Do You Believe In God

Opethian, you're fuckin' right.

born an atheist lived my whole life as an atheist to this point... and will die an atheist even if im burned alive for my disbelief
i run my life by logic and i see no logical reason for gods "existence"

but i will NEVER push my views on others and despise when others do it to me

Edible wrote:

What I am saying is, there is a difference between reading the bible and deciding "Lets go kill some people of this sort" and deciding to do it for other reasons and using the bible to justify/sell it to your followers.

By my understanding the holocaust at least, was more focused on how hitler blamed the jews for ww1 and the damage germany took in the proceeding treaty. The aryan stuff came later in the picture and after that the religious stuff was tacked over it to add legitimacy/because it was old german and hitler thought basically anything old german was good.

This implies at least to me, that religion was not a cause of their actions.

The argument reminds me of when christians say that stalins purges/5 year plans or the khmer rouge were done due too the people being athiests.

Religion can cause it, I totally agree with most of your examples (Well bar the russian pogroms and yugoslavia, which I dont know enough about to comment.)

I just contest the holocaust as being done due too christianity.

So you use WWII as an example. That is the best example that you could have used if you were actually trying to argue that Christian Terrorism isn't as bad as Islamic Terrorism. But the better example, if you could have stated it, would have been the Crusades.

The fact with the Crusades is that it was warranted by the church. It was a call to arms to defend Christendom from the expanding Ottoman Empire at the time. The Catholic Church was the law of the land at the time, much as when you go to Islamic countries now, Islam is for the most part the law of the land. The church wasn't in it for purely Christian reasons, but used Christianity to justify it. The people who fought in the crusades were however in it for Christianity. They figured that if they did this they would get into heaven. Thats the same mentality that many of the Islamic terrorists have. The interpret the Koran in a specific way, much like the catholic church did then.

The tactics are not much different either. The Muslim terrorists don't care about civillian casualties, when in the koran, it strictly forbids killing women and children. The Koran actually outlines rules for war if you are going to wage it. Christians during the crusades weren't better. They would burn down mosques with the congregations still in them. You can go to the American Colonies, with the Salem Witch Trials, were those not acts of terrorism, they essentially forced them to confess to something that they didn't believe. Even if you go to the American South any time past Reconstruction, you find events like church bombings. So you are telling me that if a Muslim kills women and children, its worse than if a christian kills because he interprets christianity in a way that promotes racism. I don't even care about numbers in that situation, both acts are acts of religious terrorism.

The Spanish Inquisition is a good example of religion terrorism... Anyway, there are millions of missionaries all over the world who give their lifes for helping pour people even if they are not Christians, so it is the other way...

Missionaries should be killed, all these fuckers ever do is take advantage of a impoverished people's situation by making it a means to "Save them" in other words Acceptance in Christ = Food You want to help poor countries four words for you Join the fucking peacecorps. I'm sorry but I see no justification in using aid as a means of recruitment for people who already have their own belief system.

Yeah, of course they should learn from poor people instead of forcing them to believe in God, but... would you go to Africa giving your life for this people? They do it.

Giving your life for others in one thing. Going on a mission to try to"civilize" a bunch of " wild savages" by imposing the White Christ on them so they "Won't go to hell " that's completely different.

Man, that was a couple of centuries ago, not now...

A form of Modern Christian terrorism would be Timothy McVeigh. He was a radical christian. Thats why he bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building. There are people who believe that the US NEEDS to be a Christian Nation, and NEEDS to have Christian Laws.

Lets try to keep on topic here. This thread is about believing in god or not.

Yes, sir.

NosferatuA wrote:

Yes, sir.

Well, its just that these arguments never go anywhere good.

NosferatuA wrote:

Man, that was a couple of centuries ago, not now...

There are Missions all over the developing world as we speak, how naive are you?

Naive? No, I know what I'm talking about. I'm not defending religion terrorism, but you can't judge Christianism for that...

And why not? Christianity is responsible for destroying entire cultures from North Western Europe to the Americas. That's an historical fact.

Alright, lets take this further... WHITE PEOPLE are responsible for destroying cultures all over the fucking world for centuries regardless if they were Christian or not. So why not hate white people the same as religion?

Fuck that, lets not just hate white people. Lets hate everyone. We don't want to be racist, sexist, or any other -ist. Lets just hate everyone.

Mash those White people you speak of the majority of them were motivated by one thing, can you guess what it was?

It's the imperialistic traits of Christianity that played a huge factor in justifying past atrocities from the 20th century like Jim Crow or slavery a century before that. Sure you can argue that there were more progressive Christians who spoke out against such things, but I'll bet you double or nothing those same people would renounce their involvement with their local denominations when they learn the truth about what their religion really is, a Roman Imperialistic ideology that stole and perverted the ideals of what was suppose to be a reformed version of Judaism.

Quote :

Alright, lets take this further... WHITE PEOPLE are responsible for destroying cultures all over the fucking world for centuries regardless if they were Christian or not. So why not hate white people the same as religion?

Indeed.

We have to hate Christianism because of Jim Crow...? WTF, that were segregation laws, not religion, dude! And if you knew anything about christians you would know that Roman Imperialism ended with the Inquisition....

Religion need to die for humanity too live on! I thing so true for me, but o the other hand i think mankind would have several back up ideas to kill ourselfs!

NosferatuA wrote:

Quote :

Alright, lets take this further... WHITE PEOPLE are responsible for destroying cultures all over the fucking world for centuries regardless if they were Christian or not. So why not hate white people the same as religion?

Indeed.

We have to hate Christianism because of Jim Crow...? WTF, that were segregation laws, not religion, dude! And if you knew anything about christians you would know that Roman Imperialism ended with the Inquisition....

I guess you never heard of the Conquistadors then, they practically robbed the Americas of everything "in the name of the Church"


As for segregation laws being irrelevant, I should tell you that oppression against African Americans has always been based on the biblical notion that anyone "the color of night" were descendants Of Ham and therefore damned by Jehovah. Look up the reference if you don't believe me.

The thing is, most of the bullshit that comes with religions is just fucking human nature and that people in general will follow practically anyone if enough other people are doing it. That's why George W Bush won his second election.....That's why so many Germans who were soldiers were fucked up the rest of their lives after what they did to Jews in WWII.

(This reply is from reading the first page.)

Theism, I.E. believing in a god/deity, is not a religion. Just because you believe in God does not mean you are religious.

With that said, I believe in a God, a God that is both good and evil and accepts that both sides exist. I am not religious, I do not like religion. I am far from liking religion, it annoys me.

Ironically, I go to a Christian school and most of my friends are Christian.

I dont believe in Magic, Leprechauns, Dragons, or Unicorns. There is no such thing.


look up Numbers 23:22

they later changed Unicorn to Wild Ox for obvious reasons.


this is lol

Religion inherenly is merely a power structure. The idea of christianity, as it was intended was never to be a power structure as much as a way of living. Thats what Jesus meant. Thats what most acutal spirituality is, its not dogmatic, its acutally based entirely on how you live your life. You are meant to focus on what you can do, not what will happen if you don't do something.