<p>Dude... that thing isn't even purple, but it does have some impressive balls ;)</p>
<p>Noting the hair stylist analogy, hair stylists are profit hungry. God, according to the Abrahamic religions, is completely benevolent.</p>
<p>However, I could see a useless but plausible argument coming from the premise that God creates adversity as a test, or to strengthen people. I think that's what Marx meant when he talked of the "opiate of the masses", although I don't agree with that quotation at all.</p>
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pseudoreal- they teach that amino acid theory in school, which is an unproven theory.
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<p>An unproven theory...hmm, aren't all theories unproven? Anyway, if that did happen, it would be an observation, not a theory. The only possible flaw would be poor experimental design (or poor eyesight).</p>
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As for not being able to see God...I've never seen the wind.
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<p>I believe that scientists have, indeed, empirically determined that wind does exist.</p>
<p>Sorry to assume the mocking tone; I just find it so fun to use!</p>
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Do you mean by praying? I can buy a "get better soon" card and get the same effect.
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<p>That was one of the most disrespectful comments generalizing religion I've ever seen. Good thing such an opinion isn't common in our society.</p>
<p>Grace: I appreciate your answer to my question, and I think I understand your viewpoint better now. However, I still feel that as God is all knowing, and as you said, you believe he knew Jesus would come when he made Adam and Eve, cruelty should not exist. You contradict yourself in saying that god did not set out to make those homeless people or villages with AIDS in Africa, yet he did have full knowledge of the future coming of Jesus. To me, this makes no sense. Does he have selective knowing then? Or did he just allow it to occur for there to be both bad and good in the world? Having free will is an entirely different thing from being born with AIDS or being a victim of the Holocaust. These are events that are not born of free will but of random cruelty, and this cruelty seems to be God's if he does exist. </p>
<p>As for the hairstylist analogy, hairstylists do not have the same powers of God, and therefore cannot be compared to him. If hairstylists were all knowing, all good, and all powerful, everyone's hair would be great. It's simple logic. They are not.</p>
<p>@dave</p>
<p>I am neither agnostic nor atheist and I think that they are poor describing terms. Technically, I am agnostic because I do say that I know if there is a god or not, but I am not agnostic as in 50/50 god/no god. I think that God does not exist but I know that I can not know. I believe in God as much as I believe in a flying spaghetti monster. I know the probability of God existing is minimal so I live my life as an atheist (Minimal = .00...000....1%). </p>
<p>@HisGrace</p>
<p>It is obvious you are nitpicking passages fromt he Bible to put together your politically correct ideology now called Christianity. I am no Biblical Scholar but I know that there are plenty of verses in the Bible that are violent or otherwise immorral. </p>
<p>And WHY would you love everyone the same or even love everyone? Love the one who rapes and kills your mother? I certainly do not love everyone nor everyone the same. I love my family members -- some more, some less. I love my friends. I do not love people who I do not know or people who do not deserve my love. </p>
<p>I realized at a young age, being taught to question everything, the sources of religion. Religion is an archaic philosophy that controlled the masses, explained the unknown and was and still is profitable. It has evolved overtime showing that it is not holy and constant as it says. Religion is not needed anymore because we have advanced scientifically etc. </p>
<p>"Religion is the OPIATE of the masses [sic]"</p>
<p>Come on question things please. Instituitionalized religion contradicts itself many times.</p>
<p>Despite my opposition to her, I do congratulate HisGraceFillsMe for daring to go against the majority opinion on CC.</p>
<p>I would also like to point out that atheists are perhaps the most persecuted group in America, which makes me glad I'm not one.</p>
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And WHY would you love everyone the same or even love everyone? Love the one who rapes and kills your mother? I certainly do not love everyone nor everyone the same. I love my family members -- some more, some less. I love my friends. I do not love people who I do not know or people who do not deserve my love.
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<p>Now, I agree with Christianity there. Love everyone the same because it shows that you're above the people who have maligned you.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe that's a bit selfish. But there is an extent to which one should be detached from certain emotions.</p>
<p>You aren't above them. Being "above" someone would require their actions (violent and irrational) be "below" yours. But being violent and irrational is part of human nature. Everyone has moments of irrationality and anger and rage, and we shouldn't shun those as unacceptable and foreign feelings; they are part of us, and while you may have learned to control yours, that doesn't make you "better" than someone else. Saying you are just makes you sound pretentious.</p>
<p>"Above" doesn't mean "better". It just means you've learned to control yourself. We should at least try to contain anger and rage, shouldn't we? A better explanation would be that you handled yourself better, or your actions were better, which anyone can do with the right "practice" (not a good word for it, but I can't think of anything better).</p>
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I am no Biblical Scholar but I know that there are plenty of verses in the Bible that are violent or otherwise immorral.
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<p>Most, if not all (I think), the violent stories in the Roman Catholic Bible are in the Old Testament, when people still thought earthquakes happened because the gods were angry (the Flood, God smiting cities, etc.). It almost seems as if the Old Testament was a much funner place to be.</p>
<p>^Indeed it was.</p>
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It almost seems as if the Old Testament was a much funner place to be.
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<p>Except that if you were a nameless peon, you had pretty high odds of being killed off quickly in the story. I mean, God destroyed* humanity completely by flood for God's sake (literally and figuratively)! Surely he had the power to change them instead of killing them (or was that too hard for even him?). Not only that, but every other life form of his creation. Oh, and lots of babies too - surely they could've been saved? </p>
<p>*But he allowed one family to incestuously breed for a couple hundred of generations to get us where we are today. By Biblical tradition, the human race was inbred not once, but twice. Yay.</p>
<p>^ That was the point. </p>
<p>"Oh look, rocks are falling from the sky!"
"Actually, that's the sky falling. Stupid."
"Oh my goodness, I knew we shouldn't have offered up that pitiful chicken as a sacrifice! Now the gods are angry!"</p>
<p>DUHHHHHH.</p>
<p>(In case anyone is still in doubt.)</p>
<p>The Old Testament told stories with a meaning behind it (most involved God smiting you if you disobeyed), or explained the unexplainable (Adam and Eve, Tower of Babel, etc.). You're not supposed to take it as a historical account.</p>
<p>The New Testament told stories about Jesus. Jesus was a pretty chill guy, as long as you weren't a Pharisee. It explained how the "ideally good" person would act; forgive others, love your neighbor as yourself, take the higher road and turn the other cheek, etc.). </p>
<p>The Bible was written by many different people who never saw each other. Of course it's flawed.</p>
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Surely he had the power to change them instead of killing them (or was that too hard for even him?).
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Why would God give people free will if he were just going to "change" them at will?</p>
<p>Intelligent design is not science. Things that aren't science deserve absolutely no place in a science class. Pretty simple, no?</p>
<p>Ben Stein, by the way, is a ****ing idiot.</p>
<p>I cannot believe how many of you are just stubbornly bashing religion. How many of you, I wonder, have ever done an in-depth study of the Bible? I only ask because if you REALLY study the Bible...not just what it says on the surface, but the intention and history behind it...there are very few instances, if any, where the Bible contradicts itself.</p>
<p>I'm going to back out of this thread, because I really don't care for the way some of you are treating religion. I'll definitely continue to read, and if anyone has any questions about Christianity, please feel free to PM me. But I won't be responding here anymore.</p>
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Why would God give people free will if he were just going to "change" them at will?
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<p>First off, you assume the point that we have this "free will". To us it may seem that our actions are the product of our "will", but to God, who many contend as omniscient, would supposedly see everything we think and do. To him/her/it, we are utterly predictable. </p>
<p>Following this line of thought, why would God create free will in the first place? So that we aren't boring? If so, then why does he create so many laws that we must follow on penalty of a fate worse than death? It's not like he lacks the power to "save" us at his will (he's supposedly omnipotent too, right?). Does he take pleasure in seeing his subjects fail and thus present us with the opportunity to do so? (This would be allowable if we weren't eternally and irreversibly punished for certain misdeeds) </p>
<p>It seems to me that God doesn't really care for us anyway. I mean, we can follow his rules, play his game just to get a spot in his exclusive club. But that means we would need to follow his every whim there as well <i> for all of eternity</i> (which sounds like paradise for the guys in command, I suppose). I mean, if he casts <i>angels</i> out of heaven (anyone know the name Lucifer?), think of how mere mortals would fare.</p>
<p>@HisGrace</p>
<p>We do not need to read the Bible to know that the claims it makes are false. We can just look at the world and rationalize from that that there is no need for God. </p>
<p>Think about why you believe in God, in most cases it is not because you came to a rational decision. You were indoctrinated, brainwashed from a young age -- in most cases. Or you felt connected to the in-group mentality of the church. Or you were scared of death. Or you sought explanations -- no matter the truth of the explanations.</p>
<p>How would a just God justify sending people to hell because they used their minds 'he created' to deduce that he did not exist? How would a just God expect a 'mere' mortal to choose the right religion out of the plethora of choices.</p>
<p>It's not bashing religion to say that intelligent design isn't science. It's not. It is saying that each generation is modified by the hand of a being that cannot be proven to exist. There is no scientific analysis in that. It is a hypothesis, but there is no way to prove it. Without being able to carry out the scientific method on a given hypothesis, it is not science. It is guesswork.</p>
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How would a just God justify sending people to hell because they used their minds 'he created' to deduce that he did not exist? How would a just God expect a 'mere' mortal to choose the right religion out of the plethora of choices.
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<p>Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God sends nonbelievers to hell. </p>
<p>It wouldn't hurt some of you to crack one open every once in a while and read what you're bashing. A few of you are basing you're statements on false information. </p>
<p>I believe in God, I believe in most of the Bible, but I don't necessarily believe in most typical Christian churchs' interpretations of its stories, sayings, etc. </p>
<p>There's so much history that one learns outside of the Bible and it has such striking similarities to some of the peoples and cultures the Bible discusses. </p>
<p>Study of the Bible and other historical texts has really opened my eyes; there's so much evidence to support that the Jews of today aren't the real ones, and many more things that would make one give the Bible a second glance. </p>
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We do not need to read the Bible to know that the claims it makes are false. We can just look at the world and rationalize from that that there is no need for God.
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<p>No need? Maybe. But I'll be damned if things don't exist if they aren't needed.</p>