And without devolving into, "here is his shoe! We must follow the shoe!" The sermon on the mount, after all, had some good moments. A little windy....a little reachy perhaps...but still, some good moments.

we sometimes have this same "preacher"  from an Evangelical cult come onto campus to "preach".
 
He obtains a permit , free speech and all that, and HOLLERS and assaults students about their faith or lack of.
 
Poor students, he has all the cliff notes to suck them in and the canned arguments to "win" the debates..
 
thing is , Jesus, or for that fact most prophets did NOT adopt that way of delivering their message, most if not all are soft spoken in their message. Even Crowley had a mesmerizing message.
 
True keep your beard combed, look clean, pray in private..IF the person you engage in is not receptive to your message shake the dust off your sandals and move on ..
 
 
There are many more appropriate forums that are much more receptive to a message that Pedro is delivering, you know the TOS this is  Caesers forum if you will, rend to him and go elsewhere and be embraced..
 
am surprised this thread isnt locked yet, BUT it is VERY CIVIL discourse..so I think were are more mature than what used to transpire upstairs
 
 

backwoods
Woohoo!!!! Rain's moved onto the New Testament!!! 

Judging from your posts, I'm tempted to believe that I know far more about both the Old and the New Testament than you do.
 
But how about you argue with your esteemed christian fellow, sir BigBen - you both seem to be in disagreement as to the importance of the OT and some particularly fundamental aspects of your faith.

I thought Harrah's bought out Caesar's, no? But I'll gladly render unto them too as I actually do work for them from time to time:-)

You know, the more I look at it the clearer the hypocrisy is...
 
At one point, the OP rejoiced to "learn" there were other christians on board. Right off the top of my head I could name you at least a dozen regulars who have expressed their beliefs literally and/or by sending prayers (because, as you guess, atheists don't tell people they'll pray for them).
 
Furthermore, if he'd only took time to visit the links provided in their signatures, he'd have realized that many folks have expressed their faith through songs. The song forum is also filled with christian music (and there's NOTHING wrong with that).
 
There's also many, many folks who constantly mention working the PA at church and playing during the sunday mass. Since most of those folks are here in the US, I would assume that they're not talking about a buddhist temple.
 
But it's that one statement that conveys the hypocrisy even better:
 
"Over 2000 years of that book being ridiculed, studied, debated, murdered over, scrutinized in side out. It still exists. Is there any book or writing even close to the abuse the Bible has taken? How does that book keep on going and going. Jesus said things of this world will die out but His Words will live forever. "
 
Little does it seem to matter that for the biggest part of those 2000 years, the Bible and its believers were actually not on the receiving end. They persecuted, they burned, they tortured, stole, raped, killed, they slowed down the progress of all mankind by censoring science and imposing a reign of terror, they justified the worst atrocities - and still do...
 
And yet, the OP still finds it amazing that the book lived on. Considering the complete lack of logical reasoning in most of his arguments and how he just ignore facts and make blanket statements, it isn't hard to imagine that believers managed to believe in spite of every evidence.
 
The millions who actually did give up their beliefs in the face of evidences are obviously to be ignored. As long as there's even just two fools out there with a Bible, Paul can technically believe that the word of God is the eternal truth...
 
 

Hehe- Pinky and the Brain
 
For what it is worth- Catholicism is not incompatible with science. Read a book.

backwoods
Hehe- Pinky and the Brain
 
For what it is worth- Catholicism is not incompatible with science. Read a book.

-1
 
Read your Bible - No Adam and Eve no need for Messiah, no Christ no new testament. Ask your Christian pal Big Ben... or people from one of the other 39 999 denomination of christianity who all think that they alone have the right interpretation of the same schizophrenic tale.
 
The Bible isn't incompatible with some science. For exemple, it isn't incompatible with gravity - I'll give you that. But then again, Star Wars isn't incompatible w/ some science either.
 
 Partial truth, and no proof of it's veracity. 
 
 
But it's just a flesh wound, ain't it?
 

 

Yes I think it might be. Isn't stem cell research frowned upon by religious organisations. Don't they get the best stem cells from the aborted fetus. This is one area where religion has really slowed down science and it has no business being involved in it either.
 
Stem cell research is one of the biggest things we have discovered. It is going to eventually lead to some amazing stuff.

 
I've never managed to quite get my head around the whole 'god is love' shtick.
 
How can anyone genuinely 'love' an entity that forces you to love it, else suffer eternal torture.
 
An entity that furthermore tells you how it should be worshipped, that tells you what to think, what to wear, what you can eat, who you can have sex with.
 
Even how much of your penis should be sliced off. In any other walk of civilised life, if a perfect stranger so much as touched a child, you'd expect that person to answer to a court of law. But some of you willingly allow your baby son's genitals to be butchered - and the poor little mites don't even get a choice in the matter.
 
And don't get me started on female circumcision, rightly referred to as female genital mutilation.
 
What on earth is wrong with people who think, not only that this abhorrent practice is alright, but that a loving god requires it.
 
Wake up for goodness sake, none of this is normal.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
And why are we not 'required' to perform ritual sacrifices anymore?
 
There was plenty of that going on in the bible.
 
How come that fell out of favour with the big fellow?
 
Or stoning people to death...
 
I wonder if him upstairs just got bored with it?
 
How about a good old fashioned bit of slavery then? He seemed to be pretty keen on human trafficking once upon a time. He even explains in some detail how slaves should be acquired, and how they should be treated. Why is slavery no longer seen as a part of normal everyday life? Did god tell us sometime that he'd changed his mind and that it was, well... actually, a pretty bad thing after all. Chalk that one up to experience eh? Or did the civilised world deliberately act in defiance of himself and start about eradicating this vile practice?
 
I'll be honest, I don't understand any of this stuff.
 
I'd love to know what steps I need to take to get myself educated about it though.
 
Please be good enough to explain to this naïve old heathen how you can justify that a loving god not only allowed these repulsive practices to continue for centuries, but actively instructs you to perform them?
 
Or maybe I've just been wrong all this time about what's meant by 'love'?