The Faith & Religion mega Thread

Originally Posted by mostlyharmless It's impossible to believe anyone could believe that, but I respect your right to do so.

The above refer to my statement

Originally Posted by enorbet Non-believers don't belong to any group of this sort requiring an agenda that feels the need for preemptive power.

I am an atheist and completely unaware of any group or gathering to which I even could belong even if I wanted to (which I don't) let alone some organized agenda of power. The only power I have ever sought is to be left alone and not hunted down or targeted for punishment by anyone's Brain Police. I have never witnessed even in hearsay any organized bunch of non-believers targeting any believers. If you know of any, please enlighten me.

Well thats the thing, most atheists don't have an agenda.
Just because we question religion doesnt mean we are completely out to destroy it.
Sure there are the more hardcore atheists but its more like confronting all the wrongs found in all of the major religions, all the inconsistencies, anachronisms and the dogma.
A lot of religion is based off archaic and outdated ideas where most of it has been disproved or debunked.
After all the bible suggests that the Earth was created in only six days and that its only a mere 10 thousand years old. yet there are plenty of fossils saying otherwise and even if you dont take carbon dating we have discovered things in space that make the universe itself appear far older, sure in the grand scheme of things Earth may indeed be young compared to other worlds out there but we dont know that part as the farthest thing the human race set foot on is the moon (and yes we went there, sorry no movie sets)
Of course you have your idiots who say space was created by Satan or some idiots that say science itself is the work of the devil.
Well if you really do believe science is the work of the devil you have no business being on the internet, having electricity or eating most foods out there or driving a car.
Of course the bible has other flaws too, not only does it suggest there is no outer space but it also suggests that only two people were responsible for the human race witch is even sillier then what people misconceive the theory of evolution as.
Adam and Eve only had two kids, both sons and no daughters.
This would kill off the human race in no time flat, and the bible makes no mention of where the rest of the human race came from.
Yet you do have the possibility of incest, yeah the bible says homosexuals must be stoned to death but sleeping with your mom? Perfectly okay.
Then there is the stupidity of the story of Noahs ark, too many animals that were unknown to talk about but to be sure the boat would have had to be far larger then it was suggested.
You also have the story of Moses which has no real evidence of an exodus in real life.
Not to mention all the fun killing that David did
Or the Westburo baptist churchs favorite line in the bible
And it becomes a real mess once the new testament comes, with the apparent crazy person who claimed to be the son of god.
Hey if i went around claiming I was the son of god and the chosen one these days I would spend a trip to the loony bin.

Originally Posted by DavidMcCann You should have stressed the "almost" rather than the "all". This attitude is characteristic of so-called revealed religions. If you believe that god has spoken, then everyone must obey. Hence forced conversion by Christians and Muslims, ethnic cleansing by Jews. It's not characteristic of pagan religions. Did the Chinese or the Japanese try to wipe out Buddhism? Do Santeria practitioners attack other religions. Of course some-one will bring up Roman persecution of Christians, but that was because they feared that Christianity would destroy the Empire. It did.

Christians have no forced conversions. Some Muslim groups do.

If you going to lie, you need to put more effort into it.

In regards to Christians destroying the Roman Empire.

http://www.history.com/news/history-...-why-rome-fell

Again you lie.

Shame on you.

Yeah I will have to side with you on that one Fixit7, Christianity did not make the Roman empire fall.
What made Rome fall were issues that were around even before Christianity came into existence.
Mainly the stupidity of most of its emperors both pre and post Christianity.
Plus a lot of the backstabbing, inner squabbles, general overconfidence.
Rome was still Rome in the end, Christianity did little to topple the empire really.
Heck it probably prolonged the empire too long after it outlived its usefulness.

Thanks.

The Romans were brutal.

Folks tend to rebel under those conditions. :-)

I just happen to be a fan of history.
Actually if it was one empire that got killed by Christianity I would say that prize goes to the Byzantine empire especially where the crusades were concerned, but even there it is a technicality due to how stupid the crusades were executed by its christian generals.

The Crusades were a series of intermittent military campaigns in the years from 1096 to 1487, sanctioned by various Popes.

The Crusades were done by the Catholics.

Since you are a history buff, I will leave it to you to research Catholics and the Reformation.

And their schism.

Catholics are still Christians though, plus the Byzantine empire were the first nation to face the might of Islam which at the time actually had a lot of high tech on its side. But like I said the fall of the Byzantine empire was technically the fault Christianity, but not the full reason. Its like saying that George Washington was technically the first president of the United States. He was but in a way he wasn't if you know how messy the revolution period was, plus there is john Hanson who by all accounts was the first president. Technicalities are only there because how funny history is sometimes.

Originally Posted by enorbet I have never witnessed even in hearsay any organized bunch of non-believers targeting any believers. If you know of any, please enlighten me.

ACLU

In one hand all the answers, gun in the other. "Learning" from history takes too long!

Originally Posted by OregonJim ACLU

The Lcau is a double edged sword however

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs We don't "know." We don't have any "absolute truth." But, if we are no longer content to be afraid of that possibility, many exciting thoughts open up ... without fear or guilt or "any of that other garbage."

We don't have any absolute truth? That very statement asserts an absolute truth!

Therefore, the statement negates itself.

Even if you modify your statement to say "The only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth", it is still impossible; you have already asserted that there is (at least) one. In order to discount all others, you would need to posess all the knowledge of the universe, which is clearly not the case.

Therefore, there is absolute truth. I leave it to you to discover what that entails.

For the (bio\electric\chemical\fluids) current

human mind?

Truth is what "you" believe!

Parents* are of course the problem...

Originally Posted by jamison20000e Truth is what "you" believe!

Quite the opposite: Truth is something that exists despite what "you" believe.

The problem with absolute truth in religion is that they all claim that they are the absolute truth yet all of them disagree what that truth really is and how to share that so called truth. The only real truth in reality is that everybody lies