The Scandinavian countries, France (nominally Catholic but most are not devout), Italy (called by longtime resident Gore Vidal “formerly pagan, briefly Christio-pagan, currently between deities”) and from my understanding most of western Europe for that matter are largely “godless”, which is to say that while they certainly have devout Christians (and Jews and Muslims and Hindus and all other religions) and some even have state religions their government and their people are mostly secular and the religious conservatives haven’t become super powerful as a political movement. I think they’re safer than the Muslim countries, most South American nations, and for that matter, the USA (as evidenced in terms of murder rates and crime anyway).
better buy an airline ticket now before the price goes up.
Oh God, one of those “then why don’t cha leave it” ers. I KNEW that was coming I KNEW It. (You may want to go if Obama gets elected; rumor has it he’s going to be sending Christians to reeducation camps.)
Some people try to run and hide from problems. Some people attempt to fix problems.
Since religion is largely based on ignorance… technically they would be “education” camps. 
Just so we are straight, here. It was Lobohan that state he believed that Christians believed in a psychopath God. I refuted that, going into more detail in later posts.
You are correct. Christians believe that there may be punishment. But punishment does not preclude mercy. Rules of Immorality/morality do, however, preclude amorality. Grace precludes empathy and remorse. So, even if you personally believe that the Christian god is some sort of colossal meanie, he still doesn’t fall under any normal definition of a psychopath.
I find it interesting, btw, that even the atheists in this thread seem to have a favorable opinion of Jesus, but you insist of labeling him a psychopath.
No you didn’t. You spouted a fallacious argument, that you then accused Der Tris of using. Don’t you recall?
You are the one passing off your beliefs as all encompassing-christianity. And they aren’t. I’m happy your imaginary friend makes you complete and keeps you warm at night. It’s just that some people’s imaginary friends are the ecclesiastical equivalent of Ike Turner.
No, they insist on labeling God (the Father, the god of the Old Testament) a psychopath. They’re only saying Jesus is a psychopath if they buy into the standard Christian interpretation that Jesus was God, which isn’t a necessary interpretation.
Frankly, I like most of Jesus’s message. But I don’t believe that he was a) God, or b)accurately represented in full in the Gospels. The Gospels were written for various purposes, and “as an accurate portrayal of Jesus’s life” was low on the totem pole for all of them. They didn’t call the Gospel authors “evangelists” (messengers) because they were big on objective journalism. They had a message to convey, and accurate factual accounts weren’t that message.
Even the nontrinitarian sects of Christianity believe, that at the very least, Jesus’s message was God’s message. Do you see the conflict now? Or are you now going to claim that not all Christians believe in the Christ?
The sects that do not believe in Jesus as a deity are fairly minor. More common are the tritheistic views, such as Mormonism. But they still all agree that Jesus and God are of the same purpose.
You can not have a psychopathic Christian God without that reflecting on Jesus as well.
If you insist on making claims based upon just the Old Testament God alone, you are not talking about Christianity, but Judaism. They are very different. But even so, no one has refuted my logic on why the OT God is not a psychopath, based upon the definition I cited earlier.
I don’t see how it’s an example of begging the question. ISTM that Der Trihs has identified the fallacy here: that of assuming the name given to something tells us more about it than the properties it has.
Of course. Isn’t that old news?
People believe what they want to believe, and have no trouble reconciling it with the faith they believe they’re supposed to believe. The God that people think they believe in is very much a construct of their own minds. To some extent that overlaps with the God that really is, if we’re lucky.
But just because someone says they believe in Jesus, doesn’t mean they believe in something that’s at all like Jesus. Hell, it doesn’t even mean they believe in something remotely consistent with the Jesus of the Gospels.
Der Trihs is making no claims as to what the actual God is like - IIRC, he doesn’t believe there is one in the first place.
He’s claiming the properties that millions of believers ascribe to God describe an entity that, in any other context, we would regard as psychopathic - and why should the context of divinity cause us to come to a different conclusion?
You’re missing my point, which is that I don’t have to care what this sect or that sect of Christianity believes about Jesus. All I care about is that roughly 3/4 of the actual philosophy that is attributed to him in the Gospels sounds good to me, as an agnostic/borderline atheist. All of the other stuff is the Christians’ baggage to deal with. I am not forced to take Jesus on the Christians’ terms.
So how do you plan on fixing all the people who don’t like Christians?
Well Der Trih seems unhappy with Democracy and/or Christians so I was just suggesting he live somewhere that would be inline with his personal convictions.
- I don’t see that he has a “problem” with Democracy-I think he has a problem with the linking of Democracy and Christianity.
- Would you suggest that Christians who have a problem with our (supposedly)secular government move out of the country if it bothers them?
How about a place where the Constitution loudly and clearly proclaims that there’ll be no inherent difference between color, race, creed nor political affiliation?
Because if we are to belive that, he already lives “somewhere in line with his convictions.”
With all due respect, mayhaps you’re the one who should be thinking of moving. Plenty of Theocracies around.
Sounds suspiciously . . . Communist to me.
- looks suspiciously at RedFury’s username *
Hmmmmmm . . .
I’d suggest fixing the Christians. If they weren’t so unlikeable as a group (a fair number of them are okay - but the annoying ones are louder) then there wouldn’t be a problem, would there?
However I don’t have a plan for doing this - I’m not practiced in meddling to horrible degrees in other people’s lives.
And, regarding the OP, I think that a lot of theistic americans see the US as “God’s Country”, and therefore that being in the US’s army is like being in God’s army. Especially since we mostly fight against godless communists and heathens of various flavors nowadays.
I’m pretty happy with the country I live in and the people who live in it.
In a board that makes it a near requirement to misquote, half quote and not quote the bible, this is a particularly egregious example of putting words in the bible that it simply does not say. :rolleyes: 
:smack: :dubious: