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You need to read what I actually wrote instead of what you want to think I wrote.
Give them a break, they were talking about a certain topic (vague mysticism/supernaturalism) and you responded by bringing up your memory of their fondness for Biblical stories (is that the old, worn, our thing you are talking about?). That is why they misrepresented your accusation.
Ummm... Hello! I'm determined as well. Trans isn't the end-all be-all. And indeed, it is to do as much good as I can in this world, that the requires discussion and education, rather than factioning or faith (which means fighting it, along with superstition).
None of us are trying to baselessly boogeyman people into our beliefs nor are we trying to bring anything further than the threat of words to their brains.
A big part of my endeavors is also to learn about others.
Inded. I am NOTHING in the atheist scheme of things. I am No Aragorn yelling "For Frodo" before leading a mad atheist charge into the ranks of the faithful Erks, Trolls and gobblers. I have just tried to look at where this has to go, and indeed others with voices in a wider venue than CD Religion have said the same.
Btw. I know (or I seem to recall) that you are not atheist exactly, but (Like Trout-dude, and a very fine one) have some Theist views, and that's fine, as you never seek to attack us.
We all know that there is a lot of confusion among religious people. We don't even need to discuss that because all the regulars in this forum are in agreement, at least to some degree.
But I think there is confusion on the other side, where they think that religious people are some kind of threat. There are threats, but the threats are caused by things that are outside of the realm of religion entirely. The fact that powerful people are able to use religion for evil doesn't make religion a threat. It just means that it has been used by bad people, and that causes bad things to be done in the name of religion. But religious people are good people.
I agree. It may seem that we are attacking religion but we are attacking that threat - and it is a very real one.
If that threat is removed, you can practice whatever religion you like. We will still say - if asked - that we don't believe your religion, but there would be no need tor Go After it. Trying to eliminate the threat does involve debunking the rationale for it. That can't be helped.
I agree. It may seem that we are attacking religion but we are attacking that threat - and it is a very real one.
If that threat is removed, you can practice whatever religion you like. We will still say - if asked - that we don't believe your religion, but there would be no need tor Go After it. Trying to eliminate the threat does involve debunking the rationale for it. That can't be helped.
Religion can't be helped either. Even if it were defeated in this generation, another would pop up to take it's place in the next generation. People will always believe in deities in some form or fashion.
Religion can't be helped either. Even if it were defeated in this generation, another would pop up to take it's place in the next generation. People will always believe in deities in some form or fashion.
I see no reason to think that is so, if some of the previous gaps for gods are filled by science and religion is not allowed to indoctrinate. At least if irreligion/humanism has enough clout to push religion into the bacjground. Note, this has happened in Europe already.
If the pushback can happen in the US it wil be a Conscious voting pushback, and people will become aware instead of just not caring as is the case in Europe - which is why the Right and Religion are teaming up to exploit fear of immigration to grab back power.
Irreligion may fail but not because it isn't possible, but because the other side found a fear -weapon to work with.
Well, once again Ozzy, you don't know what you are talking about, and you seem to forget everything that is said to you. Please remember this:
A significant percentage of the regular members posting in this forum were once devout Christians. At some point in their lives as Christians, they began to have doubts about the beliefs their churches taught. In order to dispel those doubts, they started reading their Bibles, reading over and over, from front to back, trying as hard as they could to dispel those doubts. It's a pretty serious thing to begin to have doubts about the eternal salvation you have been taught since infancy, so they studied the Bible intently to prove to themselves that it was true and their doubts could go away.
For those regulars I'm talking about here, it did not work. The more they studied their Bibles, the more they learned that what they had been taught in church failed to make sense to them and great portions of the Bible were overlooked. Gradually, they came to disbelieve what their churches taught and they became atheists.
Please remember this. Most of these people in this forum know the Bible better than you do, and better than most of the regular posters in the Christianity sub-forum as well.
You don't have to take my word for this. First, go search for the threads here that have discussed the topic. (It has come up several times.) Second, pay attention to what they post, and believe what they tell you. Third, ask them, pay attention to what they tell you, and remember what they say.
Please remember this. This is the truth for a large number of the regulars in this forum.
Incidentally, this is also an answer to the questions asked in the OP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OzzyRules
There is a difference when a person reads the Bible in an attempt to dispel doubts or to find faith. There is already some doubt, then it just gets worse and they begin to ridicule the entire thing.
Personally, I have no problem with atheists not wanting to believe in religion. But when they have the attitude of Ridicule regarding a religious text, it is not even possible for them to have anything more than a superficial understanding of it. They don't have to appreciate the Bible, that's their choice, but they can't call themselves experts on it, because their complete dismissal of it is evidence that they understand very little about it.
Once again, you missed the most basic point. I don't know how you can keep doing that over and over.
These people started out with a little, tiny question, so they went to their Bibles and started reading. They were devout Christians that knew they would find comfort and answers to their questions in their Bible reading. The more they read, the more questions they found in their reading, and bigger and bigger doubts developed as a result of their quests to find answers to their questions in the Bible.
My guess is that each of them had some different tolerance level. When each of them had read long enough or found enough discrepancies or read enough horrific stories, they put the Book down and concluded there was nothing of value in it. It was gut-wrenching anguish for most of them. The entire basis of their faith in eternal salvation was destroyed. This was probably a huge, life-changing moment for many of them.
That's why they know the Bible better than many Christians, which is what this thread is about.
After studying it so thoroughly that they put themselves through this life-changing moment, why shouldn't they ridicule something they have found to be entirely ridiculous? Haven't you found anything you consider so ridiculous that it is worthy of ridicule?
Believers cannot accept that anyone can come to lose faith for good reasons. It was a Bad Experience. They were never Real Christians in the first place. They were just starting with skepticism and just looked for things to confirm their bias.
Story after story of a believer who wanted to answer a few nagging doubts they had or wanted to refute the questions of this or that atheist. And the more they looked for answers, the more they found questions.
No, no. That can't be it. There must be another reason. They will not believe that what they are told is the way it was. Rather than admit that, they will believe that everybody is lying.
It is possible to know the textual content without having any understanding of it's meaning. If you can't even explain why the stories have endured and been believed for so long, then you have no real understanding. The understanding is only superficial, and most of the atheist views on the Bible that I've seen would be laughed out of a high school religious studies class.
Of course they would. It says a lot about high school religious studies classes.
A classroom of preschool children might laugh at an adult sometimes. That doesn't mean they know more than the adult. When it comes to the Bible, I see atheists discussing it as a group of children at play.
That says more about you than atheists.
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