TollHouse

Well, the idea of eternal tortue for those who failed to accept Christ seems quite violent in my mind.

But yes, everything pales in comparison to the violence found in the Old Testament. Christianity cannot really escape this given that God and Christ are the same and they rely on the OT to "prove" the NT true.

Mr. Aardvark

d r i f t is right: original sin is a particularly pernicious idea. And the idea of of blaspheming the holy spirit has caused a lot anguish over the years for those who fear they have committed it, causing some to be hospitalized and others (Iread once) to commit suicide.

Yes, eternal damnation is awfully pernicious. Never ending punishment for the vast majority of mankind because has a rejection complex--it's hard to imagine a wish more misanthropic than that.

Jehanne

Having studied “death by the stake�?, I can say that it was a really, really gross form of execution. And, it went on, in the “name of Jesus Christ�?, for over 1,000 years!

sourdough

stuff like this
Im sure xians response would be we are taking these words out of context,but the simple fact its in the bible and the bible=TRUTH=words of God in their eyes makes me hate it.
now if they rewrote the bible and deleted all that evil $hit....

Seraph

My thought:

I believe it is because theists feel the have to defend their all powerful deities.
Whenever the topic of religion rears its ugly head it most often boils down to proving the existance of God. Since there is no proof of his existance, the rest of the theists arguments, at least the ones based on what God allegedly said, flat out fall through.

Think about it.
If you cannot prove that the author actually exists, how can you prove that the author actually wrote anything?

charis

Creation points to the Creator.
And Christ is risen! That is the historical fact.

Ignitor

If it's a "fact" there wouldn't be any debating it.

JGL53

If your biological parents hadn't wanted you and, when you were one week old, had given you to a nice muslin couple, who subsequently took you to Iran and raised you to be a good muslin, you would look upon christians as idolators who worship a man (jebus) rather than the true god allah.

It's just a happenstance of birth that you are a christian. I am not impressed with those who are mere products of their environment.

makebate dags

My creation points to my parents.

They believed all this non-sense and so did I for a long time. Then I figured out it wasn't true.

- Drift

Straight Hate

When I was making the theist -> agnostic -> atheist transition, the issue of God's existence was very important to me. However, aside from recent political issues like same-sex marriage where I believe religion is overstepping its boundaries, theism in general has pretty much become a non-issue for me. It's been months since I've bought an issue of Free Inquiry or cracked open one of the few atheism/theism books on my bookshelf, and it's becoming rare that I will take the bait when I run into religious discussions online or in person.

I have noticed myself getting more involved in politics, though.

$5 and/or less cheesy sentiment.