Religion is the worst evolutionary trait in human history

That's you freakin' opinion, dude. The ego involved in such a statement is a bit breathtaking, in my opinion.

 

If I'm going to argue contra the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth as an exasperated humanist, I'm not going to convince you of anything. I will have wasted my time especially if I take it seriously.

If instead, I argue as a former Israeli grad student who took years of Jewish studies at Bar-Ilan, I'd recommend you to read this book, which makes an Orthodox Jewish case of why Jews don't believe in Jesus based on Torah, and call it a day.

It specifically covers why Jews reject the claims that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. So instead of quoting from the book and pretending to be a great biblical scholar, I suggest reading it. I suspect you'll find it fascinating, even if you don't agree with it.

 

Hinduism?

The universe shall go through cycle of creation and destruction, forever. Can't beat that.

 

If prophesies are true does that mean all human interactions are set, we know about them but are helpless to change them? How would that conflict with Free Will ? If we know the prophesies and changed to avoid them, then are the prophesies wrong?

 

The Bible is accurate? Please share that with us, it is not anymore accurate than Nostradomus, which is to say, is inaccurate.

Religion has been inaccurate for years --- Sumarians, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Christians, Jews, Islam, Babylonians, Scientologists, all of them...just one long series of mythologies.

DD

 

Assuming cml isn't a troll and is actually sincere in his posts, do you honestly believe he fleshes out his beliefs in a rational way like this?

 

You obviously missed the point of my post. Please tell me one thing Jesus commanded his followers to do that would be dangerous to nonbelievers.

 

Man the bible is filled with that same crap. Basically that non believers are unworthy and do unto them whatever you like. The bible has a lot of good stuff in it and so does the quran, but it also has a lot of bad stuff in it as well. The problem is when people take a book and worship it like so.

"He that is not with me is against me;"

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."

"Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."

 

This idea that morality comes from religion is simply absurd. There are still parts of the world that religion hasn't corrupted and guess what, they still have morals.

 

You make an argument that religious morality isn't in flux and is considered 'objective morality'.


Question for you. Do you think slavery ought to be allowed?

 

The ONLY thing you really need to do to get to heaven is believe. I could decide to kidnap, rape, torture, then murder a child, spend the rest of my life behind bars, find God in prison and truly be repentant, and look forward to heaven according to Christian doctrine.

Here I am as an Atheist with better morals than most Christians, never hurt anyone, yet I'm going to hell for lack of belief.

The Bible is nothing but a list of suggestions to live your life by, but if you decide not to, just say you're sorry and all is forgiven. Everything can be forgiven except non-belief.

Sigh.

 

Exactly. It's not like the incentives in Christianity and Islam make you a morally sound person. It only makes you a person who believes in a superstition. That's all. The only requirement to go to heaven in Christianity is accepting Jesus as your lord and savior. That's it. You could have raped hundreds of toddlers and you then can accept Jesus as your lord and savior and still go to heaven for eternity I really don't see how Christianity is a moral system.

 

Why is it when radical Islamist commit mass murder CF then has to bash all religion? I certainly don't think that all Muslims are equally complacent in this violence. Saying all religion is wrong because a small minority engage in violent behavior is just ignorant.

 

The concept of an afterlife is only a coping strategy to endure the unavoidable stresses of this life. If you are something like a slave or dealing with infant mortality it's not too hard to buy in to hope. Living in crippling despair or suicide has really been the only other option for most of our history.

Now of course we can use all manner of entertainment distraction.

It serves a purpose.

 

That brings up a good point. A black Christian in America should absolutely be an oxymoron. The morality behind slavery, the entire treatment of slaves, comes straight out of the Bible. The idea of an afterlife for a slave is the ONLY way he/she could have taken the treatment they received from slave owners. Most slave owners could have relatively easily been "taken over" for lack of a better word, by the slaves. They had the numbers. The Bible was used as a mechanism of control and it worked fantastically. That's the same God damned book they still follow today? I mean, why?!

Black communities in the South STILL preach the idea of Jesus. In a way, they're still slaves. They're certainly controlled by the white man or Black Lives Matter wouldn't need to exist. Racism, the need for feminism, the LBGT community, all directly come straight from the Bible. "For truly man was not created on account of the woman, but woman on account of the man." WTF ladies, of course you're not equal, your Holy book says you're not. A Christian women should be an oxymoron. Cherry pick out the bad parts much? On what criteria? Why are gays so horrible, yet eating shellfish or wearing mixtures of fibers is just fine?

I 1000% agree with you OP. Religion is TOXIC.

 

Religion is NOT toxic. But some followers are toxic, just as some non-religious folks are.

 

Of course before the civil war the rationale that many abolitionists used was also from Christianity. During the Cvil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's a large portion of the leaders of the movement were Christians and some even pastors for the church, and credited their religion as the reasoning for their struggle.

Sorry, but Christianity has been used on both sides of the equation in the history of this nation just as it is today.

 

Why is blind faith NOT toxic?

 

Right.

http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/secular-philosophies/the-problem-with-religious-moderates.aspx

Long article, but summed up religious moderates "support" religious fundamentalists.

 

Don't you understand? The need for the Civil Rights movement was needed in the first place because far too many people still see blacks as second class BECAUSE of slavery. The South lost the Civil War, but not the hatred of blacks. That's been past down from generation to germination to generation. It's the exact same with women and feminism.