mixes I get *slightly* annoyed.

hypermonkey : What´s wrong with Inuyasha ? If you can´t watch either shoujo or shounen I can understand since Rumiko works is all about mixing the two, but Inuyasha really has a pretty deep storyline and diverse characters, it´s like a mixed bag of treats that has a bit of everything, all the stuff you hate and all the stuff you like.

Last anime I watched was probably Kekkaishi, the story centers around a certain piece of land called Karasumori that has strange powers that draws Ayakashi (ghosts/demons) towards it and makes them more powerful, watching over the land are two families that are tied with each other that have powers that allow them to create *beep** and they use that power to drive back the ayakashi and to keep the land safe.

* The *beep* part is there because I hate to lie and I hate spoilers, just watch it and figure it out.

geeogree : I think MMLARP is more appropriate.

jmc1097 : To me it´s the same with any other religion, be it Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or anything else I think it was all done by a series of fiction writers or writers who experienced something they could not explain like sleep paralysis and wrote books about their experiences and made up stories while they were at it.

The stories don´t even need to have been the same, there is a story in the Bible where 42 kids make fun of a bald prophets head and god summons up two bears that maul the 42 children to death, but that story may possibly just have started with some bald old man walking with some kid that suffered from a bear attack, and then as with rumors they build up on themselves and one bear becomes two, the child becomes 42 kids, the bald old man becomes a bald prophet of God and then it gets written into the Bible.

Obviously Scientology is more straight forward fiction but it doesn´t matter how straight forward it is, fiction is fiction (note that this is just my opinion and the point I´m getting across here is that to others the two religions are very similar when it comes to being valid).

Elderscrolls 3 and 4. I could play Morrowind or Oblivion from morning to night, and then through the night and into the next morning and through the day until I´d get woken up from my trance of awesome by my parents hitting me screaming "wake up!".

Yes, those games are THAT awesome.

A hard question, either Abeir Toril in the Forgotten Realms (D&D) or Nirn in Mundus (The Elderscrolls).

I´d prolli end up going for Nirn since unlike in Abeir Toril there are not so many power restraints, there is no divine magic in specific but power just comes from you.

Oh and Electrobot, it´s Tamriel

Nothing, the thing that allows us to think is our brain, once our brain stops to function we are as conscious as a rock, and so our bodies will rot and we won´t even be aware of it, heck we won´t be aware of anything, no brain, no thoughts, no awareness.

So if by "we" you mean our conscience the answer is that it just disappears, never to return or to go anywhere.

And if by "we" you mean the body, well it will go where ever it is carried, and if no one moves it to burn it or something it will just rot and disintegrate with the bones going last but they will also go.

If your depression is a daily thing it´s possible you have major depressive disorder, and if you have that I would strongly recommend Antidepressants, a psychological disorder is nothing to take lightly and you should not think it´s something that can be cured with faith alone, antidepressants won´t cure it but there is a therapy that is called Electroconvulsive therapy that can cure the disorder but there are risks involved with the therapy so some just go for antidepressants.

In any case, be it that you just have a temporary depression or major depressive disorder, I hope you will get well before you do something harmful to yourself.

If it makes you feel comfortable you can try to use your religion, however you don´t need any religion at all to resist temptation.

If the temptation is purely a self damaging one (like being tempted to eat fast food every day cos it tastes so good) it comes down to deciding what you want, for example if it was about eating fast food every day you should figure out if you are willing to sacrifice your health for the time being for the good taste of it, or if you are willing to sacrifice the taste for the good health (and in my mind both options are perfectly reasonable, we all indulge ourselves in unhealthy food from time to time, you gotta live life a little but not in such an extreme way that it starts to hurt you).

If the temptation is something that damages someone else to your benefit, like to steal someones coins, or to cheat the age limit on public services to get them cheaper, then the best way in my mind is to put yourself in the shoes of the other person, you may be tempted to for example steal some money for someone but then just think how you would feel if suddenly some of your money was gone and that you couldn´t do something you intended to do because of it, this is what we call a conscience, the ability to keep yourself from doing something selfish by acknowledging that you hurt someone else by doing it.

Robert7 :
"And right now, without faith in Christ Jesus, you are going to Hell."

Most certainly, assuming there is a god and that there is a hell.
Christianity promotes fear in such a way people do not dare take the risks of wondering if it´s all true or not, people don´t dare to research the world and weigh their opinions, people don´t dare think "Is is more plausible that the world is this way or that way ?"

No, people are too afraid of their kind father God to even wonder why he did it all, why did god create a hell and why did he let Lucifer become evil, why does god kill firstborn children that have done nothing wrong because of the sins of others ?

If the point is to believe in God and to repent for sins you did not commit, then I think it is a selfish and an arrogant god Christians believe in, it´s basically "Believe in me or else!" God is more like a bully if he´s supposed to be that way.

"God wanted us to be perfect, but Satan wouldn't let that happen."

God created Satan and the supposed almighty god should be able to remove Satan.

"Of course I know that. That's another reason why God is amazing, because he spoke through Moses to write the truth."

And where is the evidence that god really did write through Moses, is there any solid proof ? And if not and if you are just supposed to have faith and believe in it, is it not because of fear that you do not question it ? That you never ask "what if Moses lied ?".

"Why not? Do you know just how awful Hell is? It is spending your life in death, with pain and suffering in darkness. All of these things were said in Deuteronomy to prevent us from sinning. These are said that it be better to die, or be hung, in faith of Christ Jesus so that you may go to Heaven, rather than keep that sin and spend eternal "death" in Hell."

So it´s a sin if a woman gets raped in a city but she cannot scream because she is gagged or because she is too afraid ? The woman should burn in hell ? And need I remind you that in Christianity it was God who made hell, that it was God who made a special torture place for raped women who couldn´t scream for help.

I´m not gonna make any more posts after this, you can make another and think "hey I won the argument" but I´ve had those endless arguments that go in circles too many times, and I know I´m not gonna accomplish anything, I´ve made my point about why I am atheist and that should be enough from me for now.

Robert7 : Of course I would not kill anyone, you don´t need to have a religion to have morals, and I just meant that as an Atheist I´m not gonna say that every single thing is bad about Christianity so I used some of the morals (some) as an example of something good.

Uuummmm, you know the Book of Deuteronomy was supposedly written by Moses but not Jesus, and while it has the rule that states that a wife should not attack her husbands adversary in the groin unless she wants to have her hand cut off, there are also these rules in that very book.

Young men who are guilty of disobeying their parents be it through profligacy or drunkenness shall receive the death penalty.

Also if a son is stubborn or rebellious he is to be taken to the towns elders to be stoned.

If a man suspects his new wife of not being a virgin and her parents can prove that she is the man is to be fined but if not the wife is to be stoned to death.

Women are not allowed to wear clothes that men wear (jeans for example) and the same with a man wearing woman clothes (I didn´t see that there was any punishment for this besides hell though)

If a man beds with the wife of another man both are to be killed.

If a man rapes a betrothed virgin within a city and it is not found out during the act both are to be stoned to death (so if the woman does not scream for help or can´t she should be killed for being raped)

Also if a man rapes a virgin that is not betrothed then he only has to pay her father 50 shekels of silver and they shall be husband and wife (and the justice for the woman is where ?)

I won´t take more examples, but these are the things I consider bad values from Christianity, and all of this was only from one book. So even if the attacking a mans groin thing was just a parable you can´t say all the other things are parables too.