Religion

The Dude said:
yeah if I was peddling the snake oil that christianity got us out of the dark ages I'd skip the whole murderous crusades as well.
Dixtard
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The Dark Ages occurred as a result of the collapse of the Roman Empire, and lasted from 475-900. It was technically the rise of Christendom that "ended" the Dark Ages, and gave birth to stable societies such as the Frankish Empire, Britain, the Italian city-states, etc. Of course, Islam popped up during that time, swallowed up the Mideast, and launched repeated attacks upon the Mediterranean islands, the Italian and French coastlines, and land attacks upon France from the conquered Iberian peninsula (Spain). It was only a matter of time before a recovering West launched the Crusades.

If you meant Middle Ages when you said Dark Ages, well, it was the Italian Renaissance which succeeded in that, and most of those people were Papists.
 
Dixie said:
95% of the world population believes in something greater than self.
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I believe in something greater than myself. It just isn't God.

Dixie said:
We are spiritual creatures.
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I am not. Therefore, we are not. Do not take your belief system and cast it over all of humanity.

Dixie said:
Spiritual belief plays a huge role in who we are and what we are.
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Yes, fantasies promoted to reality, such as fairies, God, and other mythical creatures do play a huge role in who we are and what we are. A huge negative role, just like many other primitive concepts.

Dixie said:
It has thrived in man for all of man's known existence, through centuries of wars and oppression, through millions of martyrs and saints, through kings and empires, all unable to extinguish man's desire to worship.

I doubt your profound wisdom is going to change that.

:okay:
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Logic shall conquer where the sword has not prevailed. Many countries are already majority atheist. The non-religious are the fastest growing segment of American religious life. Soon, humanity shall take out the map of its collective knowledge, and paint oceans where once there had been dragons.
 
Lowaicue said:
Even if we accept that man has been 'spiritual' for eons, never before have we had the knowledge recently gleaned from Hubble and several other space telescopes and, in seven years, the James Webb telescope that can show speeding galaxies still in their first seconds of existence at the far corners of the universe.
The reason for the invention of the various gods no longer exists. The bible, for instance, tells us nothing about life in all its aspects, that we do not now know from scientific exploration. It can also be shown (no I will not) that far from helping man's quest for reason, the bible (for bible read whichever holy book you hold in high regard) has hindered it. Religious teachings have had to change more during the last century than in their entire prior existence. They have had to change because man's knowledge has overtaken the supposed word of the various gods, goddesses and goddettes..
So, all that remains is a personal requirement by some, for the comfort of a huge father figure and an entity to take the blame and responsibility that some people cannot take upon themselves. I don't have a problem with that. Take that comfort and enjoy it, but please do not try to substitute this imaginary comfort blanket for the fantastic discoveries, yes and questions, that science has brought us.
Man's creation of a god in his own image, while giving comfort to some and power to others is sold harder than baked beans and Disney. They all share a commonality. They are all dispensable.
Finally please, never, never preach as truth, the fairy tales of theism without first describing them as such.
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The bible does provide explanations for certain events. For instance, there isn't any adequate theory of what came before the big bang (the big bang is merely a description of what happened up until some incredibly short fraction of a second after the beginning of the universe) or abiogenisis. You could very well say "God did it!" But why would you? What makes God any more likely than the primordial ooze, or the universe being some unlikely quantum fluctuation that created one of many braines in an otherwise empty void? The people who make these claims at least try to verify if they're correct. I guess they should do as the religious do and just demand that their claims are above evidence, that you should merely take it on faith, that making an inquiry into its existence is actually an affront to it that you will be punished for.
 
Watermark said:
I believe in something greater than myself. It just isn't God.
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God by any other name.....

I am not. Therefore, we are not. Do not take your belief system and cast it over all of humanity.
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Yes, you are... we all are. We always have been, and always will be.

Yes, fantasies promoted to reality, such as fairies, God, and other mythical creatures do play a huge role in who we are and what we are. A huge negative role, just like many other primitive concepts.
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Again, your 'deity' Charles Darwin disagrees with this. He theorized that evolving species discard useless or detrimental attributes and retain beneficial ones. So apparently, you are wrong, or Darwin was wrong.

Logic shall conquer where the sword has not prevailed. Many countries are already majority atheist. The non-religious are the fastest growing segment of American religious life. Soon, humanity shall take out the map of its collective knowledge, and paint oceans where once there had been dragons.
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Name one country where there is religious freedom, in which the majority is Atheist?
 
WinterBorn said:
Nice spirituality there Dixie.
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Don't fool yourself, it's more spiritual than you think. This is a self-cleaning planet... 'God' has wiped the slate clean before... at least 4 times we know of... a gamma ray burst or mega solar flare could turn all of humanity to history before you finish reading this post. We aren't guaranteed a tomorrow.

The subject of the thread is "Religion" and I suppose, that is a very good argumentative topic, because you can not say that religion is all good all the time, or all bad all the time... you can't say religion is perfect, and you can't say religion is useless. There is a strong debate about what IS religion, and what is NOT religion... There are tremendous humanitarian evils perpetrated in the name of religion... alQaeda, the Taliban, radical Islam... but there are also tremendous humanitarian efforts of love, in fact, that is the rule and not the exception. Most legitimate religious outreach is positive, and has benefited humanity. When pinheads like Dudey-head want to throw up The Crusades... it's worth pointing out why they happened.
 
Hope Solo said:
The Dark Ages occurred as a result of the collapse of the Roman Empire, and lasted from 475-900. It was technically the rise of Christendom that "ended" the Dark Ages, and gave birth to stable societies such as the Frankish Empire, Britain, the Italian city-states, etc. Of course, Islam popped up during that time, swallowed up the Mideast, and launched repeated attacks upon the Mediterranean islands, the Italian and French coastlines, and land attacks upon France from the conquered Iberian peninsula (Spain). It was only a matter of time before a recovering West launched the Crusades.

If you meant Middle Ages when you said Dark Ages, well, it was the Italian Renaissance which succeeded in that, and most of those people were Papists.
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Not quite.
The Dark Ages are (note present tense) so called for their supposed lack of historical evidence following the demise of the Roman Empire with its stone and 'concrete' structures. The Vikings who then landed on our (British) shores, raping and pillaging, were like many males who purchase from IKEA. They discarded the instruction sheet for permanent structures and thus, quite apart from getting a fair amount of stick from their lady folk, were condemned to live in houses made of wood and cow dung. More and more evidence of their civilisation is coming to light with every day that passes.
The Franks, and all those guys, were around long before the 'end of the Dark Ages'. One leader, Childeric, actually died in 481 (yes. I looked that bit up).
The Rise of Christendom took place over quite a long period of time. Indeed Christianity was the official Roman religion for a while and even the furthest outpost of the former empire was warming to the idea of Christianity in the 7th century. The Ven. Bede was borne in 672 and he certainly was not the first monk at the monastry to which he was given up in the British tundra.
'Papism'* was the 'only' branch of Christianity, discounting Russian Orthodoxy and Greek Orthodoxy, and remained so, basically, til Martin Luther published the Diet of Worms in the 16th Century. How much weight he lost is not recorded since he didn't make an accompanying video.
Strangely there are some, particularly in America, who maintain that protestantism is the only true form of Christianity. A very non-Christian stance to take and completely against the teachings of Jesus whose name echoes through mountain and dale in the land of pagan tribalism.

* The use of this word is deemed offensive in some parts of Europe.
 
Did Dixie's brand of hate lead to the slaughter in Norway?


A Norwegian man, who dressed up as a police officer gunned down at least 84 people at an island youth retreat in Norway Friday.

The shootings followed a large explosion in nearby Oslo that killed at least seven and that police say was set off by the same suspect. He is described as a right wing Christian fundamentalist with some anti-Muslim views based on postings the man made on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Saturday morning at a news conference Oslo police said they had arrested a man named Anders Behring Breivik, 32, on suspicion of orchestrating both the Oslo bombing and the youth-camp shootings.







http://www.skyvalleychronicle.com/F...as-right-wing-Christian-fundamentalist-722645
 
Dixie said:
Don't fool yourself, it's more spiritual than you think. This is a self-cleaning planet... 'God' has wiped the slate clean before... at least 4 times we know of... a gamma ray burst or mega solar flare could turn all of humanity to history before you finish reading this post. We aren't guaranteed a tomorrow.

The subject of the thread is "Religion" and I suppose, that is a very good argumentative topic, because you can not say that religion is all good all the time, or all bad all the time... you can't say religion is perfect, and you can't say religion is useless. There is a strong debate about what IS religion, and what is NOT religion... There are tremendous humanitarian evils perpetrated in the name of religion... alQaeda, the Taliban, radical Islam... but there are also tremendous humanitarian efforts of love, in fact, that is the rule and not the exception. Most legitimate religious outreach is positive, and has benefited humanity. When pinheads like Dudey-head want to throw up The Crusades... it's worth pointing out why they happened.
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Yes, all the mad psychopaths who slaughtered every Christian, Jewish, and Muslim man, woman, and child in Jerusalem upon its conquest so that they could boast about owning the holy land were truly doing the work of God. You're evil, Dixie. Do the world a favor - buy a gun, stick it to your face, and pull the trigger. Cleanse the planet of scum like yourself.
 
(\(\(\/)/)/) said:
Did Dixie's brand of hate lead to the slaughter in Norway?


A Norwegian man, who dressed up as a police officer gunned down at least 84 people at an island youth retreat in Norway Friday.

The shootings followed a large explosion in nearby Oslo that killed at least seven and that police say was set off by the same suspect. He is described as a right wing Christian fundamentalist with some anti-Muslim views based on postings the man made on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Saturday morning at a news conference Oslo police said they had arrested a man named Anders Behring Breivik, 32, on suspicion of orchestrating both the Oslo bombing and the youth-camp shootings.







http://www.skyvalleychronicle.com/F...as-right-wing-Christian-fundamentalist-722645
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Did he shoot 84 people or did 84 people actually die?
 
Watermark said:
Yes, all the mad psychopaths who slaughtered every Christian, Jewish, and Muslim man, woman, and child in Jerusalem upon its conquest so that they could boast about owning the holy land were truly doing the work of God. You're evil, Dixie. Do the world a favor - buy a gun, stick it to your face, and pull the trigger. Cleanse the planet of scum like yourself.
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Wow, sounds like not having God's influence makes you a much more rational person!
 
Hope Solo said:
The Dark Ages occurred as a result of the collapse of the Roman Empire, and lasted from 475-900. It was technically the rise of Christendom that "ended" the Dark Ages, and gave birth to stable societies such as the Frankish Empire, Britain, the Italian city-states, etc. Of course, Islam popped up during that time, swallowed up the Mideast, and launched repeated attacks upon the Mediterranean islands, the Italian and French coastlines, and land attacks upon France from the conquered Iberian peninsula (Spain). It was only a matter of time before a recovering West launched the Crusades.

If you meant Middle Ages when you said Dark Ages, well, it was the Italian Renaissance which succeeded in that, and most of those people were Papists.
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The world would be better if the Muslims had conquered Europe, because then it would have been under the rule of one stable empire keeping the peace rather than hundreds of petty lords wasting human lives for their own selfish purposes. A world without Christianity would also be a far better place to live in.

The Crusades did not happen as retribution for the Sicialian and Iberian campaigns. The Muslim empire they attacked wasn't even involved in that shit, since THE Muslim empire had long since split apart. This is like saying that India is going to attack America at any time in retribution for the UK's imperialistic policies in the 1800's. The Byzantines asked the pope for help in a war, the pope responded by inventing spiritual rewards to give to people who went to help them, hoping to draw a few hundred soldiers. Instead, tens of thousands came, and instead of helping the Byzantines, they engaged in an all out blood bath. Regaining Jerusalem wasn't even supposed to be the goal of the crusades, and they did nothing to help the Greeks. Ironically, the only lasting effect of the Crusades was the destruction of the Byzantine empire. The Byzantines of the 13th-15th century were a successor state (the Nicean empire) who managed to take back their homeland from the papist aggressors, who had established a Latin puppet state, and free the Greek people from the tyranny of Catholicism and its evils. The papists had done so damage that the Greeks couldn't save their homeland, and the Ottomans eventually took over. Unfortunately they weren't able to subject the Papist assholes to the same thing.
 
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