I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.
– Charles Darwin
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Okay, here’s my assessment.
I respect atheism and people against Christianity. That’s okay. I thought it would be interesting to discuss issues and such on a forum such as this.
But the interesting-ness of doing so for me stems from being able to discuss what I actually believe with others who believe differently, and seeing what our points of agreement and disagreement are.
However, there appears to be no intention here of accepting that there are or could be a variety of views up for discussion.
I am a Christian. I believe that the bible is historically accurate. I believe that it is easy to understand, and relatively straight-forward. I do not believe in hell, in punishment for people just because they didn’t agree with some points of doctrine, or in any kind of everlasting torment for anyone. I don’t believe that God likes killing of any kind, and I believe that Christianity teaches full gender and ethnic equality. I don’t believe Jesus is coming back in the clouds.
Further, I believe that Christianity condemns religious organizations and institutions, forbids allowing anyone to take religious authority over you, and commands you not to believe anything without evidence. I believe that Christianity forbids rituals and religious hierarchies.
This is the only Christianity I am interested in debating over. I will not argue the merits of the Christianity most common in America. Nor do I find it interesting to debate atheists who refuse to acknowledge that anyone believes as I do.
-micah
Interesting tactic. No, I take that back it is a rather common and mundane tactic. It is simply an ad hominem and nothing more.
You seem to take offense to the simply existence of reason since it necessitates that the xn bible is pure fiction, contradictory, and contrary to your claims in this post it demonstrates that not only does this “god” not dislike killing it thrills in the kill.
Perhaps more to the point, you seem to want to redefine “christianit” to fit some idea of yours that is dissimilar in the extreme from christianity itself, and then get upset whenever anyone points out that in fact what you are attributing to christianity is NOT attributable to christianity at all. In other words you are objecting to the very idea that words have meaning.
Why not employ the only possible common ground we can share: reality? Why protest against reason simply because it necessitates that your beliefs and claims are false? Would it not be better, emotionally, spiritually, and epistemologically to simply abandon false and unsupportable claims in favor of reality?
That a given position has no support whatsoever is no reason to complain that others are not taking it as gospel a priori. A position which is self-contradictory and contrary to reality is NOT identical to one which is reasoned, reasonable, and supported by vast amounts of evidence.
If a position has merit there is no need for the sorts of ad hominems and false accusations which you have chosen to employ.
[quote post="240"]I believe that the bible is historically accurate. I believe that it is easy to understand, and relatively straight-forward.[/quote]
Sorry, but didn’t you say before that Christianity could perfectly well come from something other than the Bible?
[quote post="240"]I don’t believe that God likes killing of any kind, and I believe that Christianity teaches full gender and ethnic equality.[/quote]
The Bible surely contradicts the above claim.
Anyway, this is all offtopic for this post…
I agree with Darwin.