The early settlers of Canada brought with them the religious feuding of Ireland leading to a divide between the majority Protestants and incoming minority Catholics. Like hockey players seething in the penalty box, the two sects were segregated into independent religious schools. This was prior to even the writing of the Canadian constitution and forming of the country itself, and thereby it was written with the allotment for this school system.
That system persists to this day, having survived a supreme court decision upholding the right of government funds biasedly towards a religious sect or sects, despite the updated Canadian rights as formulated in the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms. So obviously it is legally permitted.
Canada is fortunate in its current religious climate. While boasting similar religiosity demographics as the United States, with ~70-80% Christian and 10-20% non-religious, it's much more of a pacified faith than what is seen south of the border. There is a war in the US, fought not with guns but with legislature and propaganda with science education and minority rights at risk. This all with the establishment clause demanding freedom of and from religion right there in the Constitution preventing favourable treatment towards Christianity or any other religion.
The situation in Canada with regard to religious schools is not in violation of our legal rights, but that should not be the end of it. While I would prefer it, I am not calling for the suspension of government funds to these schools (yet). What is needed--however needless as it may seem right now--is a constitutional amendment providing freedom of and from religion and the separation of church and state--while we still can.
The consitutional freedoms in the United States constitution is the only thing holding their school systems together right now. While Canada's are doing relatively fine, the constitutional rights aren't meant for the easy times; they're meant for the worst of times. We have the opportunity in the time of peace and tolerance to properly protect the minority from the tyrrany of the majority.
The multimedia lobbyists are already pounding at Canada's door, leading to a fight for our rights with regard to digital media; let's close the door on the religious lobby that could well follow.
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Though I have trouble of how confirm it is. I mean is it enough to claim that all of it happened for sure or is it still something that scientists are observing?
Measurements such as those then collaborate with observations to make and test predictions, such as the oldest stars and where they should be found.
I'm not the best resource, though, obviously. My science is computer science, and even then you can do a lot better.
I could go on with other things I think but I will always say the craziest things about science is the things we don't know.
As long we're willing to say, "we don't know" there's always room for progress.
But yeah that Black Hole thing was just a guess for me.
And thanks for clearing a lot of things up for me. It's just that most atheists (is that your belief?) on forums seem really hostile that I don't feel like asking them these questions.
P.S. Yoda there is a third possibility, Ignoticism. Let's say you are raised in the wilderness alone. This could mean that you have no concept of God, because no one thought you to!
Well, lack thereof (or belief that I don't have belief 0_o).
Most I think are hostile to stupidity and open to science, but you do get angry idiots on all sides, unfortunately.
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"Actually the Big Bang created time and space."
Well, not really. At least, not in the way you're using it. Because of the implications of having all matter converted to energy on the general theory of relativity, our current understanding of space and time does not apply. It isn't necessarily something that doesn't exist, but you may as well start counting from there.
The reason there's a problem going back further isn't non-existence, it's actually getting things to measure and test. Having the universe to the point of collapse kind of destroys the evidence.
And ignosticism is still agnosticism, just with a background story attached. Either you have knowledge of the existence of gods or you don't, so you're either gnostic or agnostic, just as you either believe or don't and are atheist or theist. Anything more than that are specifying details.
And yes I am apparantly Ignostic, because I find the Question do you believe in God to be irrelevant. Unless you means Fedor = God than I agree.
I don't agree that you "choose not to believe." (or to believe). You couldn't just choose to believe that cows are purple because desire alone won't convince you on whether it's true.
I'll speak on the part of the definition of atheist and not individual views. The only view of a god an atheist has are the ones presented. If you call just natural trees "god," alright, but it's kind of pointless.
As I said earlier, the only reason the word atheist even exists is due to so many people saying that their particular concept of god exists. It's for expressing a position on a claim, not for philosophical structure.
If we go the route of "most atheists" and don't get too hung up on definition, we could look at it this way,
By defining "god" as something natural, you defeat the purpose of the word, which you can do for anything. "Unicorns exist, they're just ugly horses," for example. People have their own interpretations of what they think "god" is and what they believe are properties attributed to it, but it's pretty much universal that it's supernatural and has super powers.
"Do you believe a supernatural being with super powers exists?" it's a silly question, yes, but people are asking it. I don't have a problem just saying no.
In the words of Stephen Hawkins: Anything that we see, that we cannot explain, is not in contradiction to nature, but in contradiction of our understanding of nature.
Pure and simply if it exist it is by definition natural.
And there are many shamanistic believes that closely link nature and religion.
And the word god is useless anyways, because the Greek, Cristian and Hindu all have totally different concepts of gods. Heck Nordic gods could even be killed.
And anyways what is supernatural supposed to mean?