Does God exist

One need not study religion to see the intolerance. There have been many wars that prove religions are intolerant of other views. I highly doubt this thread will change that.

Maybe we should stick to chastity related content…

 

he did not believe in god any more than spinoza did.

The OP talked about The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and Dawkins is not talking about tree gods or gods of mental masturbation, the book is clearly about organised relgion and states that a personal god is a delusion.

You are posting on the wrong thread, poppet, if you are talking about rocks being god or that god is nature.

Only one group capitalised god, and we all know who they are.

 

Lot's of ways actually. What you are reading in the bible is a translation of an interpretation of something that was passed down by word of mouth over generations. The bible was written to communicate concepts to a very unsophisticated, and uneducated people. Nuance is not something that can survive that history. So, when I read things like, "believe in me or rot in hell, or through me, you will find eternal salvation", what I read is. "Listen to what I say. I am trying to teach you how to be a better person. If you listen to them and follow them, I can assure you you will find peace, and the world will be a better place".

If you set out to to interpret the bible literally, knowing you are interpreting a translation that was written down some 1500 years after events, and contains stories that were passed down through generations and generations, you are likely to miss all the nuance. Most of the bible was written at a time when there was a need to control people that were not part of strong central government. That doesn't mean religion is evil. You have to read past the things that don't ring true to you. Find the things that do make sense.

The irony with today's "Christian" religion is that the loud mouths associated with it are in fact not preaching Christ's message. That doesn't mean you should reject Christ's message. And I'm not saying you should therefore believe in the man or that the Bible says he is the "son of God". I say, that the message is good. It happens to be the original message of tolerance. Before Christ, the message was very dictatorial. Christ's message was the original liberal think. Christ would preach, "don't listen to those guys wearing robes telling you what to do". "Love your friends instead". "You don't have to give all your money to those stuffy people to go to heaven. You just need to listen to what I'm telling you".

 

And yeah, I capitalize Christ and God. It's a sign of respect for the words. In the same way I capitalize, Joe, or Bob, or Steve, or Sally. Don't read in something more.

 

A lot of words for I cherry pick the 10% good and ignore the 90% bad. Do you though

 

You need to know me to find out. Is being my judge anything like being a keyholder?

 

I don't claim to be omnipotent is major difference. You clearly overlook the systematic rape, genocide, incest and slavery in the bible for that 2% of love.

 

The original post is a multiple choice question? It devolved into bigoted responses after that.

 

What makes differing opinions bigoted? Pretty intolerant of you

 

Hmmm. There's rape, genocide, incest, and slavery practiced by folks who follow other religions, or follow no religion at all. Oh, that's because people are assholes. It doesn't matter what religion they follow, there's a fundamental asshole condition to people.

You also are mixing the old and new testament together. Again, this isn't about picking apart the bible or trying to prove every word of the old and new testament is literally the truth. That would be a fools errand. But where I believe in tolerance for all, you seem to believe in tolerance for only those that believe like you, and certainly not for people who believe in the bible. Who is the intolerent people in this discussion?

 

When you base your life on the bible a book based on eternal punishment you can't claim tolerance. Sorry not sorry. I don't judge anyone or care just don't be a hypocrite

 

Your post replied to me. You seem to have missed everything I've said. No where have I ever said that I base my life on the bible. I've said the bible teaches good lessons. I've also said that I don't take statements like "eternal punishment" literally. So stop preaching about tolerance. And stop accusing folks of being a hypocrite, and then claim in the same sentence that you don't judge, when you clearly haven't read a word that I've written.

 

Words doesn't need respect. Don't overexert yourself trying to invent things. We capitalise names merely because it's convention to do so and shows respect for the PERSON.

I thought you could read, why are you asking me whether the OP is a multichoice question when it clearly states it's own purpose right at the start.

And I agree, once all of the religious god-bothering bigots got here with their sky-daddy delusions it devolved.

Like don't wear clothes with different fabrics, kill the wives of cuckolds, no tattoos, death to gays, and other favourites like "Here's how to love me and if you don't do as I say I will burn you for eternity" or "If you all get together and start figuring out the truth then I'll crush your rebellion", and of course "too much fun and I'll turn ya'll to salt".

 

One thing I've always found bemusing about the story of Jesus, is the claim his goal was saving mankind or whatever. But nothing he preached was particularly new - if he wanted to save us, could be not have taught things like 'boil your water before you drink it' or 'wash your hands after having a shit'; stuff that was genuinely unknown at the time?

 

It's as though the word was created in order to define any god botherer.

FWIW it's not really a negative word, it's just an accurate description of them.

 

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