Butthurt white guys, an Asian virgin and an angry lesbian walk into a bar...

Jive Turkey_sl said:

And right wing christian fanatics love them some ten commandments... but isn't that book obsolete?

Click to expand...

Nope it's not obsolete it's a framework to help you make decisions.

Read John 13:34 and all the previous stuff helps you do that.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

(other than raw tomatoes, you will get my hate for those every time)

Click to expand...

I stopped reading after this. He's clearly insane.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

Nope it's not obsolete it's a framework to help you make decisions.

Read John 13:34 and all the previous stuff helps you do that.

Click to expand...

What did our species do for thousands of years before that?

O sorry, Earth wasn't created then, right?

iAnus_sl said:

But like Communism is the most painful path from Capitalism to Capitalism, I tend to think that Organized Religion is the least painful path from niave ignorance to secularism.

I think, without the stability that these religions do provide, you just can't get there.

Click to expand...

I would go as far as to say that religion did play an important role in the development of humanity. When the world was nothing but questions, we needed placeholder explanations that allowed the world to make sense to us. But we've come so far and SO MUCH of the stuff we once could only explain through made-up stories has been replaced with knowledge that only comes with advances in science and technology.

Religion, like traditional gender roles, helped us along the way but is now obsolete. The fact that it still has such an impact on the lives of every citizen in the most free countries in the world is discouraging at best and terrifying at worst.

khalid_sl said:

Pretty much agree with this.

However, and I think this is an important point for people like a_skeleton_03, just because religion played an important part in the development of humans, says nothing about whether it is TRUE or not. Also of course, the vast majority of religions that humans believed in probably aren't even remembered today.

Click to expand...

I have never based my beliefs on the afterlife on whether or not it played an important role on the development of society.

khalid_sl said:

I never said you did. What exactly do you base it on, btw?

Click to expand...

I base it on I just can't believe the intricacy of the universe, the lack of life (that we have found) out there making us the center (so far), and the complicated thing that is man compared to the rest of the animals. It just doesn't allow me to see that all of this was by accident, I think we would see some planets far out or nearby that would have screwed up. You have so far zero planets out there that have life, so far. Notice I keep saying so far. I know that if we discover life tomorrow it will be a shitfest. That is also one of my 'triggers' to make me question my faith most likely irrevocable damage to it. I know that God 'could' put life on billions of planets but it just doesn't make sense.

khalid_sl said:

All that has nothing to do with your particular brand of faith though. Why not be a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim or a Buddist?

Click to expand...

Because so many faiths tie into that central concept. The three 'major' religions all point back to this Jesus dude. They all explore how they want to deal with him. Out of all of them Christianity fleshes it out the best. Jews just stopped doing anything thousands of years ago and just kind of all gave up. Muslims took something that was established and made it violent and like we discussed earlier if you think the Bible has holes well the Koran is an absolute mess just from a writing viewpoint not to mention the blatant contradictions that erode it's very core. Hindu and Buddhist and a lot of those others practically scream at you that they really don't care if you believe or don't that it won't matter nobody makes any wrong decisions and stuff like that ( I am not super versed on Hindus ) and that just tells me if they don't care about their religion it isn't worth my time.

Christianity from an external viewpoint has major flaws. Some of them are the people which can be an utter mess and some of it is the actual beliefs. I don't think atheism is right and I am not in the camp of agnosticism because you might as well be atheist at that point or pick a religion. I think Christianity works, I think if you actually study it and look into the Bible instead of just taking a random verse you got from r/atheism (not that you do that) there is more to it. The stuff people attack is 99% of the time just cherry picked. If the Bible had a verse that said "Kill your mother" and it had a verse before it saying "The following things you should not do" the atheists would pick that second verse and quote it nonstop. You cannot attack Christianity without knowing it which is why I only attack Mormonism, Judaism, Catholicism, and Muslims. I know their religion close to as much as I know mine. I know where they overlap and where they don't.

If I decided to be an atheist tomorrow I would still argue exactly the same stuff against the atheists because they aren't attacking Christianity sensibly and they aren't going to get converts that way. To a Christian you look like a fool, before you pat yourself on the back, listen. You look like a fool because you aren't actually attacking their faith at all, you are just trotting out stuff you were programmed to use that they already have convinced themselves you are misinformed about. If you put some effort in you would actually convert people. There is something better than just being smug on the internet. Think about how awesome it would be to be smug on the internet AND convert someone from Christianity.