[creature]

Originally Posted by jeepduo

leader of sorts

Weird, I never knew they could have anything resembling a leader. Just goes to show, you learn something new everyday.

[jeepduo]

Originally Posted by creature

Weird, I never knew they could have anything resembling a leader. Just goes to show, you learn something new everyday.

ain't it amazing

[blackZZR]

I believe I will put more ketchup on my fish sticks

[biffstephens]

Why be a good person? Good is a relative term....means something to one and something else to another.....some would argue that they want to be good people because it is natural (someone got it above)

Created is also something as well that is taken out of context a lot....in the God sense Got could have created man by making the single celled organisim and then let evoloution take over. Creating Earth could have been making the big bang happen and then standing back and letting things happen....

I personally think that Athiests dont hate and ridicule you (maybe some do) but in general I think they just think you are just wrong. Same as you think they are wrong.....when you want to actually TELL the other is wrong....that is when it is never good.....there is no good way to do that..

[jeverett]

Originally Posted by blackZZR

here is something funny

I have a new employee and the other day we were discussing the bible
I stated that I thought hte bible was the will of god, not his word
he said that every word in the bible was truth
we talked for a few minutes and he told me unless I accepted that every worn in the bible was truth, I would be going to hell

now what was funny is that he has never been married, he is raiseing 2 children he has had out of wedlock, and has told me about the woman down the street that he goes and sees on saturday nights for sex.

Selective religon I call it, and find 98 percent of christians practice it

ever notice that when something bad happens to a non beleiver, god is punishing them
but if omething bad happens toa christian, god is testing them

selective religon

they clai, we are to forsake the riches of the world as our riches are in heaven
but if they get a million dollar lotto ticket, god blessed them

selective religon

that is because people are all hypocrits, and us Christians (or those in any other religion for that matter) are still people and that will not change. I had to laugh when one of my pastors was talking to people in a public building (I think it was a mall, but not sure) and when a lady told him that she would not go to church because there were to many hypocrits there. He told her that there was always room for one more.

But seriously all humans are hypocrits and all people in a religion are people. I as a christian see this as an example of the teaching that says that all people are sinners and that there is not one person who is rightous on their own. I am still a person, so I am still a sinner even though I am a christian because try as I might I can not attain perfection, which is why it is so important to me that God forgives.

[blackZZR]

Originally Posted by biffstephens

Why be a good person? Good is a relative term....means something to one and something else to another.....some would argue that they want to be good people because it is natural (someone got it above)

Created is also something as well that is taken out of context a lot....in the God sense Got could have created man by making the single celled organisim and then let evoloution take over. Creating Earth could have been making the big bang happen and then standing back and letting things happen....

I personally think that Athiests dont hate and ridicule you (maybe some do) but in general I think they just think you are just wrong. Same as you think they are wrong.....when you want to actually TELL the other is wrong....that is when it is never good.....there is no good way to do that..

those are good points, however I find most Xtians are caught up in the semantics and are afraid to think outside the box

[LoneJeeper]

there are NO athiests. Not one will continue their beliefs if some god/s/goddess/es of some sort comes down/up/across and lays to waste/absolves everyone/turns us blue.

I just think churchianity is counterintuitive. Why would someone/something so perfect, omnisient, powerfull as the creator care so much about someone so insignificant as we supposedly are?

Religion != Spirituality.

I'm sort of a Pantheist. I believe in nature. All the spirituality you need is all around you.

lj

[starheimberger]

Originally Posted by blackZZR

I fail to see what the connevtion is between ones faith, and thier morality or ethnics

After all, if beleiveing in Christ is a basis for morality, then how about the crusades ot the spanish inquisition, were they moral

dogs do not have the cognitive thought to either have religon or decide what is moral, and yet they are good to each other, and protect each other

morality is a set of ideas that are instilled into us by our =society, and that set of ideas is always changing, what is moral today is not tommorow. And even that is up to debate
for in america it would not be moral to rule over our wives,treating them as chatel, however it seems to be perfectly ok in some middle eastern countries.

so weather one is a buddist, muslim, atheist, agnostic or a Xtian, it matters not to his moral outlook on life

The idea that the inquisition was a religious movement is silly, the inquisition was a perversion of everything Christ stood for.

This is still my question. what are your morals based on?

[LoneJeeper]

My morals are based on doing what's right, on how i'd like to be treated, and what makes people happy.

are you saying that your morals would be different with a different bible?

lj

[starheimberger]

Originally Posted by trailboss

Im not an atheist, but i am pretty agnostic. I'll bite at your questions:

Why be a good person? Because its the only thing that seperates us from the damn animals! Because its noble. Because I want to "rise above".

If we are not "created in Gods image" are we not just animals?

[hansimusmaximus]

Originally Posted by LoneJeeper

...I just think churchianity is counterintuitive. Why would someone/something so perfect, omnisient, powerfull as the creator care so much about someone so insignificant as we supposedly are?...

lj

what a compassionate God. just curious, do you really think you can even begin to understand God's reasoning for anything? i sure can't...

[AMK]

Originally Posted by Dana44

I'm not athiest.. don't know any person who is.. i knoq quiet a few people whom are agnostic, like myself

Do you even know what it means to be agnostic? Agnosticism is not a belief about god. All of you who respond that, "I am agnostic" are not making any claim about a religious belief. Let me explain, like I did in the other "theological" thread, because the misconception about agnosticism drives me crazy.

First, Agnosticism is NOT a belief about god, it is a belief about knowledge. Agnosticism is an epistemological belief that basically holds you should believe what the evidence shows. You can be an agnostic atheist or an agnostic theist. If you want to learn more about agnosticism, I recommend reading the writings of the man who coined the term, Thomas Huxley (also read Socrates, Descartes, Kant, et al )

Second, there are variants of atheism. Positive (strong) atheists posit that there is no god. Negative (weak) atheists lack a belief about god.

Finally, if you think there is a god at all, then you are a theist. You can very well be an agnostic theist, but a theist nontheless. If you think there is no god or think it is impossible to know about god, then you are an atheist. Similarly, you can also be an agnostic atheist.

Originally Posted by starheimberger

Why be a good person? If no eternal penalty,why not get all you can for yourself? You know, survival of the fittest.

Just because you don't believe there is a god, doesn't mean that you cannot be a good person. My personal ethical system is a mixture between Mill's utilitarianism and Kant's catergorical imperatives. I try to avoid doing things, that if everyone were to do them, it would create a disaster. For example, killing is wrong, because if it was okay to kill people, then the human race would likely cease to exist. Lying is wrong, because if everyone lied, then nobody would believe anything and the advancement of our species would also cease. I also try to avoid doing things, if it would hurt the whole more than it would help the whole!

[ArloGuthroJeep]

Athiest/agnostic here: You are confusing morals with religion. The bible is in general a good place to get morals from but that is about where I stop looking at it. I am not nice to people out of fear of going to hell and my desire to go to heaven (neither of which I believe in); I do not do good things to try and get into heaven; I do them because that is the right thing to do (morals ) and to do it for any other reason (in an attempt to get into heaven/away from hell) is a retarded reason.

[AMK]

And please, spell atheism correctly.

[LoneJeeper]

I fail to see what I care about a god's reasoning that has the power to provide people with whatever they might need and lets innocent children starve, get life-threatening diseases, etc.

I'm of the opinion that religion is the opiate of the masses. Follow these rules or else you will burn forever, says the king richard.

Believing in a creator is intellectually easy. don't understand how something works? oh, that's easy, a god did it.

lj