Originally Posted By utahjosh True, Dabob. It's too bad. Let's keep preaching the teachings of Christ, then.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck People don't need religious icons in order to do the right things. Common sense, with a sprinkle of Human compassion and your there!
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Why specifically focus on the teachings of one particular individual whom historians still can't prove actually existed? If the goal is to teach humanity, compassion, and respect for all living things... why not the teachings of Buddha? The man actually existed. And was more "Christ-like" in the life he lived than the one supposedly lived by Christ.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<The man actually existed. And was more "Christ-like" in the life he lived than the one supposedly lived by Christ.>> There is pretty good evidence that Christ existed too. Whether or not he was in fact the "son of God" may be questionable, but his existence really isn't. Don't start pitting one religion against another. When you get right down to it, they all are equally as bogus. Christianity happens to work for me, but I don't automatically dismiss all other religions. I do reject radical Islam for it's horrendous treatment of women and gay people.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn [People don't need religious icons in order to do the right things. Common sense, with a sprinkle of Human compassion and your there!] A godless world is reduced to the Darwin morality: survival of the fittest and the most adaptable to change. So don't fret when you see yourselves, your friends, or even me fall prey. There's no point on making some useless, pretend "compassion" moral to cover your Darwin moral. Accept the strength of your adversaries. Conquest is king.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 The proof is in the pudding. There are people of every religion who are moral, compassionate, exemplary people. And people of every religion who are far from that. And everything in between. There are people with no religion at all who are moral, compassionate, exemplary people. And people with no religion who are far from that. And everything in between.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo Atheists More Motivated by Compassion than the Faithful: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.livescience.com/20005-atheists-motivated-compassion.html">http://www.livescience.com/200...ion.html</a>
Originally Posted By utahjosh You'll find jerks, mentally ill people, hate-filled people, and nice people in every group in every time in every universe.
Originally Posted By ecdc Which of course raises the question, why we need Jesus apart from personal theological beliefs that are neither demonstrable not provable, and are in fact highly dubious? There are of course people who label kids like Trayvon Martin thugs and who love the Confederate flag and hate President Obama who call themselves "Christians." Other Christians will say they really aren't, but of course, Christianity faces the same dilemma Islam currently faces. Claims of identity and who is and isn't really in the club are theological claims. But if we're going by more tangible methods of measurement, such as historical, then Christians have to take the good people with the bad. Which brings us full circle: why on earth is Jesus the answer to riots and brutality if you can't actually demonstrate a need for salvation beyond personal belief and tortured Biblical readings?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>in every universe<< Alpha-Regula XTZ-279 in the Altariz Sector VII is not on trial here!
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<There is pretty good evidence that Christ existed too.>> Post the links to the academic info from non-Christian sources demonstrating that historical Jesus existed. I'll wait. And while I'm waiting, here's one for you claiming otherwise: <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/18/did-historical-jesus-exist-the-traditional-evidence-doesnt-hold-up/">http://www.washingtonpost.com/...hold-up/</a> From the article: <> Paul’s Epistles, written earlier than the Gospels, give us no reason to dogmatically declare Jesus must have existed. Avoiding Jesus’ earthly events and teachings, even when the latter could have bolstered his own claims, Paul only describes his “Heavenly Jesus.” Even when discussing what appear to be the resurrection and the last supper, his only stated sources are his direct revelations from the Lord, and his indirect revelations from the Old Testament. In fact, Paul actually rules out human sources (see Galatians 1:11-12). Also important are the sources we don’t have. There are no existing eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus. All we have are later descriptions of Jesus’ life events by non-eyewitnesses, most of whom are obviously biased. Little can be gleaned from the few non-Biblical and non-Christian sources, with only Roman scholar Josephus and historian Tacitus having any reasonable claim to be writing about Jesus within 100 years of his life. And even those sparse accounts are shrouded in controversy, with disagreements over what parts have obviously been changed by Christian scribes (the manuscripts were preserved by Christians), the fact that both these authors were born after Jesus died (they would thus have probably received this information from Christians), and the oddity that centuries go by before Christian apologists start referencing them. <>
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn We need Jesus because nothing else can save our souls. A pile of good does not save your soul.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 That's a theological belief, and that's fine. But it's different from what you said before, "A godless world is reduced to the Darwin morality," which is demonstrably untrue.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>We need Jesus because nothing else can save our souls. A pile of good does not save your soul.<< Proof?
Originally Posted By skinnerbox I don't care about "saving souls." All I truly care about is saving the planet. And we can clearly do that without fundamentalist religious dogma getting in the way. (In fact, we can probably do it better.)
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I'm a left-leaning moderate (down here in SW Missouri they think I am a socialist). I am also a Christian, though I know that isn't very popular here. I have no use for right-wing fundamentalist Christians. I am Catholic, and although the church has backward beliefs on women and gay people in the priesthood, and on birth control and abortion, they are far more concerned with social justice than any other religion I know. Certainly more concerned with it than almost any politician I can think of. Is it all a fairy tale? I can't prove that it is not. But I don't believe so. If I am wrong, it has done me no harm, and in the meantime has done me much good.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck Where was social justice when the church was at the peak of it's power, when it tortured and burned heretics and learned men of science? Had it not been for religion miring the world in ignorance for the last two thousand years, we might well be enjoying interstellar travel by now. Instead, we have religious madmen with a tenth century mentality, equipped with modern armament threatening the stability of the world at this very moment. Beam me up Scottie!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip What a bunch of CRAP. What does anything that happened over a thousand year ago have to do with today? I don't think any society from a thousand years ago has much to brag about. I could show you atrocities committed by all countries and all (or no) religions. You are over the edge. You just lost all credibility in my mind. Yea, I'll beam you up. Up to Jupiter or someplace a long way away from there. You have have taken the title for the most asinine post ever.
