Watch the video at the top, OH i'm at the top It would be nice if i could say i don't care about what religion you are, so long as you keep it away from me. But this isn't the case, because in all major religions you are told to go and make others believe it too. This and the atrocities and right for land that are warranted in religious texts is why there will always be religious conflict. Why won't religious people just accept that their faith mentality is the birthplace of totalitarianism.
For Christians, in the Bible it states that God will only return when everyone has heard the Gospel. That doesn't mean people have to believe it, they just have to hear it.
And god returning would do what exactly? Is he going to torture all us "big mean contemptuous atheists" who pointed out how completely incompatible the bible was with how we believe women should be treated, or slavery, or empirical facts like evolution, or the date of the Earth? It must be comforting thought to the 40% of American Christians who think Jesus will return by 2050.
I'm an atheist, though raised in a very religious family. From my experience most of what religion's bred is intolerance and zealotry. Anywho life to me has no intrinsic purpose; you define it yourself.
Are debates just intrinsically a bad idea then? Or just is this forum too immature by definition of what it is?
Judging by some of the comments made in this thread thus far, the latter. Religion is just not a topic that can possibly endure civilized conversation. There will always be people who will denounce others and claim their way of looking at it as superior and there is no level of discussion that can get around it.
I am an atheist; fairly heavily so, I am well acquainted with Hitchens, Dawkins, and all the other big name atheists, as well as some lesser known ones. I have also seen popular christian proponents, such as William Lane Craig. I have often thought about the subject, and I have reached my own conclusions. The conclusions I reached are based on the lack of any convincing arguments on the side of the religious, the ill actions justified by religion and the amount of evidence that disproves any literal account of religions. However, I am not so arrogant as to say things like all people who are christian or religious in general look down upon atheists as the evil people. Anyone with any mind can notice that the grand majority of the religious people do not look down upon people, often by the reason of their religion. Not to mention, there is probably AS much of atheists looking down on religion as religion looking down on atheism. My position on religion is that it is fine for people to believe what they want. I am only against it when they use it as a justification for wrongful acts, suppressing education, or trying to push their brand of religion on others. I bet if you asked all the people here who stated they were religious I doubt any would be anti-science, creationist people wanting to push their religion onto everyone. That sort of religion is just not the common version, it is only an outspoken version that uses a title to claim the support of masses it does not deserve. It is arrogance to assume that people on one side are better for just believing, or not believing. I may not believe any of it has any weight, and think that my position is the right one, and I could argue it, but the argument is pointless if by arguing you solidify the oppositions position by showing yourself as a rude person who cares only about winning a debate.
nobody's civilized when there is no risk of getting punched in the face, it's one of the many charms of the internet, but i assure you, you can have some extremely insightful conversations about religion. All you have to do is ignore the trolls and carry on. The way i see it, every human has a void, it's just a matter of how they fill it. If you want to fill your void with promises of endless Cookie Crisp after death, i can't stop you and i wont criticize.
Unfortunately, if "ignore the trolls and carry on" was really an option no thread would ever be locked. And Chuck you've been around long enough here to know the other religion threads failed, I'm just saying why they tended to do that and why another one is not such a good idea, nothing more.
I've learned to be much more respectful towards opposing sides. I know in the Bible it says to "spread the word of God" to others. It doesn't mean, "Hey you, believe or go to hell." It's much more complicated than that. And that's the usual trend, Christianity is a very complicated ideology and there are ways of responding to almost any argument. It may seem water tight from a follower's point of view, and it can be utterly repulsive for another's. Idk, I like to think people should at least study religion, just to get a better perspective. To me, it's something to think about just on the mere fact that it could be true. The worst thing, in my opinion, of course, is to be apathetic towards it. Anyway, I don't mean to bash anyone, it's just my perspective.
"nobody's civilized when there is no risk of getting punched in the face, it's one of the many charms of the internet" yes. im aware.
Baltimora - Tarzan Boy - YouTube [br][/br]Edited by merge: EDIT: oops, wrong thread [br][/br]Edited by merge: EDITEDIT: i love this song though.
No disrespect to Dawkins or Hitchens, and I don't mean to put them at odds, but I find that Stephen Fry puts across a rather more enlightened message when he talks about religion. on polytheism: God Is Everywhere - YouTube taking a scalpel to the Catholic Church, rather than a hatchet: Stephen Fry Speaks Out Against the Catholic Church Part 1 - YouTube diverges (mildly) from Hitch at 3:00 Stephen Fry talking about Christopher Hitchens - YouTube
No, I believe he will give everyone a choice. Either become a Christian or take the sign of the Beast (666)
Well I'm a practicing Buddhist with a little mixture of Christianity. That said, my faith isn't firm and I'm open to anything. I'm trying to study all of the major world religions. I'm also very much open to the scientific theories.
This video: Sam Harris: What are your crazy reasons for believing a god? - YouTube ..and close to the end of this video: Richard Dawkins Versus Homophobic Christians - YouTube I'll have you know I'm uncivilized when there is a risk of getting punched in the face, and civilized when there isn't that risk.