When i was a kid (or when i was in Nepal), i used to believe in God. I did however have reservations on religion but i still believed in God. Its been a year in US now and having met people from other cultures, the existence of a supreme being doesnt make sense anymore. 

I think that believeing in GOd instills in a person faith, confidence and positivity to get through good times and be appreciative of the bad ones. I want my children to have these qualities so i dont want to tell them that GOd doesnt exist. Moreover, i cant imagine what my parents/relatives will make of me when i talk to them about this. It isnt going to be pretty. 

It does give me great discomfort to think about all this. I must admit i feel less confident and more pessimistic these days. I want to believe in God but my logic doesnt give in anymore. In fact, i get irritated when i hear things like "God COMMANDED you to.." "GOd will PUNISH you if..", "We are SERVANTS in from of Him" "(on Christianity): "Jesus died on the cross for you"(THere are many who have made a similar magnitude of sacrifice). 

I think that God and religion are ancient theories that havent been discarded yet. And it hasnt due to the fear in people of what might happen if they didnt. One of my teachers once said "if there is no god and you believe in god, there is no harm but if there is god and you dont believe in god, there is harm". i feel this and cultural and social stigmas lead people to be religious and not question their beliefs. 

I wanna know what you guys make of this.

I disagree 100% with you.... nobody is BORN RELIGIOUS...just cause the mother/father engage in religious rituals does not mean that a kid is BORN religious.....religion is taught to the kids as they grow up...it's not genetic brah!! nobody has a religious gene in em.....it's an acquired trait,  as the kid grows up and prents or someone else inflicts these belief system in them.

a kid can be born into a religious family...but a baby can never have religious belief when they are BORN. learn to distinguish the difference before you speak sir! for someone who claims to have higher understanding than everyone else you sure seem to lack some basics!!  LOL

what about all the atheist parents who have kids then?? are they born religious too???

Atheism i believe is also a form of a religion .. they fully believe in not believing.. they believe in themselves.. they themselves are god for them.. its a form of paganism..

Before the big bang theory there were several other theories we happened to know. Nobody knows when and how the universe was created. Lets not talk about what really happen before big bang that is unknowable but one thing is crystal clear the beginning of the universe is not a creator. Now, what about the end? do you guys know when it will end ? scientists say black hole will swamp the whole universe after 30 billions somthing years but its far beyond my comprehension therefore I said there is no end. I genuinely believe expressing something based on reality is not ignorance.

Chaurey, you just hit the jackpot. how does he know every atheist is born religious? assumption can be very dangerous and have many by-products.

grgdai,
your last sentense makes sense but you don't know why you wrote that. Im pretty sure on that.

I got this chain mail picture last time with this old guy in the picture and words go like this
" First, I was dying to finish my high school and start college,
And then, I was dying to finish my college and start working,
Then I was dying to marry and have children,
And then I was dying for my children,
to grow old enough
so I could go back to work
But then I was dying to retire
And now I'm dying
And suddenly I realized
I forgot to live "

Your reply reminded me of that quote. Animals do live the same day , as a matter of fact, they don't  go to college but they do learn hunting and adapt with their own environment in the same manner. I mean, basically it's the same thing they live and live for their offspring. But the thing is there is a reason why we have this intelligence , why not use it and try to understand it in our free time instead of being the part of materistic rat-race, and forgetting everything..

People tend to become spiritual when they get old, becase they don't find meaning and purpose to their lives after they accomplish everything. I mean, common, I'm in my thirties and I'm already spiritual,ppl say so, the way I think and behave. There is no harm in to realize this in early time.

I'm not saying you bother with god/no god stuff in your materially consumed world, I'm equally part of it and do the same to run my everyday life, but at least if you put an effort on this hidden realization of the life, just in your free time, you'll definitely know something unknown. I've experienced that a lot.

And, grgdai, you really are religious. No matter how hard you try to pretend. :D 
It takes years of practice to think like me and understand.

Chaurey, I knew it, you would ask me that questions.
The act of marriage itself is religious.

Let's rewind the time back to when there was no concepts of marriages at all. Say, 50,000 BC, humans were wild and savages, they're all polygamists, no rule, no restriction simply wild. Let's forward the time, say 1 AD, a book was already written with all do's and dont's for human, that was their holy book, they described virginity and marriages.

So, my friend, the moment they get married in someone(priest's) attendance, they unknowingly got themselves into religious act. It's like claiming themselves 'vegetarian' and at the same time consuming dairy products. 

Strict atheist would never get married in true sense, even after marriage if they hold the same idea, nothing is wrong but they are not fully atheist.

georgian_satellite

Nobody knows how this universe came into existence and how it is going to end. What people are saying is based on small numbers of observations and large numbers of modeling. The theories deduced from these observations might not be true. It depends on the eyes of observer or reference of observation. Reality is not the absolute and independent entity, it is reference dependent. So whatever you are thinking as real is real based on your reference of observation. Your theory might appear non realisitc for someone using different reference. And you can not say my theory is right and yours one is wrong until both can explain and predict the scientific behavior of that observation. 

are you saying people can't have babies without getting married then? what about babies who are born to religious and atheist people who are not married?

 "Children are born religious" --- bittertruth
WHAT AN UTTERLY STUPID LOGIC! Thats all I can say about this. The next thing you would say is that children are born republican, democrat, kangresi, maobadi, and so on. 
Next thing, one DOES NOT convert to atheism. You just realize that you are an atheist, from your thinkings, from your disbelief in deities.  

I'm smiling because you are asking questions because you don't know the jack about what I'm explaining because you are not trying to accept or understand or at least make an effort to get out of that your thick head or break the barrier and get out of the box or because I feel like I'm argueing with fools . EOD

anyways,

chaurey - no comments, keep asking questions, you'll find it oneday on your own

gregorian_satellite - [yawnnn]

man ko kura -  you saying me doesn't make me stupid and doesn't make you wise. stupid ppl see others stupid. but what I was trying to say was (had to BOLD to prevent thoughtlessly criticizing me without reading what I wrote in above posts)

"It is a fact that the newborn children are unable to comprehend the meaning of what is told them but they definitely are able to identify the surroundings and the faces around them. They do hear the sounds and their senses and the minds take note of them. Therefore it is not correct to say that the newborn babies don’t take any impression from what they see and what they hear in early childhood. Although the newborn are unable to understand the meaning of the talk going on around them, the sounds of the words are registered on their minds and in stages they start to understand the meanings and they become a part of their vocabulary. Even amongst adults it is noted that the words which impress the mind most are retained in the memory. The adults recognize well-known persons easier than casual or occasional acquaintances. Similarly the newborn baby too, living in a spiritual environment, hearing the recitation of the Holy Book, the word of Allah coming to their ears and having seen the parents offering prayers in their presence will develop into religiously upright persons. On the other hand the new born babies who are surrounded by irreligious persons, hear the sounds of uncivil and abusive language, are exposed to amoral music and songs, will no doubt grow up to be persons similar to those in whose company they are growing up."

You keep presenting YOUR PERSONAL BELIEF as if it's an all out universal truth .... FOR example you said:

"On the other hand the new born babies who are surrounded by irreligious persons, hear the sounds of uncivil and abusive language, are exposed to amoral music and songs, will no doubt grow up to be persons similar to those in whose company they are growing up."


That is an ASSUMPTION you are making based on your PERSONAL OPINION ...NOT A FACT....and yeah just cause you present your pile of garbage in BOLD font does not make you look any more intellegent or correct. ;)

Anyway you just agreed that you were wrong that BABIES ARE NOT BORN RELIGIOUS....they are BORN INTO A RELIGIOUS FAMILY and their minds are altered into accepting these as they are inflicted with the religious teachings much later correct?

 bittertruth,
I wasn't accusing you of being stupid or wise in my last post. I was just saying that the logic was stupid. We all make stupid or wise statements at different times, I think that one single statement isn't enough to judge a person's intellectual standing. I don't know you and hence my evaluation of your intellect would be inappropriate, or inadequate to say the least. So just to clear things, I said the logic was stupid, not you.

About the things you replied in BOLD: Can't you realize that your own sentences point to the fact that religiosity is induced into people, it's not an attribute that they are born with? And your generalizations about religious and irreligious upbringing is askew, based upon your personal presumptions and bias. I am an athiest but I don't "hear the sounds of uncivil and abusive language, I am not exposed to amoral music and songs." 

 GT, you are absolutely right. My vulnerability is, I couldnt be self-made genius, wise and practical as someone has boasted above. That was just an expression what I think is real with no intention to impose them on others. 

chaurey, your edit upon edit on your own posts show your mind is going through turbulent state, It's a state of shock when you can't decide what is true or false or when you lack taught logic, you lose your decision making ability or you get things in your head very late(tubelight). When that happens you simply refuse what other has to say , refusing someone without backing your own reasoning is the height of the ignorance.

Babies are born religious, it has deep spiritual meaning in a spiritual sense. I'm pretty much sure none of you doesn't really want to spend time understanding spirituality. Most of you probably spend time in gossiping around boys/girls/bar/beers. Life-in-making inside woman's womb itself is a religious. Here by religious, I'm not refering to any specific religion, I'm refering to one creator concepts. The life force or the energy that separate dead from alive, I'm talking that religious. Like I said before, I don't believe any god of your belief, so forget about it. Don't assume me being atheist, and still talking about 'religious', no I"m not, I don't have split personality but I'm one of those people whom they refer as being 'pantheist'. All the physicist, scientists, doctors, most of them are 'patheists' who believe in one creator , they are not religion specific like most of you are. I deny all your religions. I'm not being disrespectful but that's how my mindset is.

Dictionary meaning of 'religious':re·li·gious  (r-ljs)adj.

I really like what you say.. Finally someone who actually makes sense and dose not have to swear to prove his point.. well done.

Here is exactly what I've to show to back my concepts: 

you are confused sir, not me....i was merely trying to understand your concept however with the pile on of assumption packaged as universal truth somehow made me think twice about your approach.. for someone who believes atheists are immoral and uncivil, babies are born religous, life in woman's womb is religious act etc. i think i'm done trying to understand your view.

complement to bittertruth

This is how i view about god, belief systems and society..........
 I know that belief system is really mysterious. A black cat crosses the street and then we think oh it might bring bad luck, a sane mind overcomes his belief and gathers his courage and crosses the street while the "what if " minds stay for others to pass or changes his way. 
That was just an example of how belief effects our daily life. Similar, examples follow with religiosity. It is hard for someone who has been told that god exist and so we should direct our effort to please gods will, to abandon his thought about god and allied belief. But we need to question things which do not look appropriate to get the answers. Sometimes we don't get answers for our question like the existence of god. Nobody can prove existence of god. We can only find people who claim of feeling god or meeting god in dream etc. But that is not enough, not enough at least for now where we give credibilty to things that can be seen, touched, predicted etc. So it's better to analyze things in your own way to come to conclusion.
There are lots of question which can not be answered. Just that it could not be answered now does not mean it cannot be answered. But it should not be mistaken for god's will or power. In the past people could not answer mysterious things so instead named it god or god's will so let us not think that god is really a supernatural being who is in constant vigil. 
People can be civil and humanistic without fear of god.  If a fear is employed to make people diciplined than once that fear is gone they may think that they can do anything but if you fill people with ethics and obligation of society then they will turn out to be better human being.
 There are some people who do things without thinking of god. They don't even know that if there is god. But they think that there is something called soul or spirit. I don't think there is any soul or spirit or anything of that sort. Like someone asked how does a living becomes dead all of sudden. Its simple, some of our parts stop to function as they should so they die. Just like any machine which stops all of sudden because something breaks down. Machine can be fixed. But humans cannot be fixed. Why? It is simple, machine are not constantly evolving once a machine is made it remains the same but humans are not. Just like a fruit which starts from flowering to being a green fruit and then ripe fruit followed by senescence ultimately to decay in the soil, humans are born to decay. 

it's called biology and natural process...nothing to do with devine intervention about it....no need for a GOD LABEL to name a naturally occuring process.