I'm glad you feel that way. Each person has to follow his/her own path and there is no one size fits all for that. That's what I can't stand about some people who are such sheep. They may be good people but they still have a hard time thinking for themselves and then some of them in turn try to convert you to their way of thinking, unable to answer many of the critical questions I may have other than the classic "you just have to have faith, for it's in the Bible." Like I said, I'm glad you feel that way, it means you're actively thinking, which is more than I can say for many.
Love is a good message. One of the hard thing for me to accept, and I think that turns off many people, is why is there a Hell (especially if you are of certain group)? That seems completely incompatible with Love. Right???
And FTR, I only like to read about certain things, you won't see a Caltex2 psychic hotline anytime soon.:grin: That said though, my belief system requires a constant evolution, not this: Spoiler Again, I'm not judgmental of Christians but I don't want my spiritual evolution to stay on the treadmill my entire life, which is what I feel it would if I merely go to church and stay nosed up in one book which I know is flawed (and don't know what to trust within it).
If you are so specially "bad", wouldn't you want to member of a religion that accepts you more than one that wouldn't?
While that is true as a whole that atheism doesn't mean much, I have had way, wayyyyy too many experiences with self-proclaimed atheists who take their beliefs as a reason to utterly demonize all religions, and even go far as to freak out at me when I've observed that Jesus Christ most likely existed as a person. There's also for me the fact that from my experiences, atheists as a whole are rampant materialists. It's not enough for atheists to attack religious belief, it is so often they have to attack belief as a whole, whether it's in the nation, or society. And a country, a group, a state, without any further ideals than obtaining bread and wealth, simply cannot survive. People need something to inspire, to rally around, to release the best and greatest of our potential.
Why bother with it then? If it's just your interpretation of God's word then it's subject to error, change, and evolution which diminishes its integrity. If x is bad in 400 AD and its okay now then what's the point? It's just a cop out to me to say this is God's word and then one day eh, we're going to change that one up to better fit the times. That's not the teachings of some infallible being, that's very human politics, morality, and such. It's got nothing to do with god, it's just Christians deciding what's right and wrong today. Christianity doesn't say use your best judgements finding right and wrong, they flatly state what is right and wrong... until they change their minds I guess. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful but that makes no sense whatsoever, shrouding your religion in vagaries to make literally anything possible.
"The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next." Absolutely not. Not saying it is wrong to believe in a God, but I just can't fool my brain into believing in something with zero evidence, that happens to close doors on many more interesting possibilities. Thank you God for making me an atheist...
I'm curious why you think this way? Words is always up to interpretation. Even lawyer-ed up words that most have a hard time understanding is up for interpretation (hello supreme court). The thing that is closest to not up to interpretation is math. Unless you can have a religion that is described in mathematical terms (maybe there is or will be one?), it's going to be up to interpretation. And interpretation is going to be reflective of the current thinking, cultures,....
You know what it's called? Contradiction. You can believe whatever you want, but the question you asked me is nonsensical, that's exactly NOT the point. The point should be whether you have good reasons to believe it or not. If the evidences presented are insufficient, you hold your judgement until more proof is discovered. That's the default position. Bible, in this case, is just as reliable as your average internet poster who came up with this flying spaghetti monster story, there are phrases saying God is all love then later on God orders you to stone your wife to death simply because she's not a virgin. Then there's this "love edition" of Bible, new testament, where it clearly has its affection towards slavery. So, Much, Love. But then again, believe whatever you want. You are entitled to your opinion but you are NOT entitled to your own fact.
sad seeing the yes result winning. pretty indicative of why the world is so ****ed up. Im somewhat optimistic as time goes on, science, technology, and critical thinking will eventually win out if not already. "It requires ages to destroy popular opinion." -Voltaire Its not a coincidence that most poor, ass backwards, third world countries are the one most religious while the most secular nations are almost always successful first world developed nations with the exception of the United States and a few other countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Importance_of_religion_by_country Religion is used to control, manipulate, and placate the masses of poor.
Hummm... Is it that the country is poor that people turns more to religion for whatever hopeful message they like (surely they like something to go). Or is it that religion keep them in "control", be "manipulated" and in turn keep the country poor? I said it has less to do with religion and more to do with economic model.
Religion may be a tool used by the elite to control, manipulate and indoctrinate people but a higher power (as opposed to saying the word God since it usually implies a man-god) is not out of question because of it. I often tell people to cut out the middle man and if you find any given theology ridiculous to just ignore it and to pray to the higher power yourself and see what it does for your life. And I'd say pray for self-improvement, not vain and selfish desires as if you're talking to Santa Claus.
I agree. I'm entitled to my belief, and you are to yours. But facts are facts. When you talk about the bible being reliable or not reliable I'm not sure what you are talking about or more importantly even why you are talking about it. The bible isn't a history book. So it doesn't have to be reliable as a history book. The bible was never intended to be a science book, so it doesn't have to be reliable as a science book. The bible is more about being a philosophical and spiritual guidebook. Philosophy and spirituality mostly come down to what you believe, and not so much about reliability. So I'm just not sure why it was brought up. There are definite contradictions in the bible. Three of the gospels have Jesus and his scene clearing the money changers and people out of the temple happening shortly before his death at the end of his ministry. One has it happening near the beginning of his ministry. That's a definite contradiction. There are other contradictions as well. My point to that is so what? That doesn't change the message. The message is the most important thing, and isn't change by the timeline of where money changers in the temple happens in Jesus' ministry. You seem to have fallen into adapting the fundamentalist most literal view of the bible. The New Testament is definitely not an affection towards slavery. That's not the point of any single story in the new testament. You also seem to look at certain rules in the bible about stoning certain people and then try use the bible as a rule book. I don't believe that's what the bible is about either. Again you could do all sorts of study and some of the interpretations you have would more than likely change, or you could adopt the most literal fundamentalist translation of the bible and believe that anyone who supports Jesus of the bible believes in those ways of reading it. You are free to look at like that if you wish. But understand it isn't the way all Christians look at it, and it isn't necessarily the way it was intended to be read even by the people who wrote the bible. So let me point out that once the bible says God is love there are no passages of God telling you to stone your wife to death. In fact if you want to look at the bible and people who use that very literal translation of old testament law it's mostly Jesus going against it. In stoning the woman to death, Jesus stops it. When Jesus breaks what the leaders of the temple believe is the old testament law, Jesus more or less tells them that their literal interpretation of that law is wrong. He talks to them about observing the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law. Jesus also tells them that he didn't come to change the old testament law but that he came to fulfill it... In other words their idea of what that law was saying is wrong, and his more loving idea of the old testament laws are correct. They've misinterpreted it. If I believed the bible says what you believe the bible says, I'd be against it as well. I just don't believe that's what the bible says or is it's meaning, and I've pointed out some of the reasons why.
So homosexuality is an abomination according to god but eh, not that a big deal today because of the times? When the bible says the penalty for such and such is death. So that's just an interpretation? In fact can you give me the many interpretations of death as a penalty, non college football related of course. Honestly that the teachings are continually re-interpreted to find acceptance in a continually progressive society is just evidence that god is man made. God's infallible word, his infallible teachings don't change over time. You change them to fit a changing world.
And once we reach that enlightened point, do natural disasters, genetic diseases, and other bad things that happen to decent folks just magically disappear?
Ahhhh not this again, the interpretation of Bible version X. I've gone through this so many times I dont wanna do it again, ever. No, I do not believe in the Bible and I do not believe in your God.
What do you get when you cross an atheist and a Jehovah's Witness? Someone that knocks on your door for no reason.
