Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
Seriously, our govt tells us the same, isn't it? "They are coming to kill you and they hate your way of life".
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Sure, some governments do that -- and some American presidential administrations have done that. However, the real irony here is that governments unilaterally play on the populace's religious beliefs as a strong motivator to do something about it.
One of the first things a government will usually claim is under attack is "our way of life." And first on that list is religion and the freedom to practice it. "They're coming to take your god away," is essentially what they're saying. Nothing but nothing but nothing fires up the fury of a population than to say their religious values are under attack.
Which is PRECISELY why Christians in America just adore playing the Persecution Card every chance they get. Gotta covince the rank and file Christian that their religion is under constant threat from those mean ol' atheists, communists, and Islamic extremists, dontch'ya know.
Hence the Christian leadership has painted atheists as these slavering, immoral, hedonistic monsters out to ban Bibles, close churches, abolish prayer, and all the rest of it. Not a whit of it is true, but no one cares about truth when fear is the primary emotion.
I doubt half the Christians I've talked to would even know two facts about Stalin, Mao, or Hitler were it not for Christian propagandists preaching their hatreds and poisoning the well against atheists. Now, suddenly, there are hordes of Christians who think they know history -- and they don't.
AT ALL.
Makes me sick.
But it just goes to show you how all you need is a population steeped with heavy-handed religious indoctrination (America) for any government -- especially the bad governments -- to keep the people dancing on the ends of their puppet strings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
Also, I would like to know if you could quote me a few religious guidelines from all religions in the world that tells it's followers that "other religions a threat to your eternal well being or that of your loved ones". This is a new one to me.
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Do you even read the Bible? There's an actual law in Leviticus that says that, if an inhabitant of a given town converts to a different religion other than Judaism, not only is that inhabitant to be put to death, the WHOLE TOWN is supposed to be wiped out.
That just goes to show you how afraid and hateful they were toward other religions. And I mean, seriously,
If there is one religion that states this, and you believe it does not sit well with your intelligence, logic, reasoning, understanding and perception, THEN reject it and move on to the next to continue your quest.
Now, if you come back and tell me that ALL religions in the world tell it's adherents to create divisions within themselves then, I will take your original statement seriously.
Or how about
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(9:5) And when the forbidden months have passed, kill the idolaters wherever you find them and take them prisoners, and beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent and observe Prayer and pay the Zakat, then leave their way free. Surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful.
In other words, worship a false god and you're dogmeat.
Religion doesn't have to come right out and say, in obvious black and white, what's really being said. The hatred and bigotry shown other religions speaks far more loudly and clearly than any direct law. Other religions are an everpresent threat and they cannot be tolerated in "our" midst.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
Again, who decides what's moral and what's immoral? You?
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We all do. It's called the societal contract.
That contract is signed upon birth and is predicated on the well-being of the citizenry. Those actions that do not promote well-being whilst not benefitting society as a whole are generally considered immoral and illegal.
If we take our moral marching orders from a god, then we're not being moral. We're just following orders. The only reason why your morality exists in its current form is because that's what your orders happen to be. But your orders could have easily been to murder without thought every gay, atheist, and non-Christian everywhere in the world - including children and infants - and that's exactly what you would be doing. Like ISIS or Al-Qaeda.
Secular morality exists due to analysis and self-awareness, to know intuitively that crimes such as murder is wrong because it does not foster the well-being of the person being killed or the well-being of society altogether. This is why societal morality has diverged from the Bible to find its own way rather than for our sense of right and wrong being based on an obsolete book that would have us hating everyone that doesn't conform. Is it any wonder, then, why fundamentalists and evangelicals have always backed autocrats and dictators?
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
You need to show me where does the religion say that it's adherent should be divided into different groups?
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That's just it ... if the Bible was the divinely inspired Word of God, everyone should be on the same page. Instead, some people aren't even reading the same book. The Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, for example. Christianity is the result of a splinter group severing itself from Judaism. Protestantism is a splinter group severing itself from Catholic Christianity. Islam is a splinter group that severed itself from Christianity as a whole. And then there are the tens of thousands of smaller denominations within each branch.
At least with science, you do not have 30,000 different takes on evolution. Rather, you have a 95% consensus.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
Why because, IT'S THE HUMAN NATURE that creates divisions and gives us the option of having difference in opinion.
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No, actually, it's not. All of these differences of opinion stem from how poorly written the Bible is. You do not see 30,000 denominations regarding the wetness of water, right? Because everyone knows the wetness of water is fact. There is no ambiguity. Something as important as the contents of the Bible should also have no ambiguity -- and yet it is one of the most ambiguous books ever written.
Oh sure human nature might play a role .. in the same way human nature allows a small percentage of the population to actually believe the earth is flat. But you don't see thousands of different earth-shape groups all believing the earth is a rectangle, a circle, a decahedron, shaped like an egg, or whatever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
Our intelligence, logic, reasoning, life experience, education and our nature varies from person to person.
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And yet no one believes water is dry.
No doubt even if the Bible were clearly and concisely written, there would be a small subset of Christians who would still disagree with the overwhelming majoirty and conjure up their own interpretations, but their numbers would be inconsequential and would have no tangible effect on majority belief.
Religion, on the other hand, is all over the map with several major religions -- each with many competing ideologies and denominations. That only happened because of lousy authoring that did NOT stand the test of time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
It's the way we think, it's the way our brains work. We will always have divisions and groups regardless of who and what we belong to.
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Yep, but if you look at how people are divided and in what percentages on a given topic, you can get a very good feel as to what divided them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCardinals
IMO, you are fighting more so with Human condition but hell bent to blame it on religion.
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Religion is a major part of the human condition and, hence, shoulders a major part of the blame.
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The Rules of eventuality apart from human preference make themselves. The rules of physics are inherent (or evolve) in matter. All we need to do is discover them. Nobody 'makes them up'. The fellow in the vid. is a lamebrain. 
