Christianity and You!

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

I'll just sum my feelings up with this simple quotation:

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
-Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

 

[darthzew]

Ironically I chose the standards of your avatar photo. House seems to fit my theological beliefs closely...there is no god and superstition is outdated and nonsense.

House is awesome. I love the show for a lot of reasons, but it never fails to bring up a good topic. I can watch it and then I can leave usually having learned something.

Anyway, I guess we can close this discussion with a gentlemanly handshake?

 

[Cliff_m85]

Ironically I chose the standards of your avatar photo. House seems to fit my theological beliefs closely...there is no god and superstition is outdated and nonsense.

House is awesome. I love the show for a lot of reasons, but it never fails to bring up a good topic. I can watch it and then I can leave usually having learned something.

Anyway, I guess we can close this discussion with a gentlemanly handshake?

Certainly

 

[Mr Scott]

Accidental post, courtesy of windowed FFXI. Sorry.

 

[tsb247]

As benign as your motives seem, a question such as the one you asked is never going to be recieved well. There are far too many of what I like to call, "Malicious athiests," on these forums who enjoy tearing Christian beliefs down just because they think they are sharing some great truth with them.

At any point, a thread like this only seems to generate flame wars. It looks as if they have already started... again.

Honestly, i enjoy doing that, yeah, but only when provoked, if some person tries to get me to join there religion through force, i enjoy throwing there faith off balance, thats only if they start (then again i get enjoyment for taking people who think there the best down a few pegs, but i don't like starting it, makes me feel childish).

But im logical as i've previously mentioned, creating a war will not help the purpose of my intended goal, only hinder it. I don't see myself better just because someone else believes differently, but when it comes to religion i tend to reply the same "I would rather be able see and be sad, then blind and happy"

Why tear down the beliefs of Christians at all? Does it really do anything other than create conflict? It sure doesn't make you look good. You say you value the ability to debate and discuss. Rather than mock those that challenge you, why not simply try to understand them? Sometimes that shocks people more than arguing with them.

Christianity does not make one blind, but rather offers a different way to see.

 

[SnowCold]

Yeah, I never got the whole point of Christians saying you're going to hell. Loving God and hell don't add up. Am I right?

Yeah, It always seemed more resenable to me that if there is a god, he will send you to heaven or what ever if you do any kind of god work, whethere it's Islam, Christianity, or Buddaisim.

 

[Donbett1974]

My problem with religion can be summed up with one word: "Faith".

So because people have faith and believe in something beyond themselves, you make them out to be murderers.

Makes sense.

Ofcourse not!!!!



It just makes it alot easier for them to murder.

Hitler, Castro, Suddam all atheist and they seem to kill with ease maybe humans are just violent and religion just an excuse.

 

[tsb247]

From an intellectual standpoint it seems to be the least thought out religion bar scientology. The bible is at least partially false whether you be Christian or otherwise, as on the assumption that everything in it is true, it directly contradicts ITSELF. Lots of it seems to be rehashed from Judaism and then changed so it seems more appealing for commercialism purposes (For example old testament god being a total dick and Bible god being this loving kind-hearted super friend) and in all it seems exactly like what you described as "Baby's First Religion" Which is the main reason it has so many followers.

Don't get me wrong, I usually wouldn't care. I don't have any scorn towards anything that doesn't affect me. Christianity, however, seems to have a very strict "LETS FUCK WITH EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING THAT ISN'T US" policy. Everyone must be converted! take over the world! I live in america, which is a fucking theocracy. (We've only had one documented Non-christian in a position as high as senate thus far.) Can't buy beer in texas on a sunday because that's god's day. Homosexuals? Can't have that. Picket them, take their rights away. Make sure there's missionaries walking around on sunday mornings door to door. Stem Cell research? That's killing someone. I don't care if it can cure cancer or that you gave that amoebic 2% of a baby life in the first place, or that it wasn't even guaranteed to survive! We have to hinder scientific progress! Atheists? call them unamerican, make them feel outcast in society. Evolution being taught in schools? How dare they teach our children something that we have large amounts of documented proof of! They should be teaching our children something we read in a book that was written by some guy hundreds of years ago that used to also say the sun revolved around the earth. Believe what you want to believe, but make it my problem and logic is going to hit you back really fucking hard.

Did you hear that the man who walked into a church and shot an abortion doctor is actually getting tons of letters of support from Christians all over the country?

I live very near where that happened, and I know for sure that very few churches here condone the murder's actions. Christians (like many other religions out there) have radicals that do not neccessarily reflect the views and opinions of the whole.

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Honestly, even though I'm Athiest I don't so much hate Christianity as I do the people that subvert it to their own goals. Even at its worst Christianity values compassion and kindness, I'm just not a God guy.

But I prefer LaVey Satanism, really cool thought process which doens't actually involve worshipping Satan.

That's the worshiping of power isn't it?

 

[RRilef]

I'll be honest, I have not read the whole thread, not even the whole first page, but it makes me hate human stupidity. Many people don't even take the time to understand what their religion actually is. By Catholic religion so much of what has been said is entirely wrong and Catholics themselves promote it. A few misconceptions pointed out right here.

God did not create hell, he allowed us to create hell with free will. If we choose to entirely ignore God, then we can not be with him, thus we create the state of hell. By this teaching, most people do not go to hell, but to purgatory where we learn to be good like God.

People tend to ignore this one, but the Catechism says no man should force another to act against his or her conscience. You can counsel and guide all you want but threatening them (like with hell) would be considered a sin.

People point out the crusades and say those were in the name of God. Today, we reject them and acknowledge them as a big mistake. But honestly, do you think some other war wouldn't have happened. There were other motives for them. And just think, if we acted according to the guidelines for a just war, there would much fewer wars.

A big one is that God is not all-powerful or all-knowing.

I have a feeling only a few people are going to read this, and I am tempted to make a topic about it, but seeing the response to this one, I'm just going to hold out for a bit.

 

[Cliff_m85]

My problem with religion can be summed up with one word: "Faith".

So because people have faith and believe in something beyond themselves, you make them out to be murderers.

Makes sense.

Ofcourse not!!!!



It just makes it alot easier for them to murder.

Hitler, Castro, Suddam all atheist and they seem to kill with ease maybe humans are just violent and religion just an excuse.

If I'm correct Saddam was a Sunni Muslim, Hitler sat in with the Catholic church (as well as was helped by the Catholic Church), and Castro was an Atheist.

But as I've stated before, an Atheist cannot use the little "God told me to do it" answer. They have to take the responsibility for their actions. Humans are violent and yes, religion gives them the excuse to act upon that.

 

[Logan Badass]

Me, I'm in the middle between Atheisim and Agnostic( Believe in God But don't follow any religion).

Doesn't being agnostic mean you don't believe in a god but won't say there isn't one? I found this a little confusing, because you said you believe in god.

Anyway, the whole point of a world with religious freedom is so that you do whatever you want. You can believe in god and that he loves you without having to believe in a hell or that you won't be forgiven for a wrong-doing. I know athiest who have rejected religions simply because of the "eternal punishment" ideals, when they don't hav to, and can just believe in whatever they want. Nobody has to go to church (synagogue, Etc...) to practice beliefs.

 

[RRilef]

Abou

My problem with religion can be summed up with one word: "Faith".

So because people have faith and believe in something beyond themselves, you make them out to be murderers.

Makes sense.

Ofcourse not!!!!



It just makes it alot easier for them to murder.

Hitler, Castro, Suddam all atheist and they seem to kill with ease maybe humans are just violent and religion just an excuse.

If I'm correct Saddam was a Sunni Muslim, Hitler sat in with the Catholic church (as well as was helped by the Catholic Church), and Castro was an Atheist.

But as I've stated before, an Atheist cannot use the little "God told me to do it" answer. They have to take the responsibility for their actions. Humans are violent and yes, religion gives them the excuse to act upon that.

Hitler was not a true part of the Catholic Church. Not every situation demands the truth be stated if it is not asked for. If the Church spoke out against Hitler he would just kill more Jews in anger and no good would come out of it. Now, lets say the Catholic Church didn't anger Hitler, but acted silently, by lets say forging baptism certificates and smuggling Jews out of the country. It would be much better to exploit his affinity for Catholics than to just tick him off, wouldn't it?

And think, do you think more good has come from religion telling people to be good, or a few crackpots who do the opposite of what their religion tells them and says God told them to do it.

 

[Logan Badass]

Christianity does not make one blind, but rather offers a different way to see.

I like the way you put this.

 

[Asaito]

My basic view: Believe what you want to believe as long as you are making an effort to harm no one in the process. Christianity, Islam, Judaism; not evil. It is usually the followers who turn the religion into what it is. Religion is a construct of man, made up in order to explain what they cannot even begin to understand. That saying, this may be god, or simply a natural order they do not comprehend. There will never be an easy answer. People will always believe what they've been taught to believe or what they have found to help them through life. You can't rationally blame an entire religion for the problems of mankind. Each person is an individual with a separate mind. In the end, you can only blame the individuals, not the community.

Personally, I'm Neo-Wiccan. "An ye harm none, do as you wilt," basically sums it up.

Islam demands that you kill people for de-converting from Islam. Christianity tells us to murder homosexuals. Judaism tells us that if a married woman doesn't scream loud enough during rape that she is to be put to death just as the rapist is.

Not a big fan of Wicca either since it seems to be religion-lite. Why toss magick around when it's not necessary nor even rational? Not to mention just complete hokum.

I could take offense to your words, but I won't because to me it seems you are simply misinformed. Not all Wiccans practice magick. Not all Wiccans are witches. I, however, pride myself in becoming a witch. It is not simply hocus pocus and tossing out spells, it is knowing how to manipulate your own mood and energy to bring about changes in your world that relate to the larger world. It has been proven that smell is the sense most strongly linked to memory. Part of the religious observance and magick preformed is using the basic chemistry and properties of the brain and the surrounding environment (scent, taste, habitat, plants...) to alter a persons thoughts and energies, always in a positive way.

Wicca is not "religion-lite". It is very basically a religion founded on the physical world, on the worship of nature as our mother. It is the worship of not only our animal selves, but also our enlightened selves. It is hard for me to explain my complete understandings of my religion, but suffice it to say that one only truly needs one guiding commandment to better himself and his world. I'm wondering if it is not this lack in the number of commandments and laws that has you believing what you do about Wicca. If this is the case, you are sadly mistaken. The philosophy is all encompassing, every action, every word. In many cases it is much more complicated than most religions as moral judgments are left to be made to the individual and it is their duty to think heavily before they speak or act.

 

[The_Chief]

(FYI: Satan is more appealing, 1. he has killed far less people, 2. he takes the bad people and punishes them, while being made out to be evil, commitment much?).

Because i would write about 19 pages on my own, i think i'll just leave it at that, my point is put across and my opinion is it.

Whats yours?

hes committed to his job i guess. or he enjoys it. he suduces people into being bad so he can purposely fuck with them in the afterlife i guess.

 

[DeathsAmbassador]

I agree with what your saying. I'm not atheist but I'm not a Christian either. I did always find that thing about Satan weird, why would someone who watches over and punishes all of the bad people be bad themselves? That said though I don't have a problem with any religion, I do have a problem with people who are so sure that their beliefs are the best and most true that they will openly accuse anyone who disagrees.

 

[furnatic]

Here's the thing about religion from my standpoint. I don't mind the Christians. I have read the bible, since I was raise Mexican Catholic which is pretty much as Christian as you can get. It's the fundamentalists pricks who bother everyone about how they're going to hell for living their lives that piss me off. The easiest example I can point out here is someone who is gay. Fundies, because I don't feel like spelling it all the way through, have this habit of quoting the bible about lying with the same sex to be evil. However, this quote they use is in the old testament. And according to Evangelist, Fundies, and well most of Christianity, the old testament is obsolete, but yet, when it's convenient, then the old testament is suddenly used again. On that same page, mind you, it says things like you can't have sex with a women on her period, you can't eat pork, stuff like that. Its' Christians like this that piss me off. If you're going to be Christian, that's cool, it's what you believe, but if you are going to say one thing, and do another, fuck you. If you are going to pick and choose what you want to follow, fuck you. Be whatever religion you want, but don't be a hypocrite or a prick about it.

By the way, for the record, I was a Catholic until the age of 15 when I realized all of this. I converted to Wicca and have been ever since.

 

[dkyros]

Watch Religulous starring Bill Maher, I tell you that his opinions almost, but not exactly mirror my own