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More or less most over religious christians are in denial of truth.
They would support a nuclear war if the pope and bible somehow said so.
Also i am taoist, my parents were christian i went to christian school from k-3, then earlier this year in 8th grade i went to a christian school.
I had to change schools because two students threatened to kill me because i wasn't catholic.
Also my parents say a lot of religious crap to mainly bring guilt on me.
I found too many rules in christianity, and it didn't feel right anyway to be catholic. The christians i was with were to rejecting of anything different, that as i see it will soon be their downfall; the tight rules and reluctance to change with the ages.

If I had to judge from simply my experience with Christianity, I would say that...well, Christians are really not half bad. My experience has been for the most part positive, and while I don't think I could ever be Christian and believe and accept many of the things Christians are supposed to, but I hold an odd sort of sentimentality for it that makes me want to defend the good Christians that I know from aggressive stereotypes, generalities, and ignorance.

I literally knew nothing about Christianity or really any religion until I went to high school. A Catholic high school. At first I was scared to admit that not only did I know nothing about Christianity, let alone Catholicism, but I had no religion whatsoever. But what struck me was that people really didn't care. I didn't have to participate in prayer if I didn't want to, I didn't have to take the host at mass. I had to take religion class though, but teachers actually appreciated it when I told the truth and admitted my ignorance or a lack of belief in what I was learning. They said it was certainly more interesting to read than the repetitive "Oh, Jesus loves me and I love Jesus" bullshit they usually got from students just going through the motions to get an easy A.

I took biology, where I learned actual biology. I took world religions (a mandatory religion class in which we learned a bit about the main religions). We were told homosexuals were people too. The majority opinion was pretty pro-life, but a girl admitted to the whole class during a morality discussion that she would have one in a heartbeat if the choice was between that and ruining all of her carefully-made plans for the future, which surprisingly met actual mature consideration and debate. When we had to do an oral presentation of some Christian controversy or another, I chose to do Intelligent Design vs Evolution, which I am sad to say I came to the realization I was completely blowing it when somebody asked "What is intelligent design design anyway?" which met much head nodding around the room and I realized I didn't have much of an idea myself. I'm glad I got to it though.

Overall, Catholic schooling gave me picture of the other side of the fence, even if it was something of a rosy picture in comparison to what of a lot of Christians in America are like. Heck, perhaps I have too much a rosy picture of the school itself since I probably didn't hang out with the "right" sort of people to see the dark side of it. Even then though, what I did see gave me an idea of what Christians can be like if they set their minds to it--that is, accepting, tolerant, caring and somewhat educated.

First off, I do believe in God. I am not Christian though, and I've had many issues with Christianity as a religion. But as long as Christians are educated, there is no problem with them.

The problem with religion is blind faith. People not questioning the answer nor what the question means in asking it.

I guess at this point I have to explain my roots. I am Jewish and don't confuse me for being "typical" of any Jew or any conception you may have of one if you've ever met one. I grew up kosher, celebrating all Jewish and American holidays, and keeping Shabbat. I am no longer kosher, but still follow some of the rules for health reasons.

That is what life comes down to: observing your own rules on life. Christianity has its own rules... where some contradict each other, but that is what they believe. Their forcing of converts really grates one me as well as their hypocrisies in their own religion. But the worst thing about most Christians I have met is their unwillingness to learn or listen.

I studied every religion I could get my hands on, listened to people of those religions, and learned from them first hand about their own diversity in their religion as well as what they thought of others. This is what Christianity refuses to do... listen.

If you have any question about why Christianity is the way it is today, please find this book and read it cover to cover: A World Lit Only by Fire.

I'm sorry about having such a long post, so I will end it by answering some questions brought up earlier in this thread:



God's image?
If you take the bible literally, god is a monkey...
No, I don't believe that.
Here's a better explanation:
What is an image? (Great way to start challenging anything... define what you are asking.)
An image we create is a thought... an image in our head... imagination...
But how does it appear? Creativity: having the ability to create something.
What did God do? Created blah, etc. etc.
Maybe that is his gift to us?
That we have the ability to create: aka his image.

The Earth in 7 days?
Technically it was 6 and he needed to rest.
And also it was everything, not just the Earth.
Question: If god is all powerful and all knowing and all seeing...
Then why would he have to rest?
Maybe it's not actual days...
But a number that pops us everywhere.
And that life revolves around this number, like crop rotation.
Did you know that the highest output of a field is when you sow for 6 years and lay it fallow for 1?
This number 7 is significant in most things in life and is to help us understand there is a cycle to everything.

Egyptian magicians turned their staves into snakes?
Love this one. I really do.
One can actually feed a snake certain herbs and make the snake rigid and motionless. When you feed it another herb, a certain stimulant, he becomes super aggressive.
To the Egyptians, snakes were sacred creatures, as they were in most of the known world at that time.
But then Judaism comes along and warns against snakes... aka other religions that would have you believe that God is not The God.
And then Moses' staff eats the other snakes to show dominance.

Take what you want as literal, but you won't get far.
Take the meaning from behind it, and you'll see it isn't bad.
What is bad, are those that blindly follow and will cause you to stumble if you don't as well.
Just remember to keep an open mind, for others won't.

Heh, don't get me started about Islam.

But as for my Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament yet do not follow themselves, if you were trying to decide if the texts were written by man or god, that's easy.
The texts were written by men.
Obviously you did not spend enough time studying them.
But no matter.

We as humans are social creatures with the need for social interaction and conformity. Even non-conformity is conforming to non-conformity.
This means we recognize patterns: patterns in nature, patterns we try to understand (science), and we repeat tests with variables and certain degrees of accuracy to a point where we understand the pattern (scientific method).
Patterns are there to help us understand, or so we may understand if we can't see the pattern.
But we have to be willing to ask.
You seem like one who wants to ask, but doesn't know the question, or doesn't care because he has been discouraged in the past.
You didn't grow up Christian, did you? (Just kidding.)

So back to the original statement...
Did you want to talk about Islam now or the Islam then?
Not that there is much difference.

How are you going to prove they weren't divine inspired?
Better yet...

IF you believe in God...
Then God itself begs the question.
Is God a part of Nature or is Nature a part of God?
And if either, then doesn't Nature inspire us as well?
So to assume there was a God would be to assume that everything natural or made is a grand part of someone's inspiration which the credit would eventually reach God as a final answer.
If you don't believe in God, which I really don't care if you do or don't unless you are challenging things you know nothing about, then we, as humans use nature and try to understand nature because it is our world and something that inspires us.

So I leave it to you...
It's not Christianity that you have a problem with, it is God.
That is what you are trying to say.
But deep down, I think your beef is only really with Christianity and anyone that might defend it...
Trust me; I won't be defending "the crown" anytime soon...
But I will defend my people.
That's more than I can say to someone who doesn't have any.
So be careful who you throw out with the bathwater when trying to set an idea in stone.
Good Luck!

Believe who?
Believe in God?
I don't care...
You don't seem like a good person anyway.
I like the fact that you question everything.
But you don't seem to think abstractly.
You are pissed off at a world that doesn't care about you.

The rules I live by are to make me a better person.
I can doubt very seriously that any rules you live by do that for you.
I celebrate holidays not for God, but for myself.
Passover: Thankful for being free and understanding that we can make choices.
Yom Kippur: Realizing that we have done bad things to others and to ask forgiveness from those people and to learn what we did wrong and that we don't want those things done to us.
There are many holidays.
All are to be spent with family, reinforcing that family is one of the most important things in our lives.
Granted, one doesn't need to believe in God for any of these, but it helps to understand the abstract concepts you have obviously missed.

You can take anything I have said and try to turn it around, but it is you who would be lacking if you did.
Not that I would believe you actually understand everything that I have said about this fully.

Well then, I think we are at an understanding of one another.
Have a great day.