General Chat / The Design of Religion

I agree with you but the comutity aspects can also be bad.
Think of the burned witches or the seperated jews in the dark ages.
if you weren't a believer or did believe the 'wrong' thing or prayed to the 'wrong' god you were alone in the world and were not a part of the comunity. today it's okay.

here's my reply to every post in this topic: so?

everyone is stating things everyone else already knows, or common sense would lead any rational person to realise, as if they were some amazing, new, ideas, that would convince everyone on "the other side" to agree with them. of course they're not, and it doesn't.

i'm a christian, with an interest in other religions, particulary those related to christian idelogy, iconography, dogma, etc, (judaism, islam, etc). i'm not very fond of the institutional and dogmatic elements of the faith, though, but, then again, jesus wasn't too fond of the institutional and dogmatic elements of his faith, either, so maybe he'd agree with me.

there have been a lot of points made about christianity, and i'd agree with most of them, on both sides, but my interpretation of them supports my own ideology, and, i suppose, the same would apply to everyone else, too.

so why don't we just stop "debating" religion? stating views is fine, and a positive thing, but arguing is pointless. your oppenent will never agree with you, and so you'll never win, so just stop! of course, i know you won't, as if you did my theory would be wrong, and it isn't, i think.

This topic was never not meant to be about whether religion was real or not...it was meant to be about the Design of Religion.

Freedom of choice!  It's what the whole damn Adam and Eve thing was about.  They chose to sin after Satan tempted them, we still choose to sin because of Satan, and God doesn't force us not to sin.  God doesn't control everything that happens on the planet, he just set the ball in motion, it hit a mud puddle, and he intervenes from time to time and will eventually pick the ball up and rinse it off.

Well shouldn't got control everything? He set out to create a perfect world. I don't think you sufficiently answered the question. Why does he not force us to sin? If sinning creates a less than perfect world, then why did he even think about tempting us to sin?

here's my reply to every post in this topic: so?

everyone is stating things everyone else already knows, or common sense would lead any rational person to realise, as if they were some amazing, new, ideas, that would convince everyone on "the other side" to agree with them. of course they're not, and it doesn't.

i'm a christian, with an interest in other religions, particulary those related to christian idelogy, iconography, dogma, etc, (judaism, islam, etc). i'm not very fond of the institutional and dogmatic elements of the faith, though, but, then again, jesus wasn't too fond of the institutional and dogmatic elements of his faith, either, so maybe he'd agree with me.

there have been a lot of points made about christianity, and i'd agree with most of them, on both sides, but my interpretation of them supports my own ideology, and, i suppose, the same would apply to everyone else, too.

so why don't we just stop "debating" religion? stating views is fine, and a positive thing, but arguing is pointless. your oppenent will never agree with you, and so you'll never win, so just stop! of course, i know you won't, as if you did my theory would be wrong, and it isn't, i think.

Wrong! You say this because change is too slow. BUT! If people just stopped debating and arguing, then nothing would ever change. And things do change, usually for the better these days.

It might not be written by God, but God inspired the Gospel writers to write what they wrote. So basically, the Bible was, in fact, written by God, through other people.

That's what YOU believe.......that may or may NOT be an actual FACT.

Religious topics amuse me so much. You guys might as well be debating Mother Goose. She had some great stories with good morals in them...the only difference is nobody kills or dies in the name of Humpty Dumpty or Goldilocks.

Nobody is ever heard screaming "My Fairytale is better than your Fairytale" or "I'm going to live 'Happily Ever After' because I believe in the Little Red Riding Hood!" Why not? It would seem just as equally asinine.

Here is my take on religion...surely to offend some:

Mary was just a whore. She fucked around on Joseph and when she got pregnant, she panicked and made up some stupid story...that it was "um...God's baby...yeah...that's right God, Joseph, so don't fuck with me!" Joseph was a pussy and a moron and believed her. Jesus was born and he ended up being a pretty decent guy that did good things, but he was a bit dense and believed his mother's story about his "real" dad. People liked Jesus and told stories about him, and as the stories were told more often they got more and more exagerrated. Then, somebody wrote these stories down, and because people were basically uneducated and knew little of science, they all believed them. Eventually, these stories became a foundation for the way people led their lives and religion became a way to control the masses. Now, religion is basically a massive brain-washing money-making business and a crutch for the feeble minded.

"64% of Americans think that President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq poorly. The other 36% believe Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs" --SNL Weekend Update

^ Amen.

hell yeah!!!

Here is my take on religion...surely to offend some:

etc etc

"64% of Americans think that President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq poorly.  The other 36%  believe Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs" --SNL Weekend Update

Nice, although that was like, the only funny bit of that whole show.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that that's actually your take on Christianity, in which you don't consider the fact that seemingly every "isolated" culture has its own explination of God. I personally believe all the major religions have become basically bullshit, except for Mormonism, which is a little better, but definitely not something I would like to take part in; ie, it's bullshit.

Nice, although that was like, the only funny bit of that whole show.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that that's actually your take on Christianity, in which you don't consider the fact that seemingly every "isolated" culture has its own explination of God. I personally believe all the major religions have become basically bullshit, except for Mormonism, which is a little better, but definitely not something I would like to take part in; ie, it's bullshit.

Ahhh...you are right...that is my take on Christianity and not religion. I stand corrected.

This is slightly related to this discussion, but if you have any opinions at all about evolution vs. religion, check this out:

http://www.cornellev...ionproject.org/

Its Greg Graffin's (the lead singer of Bad Religion) PhD thesis entitled:
"Monism, Atheism & The Naturalist World View: Perspectives From Evolutionary Biology"

Edited by ride_exchanger, 28 December 2005 - 01:39 PM.

Mary was just a whore.  She fucked around on Joseph and when she got pregnant, she panicked and made up some stupid story...that it was "um...God's baby...yeah...that's right God, Joseph, so don't fuck with me!"  Joseph was a pussy and a moron and believed her.  Jesus was born and he ended up being a pretty decent guy that did good things, but he was a bit dense and believed his mother's story about his "real" dad.  People liked Jesus and told stories about him, and as the stories were told more often they got more and more exagerrated.  Then, somebody wrote these stories down, and because people were basically uneducated and knew little of science, they all believed them.  Eventually, these stories became a foundation for the way people led their lives and religion became a way to control the masses.  Now, religion is basically a massive brain-washing money-making business and a crutch for the feeble minded.

What the heck is this? Something some athiest wrote in bad taste that you c&p'd at random?

Edited by laz0rz, 26 August 2006 - 11:50 AM.

Fuck you.

Yeah...that's about the extent of the reaction I expected.

god I love this forum...

Fuck you.

Does the bible condone swearing?

I think of Jesus more as a great man and a great orator; the world needed someone like him in his time. But the idea of worshipping him as holy seems kind of like people in the year 4000 AD claiming that Gandhi was the son of God.

And laz0rz, let me add that it seems to me like the only reason you believe the things you do is...because you believe them. Your beliefs are carried only by their own momentum, originating in what other people have told you to think, and not by any thinking on your own part. It's like a vicious cycle of ignorance. If you'd step back for a second, you might realize that common logic and rationality tells us that the Bible is probably not a factually ultra-accurate history of the planet down to the word.

Edited by Panic, 28 December 2005 - 03:36 PM.

Yeah...that's about the extent of the reaction I expected.

You are just as guility of immaturity as him. Look at the way you phrased your passage.

Bottom line is you can argue around in cirlces about religion and you won't get anywhere. Faith is blind.

Fuck you.

would you care to enlighten all of us on your theories of religion?

you know, instead of giving everyone more material to work with.

Faith is blind.

And therein lies the problem with religion.

Blind faith + corrupt religious leaders = 9/11

Refering to Islam there, but it can, and has, happened with Christianity (the Crusades)

If God exists, and He created me, He gave me the ability to doubt Him. It would then be an insult not to use the brain He gave me, wouldn't it?

-ACE

Edited by ACEfanatic02, 28 December 2005 - 08:27 PM.