Plognark

That ought to answer your question.

blues runner

I believe in god like I believe in the tooth fairy. But from my understanding, if "God" truly is all he's made out to be (the good points) it shouldn't fucking matter where you "praise" or "worship" him. What kind of a god would get pissed if you thanked him for this and that from the comfort of your cozy bed as opposed to church pews?

Seriously. Ask yourself that. If God is all that, wouldn't he be cool with devotion given to him in any place or condition? (Once again, this is a secular forum...)

JD

ETA: god is a bad joke. Do you realize how many people have suffered or died over the existence of "God"? It's fucking sickening, and in no way should "worship" of "God" apply to rational, thinking individuals in the 21st century. Cretins may be excused, but to all others...

BadBadBad

You can have faith, but more accurately, you have faith in something. You can have faith in people that tell you a story. How can you have faith in a personified God when you can only have faith in people that God exists?

Bill has told me that a leprecaun will come and give me 100 dollars. It might make sense to say I have faith in Bill that his story is true. It doesn't make sense to say I have faith in the leprecaun that he's coming to give me my 100 dollars.

This is what comes to mind when someone says they have faith in God. It's like faith once removed or faith squared. It's even more nonsensical than believing in the original silly story.

Teenager

Sounds like you are asking the wrong forum/website. May I suggest I place over pm'ing?

BadBadBad

Come on RBAC. It's been a couple of years now. Surely you can make even an attempt to defend what you have to say here. It doesn't have to be a brawl. Don't just throw out your RBAC cliches and then hide behind a thread derail. I'll be happy to split to another thread if you'd like.

BadBadBad

That depends on the answers you think she should hear. If someone asks you how it is that 2+2=5, asking it on a website for mathematicians is a great place to sort out that question. Unfortunately, if you've based your whole life on this false idea, you just might not like the answers. It's definitely the right website though.

BadBadBad

You are allowed to do what God knows you will do.

What you seem to be suffering from is the condemnation of all mankind by religious zealots. Since God doesn't exist, you don't have to be put down by him. It's just these religious folks you need to separate yourself from to escape this insufferable nonsense of the original sin. Not going to church is an excellent way to start.

Which parts do you believe are true? Unfortunately, the parts that are obviously not true are hopelessly intermingled with the parts that must be true for the basic story of Christianity to be true. For example, when Christ dies on the cross, dead saints rise out of their grave and walk through town. Do you believe that part is true?

That's not true is it? If no one had ever told you anything about God and in particular Christianity, would you believe in God? If so, would your beliefs have any resemblance to what you believe today? For example, if you grew up on the middle east, would you believe in Allah?

No, that's a moral sin alright. You'll always be nothing but a dirty sinner in the eyes of the cronies down at the church. I guess it's just a matter of who you want to call as your friends.

TransverseWave

It is too the right website. :devil3:

NewtonPooton

done enough...
Many of you find that a weird way to phrase it, but growing up in church, I can say it's something the preachers beat into your head all the time. For example, did you "give enough" money? They always talked about that kind of stuff. I quit going to one church (Pentacostal) because the preacher went on a rant about how the Chinese are going to be "the army to wipe out the Christians at end times!" I thought he was nuts. Probably just racist, though. Probably both.

Oh yeah, and if any of you actually watch an entire 30 minutes or an hour of church on tv, any channel except the ones with the golden thrones, you'll hear a lot of phrases and comments that don't make ANY sense and don't have anything to do with ANYTHING in our lives. I'm not saying that this is all there is, but just watch for when it is. All I'm saying is that most of what you get outta church is a waste of time so being there isn't at all important. I've never understood it anyways.

If we all have the bible (the royal we, not me cuz i'm atheist) then why do we need some goofy fucker on stage to read it to us and 'splain things? That's like admitting your own stupidity and the preachers greater intelligence. I don't get it.

And just as an aside...
I love this site (II). You guys are great.

Imaginary Mark

Yeah, the Bible is not a great source of moral teaching. For living a good life, may I suggest Humanism?

Try your best to live a good life and don't worry too much about the afterlife because there probably isn't one. That's my motto.