Well, of course xtians don’t have a problem accepting non-literal translations. If you told xtians that the Hokey Pokey was required to get to heaven, the devout ones would be doing it at their desks.
The non-literal translations people get from various teachers, priests, reverends satisfies them enough to keep their own personal faith in the type of god/Jesus they prefer. Oh, and to keep giving money in the collection plate too.
Example: I asked the nuns at catholic school as a kid was it two of each animal or seven of every clean animal? Why did god change the rules? One said it’s a translation error. Number two told me not to question the lord’s ways. I can’t possibly understand them.
Non-literal translations like these are simply lies to prolong a snake oil business. Reading the bible cover to cover once and watching what churches do and what ministers say leads to seeing it’s all bunk.
The objective of most people that engage in debates is not to solve a problem it is to WIN.
By whatever their definition of winning is. It usually degenerates into an EGO GAME and the objective is to make the opponent look STUPID. For many that is WINNING.
Very often they don’t notice that they make themselves look stupid but I suppose only the people that figure out the nonsense notice that. A lot of atheist seem to assume that if someone is not an atheist then they are not intelligent. The agnostics are gutless fence sitters.
Is this another variation of the old “you have to respect my opinion” argument?
Some ideas, and some people ARE stupid. Quite often, hard as it is to imagine, stupid people will have stupid ideas. What is the problem of pointing that out, if it applies?
Someone had found a way to use code to get around the Dope’s hatred of all caps but I forgot what that method entailed. Using uncapitalized font/size code doesn’t work.
Yeah, I’m with the others; the caps are not working for you.
As an atheist, I’m willing to concede that belief in a supernatural being doesn’t necessarily make one stupid, but I am truly curious what causes someone to believe in something, and be willing to die and kill, for which there is absolutely no proof.
I can understand children being impressionistic sponges but, it seems to me, as we reach adulthood, empiricism and the scientific method of duplicability, even in the most basic of processes, become necessary components in understanding the world and how and why things function the way they do, if only to better one’s chances at having a decent life.
Gods are not necessary to understand our world or for it to function. Now, again, I’m willing to concede that, at some point in the last 2000 to 10000 years, it was necessary, probably as a natural consequence of humanity’s sentience and evolving inquisitiveness, for a supernatural being to be an easily understandable solution to the big unknowables of the day. So I understand why we created gods, including the Abrahamic God. But why, when the questions are answered, and the proof provided, and the scientific method rigorously applied to form theories without which subsequent scientific advances would not be possible, do we find it acceptable to continue to lend credence to the illogical (to me) notion that because a book of dubious origin, laden with contradiction, subject to wild and disparate interpretations, even by adherents, and again, backed by no evidence whatsoever, recommends fealty to its words, it should be not only taken seriously, but revered and given equal weight to facts that completely discredit its assertions?
When I was a churchgoer as a kid, I read and memorized so much of the bible it was coming out of my ears, but I’ve forgotten a lot of it. To me, it is convenient, yet somehow understandable, for theists to question why atheists interpret the bible so literally. We really don’t, at least I don’t. However, it is so easy to use the words of the bible against itself that it is not necessary to remember or even to have read much of its minutae because the big proposals are what theists and atheists alike usually discuss and debate, so it only seems that every single assertion is countered and scrutinized. The other thing, of course, is theists hate for their faith to be questioned and consider it an attack, so there is an element of hypersensitivity. I do admit, however, that at times it can be confrontation for confrontation’s sake, but sometimes it’s simply a query or, as is usual in my case, incredulity in the form of a question.
Not to single them out necessarily as my view is all theistic belief is not only dangerous but inherently destructive, but to focus on what I grew up with, contemporary Christians, especially the American variety, scare me. There seems to be a growing push toward appending, or prepending, the word ‘science’ to Christianity-focused assertions when absolutely no science was performed from which the opinion was developed, while at the same time dismissing and mocking true science, and eschewing real facts and evidence. It seems to me that an increasing number of American Christians are dismissive of education, especially the sciences, for their children. I can’t find the site at the moment, but I read somewhere online that the number of children being home-schooled is also increasing and that a large percentage (I don’t remember the number) of these children are from religious, Christian households. I have to say it alarmed me as I believe we’re heading, even if only slightly, to a day when a lower number of American adults will be prepared for dealing with the rest of the world. At some point, probably (I’m hopful) in the not too near future, America will be no longer able to compete intellectually with citizens of other first-world countries and, I’m sorry, but all this blind allegiance to hard-line Christianity will be at least part of the reason.
ETA: Hmm, I strayed way off topic in that last paragraph, didn’t I? Sorry about that.
Essentially, a universe with no magic sucks. It’s a hard thing to swallow. People need to feel like there’s some sort of fundamental entity in control of it all, that things don’t happen for no reason, that there’s a greater plan, and that you don’t really truly die.
I don’t think the primary factor in coming to realize this is necesarily intelligence but an intellectual commitment to rationality. You can have brilliant people who decide to just buy into it - it’s really a philosophical position and a commitment to reality and honesty.
It’s not that science can explain everything, but that religion can’t explain anything.
The beauty and wonder of theology is a pale candle compared to the glory of the universe around us. Open your eyes, my friend. You’re missing something wonderful.
