singforu wrote:
Faith that GOd will wipe away all tears, some far off day, but not today, not for you, not for the thousands who die of hunger, not for the little child who is being molested and then murdered.
Actually, that's called Free-Will in religious circles. If God stopped all murderers and molesters and war-mongerers, then it wouldn't be Free-Will.
It's a tricky Catch-22.
If God is a good and kind God, why does he let things like that happen?
...
If God is a good and kind God, he can't take away free-will, because that is wrong, bad, evil, etc, etc.
True, the status-quo religious circles are used for control of the masses. I believe that. How do you stop murder and theft? Tell people that when they die, they'll go to Hell! Bam! Control.
What that doesn't negate is that people can have faith that falls into one of the mainstream religions without being blind sheep (Baaa! Baaa!) and doing good things because they're told they should to go to Heaven.
Some of us have spent time looking into faith, thinking about it, debating it, and then thinking some more about it before deciding that whatever it is they think is enough "proof" for them to believe.
(Belief is the acceptance of something without proof, so by its very nature, religion almost can't be proven, unless you want to get scientific about it (yes, religion and science! OMG!))
Does that mean if telomerase became available I wouldn't take it because I believe in God? Uh. No.
In my opinion, God is the one who gave us the ability to discover things like this. If he didn't want us to use it, then he wouldn't put the option there before us. Sure, some of it is Free Will and we could be taking that apple, but... I don't think so.
Provided it doesn't hurt anyone. It allows you to maintain your mental facilities. It doesn't cause something else terrible to happen (like rampant overpopulation and all its ramifications), then .. is it wrong? I don't think so.