Why can't we pick and choose? I've never read the Bible and I never will because there's a lot of things in there that wouldn't exactly help my faith. I listen to the Bible readings at church because these are the most important.

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I am, you know I am. I am Canadian.
#1 Hockey Nation.

Well no, atheism is the disbelief in religion or a supreme being.

I confess I have a bit of an issue with the bible being a holy book. As someone pointed out in this thread, it is rife with inconsistencies, and outdated doctrine. I suppose you need some sort of basis for faith though.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Isn't that what the Vatican has been doing since it's existence?


Is God saying that you can purchase slaves as long as they're not Jews? Saying that the people who worship him are better than all those other heathens out there? I thought that God created all people in his ideal image, but does this mean that if you don't believe in him you have the right to be enslaved? Then when you are enslaved, be forced into learning the ways of the bible and give up your old religious ways?

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"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." ~ Han Solo


We truly are not worthy of Miller!

I don't agree with you when you say that most things in the bible are totally up for interpretation, but I can understand where you're coming from in most cases. Here, however, you would only be fooling yourself to say that this can be interpreted as "god doesn't like slavery".

I think all Christians should consider what they're worshipping; a god who condones slavery, encourages murder of those he deems inferior -- a spiteful mean god.

Maybe you can rationalize one or two clauses to yourself saying that they're lost in translation... But there are just so many stories and clauses and psalms that encourage things I deem (and anyone with any moral conscious) despicable.



What kind of God approves of murder, rape, and slavery?

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.

Alright, I have to sleep, I'll check in in the morning. I like what most people here have had to say.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

nice try on a solid thread, rut. but this thread is already ruined. sadly.

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I'm not sure of the exact percentage of atheists and non-Christians here, but what did you expect when a thread like this was started with so many feisty folks on this board.

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"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." ~ Han Solo


We truly are not worthy of Miller!

i dont know. but as ive said, you just dont fuck with peoples faith. wanna pick on musical opinion? ok. what chicks we find hot? ok. but the foundation some people build themselves on? its unacceptable. and really, its very sad. there are simply some things people shouldnt shit on. this is one of them.

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This is kind of laughable how wrong you are.... CV you're also a little off but much closer

A-theism. Theism is the study and belief of the supernatural. A-theism is the lack of belief in a god, in unicorns, and in batman.

Not a disbelief, but a lack of belief. Disbelief requires more conviction, saying that you KNOW there is no god, whereas atheism just says theres no evidence so why believe it

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.

I'd disagree... as you might have guessed.

If we're not comfortable enough with our beliefs to have them confronted and challenged then you should really rethink them to begin with

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.

im not rethinking them. its called respect. and this is coming from someone who LOVES ruining peoples days.

if you were to tell me that you built your personality on the memory of, say, your dead grandpa, im not going to shit on him, and say bad things about him.

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Christians do it to me. They harass me into trying to find their Lord. Now I have no problem with what you're saying, you shouldn't shit on someone for what they believe, but they have to take it into retrospect as well. I am a hardcore evolutionist, and believe there is no higher being out there, just massive amounts of energy. Believe what you want, but please leave me to my beliefs (this is not directed to anyone on here).

Occasionally I'll debate with my friends about religion and what we believe in, that's fine with me. I just don't like it when I'm being told I'm going to Hell because I don't believe in the one and only God, the Alpha and the Omega, and the Holy Trinity.

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"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." ~ Han Solo


We truly are not worthy of Miller!

ATHEISM ISN'T A RELIGION! It's a lack of religion and isn't bound by any ancient rules and guidelines. I personally think that most of what 'jesus' said was great stuff and i'd live my life by it... minus the whole belief thing, but the moral guideline is mostly spot-on.

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.

hmm i suppose that makes sense, but if i built my personality on harry potter would you say the same thing?

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.

Mike, I understand your premises. However these responses were elicited from a posted topic.

Had someone started an anti religious thread, and bashed, or criticized people for their faith, it would be, in my opinion, nasty, and out of line.

These are open forums. If you broach a subject, especially one that is charged, don't expect all replies to be supportive, or warm and fuzzy.

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

This thread will not end well. I give it 12 hours at most.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Pants points out, in his own way, one of the reasons why I'm not a religious person. There's too much ambiguity presented with an air of authority, if that makes sense.

The Bible itself, the holy book for all the Christian religions, isn't even the complete works of the texts. A bunch of men got together in Rome and decided which texts were in, and which were out.

I don't want to pick on the Catholic Church, but what religion can say that molesting children is a sin, yet react so indifferently when their clerics do such things? Why is their interpretation of the Biblical texts right, and every other religion's wrong?

I won't begrudge anyone else from having their own beliefs, but these are some of the reasons why I can't get behind any of today's established religions.

NOTE: I'm trying to steer this back onto topic, as it's really walking the line. There's always a place for debate, but let's all try to consider that people might not like overt criticism of their faith, regardless of good intentions.

See Now before you go any further... im gonna stop you right there. Have you been in the new testiment? Jesus condemns a lot of these things. And I believe in the Bible when you go past the books of the law, and read into the stories that are there God tells king Saul to destroy a city, kill the live stock, destroy the goods, and just conquer the city. He tells Saul that everything in that City is unclean, and not to take it and Saul does.

Please read 1 Samuel 14. The whole story is right there... God tells Saul to destroy the city because of what the Amalekites did to the Isrealites.

Now I appriciate your opinions on the matter, but Im confused at the fact that your only using Old Testiment readings. Not New Testiment.

Now I encourage you to start reading from Matthew 5 in the New Testiment because they have what are called the Beatitudes. Which deal with the law, which I will continue the passage from which you started from in matthew, about Not abolishing the law. Matthew 5:19 says Anyone who breaks on of the least of these COMMANDMENTS and teaches others t do th same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. It all goes back to context. Jesus uses the word Commandments, which we know there is Law, and set of rules Called the 10 Commandments that God gave to Moses. That is what Jesus is referring to. He does not say once that he is talking about the Ancient Law.

The ten Commandments are:
1. You shall have no other God before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
5. Honor your father and your mother
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's

This is the ultimate Law God had laid before us. So to speak literally and figuratively rules "written in stone" for us to follow.

Now to continue with Jesus talking about the Beatitudes, he talks about Murder and how it is wrong, Adultery, Divorce which goes along with Adultery, Oaths, Turning the other cheek, Love your enemies Giving to the needy, Prayer, Fasting, Treasures in Heaven, and Judging others. Not once does he talk about how He condones Slavery, or Rape, or any of the other things you listed. See as I said in an earlier post, things change. Jesus came to correct things that had gone wrong and set people on the right path because the Pharisee's and Sadducee's had taken the law so seriously that even though they followed THEIR interpretation of the law they saw they "could do no wrong" and were killing constantly and not forgiving.

Jesus had once told them when they were going to stone a adulteress, "that he who is without sin may cast the first stone" and none of them stoned her, Jesus is the only one who was without sin, and he forgave her.

So realistically here, your just going off of what the old testiment says, while the new testiment corrects the problems of the old testiment.

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LETS GO BUFFALO!

Aaaand BOOM goes the dynamite.

People only see in black and white and only recognize their own side (and not just in acceptance, either; I mean that on many different levels), I swear. Both sides sadden me in these threads, both for their behavior and lack of both knowledge and respect.

This is why conversations like this should only occur between good friends, and certainly not on the internet, where people do not know what it is to be civil.

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Miles to go before I sleep

‎"Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
-Khalil Gibran

Read my very first post where I have a caption in the book of Matthew where it says that you're supposed to obey every word of the Old Testament, verbatim.

Heres another good one:

Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God." (2 Peter 20-21 NAB)

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.