The Big Religion/God Debate

[MonkeyIsland]

Rok, people must be able to read religious books literally. That's something a "divine book" must have. Because if not, everybody could come up with any fictional thing, and under any criticism they would say, "no it doesn't mean this, it meant something else". The words shouldn't say something and then expect people to get another meaning. Remember, different age/culture/sex read the book, the book must have literal meaning.

[Rok]

Rok, people must be able to read religious books literally. That's something a "divine book" must have. Because if not, everybody could come up with any fictional thing, and under any criticism they would say, "no it doesn't mean this, it meant something else". The words shouldn't say something and then expect people to get another meaning. Remember, different age/culture/sex read the book, the book must have literal meaning.

Maybe, from a point of view of a believer, but not by someone who isn't a member of the religion that book teaches or by someone who choses to look depeer into it. Even Bible itself (I only know Bible, so I won't speak for Quran and other books) is contradictory sometimes: where Old Testament says "eye for an eye, tooth for tooth", New Testament (Jesus) says "If anyone slaps your cheek, turn him the other cheek, too."

[nino]

but  jesus said to u turn  ur other cheek, when theres no more teeth. well thats what i undestood when i read biblie.

[Cueshark]

Unless people who wrote it were inspired by some divine voice, then yes, I agree.  

Well obviously!

Anyway, some sections of the bible are open to interpretation yet people still take them literally.  That's the fringe though.  But I never see the moderate majority campaign against extremists of the same religion.  That would be encouraging.  They usually however do their protesting from their arm chairs.

Other passages are pretty hard to interpret any other way.

I'm always a little upset how religious people can't just say, "The bible is extremely barbaric and evil in places but I believe the people who wrote it misunderstood God's real message", or something like that.  Or, "I believe God wrote the nice bits and early pre-civilised humans wrote the nasty bits to excuse the evil they committed".

Instead they (often) say, "Blah blah, you can't take the bible literally."  The responses I get are usually so fluffy.

Let's be real about this.  The bible, yeah, the Old Testament mostly, is full of hate.  The hate is worse than any hate I've ever heard about.

God may still exist, God still may be loving.  But if we go by the assumption that the bible is a divine book authored by God, then God is more evil and oppressing than most people that have ever been alive throughout history.

[HHC]

I haven't read the OT from A to Z, but I get the impression Yaweh is only oppressive and evil to those who follow false gods or those who ignore his commandments.
Jesus could tolerate a lot, but not when it comes to offences against Yaweh as the story of the cleansing of the Temple illustrates.

I have to agree though, there is indeed a big difference between OT and NT. Let there be no question about that.

[Dub-c]

God is a paradox. Religion is the child of an uneducated human race.

[Husk]

islam is a religion of peace.

[Cueshark]

God is a paradox. Religion is the child of an uneducated human race.

Perhaps in it's early beginnings Dub.

But religion still prospers today, even amongst the highly educated.

I think it's in our evolution to be religious because of the advantages it offered small communities.

Religion was often the only way for those in the lower classes to feel accepted and to have a sense of self worth.

What a nice idea to feel that in God's eyes we are all equal.

[HHC]

I just read a novel by A.J. Jacobs called the Know-it-all in which he describes his experience of reading the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica. I looked it up on the internet and it turns out he also wrote a book about 'going biblical' for an entire year, that is, he made a list of all the rules written down in the bible and tried to follow them IRL. In the speech below he talks about his experiences, it's pretty funny and interesting as well. 

[Cueshark]

*edit* Very interesting HHC.

[Wormmaniac]

However many times I read the bible, I can never find the bit about god creating dinosaurs 

[Cueshark]

PURE WIN!!!

[Maciej]

oh I haven't seen this topic before so I will take a word.
So, when I was child I thought I believed in god... now, it's not that easy
I don't believe in any religions, it's stupid, how does it go that the one religion is true, and the other is bad and lie?
imo going to church and the other silly things related to christian obligations are for poor ppl, who prefer to blame god for all fails in their lifes
but I like all christian holidays, they are like tradition, that's nice
I believe just in myself... what about god? Maybe... but it's only my, imagined by myself, god. Don't really know, I don't think about it too much
well, it's only my opinion if anyone was interested in

[TheKomodo]

Cue, that was, just, awesome !

+1 for sharing that epic video !

[Rendered]

sorry for skipping every single post in this thread before making my point, but i just cba to read through all of it, i will read it all when i wake up tonight or something lol.

point is, if god exists, humanity couldnt ever comprehend what it is. all that religious bullshit forced upon majority of people, starting out when they are young and easy to manipulate. religion wouldnt survive 2 decades if people could choose to belive when they are old enough to think for themselfes.

anyways, retardend is gonna share one major theory about god: god is an asshat, he doesnt like you, he didnt create you, youre prolly not even on his radar. and guess what, the universe - as is, is pure chaos. shit is getting wrecked and reborn in new shape all the time, our galaxy for example will collide with another galaxy in a few billion years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision) and i bet theres that one huge asteroid mofo, just on its way to bump earth into the right direction (sun). guess what, your beloved god created all that.

ah f@#!it, cba to stay awake :/

peace