Marduk

�Which is what you claim the apostles did. If Jesus didn't come back from the dead, and perform miracles, the Apostles would have thought of him as a joke and a waste of time, and would have never persued Christianity. They spent their whole life prior following Judaism, and so suddenly one man comes along, makes up a bunch of stories about being God, and not proving it, all the while going against the traditions of the Jews, and the Apostles just decided to abandon Judaism for him? That is completely illogical and would never happen. The Apostles did not make up Christianity, because no one in their right mind would follow it without any backing, especially to the extent that Christianity has acheived.�


Which Apostles besides Paul gave up Judaism? They fought with Paul all the time about remaining Jews and following the Law. Paul is the only one spreading Christianity, he invented it. Do any of these �other� Apostles do anything? Is there any evidence they even existed? Did any of the post crucifixion Paul era Christians meet Jesus.
It doesn't seem like there were ever that many former Jews in the early church, mostly Greeks and converted Roman Pagans.

Howard

My first thought, on reading that, is that it�s too ridiculous even for a summer movie.

Mageth

Originally pontificated by Magus:
And nuclear weapons haven't made the impact on humanity that christianity has.

Yup. Christianity has brought much more death and destruction to humanity.

Oh and of course, the purpose of building atomic bombs was such an applaud worthy act. "Hmm, how can we find the most destructive, and painful weapon on Earth, that liquifies the skin of humans, shatters their charred bones with a sonic shockwave, and gives millions of people excruitiatingly painful raidiation burns and cancer; oh I know, lets split uranium atoms!" Hardly a great achievement.

This comes from the fellow who threatens us constantly with the hellfire and brimstone his God has prepared for the majority of humanity. The irony!

MooWare

I really don't understand how you can claim god doesn't demand attention?

It's analgous to this:

If I stood in front of you.. and said.. Ok, give me all your money, or I'll blow your brains out!

Is this a demand or a choice? Would you go with Pascals wager?

Also, another post said that Heaven won't be an eternity of worship. Then what, servitude? You will do things that god has told you to do! What freedoms will you have? What choices will you have?

Anyone who insists on worship and respect is worthy of neither.

Starboy

MooWare, good point. Chritianity is the ethos of a first century slave society. Hardly appropriate for a freedom loving capitalist democratic society of the twenty-first century. Its time has come and gone.

Starboy

winstonjen

But Christians don't like this, because to them, their time would be gone, because most of them don't know how else to live.

Starboy

You have hit the nail on the head winstonjen. Without something appropriate to replace Christianity the insanity will continue unabated. I suspect there are plenty of replacements waiting in the wings but until our culture is hit by the equivalent of a giant asteroid wiping out Christian culture and allowing something more suited to our current knowledge to flourish I suspect we are stuck with it. The best we can do is to protect the freedoms our constitution provides and educate the superstitious.

Starboy

Marduk

�I suspect there are plenty of replacements waiting in the wings but until our culture is hit by the equivalent of a giant asteroid wiping out Christian culture and allowing something more suited to our current knowledge to flourish I suspect we are stuck with it�

Ugh! Don�t even think it, they would say God punished us for not being Christian enough! They would be stronger than ever! I'll bet the Fundy's would thrive after such an event.

Starboy

You misunderstand me. I didn't mean a literal asteroid. I was trying to suggest a cultural event that would have the effect of wiping out Christianity. Kinda like the event that wiped out most of the dinosaurs. It was not until after that catastrophe that mammals become more prevalent. There were mammals before the event but they couldn't compete with the more numerous dinosaurs that had managed to dominate most ecological niches. Sorta like the situation atheists find themselves in today WRT the theists.

Starboy

Biff the unclean

Starboy, why would Christianity need a replacement? It's not like it's based on anything real. It's a scam, a con job. The only "needs" it fills are needs it created to begin with. It doesn't actually answer any questions we might have because it makes up everything it claims it knows. It's like the Psychic Friends Network, they gave you "answers" but the answers they gave were worthless