he said he wasnt an atheist.
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You don't seem to be at a loss for words.
There are extremists out there, but there are also people who love (and this may not be such a crazy idea) by trying to save other people. Many times people who are just trying to make an atheist see the light are docketed as intolerant radicals. Respect is good, but to love you should have an interest (not neccessarily a pushy one) in helping their immortal soul. In my not-quite so humble opinion, trying to get a fellow human in to heaven demonstrates more love than playing 18 holes of golf with them every other Sunday.
well, you nubs can go love someone else then :)
Latter Day Saints are people, not 'thingys' :)
True love is helping your "enemies" (i don't consider you my "enemy" as much as just not agreeing) as well as your friend. Anyone, including barbarians in who-knows-where, will help their friends; only those who really care will help those they don't know. If y'all have relatives, esp. close family, who are Christians, do you think that they will stop loving you if you don't convert? Not on your life! You don't have to agree to love. :thumbs_up
No, it's not closed-minded to be sure about something. I believe there is a God. I, therefore, believe that people who don't believe there is a God are wrong. I do however recognize that there are logical arguments for atheism. They just aren't as convincing to me as the ones for theism.
Pluralism in today's society is so illogical....You can not have everyone be right and no one wrong.....i agree Weisninheimer
Yo! Yo! Yo! Homies!!! What's up? Word!
They are like that to a degree. There are those who do acknowledge evolution and who wouldn't believe that we should take the Old Testament too literally, as stoning children and reverting back to a primtive, barbarian Taliban-esque society is untenable. There are those who are in denial. I coun't those who believe the earth is only 14,000 years old or who fail to believe that there are new species that emerge, which ultimately, validates evolution. I know more of more than a few Ph.D. holders who sudenly develop amnesia, or at least, stay away from the biology department.:lol: The least critical thinking are those who are like Fred Phelps. People who take selected portions of the Old Testament, only to ignore the more absurd parts of it; people who equate a free-thinking deist Jefferson as a litaerlist; people like Jerry Falwell and Oral Roberts, who talk about morality, but who ignore social justice and the economy to the detriment of working people. These are the folks who exhibit the least amount of critical thinking in my honest, biased, flawed opinion.:yawnb:Quote:
Red asked if it is possible that Christians are like this too.
Oh I more than agree. Martin Heidegger was a known Nazi sympathizer. How someone with his background could have fallen under the sway of national-socialism merely accounts ofr the fact that humans...are well....human.Quote:
I realize that you only mean that quote for certain of the sect, and I will not catagorize all atheists by the multitude of bad ones, but I ask that you do not catagorize all the Christians by the majority of those who call themselves Christians.
LOL-I have investigated the claims of Christianity, and I have found them to be false. For one, Christianity is terribly unoriginal. Large parts of Christianity are products of Pagan stories of the past. From a "flesh and blood savior" to the resurrection, though they called him Osiris-Dionysus. On top of that, every major Christian holiday has a pagan predecessor. Second, Christianity claims nothing that makes it more discernablly correct than any other system of belief. Testimony?, absolutely worthless as there are plenty of Hindus, Buddhists, and Hindus who can tell you that their convictions are of equal value. The holy scriptures? The process of what is added or subtracted was nothing more than political scheming and the stories written were by the victorious tribes. Ethnic cleansing and all sorts of backwards behavior such as stoning children, clearly show this pattern IMHO. Look at our own politicas, for years, the "curse of Ham" theory was used to justify slavery and segregation. How laughable is it that a man seeing his drunken father is cursed, but the daughters who get their father drunk and sleep with him isn't?:lol: Now you could argue that those instances are different, however, that would be to admit the *relative* nature of things, and we now how *relativism* is the boogie-man for every known(or pretended) problem that there is. Third, the religion that one takes up is mostly predicated upon geography. If you grow up in Thailand, you will probably be a Buddhist. If you grew up in India, perhaps a Hindu or a Sikh. If you are an American, well, your sect depends upon your own family background. Yes, I suppose one could look at the "evidence" and dismiss other religions or sects, but that can be a rather creative task in reasoning as well.Quote:
"They try to dedicate their life to something beyond the self." Isn't that our whole purpose? To try to reach out and y'all the truth before you die and go to hell?
No, atheists aren't perfect and they(I) are more than flawed. I hold on to some ntoions myself related to politics and philosophy that I know perhaps aren't exactly so "true." However, I acknowledge that(or seek to) and in doing so, hope to continue learning what I can. I can't say the same goes for a theistic person. Contrary evidence can be rationalized away or simply ignored.
Sorry the rant/rambling. I should have less coffee.
I hope I did not offend with my post, it wasn't my intention. This is a fine board and I'm very impressed with the content posted thus far by everyone.:thumbs_up
Ok, let's do away with infinity. Lets pose the question as:
What do you think God was doing 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000 years ago?
I think we all agree that this is only a drop in the bucket compared to infinity.
And as for an 'immortal soul', I'm far from convinced that such a thing even exists, let alone what I would trust it to if it did.