Ronin

It really appears to be just an attempt to support a 'double-edged sword' analogy when dealing with evidence regarding Reality v. Christianity.

It's all about swords with Christians.

XGuilt

The proper response to any such question should be clear to any rational thinker: "I'm 100% sure that there exists no evidence that Xianity is true." The human imagination has proved quite fertile, providing it the ability (and often out-of-control willingness) to postulate, speculate and propose anything and everything with complete abandon, usually in an effort to accomplish one of two things: 1) to avoid self-responsibility, and/or 2) to fill an existing, albeit temporary void in verifiable knowledge. To most people's fear, insecurity and horror, neither excuse has brought them solace or comfort because any such pursuit of the irrational abjectly prevents it.

As for me, I've never understood the obsessive human propensity for 'fast food' rationalizations to questions that necessarily require eons to properly answer. Any such rationalization by ANY form of religion - not merely Xianity - has been, at best, an embarrassment to human dignity.

After a half-century of living, I still have found no one capable of answering one specific question: "What is THE POINT to religion (of ANY kind)? Why be bothered with it or by it? In the entire scheme of one's human experience, it is an appalling waste of one's valuable, irreplaceable time. I have studied all major religions' doctrines for many years, in depth and with very serious objectivity, and I can say unequivocally that there is nothing of value in any of it. To quite the contrary, religion is the most destructive and debillitating drug humankind ever addicted itself to, and only a complete withdrawal ever enables previous addicts to realize that irrefutable truth.

So when Xians (or those of ANY other 'faith') pose such questions as the one in this post, the only rational consideration is that one cannot fight the 'unreason' with reason... and those who would pose such vacuous questions are well aware of that fact.

Kassiana

I am sure that Christianity is not true for everyone, 100%.

I am sure that if you accept its precepts, Christianity is 100% true for you, just like if you become a Hindu, Hinduism is true for you.

Marduk

“Are you 99% or 100% sure Christianity is not true? “

Good grief Helen 99 or 100% is our choice? I’m only 99% sure that I appear to be responding to your post (OK maybe 99.999% sure )
I’m 99% sure that the hard core fundy view of Christianity is baloney
The old school Gnostic or cool zen Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas I’m not as confident.


[ October 26, 2002: Message edited by: marduck ]</p>

gsx1138

Having been a minister and a missionary I can say for certain (as in 100%) that Christianity is not true and just another man made religion in a long line of man made religions.
Just because you want to believe in something it doesn't make it true. However, if your opiate is Christianity then have a good time. Just don't try to convince anyone else to partake of your drug.

Bree

That's because I am Aphrodite, dammit .

Sorry - back to your regularly scheduled thread.

DMB

I see no reason to suppose that xianity is any more true than any other religions. They all look to me like man-made pre-scientific attempts to answer questions about the world, combined with attempted magic to control the world, particularly our own lives, and a degree of opportunistic oligarchic control and exploitation of the believers.

I am not 100% certain that no deist-type creator of the universe exists, but I cannot equate such a being with the boring, nasty, petty god of the OT, who seems clearly to be a human creation.

To say xianity is "true" or "not true" seems to me to be impossible for believers and unbelievers alike, since no two believers appearto agree totally on what xianity is. If I understand correctly, the central doctrines of xianity are:
<ol type="1">[*]the universe was created by an immensely powerful single being that we can call "god";[*]god loves its creation, and especially human beings;[*]god had a particular regard for a semitic tribe;[*]about 2000 years ago, god was incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, a member of this tribe (we will draw a veil over the virgin birth, since not all xians subscribe to that);[*]Jesus suffered the unpleasant death of crucifixion, but was resurrected and then bodily assumed into heaven;[*]As a result of god's voluntary incarnation and suffering in the person of Jesus, all sinners are redeemed provided only that they believe all the foregoing, and they will then spend eternity after their death in some kind of blissful state;[*]Those who do not believe all this will suffer eternal torment after death.[/list=a]

I am 100% certain that all but the first item are untrue. With regard to number 1, I am agnostic, but see no reason to believe it.

ashibaka

I am 100% sure that <a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/horsemen.html" target="_blank">the Bible is not literally true</a>.
I am 99.99999% sure that Jesus didn't actually do all those miracles.
I am 99.9999% sure that the Earth is billions of years old. (Extra 0.00009% reserved for Creationism and Omphalos-ism.)
I am 99.999% sure that Jesus was not God. (Extra 0.0009% reserved for Christianity and Pantheism.)
I am 99.99% sure that Jesus was not the most moral man on the planet.
I am 99.9% sure that God does not exist.
I am 99% sure that there is no supernatural force.
I am 90% sure that George W. Bush is not responsible for the death of Paul Wellstone. (Just to give you a little perspective.)

[ October 26, 2002: Message edited by: ashibaka ]</p>

JB01

As an atheist with a liberal Jewish upbringing, I have to say I have never found the claims made by Christianity to be even remotely plausible. (I did flirt briefly with acceptance of Judaism's claims in the 2nd grade, but I'm over that now. )

Nevertheless, I try not to claim 100% certainty about pretty much anything. For Christianity to be true, physical laws would have to have been violated in very specific anthropocentric ways. To reconcile this with the known uniformity of those laws in all observations I'm aware of, I would have to estimate that such violations occur so rarely that they would only have been observed a few times in history. Coupling this with the improbability that the way in which these violations occur just happens to be one that's so easily mistaken for wishful thinking on the part of those who report them, I would have to say that I'm about 99.999...9% sure that Christianity is false, where there are about 40-50 `9's after the decimal point.

hal9000

To believe in any religion that is based on the concept of a god, you first have to believe in that god. Your god murdered the entire human race with the exception of one family, if your bible is correct. What kind of caring, compassionate, just god would do this? The make believe kind. There is no proof of the existence of god, and much proof that in fact we evolved from lower orders of life. I don't believe in your god concept, and with out a god the whole concept or all his religious cults fail. I am 100% sure of this Helen, and I am interested to see your responses to this point and the other points raised here.