Any Brights out there

[1234]

If you liked that one, you'll love this one.
Why Atheists Should Say, "Thank God for Christianity"
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2007/10/23/why-atheists-should-say-thank-god-for-christianity/   

[007]

It takes tons of faith to be able to believe that millions of years ago a TOTALLY STERILE ENVIRONMENT, as was the earth, had
a sterile pond with sterile mineral and heat and perhaps a few lightening bolts and BANG!!! a complex organic life form was formed
now thats bright.

[joe-bob henry-bob]

well, the christians' premise is that YOU NEED JESUS.

You NEED JESUS because you need to be forgiven.

You need to be forgiven for your SIN.

You get sent to hell for sinning.  When Jesus forgives you, he saves you from being sent to hell.  (and unlike normal mortals, Jesus is powerless to forgive you until you formally accept his forgiveness.)

You are sent to Hell, not for your degree of sinfulness, but sinfulness iteself (ie. there may be circles of hell or something but you sin, you go to hell)

You are automatically a sinner.  You are born with Original Sin.  ("all men have sinned in the eyes of god...")


So... god makes me so my nature is to sin.  Then he tells me he'll forgive me if I repent.  However, without a free choice of whether to accept this "Original Sin" (no, thanks) repentance is a logical impossibility. 

You could only repent if you made a conscious choice.  The only choice made was by 2 people without belly buttons tens of thousands of years ago, then forced on you when you were born.


so... thank you god... for the wonderful non-sequitor.  great stuff. <clap-clap-clap>

[theozarker]

It takes tons of faith to be able to believe that millions of years ago a TOTALLY STERILE ENVIRONMENT, as was the earth, had
a sterile pond with sterile mineral and heat and perhaps a few lightening bolts and BANG!!! a complex organic life form was formed
now thats bright.

Not as much faith as it takes to believe some big guy in the sky just said "Let there be ..." and there was.

Linda

[theozarker]

If you liked that one, you'll love this one.
Why Atheists Should Say, "Thank God for Christianity"
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2007/10/23/why-atheists-should-say-thank-god-for-christianity/   

From the article: "We seem to be witnessing an aggressive attempt by leading atheists to portray religion in general, and Christianity in particular, as the bane of civilization. Finding the idea of God incompatible with science and reason, these atheists also fault Christianity with fostering a breed of fanaticism comparable to Islamic radicalism. The proposed solution: a completely secular society, liberated from Christian symbols and beliefs.

Hmmm, I must be a rather isolated atheist; I had no idea we had become so powerful ...bwahahahahaha.  Personally, you can believe in the great Flying Spagetti Monster for all I care.  Just don't knock on my door, collar me in the mall, or buy me a subscription to your favorite religious magazine (as one of my friends did) trying to foist whatever you believe in on me.

Linda

[reddawn2]

Im not bible thumper and I listen more to science than religion but I do believe in a God,  or Gods.  The older I get the more I believe in God.  Some of  our greates minds and scientists believe.  Einstein did.  Hell,  even Darwin believed in God.

[joe-bob henry-bob]

Any god you might choose is responsible for this world and made evil an integral part of it.  Everything that happens or doesn't happen is by that god's will.

God hissed through the vents at Auschwitz.



Or maybe you believe in a god that ISN'T responsible for this universe, but then by definition, whatever it is, it's not god.

[007]

What God made is good however He did not make robots He gave everyone free will. You choose to do what you want you can, as
many do, reject Him that is your will. And people should not get angry at those who try to show another path, they are only doing
this because they believe that your soul is at stake, they are not trying to hurt you in any way.

[heretic]

What God made is good however He did not make robots He gave everyone free will. You choose to do what you want you can, as
many do, reject Him that is your will. And people should not get angry at those who try to show another path, they are only doing
this because they believe that your soul is at stake, they are not trying to hurt you in any way.

my soul is at stake, thats nice.

wait now, he gave me free will, i'm so grateful.   i suppose the church will try to tithe that now too.

feel free to walk your path, i'll never bother you.  Tell me what path to walk, i'll tell you to go fuck yourself.

[heretic]

Hmmm, I must be a rather isolated atheist; I had no idea we had become so powerful ...bwahahahahaha.  Personally, you can believe in the great Flying Spagetti Monster for all I care.  Just don't knock on my door, collar me in the mall, or buy me a subscription to your favorite religious magazine (as one of my friends did) trying to foist whatever you believe in on me.

Linda

I would have gone with the flaming magazine trick myself.

[joe-bob henry-bob]

What God made is good however He did not make robots He gave everyone free will. You choose to do what you want you can, as
many do, reject Him that is your will. And people should not get angry at those who try to show another path, they are only doing
this because they believe that your soul is at stake, they are not trying to hurt you in any way.

God is preserving people's free will.  Wow that is so AWESOME!

So... would you agree that good is better, superior, preferable to evil?


Right, then people, using their free will, must be choosing to be totally sinless, seeing how the superiority of good is so obvious, therefore the vast majority of mankind has no need for Jesus.

Right?  Because we have free will.  And we're always using it aren't we?

as many do, reject Him that is your will

it isn't so much a matter of rejection, as the way god set things up, repentance is a logical impossibility.  

I could have repented if he hadn't decided to invent Original Sin.   Since he did, he took that choice away from me.  I can't choose to be sinless OR sinful, so I can't repent for it.

[007]

I do not believe anyone has the right to tell anybody what path to walk, here in America you can choose which ever direction you
want. But look at the stats since we kicked our morals out of schools in 1962 teen pregnancy, rape, murder, violence, suicide have
increased at an exponential rate since that point in time. Perhaps now we can blame our parent, society, govt or even God for all
our ills, I too often ask Why? and wonder If God is there why he does not do something when bad things happen. One thing is for
sure after we die we will face Him or nothingness.

[heretic]

I do not believe anyone has the right to tell anybody what path to walk, here in America you can choose which ever direction you
want. But look at the stats since we kicked our morals out of schools in 1962 teen pregnancy, rape, murder, violence, suicide have
increased at an exponential rate since that point in time.

how exactly does one kick morals out of school.  Why did you neglect to ACTUALLY LOOK at the stats, because if you did you would see those numbers dropping since the early nineties?  Must be the flying spaghetti monster.

One thing is for sure after we die we will face Him or nothingness.

Or perhaps another deity.  May you be touched by his noodly appendage

[joe-bob henry-bob]

I do not believe anyone has the right to tell anybody what path to walk, here in America you can choose which ever direction you
want. But look at the stats since we kicked our morals out of schools in 1962 teen pregnancy, rape, murder, violence, suicide have
increased at an exponential rate since that point in time. Perhaps now we can blame our parent, society, govt or even God for all
our ills, I too often ask Why? and wonder If God is there why he does not do something when bad things happen. One thing is for
sure after we die we will face Him or nothingness.

...and I will yank as hard as I can on his scraggly, anthropomorphic beard when I do!


Quite to the contrary of what you are saying, there has been a RISE in religiousity in the US.

I blame Christianity for a lack of morals in this country.  It is a non-congruent non-belief system that glorifies the killing of an innocent man and the opportunity to benefit from it with no effort. 

You can only be a Christian by repeating certain phrases while refusing to think about them and the fact that they don't correlate very well.  This makes it the OPPOSITE of a belief system.  If you practice not thinking about things, you're going to get what a person could reasonably expect in society.  I'd expect you'd get exactly the things you were complaining about like teen pregnancy, rape, murder, violence, suicide.  Plus it would be god that created the universe with a capacity for such things in the first place. 

And why do people need an outside social force to make them do good if they have free will, eh?  Or is it because they have no choice and are sinning innocently, due to Original Sin?


If god exists, he's the only one that needs to face a judge.  He created the rules of this universe.

For instance, okay God really values free will, so he has to let people do bad things, right?

...however he had to consider what would happen when two free wills opposed each other. 

For instance, a Nazi wanting a Jew to go to a death camp, and a Jew not wanting to go there.  The Jews most definitely DID get sent to concentration camps, so clearly god planned ahead and structured the universe so when these two free wills collided, the Nazis free will would carry more weight and win out.

What do you think this indicates about god?

Far from being either true OR a positive social force, Christianity is simply a non sequitor.

[007]

OK your win I do believe that YOU came from a monkey. Good night