hinduwoman

Probably doesnot belong here, but Christians hit this forum often.

I read a book about colonial missionaries' debate with hindu pundits. What impressed me most was that many hindus couldnot grasp the logic of Christianity and oddly enough many criticisms actually parallel atheist ones.
1. A god who could punish mankind for the sins of Adam and Eve is cruel.
2. How do they know that theirs is the only path, since hindus too have holy scriptures to tell them about the gods?
3. substitute-sacrifice is too absurd.
4. If idol worship is bad, then why are the missionaries always clutching the crucifix? the missionaries' explanation that crucifix is not an idol failed to cut any ice, since they behave similalry and get upset if it is broken.

I mean, these hindus were theists. They were ready to swallow practically anything about religion. But Christinaity could not persuade even them.
I should have thought this would have been a wakeup call for Christians to produce a better set of arguements, but they are still spouting the same nonsense today.

Liquidrage

Christianity sells because it is the dominant religion of some very powerfull countries.

The religion it self is obviously flawed and this is apparent to anyone not currently within the religion.
Isn't it ironic that when a person is strongly believes in a non-popular form of Christianty it requires "deprogramming" to remove these views. Yet, if someone views are from a popular form then they don't need deprogramming.

ChurchOfBruce

Yup.

What's the difference between a religion and a cult? Numbers (of adherents), longevity, and/or PR.

--Frank

Ernest Sparks

Last night our Public Broadcasting System affiliate showed "Crucible of the Millennium". I got a kick out of the statement there that Admiral de Gama's crew went to the main temple in Kalikut, knelt before the picture of the goddess and prayed, because they believed she was the Blessed Virgin Mary.

<a href="http://www.angelfire.com/ak/militaryorders/vascogama.html" target="_blank">Admiral Dom Vasco da Gama</a>

[ January 02, 2002: Message edited by: Ernest Sparks ]</p>

Jesus Tap-Dancin' Christ

Yet another reason for me not to choose christianity...

Albert Cipriani

Dear HinduWoman,
You confess your misapprehension:


You thought wrong because you have a misconception of the function of the Good News. God's Revelation does not persuade. It cannot persuade. If you want to be persuaded, turn to science, rhetoric, logic, or political ideologues.

But if you want to be thrilled, inspired, motivated, confirmed and at peace, accept the Good News as you'd accept any newspaper article.

You are under no obligation to find the Good News unacceptable simply because it is un-convincing. Rather, you are under an obligation to accept the Good News unless you can find convincing reasons not to. I'm here to tell you there are none. Sincerely, Albert the Traditional Catholic

Foxhole Atheist

“You are under no obligation to find the Good News unacceptable simply because it is un-convincing. Rather, you are under an obligation to accept the Good News unless you can find convincing reasons not to. I'm here to tell you there are none. Sincerely, Albert the Traditional Catholic”

Tell me another story Albert. Tell me about Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the IPU. But, your going to have to make them more convincing than the one your peddling. Otherwise, I’ll continue to think of them as “myths”. <img src="graemlins/boohoo.gif" border="0" alt="[Boo Hoo]" />

Vibr8gKiwi

Albert, are you so completely blinded by faith that you can't see the list in the first post on this thread that stated several convincing reasons not to believe? Those points don't just go away by ignoring them and asserting that they aren't there.

Besides, people are already inspired, motivated, etc. by their personal philosophies and beliefs whatever they are. Additionally some people's beliefs actually fit the heart and mind and don't require blind faith with band-aids of apologetics to tape over the logical holes and absurdities.

FarSeeker

Points To Ponder:
"[M]any hindus couldnot grasp the logic of Christianity..."
Indeed, many people don't grasp the logic of Quantum Mechanics, doesn't affect its reality tho... But still, that means some did grasp the logic of Christianity.

2. "How do they know that theirs is the only path..."
The same way Atheists "know" theirs is the only path.

4. Christians do not worship the cross, we worship at the cross; it's a symbol. I'm sorry you missed the difference. Americans don't worship their flag either, but still get very upset when it is burned.

To play your little game: I should think this is a wakeup call for Atheists to produce a better set of arguements, but they will continue to spout the same nonsense.

lpetrich

Quantum mechanics is accepted because it has survived a superabundance of experimental tests -- including tests of its more paradoxical features. For my part, I prefer to try to avoid thinking about such paradoxes as particle-wave duality.

As if the "reasoning" is the same in both cases, which is usually not the case.

Also, there are different kinds of atheists in the world. Apikorus and Devnet are Jewish atheists, Hinduwoman is a Hindu atheist, Richard Carrier is, or at least was, a Taoist atheist, ...

The exact same defense can be made of pagans, Hindus, etc. -- that they do not worship the statues of their deities, but use those statues to represent the deities that they worship.