The whole meaning of being a Christian is being saved from hell. Maybe God might not exist, but if he does, i'll be in Heaven and others won't. He also forgives our sins, even though its not like he likes it when we sin. Also, working on Sunday isn't a sin. Saturday is the sabbath, and its only celebrated in Jewish culture. You can't do bad things while you're in Heaven, its a sinless place. Everything in Heaven is how it was destined to be before the fall of man. There's your answers.
Hmm, so what if the Jewish people are right and we shouldn't work on Saturday? Who made the change to Sunday, and is that the right choice? AHA! You can't do bad things, meaning God has taken away our free-will, am I right? Like what if some people wanted to commit adultery? If he can make us happy in Heaven, why can't he help even just the starving people on Earth?
You've got it backwards. If I declare "X" exists I must substantiate the claim for others to believe it. If another person declares that "X" does not exist, due to my lack to evidence, I do not have the ability to say, "prove it." I must prove my point, not expect others to disprove my point. Say for instance I said that "X" exists. I offer no evidence, no reasoned arguement, or even a definitive definition of my concept, "X". It is not unreasonable to dismiss the claim according to the amount of evidence backing it. However, proving the claim to be positive requires extensive knowledge of "X" and extensive evidence for "X". So to put it in a chart style layout: To Dismiss (unbacked) claim - 0% To Prove (unbacked) claim - 100% To Dismiss (backed) claim - 100% 2. "And that's his slogan!" Try picking up a girl with that line! When you actually do get a girlfriend, worth anything, you'll find submission "does not compute." 3. Am I talking about biblical slavery or the slavery in the America's? "If you learned something about the times back then, then you'd know that being a slave was usually better than owning your own home and having your own "Free" family. As a slave, you didn't work for nothing. You worked for shelter, food, etc. But as a "free" person, you had to make enough money to pay for everything. As a slave, your master would pay for everything." We were really doing the blacks a favor by enslaving them. OK, so in fairness one of the two forms of slavery was more brutal. Can you guess it? Biblical it is. "Owning" a person, no matter how lavish the lifestyle and carefree, is and will always be morally wrong. Freedom and individuality is the principle tenet of mankind. And you can quote that. It's not so bad on the Jews part for enslaving people. It seems to be a reoccurring theme throughout the whole world. I can't blame them for something everyone participates in and, perhaps, is ingrained upon the human psyche. But this is supposed to be a divine authority giving permission for his creation to hold dominion over another of his creation, not some greedy, power hungry mortal. The Divine, no matter how powerful, does not have the right to enslave the will of man on its authority, perhaps due to its own moral standards but mostly due to mine. I must, in some way, be a reflection of the Divine and my morality, decency, and humanity should be no exception. 5. I hold the contention that the place you speak of does not exist. However, if it did and if worse did come to worse heaven would be a lovely place to be but at what cost? My morality? My sanity? My reason? Is the Divine so fickle that it cannot accept me for how it created? Is the Divine so fickle that it would blackmail me my own freewill at the cost of my common humanity? If hell does indeed exist, no matter how dark or evil, I would rather be in the presence of my preserved self. I will not sell my soul for the pleasure and indulgences of the ignorant and arrogant.
It's called sarcasm lol... There's no atheist tradition dictating the need for the word yes, not ya... ;P Anyway... Going to what Dream was saying... I completely agree. It wasn't until brains developed did humans actually come up with religion. Because they did. Actually, what I find interesting enough, is that for the entire period of time that was the Paleolithic age, there was absolutely no religion. Sure, they were still pretty primitive back then, but not so different from the humans of the Neolithic age. And yet those in the old stone age survived more than fine with no religion... It was when humans decided to try and make sense of that which confused them that religion came about. As time goes on though, and more scientific discoveries are made explaining the world and all forms of natural phenomena, things once believed to be very religious, aren't anymore. It was very well believed that the sun was a god, the earth was, the moon, oceans, etc: all gods that controlled nature. Now, this could still exist in some places, but for the most part, not anymore. Scientists are very close to being able to officially prove that the galaxy was created through the big bang theory. Religious people cling to the idea that God created the world in seven days, 6000 years ago or so. What I think is a big think to notice, is that scientists continue to persevere and research and discover new things, evidence and facts. People of religion have nothing to research and no way to produce and new evidence of their beliefs, except to say what has already been said. Back a little to the subject of God though, or really what was being discussed above... Two things I usually think about here... 1) Which I think has been brought up before but, if people of religion are so excited and positive that when they die they will be saved and sent to heaven to live peacefully, then why haven't all people of religion committed suicide yet? You'd lose all of the stresses of life and misery and get to spend forever in heaven, laughing at all of the atheists and people of other religions who you will have proved to be wrong. 2) If everyone on earth is a child of God, and God loves all of his children, why let some people in and not others? Humans are flawed beings, and so not believing can be considered by God another flaw. No one in the world is perfect. So its incredible to think anyone would get into heaven at all... Basically speaking, since all you have to do is go to church and repent, why don't you just go on an insane killing spree right now? Go slash and burn the town down. Who cares? You can always repent and get to heaven... At least, from things like that, that is what I gather, just reading about Christianity, is that one part of it is the ability to commit endless adulteries and get off Scott-free in his book. If everything in heaven is how he intended the earth and humankind to go, then why has he let us fall so 'low'. Why didnt he intervene and stop us? If heaven is just like earth before sin, what is stopping anyone from making it sinful. Does knowing that you are in heaven suddenly change someones personality into that of perfection, and suddenly you are so high and mighty you know not the ability to commit a felon of any kind? Suddenly you can't lie and can't hurt or anything, yet you are supposed to enjoy life as it was on earth? As said before...
I like this guys addicted aptitude. Picking on a few points the point most christian will lay at your feet in reply to your post is that Jesus was an intervention. Much of your point of view thou shows you know nothing of Christianity or the religious point of views your basically attacking. Now, as a bit of a loop hole to every one argument. How does the belief of Confucianism rule into your Atheism? Second, point if you haven't noticed I'm helping both sides, Most people think that Day is 10,000 years to god, have you actually translated that Text. Because, it was a refernce to decades... and that isn't defined year date.
Hmm, let's see: A great, all knowing, all loving being in the sky who can perform miracles who is only experienced by the preachers who convinced us of his existence and people with mental problems. I'm just not big on thinking that there is someone who can always solve our problems. It's like the late comedian George Carlin once said: "Religion tells us that there is a being in the sky who tells us ten rules he calls, 'Sins'. And should you break one of these rules he will send you to a place where you can burn and scream in agony for the rest of eternity. But he loves you....... and he wants money." EDIT: I'm beginning to feel scared, literally THE SECOND after I posted this and the post count for this thread was 666, and the view count was 6666. For those who don't know, 6 is the devil's number. sorry god
Why can't we all be Buddhist, they have no god which pleases atheists, and on the other hand it's still a valid religion.
Actually, your horribly wrong. Buddhist also have a god. It is apart of the 8 fold path, along with reincarnation. An interesting point made about Hell, most fire and brimstone pastors will actually never cover where in the bible talks about a FIREY hell. Most people dont' know only the book of Daniel, and Revelation; refer to the death as a fire pit. Most books like Ezekiel talk about death as a forever sleep. A death were he can sleep for the sins he has committed because of the burden iit wears on him, and any one that has lived.
Budhist do not have a god. They have a creator of the religion and a 8 fold path. But I am pretty sure that they do not have a god. If they do however have a god, link a picture to it or type in a name because i would love to learn about their new god
Read some books your wrong, when they the people reincarnating,stop reincarnating they go to a heavenly place with a God creator like figure.
But do you know anything of their higher being? I name? I am not trying to tell you that you are wrong, I actually would like to about it
Hell can't exist by definition. It is a place of eternal pain, to feel pain you require nerve endings, which do not come with you to hell. Pain is also relative, if you're feeling it forever, it becomes the norm and you would get used to it.
listen there is a god and there is a jesus and jesus is the son of god i know this because the BIBLE states it.the bible tells us what kind of person we should be and how we should do it. if u would actually read the bible u would know that.and for the people who believes we are still under the ten commandment we arnt that was in the old testament the ten commandments died with jesus christ on the cross they are moses' law we are under jesus' law now. and there is just one true church thats the church of christ in the bible jesus didnt say "i will build the bapitist, methodist, penicostal,and all the other buildings."but he said ill build MY HOUSE upon this rock". if u dont believe me then apperantly u dont read the bible(new testament) of course we need to know what happened in the old testament but we dont do what they did in the old testament use instruments in church, sacrifises, burn insense,and all the other things see like bapitist they use instruments in church but why dont they use all the other things in the old testament because man will do what he wants to do and thats not right. we dont live under the old testaments so dont do what it does. but do what the new testament tells u to do.read it and understand it and ull see what i mean. GOD our heavenly father is truley real read the BIBLE and ull know everything ull need to know to get to heaven and live with him and jesus christ someday.he'll come like a thief in the night we wont know when that day will come JUDGEMENT DAY.are u ready for that day to come. HE IS REAL
state your opinion as an opinion not a fact. Ok maybe there are nerve endings. Ever thought of it that way? Ok if you get used to it, you get used to it. What you stated does not really prove that hell doesnt exist..
You can get used to the pain, but the pain will never stop. I dont get how you can have feelings, constantly feel pain, but the pain goes away. If you have more details regarding this I would love to hear about it because it sounds a bit interesting
Actually the Hell for me would be the lack of feeling or living or purpose in life. The big point most people don't see in the Punishment of hell is the Total separation of God. Now some people say that is not to much of a punishment, but for earth he been said to be helping out on this end. As for the point of burning forever, that goes along with the hell I have pointed out. It is similar to the death Atheist want any how...a normal thought out existence where Death is the end. While a religious person wishes to complete more than the life he has been able to learn and was ever able to learn. I feel if there was a God, he would know what we would want faster than you think.
Everything is subjective, here's a simple diagram. -|--- Pain --|-- Normal ---|- Feeling great If you feel pain from the moment you're born, it feels regular and eventually you become desensitised, in which case "normal' feels really good. Whereas, if you're constantly "feeling great" "normal" would feel painful.
Actually, when your referring to physical pain the nerve endings die after constant aching, or burning they burn off. For emotional pain the pain stays about the same unless your able to get away from the problem. So, yes if your use to pain you get use to a level of pain, for example I can gauge my headaches because I never take pain killers for them. The issue is they are never going to go away officially. So both have i covered why you would feel pain for eternity as well what type you should feel. Did we ever actually cover the fact about why god would bring back the dead? Point being it is a waste of time to bring the dead back to life to put them in an eternal suffering, thus pointing to my version of hell yet again. Back to budda Topic, I feel you need to understand even the Christians and Muslims do not have a define name to God. You think Jesus is the Christian God, but the use of God is often miss understood. Hebrews have 2 layers of God. One which if they write they have to stop and go threw a ritual of cleansing to honor God in written name form, and then a term which is a short hand verison to speed up and avoid the cleansing event. Another valid point made, how do I some one that just understand peoples beliefs have to know the name of ever God? That seems kinda one sided. If you would like me to avoid the term God, I can play that game. OK guys, this being before anything else created this system which we all come back to this heaven like place once we get it right. But, by no means is this creator God. .... Yeah right.....
You have no evidence for your statement, you posted that in format like its a fact and it really isn't.