Whoever said arguments are a bad thing? Science wouldn't have gotten anywhere if there wasn't someone around to challenge existing ideas and theories. A minor quarrel with some guy on a forum isn't an act of stupidity, it's an entertaining time-waster while you're waiting for your game to download. Plus it's often humourous to listen to the extent some religious people will go to in order to prove a point, I'm just here for the laughs.
@ ibelongintheforums So this Jesus guy is going to come back from the dead, all Christians will be taken to this magical place in the sky called heaven and all non-believers will be killed and taken to hell where they'll spend an eternity of pain and suffering. That doesn't sound ridiculous to you? Regardless of whether or not the idea is ridiculous, I will damn right go against his beliefs which say that I will suffer for eternity in hell. And I could't care less if he is offended. I am more offended by the crazy idea that I'll go to hell and be punished forever for not believing in some invisible man in sky. I don't have a problem with the majority of Christians, even though I still think their beliefs are crazy. But it's the ones that believe in hell that really piss me off.
LBG's signature makes more sense to me than most of the stuff mentioned in this thread. Just enjoy living!
The thing is, Christians insist people share their beliefs. I've never seen an agnostic person in my life that tried to convince a Christian not to believe though. Like I said, I respect everyone for their beliefs, but I do have my own. It's this that many religious people don't seem to understand. We don't want you acting as missionaries just because you're part of whatever church/religion. How would you feel if a Muslim or Buddhist tried to impose their beliefs on you?
Of course I don't believe that. I was just wondering why you you "weren't trying to turn it into a religious argument" and then you call his beliefs ridiculous. Also, believing in hell is a core belief of christianity.
Maybe because I think his beliefs are ridiculous? I was just speaking my mind. I wasn't trying to turn it into a religious argument. Honest
It's not really an argument. I'm the one stating my beliefs. Everyone else is just attacking my beliefs. They don't even have a view on this topic.
I'd say its attachment is getting looser all the time. A great many people believe in some sort of higher power but don't go to church or follow the Bible's teachings, yet they'll still call themselves Christian because it's become something of a standard in Western society. It's like a default religion. If you don't believe in heaven or hell, but believe in some kind of God, you might as well just say Christian. The topic was brought up recently here in the UK, just before the census. They figured a large number of people ticked the Christianity box without strictly adhering to the religion because they didn't want to make the decision to call themselves Athiests, making the overall number a lot higher than it should be. So now you've got Christians who believe in hell and everything else they've been told, and people who call themselves Christians but in reality might actually hold a completely different set of beliefs. I don't believe your stories so I "don't have a view"? Adhering to religious stereotypes much.
Yep. I talked to a crazy zealot in Public Speaking; he would mumble something when I presented a clear argument; then retort with something like "If we came from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?" Then I talked with another kid at lunch. He said he believed that there was a god but that most of the Bible isn't true and science is the only real answer. I don't think that all religion is bad; only that most of it is. So much of religion is driven by fear and blind faith. There are religious people who can have educated discussions; but they're few and far between.
I don't particularly think the idea of religion is bad either. If the general point is to make people enjoy their lives and help others enjoy theirs then great, I'm happy to live with people who follow that. I won't ever believe it, but they mean well and it's not harming anybody... ...until it does actually harm somebody. Then all of the problems arise. Religion is fine, but the way it's practised is far, far from perfect. I enjoy this kind of discussion too, and often don't mean to be disrespectful or patronising at all, but for some reason Christians don't like answering questions. If they love their religion, why don't they want to consider the answers to all of the most hard-hitting contradictions people throw at them? Surely they want to study the truth behind them? If I were a believer I think I'd take delight in explaining the whole story to others and also working it out in my own mind at the same time. It's educational! In many cases I enjoy reading their answers too. I may not believe in any religion but I still quite like to learn about them, it just so happens that the most interesting stuff is the part they don't like talking about.
I really agree with the statement that christians are brainwashed. If try telling a Christian, that for it to rain enough to cover all the hills in the world, and do it in 40 days and 40 nights, it would need to rain something around 16 feet an hour, which is enough to sink a modern day aircraft carrier, much less a ship built thousands of years ago. Or how did the animals cross the oceans/land to get to the ship? How did animals survive out of their native habitats? If you believe in God, it would have to have a few conditions in my mind. 1). The Bible is not to be taken literally. 2). God created the conditions for the world to happen, but didn't actually make it. That said, there are still for me holes in Evolution and Big Bang Theory, so there is really nothing to believe
Ibelongintheforums, ... you included on of my JOKE quotes in that, "Uh, all of the posts above don't understand what this thread was about. Not a debate about religion, or a insult fest against the savior to billions of people. You are like rabid puppies who see a new toy and just have to chase after it." You obviously did not look at who made the thread.... aahh duh, me! How can you understand better than me what the thread I made is about! *eye roll*
No one is attacking anyone, at least Im not attacking anyone, I am merely stating factual evidence from a tome that members of your faith take very seriously, evidence that thus far I have not seen any thing to the contrary to refute it. If you wish to discuss the event, or the dogma that surrounds it intelligently, and without emotion, then by all means, I welcome you to do so. I would ask of course for you to reply to the elements in this post, and move forward. Just as you have stated, I am stating fairly concrete evidence. The burden of proof comes upon you to prove me wrong. Thank you Random_Guy, I await your reply.
Now this is interesting to me, considering the_kernel has his own set of beliefs and presumably would be happy answering any questions aimed at them. If I knew enough about them to even ask
It does a little. I sign off private messages and emails with Jade. But, I think I would feel creeped out if someone called me Jade in the forum
