Christians: We Arent Trying To Condemn Anyone

One of the things I don't get is that it seems like people truly believe that religion is the cause of all the world's problems. I don't even understand how someone can come to that conclusion. If everyone was an Atheist would that bring world peace or something?

Depending on if you believe that most people are going to Heaven, that would be one way of looking at it. The Bible isn't 100% clear cut here.

It states that only 144,000 of the most righteous will enter Heaven and that the meek will inherit the earth. There are prayers that allude to God's Kingdom coming to Earth.

Without getting too in detail, my personal belief is that when we die we will go into an unconscious slumber and after the end times have been fulfilled, those who are truly righteous and good in their heart will be allowed to return to Earth and perfection before the final tribulation, when God releases the devil once more to tempt us in our perfect state.

The laws regarding the punishment...do you even understand law?

Since you are judging it on man's understanding of law, let me remind you that this "law regarding punishments" seems to manage to give every single person a different sentence for the same crime.

I'd have to disagree with you there too. Would it prevent some armed action? Probably. Would it eliminate wars all together? Not a chance. I don't think America has ever waged a war for religion. Protecting our interests and maybe even to gain something yea. I could be wrong though on that. I can't say that I know the exact reason for every war that we have waged but I don't remember being taught that it was about religion.

God is timeless.
God is superior to me in every way.
God can't figure out that slavery is morally wrong?

Cmon, that makes no sense and makes a mockery of God. It's a despicable human practice that any divine being should thoughtlessly declare as among the worst thing you could do to another human being. God saw fit to state homosexuality is wrong and that carries to the present day yet just imagine how much better our world would have been without slavery being sanctioned.

I know many play it down as being some sort of indentured servitude as opposed to the slave trade of more recent times but for it to be in any holy text is just astounding.

Owning another human being. Owning them and beating them. Stop and let that idea soak in. Countless people were plowed into servitude because of that one little bit of the OT, countless peoples put into a spiral of suffering for what? It's one of those things that really takes my breath away.

Yes, we humans are products of our time period but for this practice to have made the divine cut in the OT was one of the most egregious points for me in doing some brief biblical study. It's pretty much like saying murder or stealing is ok.

Only humans could OK something as barbaric as slavery.

As education levels increase, faith decreases. That's an undeniable, verifiable trend. We're not talking USA high school standards, we're more talking --oh, Twitter just emailed me, last post--a better education from k->grad school.

When I say proper education, I mean the whole shebang. Critical thinking skills, more challenging reading, logic classes, all the good stuff. Trend is clearly seen that education leads to secularism.

The more educated a country is, the higher they score in happiness indexes and the lower the rate of crime is. That's because they also tend to be more economically stable.

Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, etc.

Sorry you fail at reading, when I addressed this already. To save myself the trouble, here is the TLDR version:

No.

So that's a yes...

And you see no problem in saying that personally or because that's what god has said?

Granted there is no guarantee 100% of wars would be eliminated, but it's a damn good start.

I have no problem saying it, for the same reason people have no problem engaging in homosexuality, it's their belief. Just because a homosexual doesn't think homosexuality is wrong, doesn't mean they are right. It's a two way street, because you are going to tell me that just because I think homosexuality is wrong, doesn't mean I am right.

When we die, we either get to ask God ourselves or never have to worry about it again, cause this life was all we got.

Until then, I choose the high road, I disagree with homosexuality, but that doesn't mean I dislike homosexuals or find them appalling. In fact I count them among my friends. It's their life to live.

So you don't hate them but you just *** love to make a point over and over. I can understand why people say what they say now, not that you give a ***.

You don't think wars are waged for land? for power? for monetary gain? I've seen people on these boards claim the current wars were fought for oil. People, like always, will find a reason for conflict.

I like to have an educated discussion, which I am having with Chaosx, on the largest reason for atheist versus theist debate to begin with. It happens to be the hot topic of these debates through multiple threads because it is of a personal interest to many players of this game. Therefore it takes a lot of the explanation part out of the debate and more to the discussion of the finer points.

I see no reason to be nice or respectful to such a disgusting thing as religion.

You have to give me a few minutes, I'm still taking in that last statement.

I don't understand what is so difficult to take in about disagreeing with homosexuality but not hating homosexuals.

I believe it is against nature, science is actually in my favor on that one.

You're part of the problem Jet.

I have no problem saying it, for the same reason people have no problem engaging in homosexuality, it's their belief. Just because a homosexual doesn't think homosexuality is wrong, doesn't mean they are right. It's a two way street, because you are going to tell me that just because I think homosexuality is wrong, doesn't mean I am right.

When we die, we either get to ask God ourselves or never have to worry about it again, cause this life was all we got.

Until then, I choose the high road, I disagree with homosexuality, but that doesn't mean I dislike homosexuals or find them appalling. In fact I count them among my friends. It's their life to live.

Then PLEASE explain to me, why animals in the wild, engage in homosexual activities sometimes? (Sorry this thread BLEW UP today..last I saw it was 3 pages earlier today, but this was the first thing I saw when I clicked back).

I don't understand what is so difficult to take in about disagreeing with homosexuality but not hating homosexuals.

I believe it is against nature, science is actually in my favor on that one. I also cannot understand how a man can be attracted to another man that way and I can openly admit that I never will and shouldn't bother trying, since I will never be attracted to another man. The greatest fallacy here is a heterosexual expecting a homosexual to understand something they cannot, and vice versa.

Outside of homosexuality, they all have feelings, goals, ambitions, desires. They work jobs and pay taxes. They generally are nice people. Why do I have to hate the person, because I disagree with an act that I am not even taking part in anyway?

This part I can sorta agree with.

You consider not being gay or participating in homosexual acts as the high road. Is this not a case of judging someone else, rather than letting god be the judge?

Please explain to me why you want your selling point to be "well animals do it, so should humans." We can't truly delve into the mind of an animal, nor can you really rationalize something that isn't sentient. Define this homosexual activity they engage in, did you personally ask them if it was because they were homosexual. How about this, your question is absurd and any answer that comes from it will be absurd.

Once again, you and I are conditioned to believe slavery is immoral and wrong.

I also am not immune to the fact that many things in the Bible now may not have originally been there for both copious translations and more nefarious reasons.

There are plenty of creatures that bang another creature of the same sex, while this is not technically homosexuality, science is not with you on this one.

Please explain to me why you want your selling point to be "well animals do it, so should humans." We can't truly delve into the mind of an animal, nor can you really rationalize something that isn't sentient. Define this homosexual activity they engage in, did you personally ask them if it was because they were homosexual. How about this, your question is absurd and any answer that comes from it will be absurd.