"What?
Offensive???"
Yes, offensive. You constantly assume that you cannot possibly be wrong and that everyone who doesn't think the same as you is going to hell.
OK, have it your way. You, in believing in god, are going to waste your life worshipping an idol who does not exist. You will die expecting eternal happiness which will never come. Your last thoughts will be hoping for something better, and they will never be granted.
Now, that's me stating my beliefs as fact. Are you not offended? Can you not see how imposing your beliefs in others as the only possible truth is a gross insult to every humans right to believe what they want to believe?
"If someone asks me a question about God, I'm going to answer it as if it were fact... and there is nothing you can do about it."
Then you are wrong. It is an opinion, and there is nothing YOU can do to change that fact. It will become fact when someone comes up with irrefutable proof that god exists. Until then, it is just an opinion and you are wrong to assume otherwise.
"And what's with your long ass posts, 99% of the stuff you replied to wasn't even aimed at you."
The "lond assedness" of it is due to some peoples inability to understand someones viewpoint. Am I not allowed to reply to stuff that was not specifically directed at me? Am I not allowed to express my own opinion on the matter?
"Is anybody going to argue my point?"
The one about easter Island and stuff? I did in my "long assed" posts which it seems no-one can be bothered to read.
"I don't have to prove something wrong to know it's not real"
Good point; BigJ - you can't prove that invisible pink unicorns don't exist... do you believe in them? From what I know and believe, there is as much basis for these exisiting as there is a god.
"it's probably impossible to try EVERY religion"
Not ony impossible, but blasphemous in the eyes of most, and you'll go to hell for sure.
" I mean, seriously, just look at it this way, you're just one of the millions who has an opinion which is different that millions of others, and you think you're right?"
By far the greatest problem I have with most organised religion, and certain people who shall remain nameless who adhere to this. And then the whole "they don't believe what I know to be true, therefore I am superior and they are going to burn in hell" attitude.
"I just want to say that I've looked at many other religions and found flaws"
Me too, but christianity had the first ones I saw.
"I know that the Bible has never been wrong."
You may "know" this, but that doesn't make it fact.
"If you compare the origional biblical transcripts with other accepted historical documents, you will find no extraordinary contradictions."
I beg to differ. true, much of the stuff was based on truth as far as I believe, but where are other historical mentions of all those miracles jesus supposedly performed? Just in the bible and it's spinoffs.
And as far as the old testament goes... so you really think the earth is just over 6000 years old? This doesn't fly in the face of historical documents, it flies in the face of science. We can see that the erath is much MUCH older. And I'd say the genesis bit is a prettty important part of most (christian) god based religions, no?
"I know that the Bible has no in context contradictions in it's origional manuscripts."
What do you classify as "original manuscripts"? Linguistic studies suggest that the old testament not only underwent heavy editorial work after the time of jesus, but probably authorial work as well.
As far as contradiction goes... here's a start.
http://members.aol.com/ckbloomfld/index.html
"I know that the Bible's teachings are invaluable."
I think you'll find most people don't argue with this, but you'll know that most atheists and egg nog sticks will see it differently. Persoanlly I see religion and the bible as a great way of creating a stable society amongst humans; it advocates being nice to people, keeping clean, not shagging your sister, that sort of thing, and the it uses fear of an all powerful being to scare people into doing it. THAT is the problem I have with organised religion. I have no bones against the practices of the individual.
Just because religion PROPAGATES humanitarian principles (for the most part -we'll ignore religious wars for now) doesn't mean it INVENTED them.
"I haven't tried every religion, but I've studied the bible, Read up on it's backround, compared it with other books, and found it to be the most logical one out there."
Well Buddhism makes alot more sense to me than christainity ever will, mainly because it's the only one I've come across that does not require a beliefe in an existential eity ofone form or another.
But as far as logic goes, science for me beats every religion hands down.
"A place that we don't know of? Odd. If you didn't know if it, then how can you speak of it?"
What is this supposed to prove? On the surface it seems like the stupid old argument "don't you have to know god exists before you can stop believing in him?" He speaks of it because religious people speak of it.
"would they really have let him kill 500,000 jews"
6 million actually. Ooh hold on, I've got a good quote for this...
"... I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work." - Hitler
"Who made the universe? Then why should we believe it's real?"
We believe the universe is real because we can see it with our own eyes. But isn't it enough to say a garden is pretty without saying there are fairies at the bottom too?
"As far as you know, we all go to Heaven after we die and that's it"
And as far as you know, we all just rot after we die. This is a theological question, and not I believe the topic of this thread.
"And why would he do that? If he WAS real, then what would give you the right to tell him what to do, and what makes you think that you have half a clue of what he would do? Just another thought."
Which leads me to the following conclusion: if god exists but does not show us any provable signs that he does, he has planted the seeds of doubt in our minds. Hence some people do not believe in him. And yet despite this, apparently god still thinks you should believe in him without (to me) any beleivable evidence of him actually exisiting, and if you don't you're going to fry in hell forever. This means that you god has the sort of mentality of the people who go around leaving hats on the street with bricks under them, wating for people to stub their toe. Not the kind of god I would be happy worshipping.
"This is known as Pascal's wager."
Ah, Pascals wager again. Try looking at some of the online forums where Pascals wager has been done to death. Then come back and explain your logic.
"Although there are many religions to follow, wouldn't you think it's best to at least choose one?"
Why? I am quite happy in having no religion. I fact, I am much happier knowing that no-one is in control of me but myself.
"You don't lose anything by taking it"
I do. Assuming your standpoint of the christian god, I lose my right to say that when I see something I do not understand I wish to find out what it is, how it works. I lose my right to accept humans on their character alone, and have to judge them on their beliefs. I lose the right to decide how to live my life. I place total control of myself in the hands of an organisation controlled by humans, supposedly acting in gods name.
I lose my right to think what I want to think. This is what I belieev makes me a free human, and you are going to have to kill me before I give this up.
" Like how the world would turn out in the future, and apparently it was really accurate."
So many religions rely on prophecy... but can I ask, what has given more definite and accurate prophecies than science?
Besides, depending on how you look at them, the prophecies can explain a multitude of separate and entirely different circumstances. Take a look at my thoughts on horoscopes.
"My point is that if science can't prove how these things got here, then who's to say God doesn't exist?"
Science can show how men put them there, and has done. So why assume that some ultra-powerful deity did it? It's like me saying "wow, I can see how someone could have made that computer program, but there's no way I could do it, so it must be the work of a god". It is an invalid argument form a scientific standpoint.
"Read sdtpikachu's replies... "
Nah, my posts are too "long assed" to be worth considering apparently. Obviously someone who tries to put their POV across in as detailed a manner as possible obviously isn't worth paying attention to.
"But it's simple enough to argue that everything around here is the effect of God's workmanship."
Yes, it's so much easier just to lie back and not think about it at all. I don't want to THINK I know what happened, I want to KNOW what happened. The only way I can find out is by going out with an open mind and looking at all the available evidence. And to me, the scientific evidence makes a whole lot more sense than the religious stuff.
[next post...]