Question for Theists

Most theists are, in fact, experienced atheists. They deny the existence of all but a handful of gods. Theists claim to follow the only true gods. You [the theists I presume to be reading this thread] dismiss creation myths by other creeds using your logical faculties. Why can't you see that your own religion is just as hogwash as all the others you denounce/renounce? Why can't you critically examine your own religion?


I understand that i've made a few generalizations. I know that islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, just not as Muhammad. I know that there are a handful of religions that don't exclusively follow any god in particular.

 

Well to start, Christianity is a very widespread and has the most adherents. Around 2.2billion or so people are Christian, according to statistics.
There is many recorded (sadly barely any scientific) data noting the existence of God. I'm not sure about this, but I'm pretty sure that some scientific data did indeed conclude that Jesus did exist (I've got no backings on this on sorry, it's just what I've heard or red.)

Christianity is not the only religion that believes in the Jesus and/or the same God. For example, we have the Katholic people, Muslims, Jewish followers and such. These are all religions that have been around for a while, unlike some stone or wood statues that people carved and decided to call God.

Tl;dr?
1. most followers
2. long history

But overall, I think that faith is the most important reason.
Sadly, you will not understand faith until you have it.
An even sadder fact is that with all scientific reasoning and theories, faith is a lot harder to have because of everything that goes against it.

 

ignorance. Most followers? really? The majority of kids in america believe in santa claus... that doesn't make him real.

long history? thats almost more reason to not believe in something? If a caveman thought a coconut created the world and drew cave paintings about it and we found it in the year 2012.... we would laugh at that idea even though it has "long history" on its side.

reasoning behind christianity/religions is pathetic

 

I don't know the Christian population in your area, but its well over over 40% in our country, and around 30%~40% around the world. That's just the christian population.

People have thier beliefs and you should learn to understand and respect that.
You can't just g around accusing people of being ignorant because you dont't understand them.

 

Yet were the ones going to burn in eternal hellfire because we don't agree with you?


Why does population mean ANYTHING? It's a proven fact that lower IQ families have more children. It's also a fact that there are more Muslims than Christians, so your logic of numbers destroys itself.

You still refuse to answer OP's question of critical examination of your own religion. You can play the "faith" card but you don't understand that faith is not strictly a religiously based thing. Anything that is done outside of logical reasoning takes faith and you using it as a get out of jail free card and just saying "well u don't understand" is an easy way of saying you're fucking clueless.

 

Whatever the majority does, must be right? Humans beings are a weak species, because if they don't have a reason to live, they become depressed and such. So some people's solution is to make up a god in their image to give them a sense of superiority/purpose/meaning/etc. A lot of people also commit crimes, why don't you do that too?

And yes I understand we must respect others' beliefs. But how about theists stop attacking atheists, women, other races, other religions, science, sexuality.... the list goes on. Thankfully, the number of atheists have increased slowly so society can advance.

I have another question. How come your God/Allah/gods are human? Isn't it a nifty coincidence that the superior being that you created (oops I mean worship) is the same species as you? Pretty weird coincidence, huh? How come god isn't some animal or plant? He just has to be a white male. Wait, the most staunch zealots of Christianity, Catholicism, and Judaism are white men too! And funny, there are no pictures of Allah, even though he should be the same God. I guess the darker-skinned Muslims don't like that.


As Mark Twain once said, reading the Bible is the best cure for Christianity.
You ever heard of the Bible? You should try actually reading it.

 

Actually, population does indeed often take a huge role in why a person may believe in something.
It's not weird that a person would follow what is the most popular. In fact, it's common and you see it everyday.

But honestly, faith actually is the main reason behind most of this. I know that from your point of views it's just plain retarded, but it just is.
Divine, I could pretty mich say the sa,e to you. You're clueless about having faith and thus, you don't understand.

Revoloight: I agree that theists should stop attacking the 'list.' It does a lot damage to the Christian reputation. Our church just chooses to ignore it.
And as for why Jesus was humna, you should read the bible like you've suggested, too.

 

religion served a huge purpose in earlier civilizations. without it humans wouldn't have any sense of "morality" or have any reason to not commit crime. but now religeon has grown into a power struggle that just causes friction between social groups/nations. honestly at this point the only value i see in faith is keeping smaller communities together. if you looked at the bible you would see that there are a ton of reoccurring themes between itself and other religeons. Most of these may be holidays, other important dates, or areas but if you really think about it everything seems to be crafted around the basis of maintaining power and stopping crime. Because what is the best way to stop someone from stealing something? burning for eternity in hell is a incentive!

and honestly even if there was some other being that created everything then what are the odds that we got it right?

 

Very true with regards to beliefs, but they aren't legitimate references when we talk about facts.

Faith and false/flawed evidence/reasoning are the only reasons for belief in the existence of an actual entity that is God.

I think what the OP was trying to address is the double standard that goes on. Faith by definition is belief in the absence of evidence. So, if we presuppose that your reasoning for believing in God is entrenched entirely in faith, then this implies that your standard of proof for believing in the existence of certain entities is nothing. Given that this is your standard, why do you then not believe in concepts/entities that have the same standard of proof, for which, there could be an infinite number of said entities.

To clarify it further, do you believe that there is a God that exists to the extent that same extent that the computer screen in front of you exists: does God exist in reality?

 

I almost stopped reading when you linked religion with mortality. People who have never heard of religion can have a sense of morality it's almost basic instinct. For an atheist there isn't any reason not to commit a crime by your logic because they have no sense of morality.

Think about it this way we have free will. God is suppose to be omnipotent and have omniscience so he knows what I'm going to do and say and has the power to stop it or change it because the ball is always in his court. Why have me roam his world just for me to piss him off and burn me in hell? If god is all loving why would he burn us for doing something he already knows we are going to do.

 

You contradicted yourself quite a few times. I wouldn't say that the stories about jesus count as "data". Please don't cite scientific data without sourcing your claims. The whole point of scientific process is to discuss things in terms of logic and truths, not having any evidence subverts your argument. There isn't any evidence of god.... thats the whole point of faith. With faith you don't need evidence, you just have inner, unprovable/indisputable conviction. Trlolol its pretty ironic to talk about scientific data, refuse to source it, and just say that you "believe" it exists. That isn't data, it's faith hiding behind a pseudo-scientific shell.

Code:

da·ta/ˈdatə/
Noun:	
Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.

Catholicism is a branch of christianity. In my first post I acknowledged that other religions recognize jesus christ, just not as the messiah. Islam/Catholicism are both relatively new. Christianity is full of stone and wood sculptures. Your commandments are written on a goddamn piece of rock.

Ugh, I don't know where to begin with this one. You start out saying that modern science proves the existence of jesus. I don't dispute this, there is lots of reliable evidence that he was crucified etc. However there is little, and contradicting historical accounts of his supernatural abilities (i.e. rising from the dead etc.). Do you believe in monsters under the bed? NO. Do we believe in the existence of witches? NO. Do we think we live in the matrix? NO. Do we believe there a sun god above us? NO. Do we think that Atlas is holding up the world? NO. Do we believe in ghosts, or consult psychics? NO (you better not). All of those things are logically disproven and disbelieved by the mass majority of people. Why is christianity, which is just as logically void as the myths/fables I just presented, accepted as fact? It just sounds as though having "faith" means disbelieving in logic/empirical evidence. Why is this willful ignorance only applied to religion, and not all the other ridiculous shit out there? I don't see how christianity is any more credible than Kim Jong Il making 11 hole in ones. Of course I won't be able to understand your faith, because it is predicated on ignorance.


My question still stands. Why do you disbelieve other religions, and exclusively believe in your own? What makes one religion any more credible than the other (besides "faith").

Christians (currently) outnumber muslims (2-2.2 bn christians vs 1.5 bn muslims), however Islam is growing at a much higher rate than christianity. Population growth also has to do with the availability of contraception, health care, social norms, religious beliefs etc.

Yeah I agree with you about the faith card. Faith just seems like an excuse to legitimize nonsensical beliefs.

^^^ This guy gets it. If your destiny is pre determined, why even look both ways before crossing the street? If the car is meant to hit you, it will. Theres nothing you can do to change it. Its god's plan, bro.

 

Before I answer those questions, I'd like to ask or two of my ow regarding the intentions of this.

Are you just asking just because you're curious, or are you looking to argue the existance of God?
Judging by most of your posts, it's the first, but you can never know for sure until you ask.
Please be honest with this question

 

I'm just curious what separates your god from the rest. Why is your religion more valid than other creation myths? You stress the need for faith. Why is faith applicable to your religion, and not other myths/fables/stories? If you're christian (which I'm assuming you are), why do you think that christianity is more valid than Judaism/islam/buddhism/wicca/norse mythology/flying spaghetti monster?

 

You say that you're just just curious, but you're comparing Christianity with flying spaghetti monsters. You may say that you are not, but you're clearly looking for an argument.

We all know how that's going to work out, so I'm gonna back out of this one.

 

I'm looking for a discussion. I'm looking for you to respond to my question. You've dodged my question at 3 times. I don't see whats wrong with the comparison. If you could illustrate the difference in validity between the two, you'd be answering my question. I'm not arguing the existence of god. I never stated that god existed/didn't exist. Also there is only one spaghetti monster. Duh. Rastafarianism is a legitimate and internationally recognized church. The headwear (a sacred strainer) is religious garb. You can wear a strainer for your I.D. pic



I don't "know how that's going to work out" because you haven't answered my questions. I actually find it a bit disrespectful. It seems that i've posed a few questions that you find difficult to answer. I'm sorry if my posts are a tad combative, but my intentions are genuine and not malicious.

I guess I am looking for you to argue why christianity is legate and worthy of faith. Whether there is a god is completely irrelevant. Why do you believe in christianity, how is it more valid than other (preferably non judeo-christian) religions?

 

And you yet still refuse to answer OP's question. I addressed it in my post and you ignored it. The op asked it over and over and you ignore it.

Back out.

 

I chose not to answer your questions because of the intentions behind the questions.
If I answered then, you would come again with more disparaging comments and rebuttals.

Your intentions are to bash and disrespect my religion. Curiousity is just a mask.
If you really were curious, you wouldn't have answered the way a you have answered.

What did you expect tp get? Onviously, like I've said before, you're not looking for answers that will conclude this discussion or to satisfy your curiousity of ill intent. But does thayt mean that you expected believers of God to agree to your comparisons and drop their belief? No, this is just an excuse to disrespect our religion and faith. This thread was made based on childish intentions; once again, to jeer at followers of God. Possibly because of the wrong-doings of Christians at are always on the media.

As for your question,
"
My question still stands. Why do you disbelieve other religions, and exclusively believe in your own? What makes one religion any more credible than the other (besides "faith").
"
Obviouosly because of what I and/or we have grown up believing in and have been taught. And in my case, I don't disbelieve other religins like Hinduism or Buddhism. I'm just clueless about them. Maybe I would be a buddhist or hinduist(?) if ai grew up believing in them.

As for other gods, such as your flying spaghhetti monster, we all know that it's just something silly that you just made up. The god we believe in didn't just pop up in the 21st century. He's been around for a while.
And yes once again, faith is the tl;dr answer. Other than that, there's nothing to it.

By making all those comments on the religion and asking for other reasons than faith, you just made this thread a one way argument and debate, if it wasn't one already.

Those are the reasons why I choose not to take part in his silly thread anymore, amd those are the answers to your questions.
That's all I'm going to say,, enjoy your day.

 

If your belief in God is rooted in faith, which by definition is belief without evidence, why do you not believe in other entities without evidence to support them?

 

He Probably won't answer it due to the nature of the question. Faith is a crutch for religious people to not critically think because if they do it smashes their religion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vi...annotation_id=annotation_102794&v=mSy1-Q_BEtQ

This series of videos explains everything I needed to know about religious people and they way they operate. With those steps taken by the person of ''Faith'' can they even attempt to use their minds.

 

Scream persecution and discrimination all you want, but it was you, not us, who took 3 posts ( and failed at doing so ) to critically think about your own religion.

To believe in your own religion, you MUST disbelieve others it's a golden fucking rule.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing ( do not bow down to anything other than god )
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain

You see, for someone who is so embraced in faith you hardly know anything of what you hold faith in.

Your religion just popped up as well, the time doesn't matter. You clearly don't understand the implications of the FSM as it's used as method to clearly demonstrated the irrationality and political power/benefits that are given by religion. Ramen.

Better attempt to study your religion before you advocate it.