tdekeyser

Salvation

Christians teach that God could not accept his own creation unless he first killed himself. Someone had to pay for our sins, because God is holy, and cannot look upon sin or imperfection unless something dies first. Billions who do not accept this will be tortured forever in Hell. Since God is omnipotent, and not subject to any authority other than himself, there is no reason for this state of affairs, other than his own whim.

Question: Is human torture ever ethical, and how grateful should we be to someone who created such a horrific punishment merely to satisfy his own sensibilities, and now wants to save us from it?


Prayer

Every day, 11,000 children under the age of 5 die due to causes related to malnutrition.* This happens despite any prayers made by the child, his parents or other people.

Questions: Why should God answer your prayer request? There can hardly be any need more dire than that of a starving child for food. Yet if God ignores the pleas of 11,000 of these children every day, what makes you think He should answer yours? What if He does? If you think God has answered your prayer, what does that say about Him? Why did He help you find an apartment, or help your friend stop drinking, yet refuse to help a starving child? Do you think God really has His priorities that mixed up?

Both Lucifer and Adam started out in sinless environments, yet they still sinned. Why? Because they had free will. The only way to prevent sin from occurring again is to eradicate free will.

Question: What will prevent sin in Heaven? Why wasn't this implemented from the beginning?


Hell

Incarceration for incorrect beliefs, cruel and unusual punishment, human torture. If any earthly ruler treated people this way, he would be an evil tyrant. How about when God does it?

Question: If the eternal torture of souls is Good, what then, do we call Evil?


Morality

The Bible says God condones things like genocide, infanticide, religious intolerance and slavery. Christians say that Jesus is God. They also say that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Kind of scary, isn’t it?

Question: If Christians venerate the Ten Commandments, why do they leave other immoral rules from the Old Testament behind? And when is it ever right to slaughter infants and children?

Bree

I think that Christians only venerate the 10 commandments because they're so easily committed to memory. If they had to memorise ALL of the "thou shalt nots" they'd really be in trouble.

Plus, those cutesy little plaques in their kitchens would turn into wall murals.

rdalin

Do you think that most Christians could recite the commandments (whichever version they prefer) from memory? I'm suspicious.

Butters

Rdalin, you took my answer. I DO do this, ask a devout Christian to recite the ten commandments, maybe one out of ten can do it.

Then ask if they have read the Bible, and then ask them what they think about a particularly horrible passage, they have likly not ever heard of it either!

Opera Nut

Jesus said"I come not in peace but with a sword. I have come to (break up the whole family and set them against each other).

What a sweetie! I love to use that one on my screeching fundie psychotic son in law and daughter in law.
They've done god's will - I'm not welcome in their house, or in Oklahoma at all, and I assume that THEY thinkt hat I am the one with the psychotic screaming anger management problem. Several people in this family erupt at random intervals. BF's uncle erupted and got mad at him because he said the word "New Orleans" and the uncle's kid was murdered in New Orleans in a shootout. That kind of angry crap.

I have never screamed at any of them first, so that's their problem. Besides they are mostly idiots. Even his sister bit my head off once for saying something derogatory about an aunt, adn i was just repeating something that BF had come up with. He thought she was a harpie bitch because she screamed at us for putting on music she didn't like after BF's dad's funeral......

And I thought it would get better if I got older and guys had dead parents, taht couldn't tell me what kind of shit I was.

Now i got a 56 year old boyfriend with a fundie jesus freak son that thinks I am an evil sack of shit. How sweet.....
Oh and he made fun of me for crying when I was trying to explain why we were Unitarians. Macho bastard. Then that means he thinks hisfather is a sissy. His father cries more often than I do, he is very sentimental about some things.

I have an extremely long fuse. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

I used to not hate Xtians but they have disgraced themselves by their behavior toward me, for the most part.

rdalin

It has been my experience on various religious forums that the atheists are generally much more knowledgeable about the bible and Christianity than the theists are.

catman

Listen--the kids are being punished for the sins of the parents. If the parents couldn't feed their children, then they shouldn't have been fucking around--you idiot.

This may be my last day to be a real christian, so I had to get that one in.

catman

Correction: I have just extended my deadline for God to answer my prayers regarding my family for one whole week. But it will be the only extension. If he wants me to remained a saved christian he has to answer my prayers.

atheist_in_foxhole

Tdekeyser, you shouldn't say such things. Just believe, have faith, trust in gawd, and don't ask questions about our cherished beliefs.

Cuz if you do you'll burn in the Lake of Fire for all eternity.

[/fundy]

catman

My conscious--maybe God--wants me to correct my previous statement before last. God is punishing the kids with starvation because the parents have no motive or even desire to do what is right for breeding purposes. It is not a sin to bear children while being poor--not at all. But you do need at least a drive to support and nourish that child--which none of the parents of the starving have.

[ December 20, 2002: Message edited by: catman ]</p>