logic-is-overrated

And it's safe to say that I agree with you for once. :P I agree. And I know nothing about anything that you wrote about but I still read the whole thing and it sounds impressive to me at least.

That is the most messed up ending I have ever read. Almost makes me angry actually.

What I want to know, is why are you (or anybody else) a christian? What I seem to find is that most christians I know were either 1)brought up in the faith as children, 2)needed something to hang on to, found christianity and then look at everything after that through a christian lense completely ignoring contrary evidence or 3) some other reason that isn't founded on a thorough thought process. What I don't find, is somebody who looked at both sides of the argument, compared the evidence for the two sides and then are able to say to themselves: "I have looked, researched, compared, etc. and have now come to the conclusion that the christian belief system holds water." Let me now explain what I mean by evidence. I don't consider internal, personal experiences to be evidence. I used to be a christian. I used to get those "experiences" in church (the moments where it feels like the Lord is talking to your heart and things like that). But I've had the same kind of euphoric moments in other positive, uplifiting situations surrounded by people that I care for. The other reasons being most people who have those "experiences" are already solidly grounded in their faith and routinely convince themselves that the evidence supports their beliefs (such as convincing themselves that anything they feel during church, or any other time for that matter, is due to God and not to anything else). And the other reason is pretty obvious: personal feelings can't be proved to anybody else besides the person experiencing them. I also don't consider the Bible to be evidence. As you've agreed with, the Bible is not a history book and I believe its supernatural elements require faith at the least. What I want to know is why should I, the layman, accept christianity as true and not any other religion, or not any religion at all? Archeaological, historical, scientific, etc. Like I said before, all religion requires a leap of faith. What I want to know is why should anybody make that leap of faith? When I read websites like this http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm and read books like J.A. Robertsons Christianity and Mythology, and T.W. Doane's Bible Myths and Their Paralles in other Religions, and countless other books and websites, I continuously fail to see what separates christianity from any other religion. And when I try to find the christian answer to this, the best I find is a few websites with sparse evidence or jokes like Lee Strobel and Josh McDowell.

First off, I hope you don't think I'm "attacking" christianity. As someone who has recently turned from being a christian to being an atheist in that last 2 or 3 months, I really am trying to learn something. It makes sense to me and I respect that. My real point/question/problem is this: How do we know it's God's word? The more I search the more I find that it gets harder and harder to believe it actually is. The more I research the more I find apologetics and Christian authors recycling the same sources over and over, recycling the same arguments over and over and either never making any kind of counter argument to the criticisms that arise or make very weak ones. For every shred of evidence that I find to support some claim of christianity I find 20 to support otherwise. I know that every religion requires some leap of faith. But if that leap of faith has no grounding in any kind of verifiable evidence then why make it? Since I've only been reading/researching for a couple months I'm sure there's a billion websites, books, whatever that contradict everything I say and I'd be glad to look at/read some of them.

What is your opinion on the Bible being "divinely inspired?" (To any of the Christians in general) This is what I'm getting at: I believe that Christianity is just like almost every other religion, if not all of them. It started in in a particular time period. Through the ages, the traditions, beliefs, stories, etc. were passed down and through the ages they changed (as almost everything does once it gets repeated through a variety of people over a period of time). I believe that is why there are a lot of contradictions in the Bible when referring to historical events (For example Ezra 2:3 and Neh. 7:8 when they describe the tribes that came back from captivity in Babylon and how they disagree as to the numbers involved in some clans and tribes). I also believe that is why the gospels have different accounts of the same event; one author is recording what he read or heard from somebody else. If you (meaning any person who wishes to debate), do not consider the Bible to be "divinely inspired" or anything along those lines then ignore this. But if you do believe that, then where is the divine inspiration? It just seems to me that the infallible word of God would have some sort of consistency. I'm not an expert in anything so if I'm way off base about anything then please let me know.

I have a couple questions. Why do the four gospels repeat a lot of the same events? And how come a lot of the events are described differently in the gospels (like Jesus saying something different after a particular event or something like that)?

I would say that the author of that page needs to get a life. But since I actually took the time to read that whole page and even click on some of the links, I think it would make me a hypocrite. So somebody else say it for me.

Worms. Can snails jump? I guess they can... :? I think the actual fact is Elephants are only mammal that can't jump. EDIT: But then again, dolphins? :| Land mammal then! http://experts.about.com/q/Wild-Animals ... s-Jump.htm *EDIT*-Let us not forget that White Men are also mammals. So even if those links prove to be false there is at least 1 other mammal that can't jump.

Being able to lick your elbow? Putting your legs behind your head? Hmm..what I could do with flexibility like that...

Hah, sorry mister! Do you spring a big rubbery one everytime you troll a thread or is it just a favorite pasttime of yours?

When someone seduces you, you know? :P In a way, this rule is telling you not to be a pervert/pig lol So I can't pick up chicks with a secret hand signal!?!? What about a mating call?

What's the mating signal?

You do realize that the authenticity of the Bible has been seriously contested? Seriously.

If the Bible contains inconsistencies and contradictions, how can you believe it to be the word of a perfect god? To hold a book written by a human to such a high standard as to be perfect is unreasonable, since, as a human, he is prone to error. But I don't think it's unfair to hold a book that is supposedly inspired by God on which millions of people base their lives to such a high standard.

Couldn't the logic of Pascals Wager be applied to a variety of supernatural beings? E.X: Do you believe in the Easter Bunny? Why not? If he's real then you get lots of Easter eggs. If he's not then what do you lose? Do you believe in the tooth fairy? Why not? If she's real then she'll leave you money. If she's not then what do you lose. Santa Claus? If he's real you get presents, if not then what do you lose? And how can a person of religion say that if their religion turns out to be false and their is no hell that they have lost nothing? Most religions have a variety of traditions and rituals. Offering, going to church, prayers, fasts, denying yourself of various secular pleasures, etc. Many religions, if not all of them, require fundamental changes in lifestyle, behavior, way of thinking, and outlook on the world. If religion turns out to be false then that person of religion has devoted his or her entire life to a lie. The only life they will ever have. Not exactly a small loss.

I used to be a Christian. I used to believe that Jesus Christ was the son of the living God who was born of a virgin, died on the cross for humans' sins, and rose from the grave 3 days later. I used to believe that there is such a thing as a soul, that there is a heaven and a hell and that my acceptance of Jesus Christ as a personal savior would keep me from spending eternity in an existence of hellfire and damnation. But for the past 2 months I have officially been an atheist. I don't hate God. To hate God, I would have to believe in him, and when I call myself an atheist I mean someone who simply does not believe in any supernatural deity. Not just the christian god but any other god in any other religion. I am not an atheist because I hate the idea of having an authority figure. Nor because I have had a bad experience with the church. In fact, every friend I had as a christian I still hold to be my friend. It is not because I wish to do whatever I want and live free from moral restrictions. It is not because I see the atrocities done in the name of religion. I understand every group with a common belief will have their minority members who misuse that belief for a personal agenda. The reason why I am an atheist is due to nothing more than the complete lack of convincing, credible evidence for the claims of any religion. As a christian I had doubts about my faith. I began to research every aspect of my faith and tried as hard as I could to rationalize away the arguments against Christianity and religion in general that I read. But the more I read and the more I learned, the harder it was for me to believe in a deity figure until it reached the point where I could no longer logically hold to my beliefs.

I'd kill for that ability. Even if it drained my vitality. I hate being broughten down by the necessity to sleep. I waste half my life. But then, if I don't sleep, I'm tired. You're lucky. For me, that ability would be in my top 10 on my super-power wishlist. I think I made it sound better than it really is. It's nice in the way that I have a lot of energy and can concentrate for 2-3 days nonstop but after awhile I start to think weird things and everything starts to get kind of strange (hard to describe). I usually have to force myself to go to sleep for a few hours so things don't get too weird.

I regularly go 2-3 days without sleeping and when I do sleep it's only for about 2-4 hours. It's more of a sleeping disorder rather than ability, but due to the fact that I can accomplish like twice as much as my friends because I don't need to spend as much time sleeping, I consider it an ability.

What about it? The song was about being made fun of and he said don't let their words get to you. Physical abuse and verbal abuse are majorly different.

It's probably how she wanted it to sound, slangish maybe? But who knows? It might be a typo also :D Maybe it's code?

It's statistically proven music has no effect on mean people.

Or, "not raising a violent child" means raising a child who is capable of analyzing his or her current situation without resorting to violence as his or her's primary method of problem solving. ^^edit^^ Basically saying the same thing.^^

You stabbed someone for calling your house ugly? What the heck?

^^Lol at that guy^^

I have the strangest ability to finish 1 out of the money in poker tournaments.