Starboy

Seebs, this speaks volumes about you. Here you are, a Christian on an atheist web site with atheists letting you know what they think about your religion. Instead of listening and learning you accuse me of “truth mongering”. This is hilarious since this is something Christianity does every day, all over the world to people whether they want it or not! Please do not even pretend to be open-minded or tolerant.

Starboy

seebs

No. I quoted you. I observed that you used the phrase "truth mongering". This phrase is itself very amusing. I have never seen someone so consistently and repeatedly use phrases implying that the word "truth" denotes a bad thing.

Starboy

Amie, it was not the good Nazis that gave Nazism its bad name; it was the sadistic murdering intolerant ones. That is why I find it so amazing there aren’t more Christians speaking out vociferously when people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell give Christianity a black eye on a daily basis. It is the same thing with Islam. Where are all those loving and tolerant Muslims denouncing the killing and hatred? Amie, it is this sort of thing that makes me wonder if any supernatural religion has any ability at all to make people behave well with one another. But consider this, we live in a world where it is crucial that we get along. None of the supernatural religions appears to have the answer. Supporting them is just hastening the meltdown of intolerance; can’t you see how insane it all is?

Starboy

seebs

I know more people who denounce Falwell than who like him.

You apparently don't. Maybe you should get out more?

It seems to help some of us a bit. Does it have the ability to magically make everyone be nice? No. Nothing else does, either.

I would say "trying to tell people their belief system is useless and wrong" is hastening the meltdown of intolerance, and "trying to be kind and supportive to people, no matter what" is reducing the problem.

Starboy

seebs, in the first century this was a fine sentiment. We live in an age were we have more understanding and control. Pity we are saddled with an ethos from the first century.

Starboy

Amie

Hi Starboy
yes those damn bad apples ruin it!

I was asking him because I am curious if he ever studied it. The religion itself is not harmful. The 5 articles within the muslim creed are Belief in a single God, Belief in angels, Belief in the revealed books, belief in the prophets and belief in judgement day. That in itself sounds familiar to me

The 5 pillars of Islam in short confessions of ones faith in God and the prophet Muhammed, ritual worship (5 times a day), The Almsgiving (to benefit the poor), Fasting during the month of Ramadan, and then the Pilgrimage...
These things they believe in and adhere to are not hurtful and damaging. It is when some become fanatical that things may become dangerous. There are sick people within every religion. It is horribly unfortunate. Anytime hurting or harming another person is involved in religious views or any views for that matter then something is wrong.

I am not happy about it...

I believe in God. I am not harming anyone with my belief and I am not trying to push my beliefs on to others.

Starboy

Hi Amie,

I understand that, and I am not saying that you are. What I am saying is this. We live in a different world than that of the first century. We understand a great deal more about human behavior and our enivironment than we did then. Running the country based on the ideas, from the first century, like good, evil, souls, the devil, god, heven and hell is a recipie for disaster. Just a cursory examination of how the president is handling world affairs should convince anyone that his is a very biblical, first century point of view. That is dangerous and all rational people should fear it.

Starboy

seebs

You keep bringing up the "argument from age", but you seem to be lumping together several purely unrelated things and treating them as one big inseprable blob. The argument from age only goes so far; fucking is also a first-century practice, but I don't see you arguing against it. Many things were figured out well enough a long time ago to be useful.

As to the rest... You keep conflating technology with spirituality. They aren't the same, and they aren't likely to be very often.

In the mean time, you are still making a claim just as unsupported as the ones you so despise, and you are drawing exactly the same conclusion from it that they do - "people who disagree are the root of all evil".

seebs

Yes, we should definitely eliminate the idea of good and evil. Think how many lives the U.S. could have saved by not being all judging of that poor misunderstood Hitler. What gave them the right, anyway?

Ahh, yes. "No true rationalist"; conversationally interchangeable with "No true Christian".

Starboy

seebs, your tactics are base. I make no such claims. If you are interested, you can learn more by asking questions then by constructing statements that have little to do with what I am saying and then presenting them as if they were my claims.

Starboy