Anubis
No Lifer
actually when you look at all that info you figure out that ALL religions are false, there is no god or afterlife, they are all wrong.
GagHalfrunt
Lifer
- Apr 19, 2001
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What is "good", in your own words? I ask because one persons definition of "good" could be my definition of "pitiful". Just working and loving your country doesn't make you good, being kind to everything and everyone regardless of their personal lifestyles is good. So long as their lifestyle doesn't harm or impede others, that is.
The underlying reason why many of them are so "good" is because they're selfish, and want to get into heaven when they die. That can and will create issues, especially in times of crisis.
I agree.
Most non-believers think that those Doomsday street preachers is the message of the Bible. That is 100% false. The message in God's Word is LOVE.
I won't make this post into a sermon, but I will say the following:
1) Few Christians do good works through faith, love, and compassion, not because they think doing them will earn their place in heaven and avoid God's wrath but because it is their way of reciprocating the love and grace bestowed to us by God.
2) Misinterpretation of the Scripture is a leading cause of conflict between people of differing beliefs.
3) Meh
BoomerD
No Lifer
- Feb 26, 2006
- 66,366
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That's why the concept of Hell was invented...
Worship MY God the way I tell you to, or you're going to go to a place of eternal misery, pain, and hellfire for all eternity...OR, play my way and you'll go to the magical land on the clouds and hang out with the sky-fairies who play harps and life is good..:roll:
Worship MY God the way I tell you to, or you're going to go to a place of eternal misery, pain, and hellfire for all eternity...OR, play my way and you'll go to the magical land on the clouds and hang out with the sky-fairies who play harps and life is good..:roll:
- Feb 7, 2005
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By your definition no one is good. I don't have a definition, a good person is a good person. Human, makes mistakes, chooses the right path more often than the wrong one, doesn't kick animals and tries to lead a positive life.
See, and I think it's correct interpretation that has that effect. Go figure.
Atomic Playboy
Lifer
- Feb 6, 2007
- 16,432
- 1
- 81
This is absolutely false. Let me sit down with an open mind and explore Christianity for a minute.
Christianity has existed for less than 2,000 years. Given a Universe that is 14 billion years old, a planet that is 4.5 billion years old and life that is 3 billion years old, as a species, we are remarkably young (200,000 years or so). We've believed in Christianity for less than 1 percent of our time as a species, and we've existed as a species for roughly 0.00001 percent of the Universe. When you consider it in that context, Christianity is an extremely new way of viewing the Universe; it is by no means Universal law.
Chrsitianity has had a few hiccups in its short history. Early Christianity was heavily dependent upon stories that contained factual inaccuracies, such as claiming the Earth was 6,000 years old or that a flood wiped the Earth clean. Christian texts made no attempt to dispel the idea the Earth was flat, nor did they address evolution, atoms, gravity, thermodynamics, or many other scientific principles that would be established in later centuries. In fact, when scientific theories were proposed that contradicted the Christian notion that the Earth was the center of the Universe, the proponents were dubbed blasphemers and heretics, excommunicated from the Church, and thrown in prison until they recanted their claims (never mind that they were, in fact, correct).
The Church has a long history of violence and slaughter. The Roman Catholic Church waged a campaign of Crusades to drive the Muslims and Jews out of Europe and reclaim the Holy Land around Jerusalem, which primarily took the form of prolonged sieges and campaigns of torture and mass executions. Several hundred years later, the Spanish Inquisition saw a return of terror tactics being used by the Church in a campaign to purge Europe of heretics, primarily Jews.
The Church continued to have its share of problems. The Catholic practice of Indulgences led Martin Luther to denounce the Church as corrupt and form a splinter faction of Christianity. The Portestant Reformation was divisive, resulting in a schism that has led to no less than 20 major denominations of Christianity in the World today. The Roman Catholic Church remains the largest Christian Church, and under the leadership of the Pope, the Church has maintained a platform of non-involvement in several major issues of the last millenia, including slavery and the holocaust, not to mention the recent scandals involving sexual molestation charges against numerous priests by former altar boys. The Church continues its longstanding policy of refusing ordination to women.
Now, based on these facts about Christianity, I would have to conclude that it is far from the unique and reasonable explanation you contend. The Church seems slow to respond to changing information; the Church's prosecution of Galileo (for espousing an idea that Copernicus had said 60 years earlier, no less) for heresy. For a modern example, one need look no farther than the theory of evolution; though evolution has been widely accepted as scientific fact for over 50 years, it is only within the last decade that the Pope made any acknowledgment that evolution may exist. The Church has a long history of warfare and genocide against differing ideas, from science to religion. At the very least, the Church is incredibly divisive, even within its own ranks of followers, hence the numerous divisions in denominations, and at worst, the Church is a bloody and violent organization bent on purging the World of any opposing viewpoints.
But I maintain an open mind. Christianity may well be correct. God may have impregnated a virgin who died for the sins of man and was resurrected to ascend to Heaven. I don't know. You don't either. For all your certainty about Christianity being the only plausible answer, I am equally certain that 2,000 years of blood, devastation, death, war and horror do not inspire confidence in me. But I am humble enough to admit I could be wrong. That is what having an open mind means. That is why you fail.
:music: Captian Planet :music:
:music: He's our hero :music:
:music: Gonna take pollution down to zero :music:
GagHalfrunt
Lifer
- Apr 19, 2001
- 25,284
- 1,998
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Convenient excuse to deflect attention away from the wars that Christianity did start and the atrocities Christianity did commit. What, does the fact that others have been scumbags explain the millions upon millions of deaths that Christianity is responsible for? Christians have always been thugs, murderers, terrorists and rapists and that does not apply merely to some followers of the religion, but to the leaders of the religion. The vast majority of the blood spilled by Christianity lies on the hands of the leaders and was spilled in gods name supposedly with gods approval.
No, religion isn't the root of all evil, but it's the root of a whole bunch of it.
Fenixgoon
Lifer
- Jun 30, 2003
- 33,373
- 12,967
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so what about the atrocities NOT committed in the name of christianity, hmmmm? multiple world wars and european conflicts come to mind. how about the testing done on jews and gypsies at the hands of the nazis during WW2, in addition to concentration camps? how about the butchery committed by Joseph Stalin?
i think it was one of the khans who supposedly built a tower of corpses after plundering the middle east (i'd have to double check my world history.. it's been a loooong time since that class). people have been waging war far longer than christianity has existed (and for far more reasons than "in the name of god").
quite frankly, the crusades may have been terrible, but they are 600-1000 years old (depending on which one you pick). get over it.
i think it's absolute shit that the pope apologized for something that old. if someone asked me to apologize for slavery, i'd tell them to fuck off. i didn't do it, so why are you trying to blame me 150 years later (let alone a millennium later for the crusades?)
sandorski
No Lifer
- Oct 10, 1999
- 70,800
- 6,356
- 126
Nazi's were Christian. In fact, what gave rise to the Nazi's were similar issues that Christians harp on everyday. Such as: Homosexuality, other Sexual practices, evils of the Big City(Naziism started in Rural areas and loathed the Urban centers), etc etc. The Nazi Party wasn't a necessarily religious organization, but the vast majority of its' members were Christians.
venkman
Diamond Member
- Apr 19, 2007
- 4,950
- 11
- 81
I seem to remember hearing that The Buddha actually described things like the atom and certain principles of quantum theory as the components that make up man. Thousands of years before the electron microscope, he figured out things that we are only figuring out today.
Atomic Playboy
Lifer
- Feb 6, 2007
- 16,432
- 1
- 81
You missed my point completely. My reply was entirely directed at this quote: "Christianity emerges as the unique and realistic explanation." I specifically addressed the problems that Christianity has had since its inception because Christianity was specifically mentioned as the only reasonable explanation for the Universe. I never meant to imply that Christianity was the scourge of humanity; I think some positive things have come out of Christianity as well. However, given the evidence, I think anyone who impartially views the history of Christianity will be hard pressed to claim that it is the "unique" explanation for existence. That was the point of my reply, nothing more.
GagHalfrunt
Lifer
- Apr 19, 2001
- 25,284
- 1,998
- 126
Nope, I post in golf threads, sports threads, politcal threads, computer threads and other subjects upon which I am educated and informed. If only the rest of ATOT followed that we might have some intelligent debate here once in a while.
Why do you find it so threatening that I post in religious threads? Does the fact that I'm educated about the criminal history of the church bother you? Why? Shouldn't you be pissed at the Christian criminals who have MURDERED MILLIONS rather than being pissed at the person who reminds you of it?
- Feb 7, 2005
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I can see how one could misread what he wrote as a diatribe against Christianity, but he was responding to the same post I was where the poster claimed Christianity was the only true religion, and claimed that science (?) and philosphy support that argument.
Had the poster suggested that Islam was the only true religion and all others were "wrong" I think AP would have had just as easy a time throwing together a few examples of how that is probably a conclusion not supported by empirical data.
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