I was raised Catholic. When I began to have serious doubts, I looked into it. Also, I have interest in mythology and history.
Except evolution also occurs when a species doesn’t ‘migrate.’
Please read my entire post and the post I was responding to (i.e. don’t ignore the context) before assuming what it is I’m trying to say.
Wait, where’d my thread go!?!
will I guess, I was wrong, I think the problem is with some Christians themselves not Christianity as a religion.
I just read this and would like a Christian’s opinion on it.
I’ve asked the same thing in the “Ask a Muslim” thread to see if the responses are similar.
Just a note. What this article contains is an explanation of falsifiability. So, to anyone who wants to answer this question, I recommend to understand the concept of fasifiability, it might help you understand the argument that danielsangeo has shown.
Carl Sagan was the man. If I had any real feelings I might be brought to tears by the ‘pale blue dot’ speech.
Sinners repent! Let’s all sing the chant of light!
Crusader, the reason this thread can’t work is because there are 10x as many non-Christians as there are (vocal) Christians on this board, so it becomes overwhelming to constantly answer questions and respond to arguments, as well as the tendency among the non-Christians to “gang up,” so to speak. We are highly outnumbered and it is futile to try to keep up as it greatly snowballs after a while.
Just for the record, I am a Christian but will be staying out of this thread. Should I break this vow, please feel free to flick me.
That is all. Carry on. Good luck.
I’m sorry, but “gang up”? How many of “us” do you think there are here? I’ve counted three, maybe four. We would simply like answers to various questions but always seem to get the run around or vague answers to questions.
If you don’t want to post, that’s fine. Do as CatzEyes93 does. However, don’t try to claim that we’re doing something that we’re not doing: i.e., “gang up” on those poor innocent “Christians”.
In the United States, atheism is still treated with ill-repute. One can barely even talk about religion in the US without causing an argument so most atheists stay quiet. It is only on the Internet that we get equal footing and if we DARE to try to assert ourselves, it’s immediately labeled “bashing” or similar.
We have questions. We’d like answers. It’s not “bashing”. It’s not “ganging up”. It’s interest in the discussion.
If you have well reasoned responses without flaw, the amount of people arguing against you shouldn’t matter.
I would be happy to venture into a religious forum and debate.
I think you misunderstood. I didn’t mean to attach any sort of negative connotations the the phrase “gang up.” I meant to simply refer to your collective efforts serving a central purpose.
@Max, maybe it’s just me.
there are no collective efforts serving a central purpose
JUST ASKING QUESTIONS FFS
If you aren’t able to come up with reasoned arguments, who else could possibly be at fault for that?
EDIT: I do have a legit question for Christians who may have studied the bible more than I have. My questions relate to the the stories of Judas in the bible. The two texts I have always been bothered by relate to Matthew, and Acts. In acts Judas is depicted as devoid of remorse. He purchases a field, and while in that field Yahweh exudes his wrath upon him causing his intestines to burst from his stomach. In Matthew Judas is caged by guilt and remorse over his actions. There is no mention of wrath on the part of Yahweh, or mention of and intestines bursting out. Instead in Matthew Judas hangs himself from a tree out of guilt. How is the dichotomy in these two accounts of the same situation explained? I’ve heard some people say that they don’t contradict, and that Judas hung himself from the tree while in the field he bought, and once dead his stomach burst. While I suppose the argument could be used, it is terribly poor writing ( and the word of god is supposed to be without flaw ). It is also unclear, and definitely up for interpretation.
Can someone explain this to me? If anyone is willing to have a dialog on this I have more instances that bother me…
Sigh, my eloquence seems to evade me. I’ve been around long enough to have seen the first thread from its creation to its death and saw exactly what happened. It doesn’t stick to a simple Q+A format. In theory, that would be splendid. If all the people asking questions were satisfied with the answers when they got one, then they could move on to completely different questions; and if there were an equal amount of Christians actively answering questions as people asking questions then the questions wouldn’t queue up.
But there are three major problems:
- Most times the people asking questions will never be satisfied with the answers they get (not by their own fault of course, and obviously there are exceptions) just by the nature of the topic, religion. So, they continue poking and prodding into the same question after it’s been answered. This is not because they are trying to be dick-heads about it, but as I said that’s just the nature of the topic and it is an inevitability in this thread.
- This will not stick to the Q+A format whatsoever. Because of reason 1, it will ultimately turn into a debate on many levels–intentionally or otherwise. If you don’t believe me, just look through the last thread.
- Because of reason 2, other “question askers” will then feel invited to pitch in their two cents in the debate (the collective effort). This is generally where you will see anti-Christian comics and videos being posted. Again, referencing the previous thread.
I’m not saying you guys have some ulterior motive to take down Christianity on this board, I’m just pointing out what consistently happens in these types of threads.
You misunderstood. I would be very capable of coming up with reasoned arguments and presenting rational discourse to whomever prompted it with a question, but it’s because of the reasons above that it snowballs and becomes too much of a hassle to keep up with. It’s not convenient and it accomplishes nothing. If I had nothing else to do with my life I’m sure I could dedicate a couple hours every night to keeping up with the influx of new questions on this thread, but it would be completely futile (and therefore a waste of time).
apparently so
The problem, E-Nelson, is that when we ask questions, we feel that the answer given is not satisfactory so we prod for more information, then we feel we get to a point where there’s a wall. The asker is accused of “bashing”, of “having ulterior motives”, or just simply not answering the question.
Let’s take it outside religion for a moment and let’s talk about a television. Everyone knows televisions, right? They know what it is and what it does.
Okay, we’re on the subject of televisions. Here’s how I generally see Q&As on religion go:
A: “Televisions have little imps in them to paint the screen with light and the imps are very fast, able to paint the screen 24-30 times a second.”
B: “Excuse me, what imps?”
A: “The imps that live in a television. You can’t see them. They live in what the scientists call the ‘cathode ray’ and paint the screen. Hence, a cathode-ray tube television.”
B: “Excuse me, but electrons from the electrical outlet gather in the cathode-ray tube and, through the use of steering wires, the beam hits a phosphor-coated shell in horizontal lines and moving vertically and, through the concept of persistence of vision, you see an image. There’s no evidence of these imp painters.”
A: “You have to believe. And, besides, isn’t this supposed to be a Q&A?”
B: “Fine. Where is your evidence of these imp painters?”
A: “You have to believe before you can find evidence for them.”
See how “A” didn’t really answer the questions? A just repeated the claim with elaboration. That’s not sufficient for B.
That’s how I see Q&As where it comes to religion and deities and why you might believe that we’re asking the same questions over and over again: because we’re not getting an answer and we believe that, if we phrase the question correctly (maybe you just don’t understand us), we’ll get the answer we’re looking for.
I’ve asked several times “Why God and not another deity” and am met with vague answers. When I prod for more information (to reduce the vagueness of the answer), I’m met with a wall that I can’t surmount. It’s very frustrating to people like me because I feel that I’m getting the run around and not getting an answer to the question.
Then I’m told that the question has already been answered and that I just don’t like the answer. That is very infuriating. I just don’t understand why I can’t get an answer.
That’s why it looks like we’re asking the same questions and “ganging up”: Perhaps one of us could actually phrase the question in such a way that we’ll get an answer.
it’s pretty simple, there is no answer to that type of question
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrZcztxRquo
Mildly confrontational, but I employ it in theocratic debates.