Okay ATHEISTS <rolls sleaves>

cheers!

 

If you are not a believer and a believer tells you this upon learning of your non-belief, the proper response is, "Fine, and I will think for you."

 

Ig...That's pretty much where I draw a line. If you're a nonbeliever and you say I wish you well. I have no problem with that. Nor should they have a problem with me praying if it's well intentioned. Whether they believe in God or not.

 

i believe kind thoughts and positivity will save you, portalguy. thanks for the prayers.

lmao ignatius, that's amusing, but i was genuinely interested in hearing his prayers, not in causing more animosity, though i'll admit it was a bit tongue-in-cheek.

i am not against religion; i am for the evolution of religion. i like a lot about christianity.. however, i will never call myself a christian because i do not want to be associated with all of the fucked up things christians have done in their self-righteous ignorance, even to this day. many christian beliefs and stances on matters fail to take into account the bigger picture and do not make sense in a progressive world. i think religion is key in holding society together; therefore, it needs to evolve to suit the needs of a modern world - great reform is necessary. but people don't think religion should ever change (even though it has), which is the biggest problem. it's backward.

 

Zilla you may find the writing of John Shelby Spong interesting. He's a very progressive thinking Christian.

 

ahh yes, the fundamentalists hate him. i'll check him out.

 

Fuck that shit, I'm not having your Saviour take credit for everything I do just because you prayed about it.

 

If I actually believed in God I'd be offended if someone prayed for me because amount of prayer is directly related the level of ones misery and poverty. There is plenty of global evidence that suggests that prayer is actually a curse!

 

Attributing something to "miracles" is nothing more than delusional way of thinking, of which christians are pretty fond of.

 

Bishop John Spong is a friend of mine. You might be surprised to learn that he doesn't believe in God. Read "Why Christianity Must Change or Die", in which he makes clear the fact that he views much of the Judeo-Christian message as morally useful, but dismisses the supernatural nonsense that has for so long stained the Christian philosophy as hocus-pocus mysticism.

He's a truly remarkable man and I love him very much, but it's very odd for a theist to recommend his writing.

On prayer, John (known as Jack to friends) has this tale to tell:
When he was a minister, and his wife had cancer, dozens of people in his congregation told him they would pray for her to survive. Although appeciative of the intent, this made Jack consider the possibility of the local garbageman's wife contracting the same cancer. Less people would know him - and therefore his wife would receive less prayers. If this meant the garbageman's wife is more likely to suffer a painful death, Jack didn't feel good about it at all. In fact, the idea disgusted him. He decided then that the concept of prayer is a deeply flawed and unethical one.

Peacelove,
Aldousage

 

You think prayer causes suffering, rather than the other way around? Kinda unconventional thinking.

 

It is said, that Moses prayed to god to relieve the suffering of his people.

In response, god sent the plagues.

 

I might've been taught a very sanitised version of this, but I believe God was supposed to have sent the plagues to those who had enslaved Moses' people. Otherwise, yeah, sounds a bit harsh, but unless I've way off on this, it'd be kind of ironic if you were to accuse someone of hypocrisy for having a shallow understanding of the Bible. Talk about Job if you want to cite God being a dickhead.

 

I guess, the assumption is that if we humans are unable to comprehend how god operates, then what's even the point of talking and discussing about whether he exists or not.

 

Well maybe. But I'm pretty sure that it's wrong to say that God punished the Israelites because they prayed to Him. Even Job just got caught in "the crossfire" between God and Satan; he wasn't punished just because he prayed.

 

So, the implication of the above post is that god saves certain humans and destroys certain others.

Not a very loving, kind and gentle interpretation of a god.
Instead, you have a picture of a wrathful, vengeful christian god.

 

Yes, and he is frequently described as such in the Bible.

I am not saying that I agree with this. I am just saying that the point that was being made, about prayer causing misery, rather than resulting from it, didn't seem to be reflected, and the argument you were making seemed to be based on a rather fundamental misunderstanding of the story of the plagues. Had you got the idea that God was nice to people who didn't pray to him or something?

 

Strange, but if god created people, god would love his creation, inasmuch as a father loves his own children.

I assume that in god can be found the highest qualities of a human being with regards to the father-child relationship.

Would you condemn your own child to eternal hell, for a certain transgression.

On the other hand, one would do all in one's power to prevent that from happening.

 

So, the plagues were a good thing because god responded to Moses' prayers, thus saving his people.


Never mind the fact that the plagues caused death and suffering to unbelievers.

I guess, the implication of this is that christians adhere to the principle of:
"Obey or die."

Not a caring, compassionate way to spread this "love" of god.

 

Why would you think that?

I'm not arguing that there is a god, ok? I just question your interpretation of the Bible; these stories are meant to affect people's behaviour. A god who loves the good and bad equally and punishes no-one is pretty useless from that perspective. The stories are built to answer questions, and one of those questions could well be as to whether a man who does good his entire life will go to the same afterlife as a man who did nothing; original sin provides a framework whereby people can be motivated to do good, rather than merely avoid doing bad.

Realistically, if there is a god, it seems highly unlikely to me that he would spend half of his life making his likeness appear on slices of burnt toast or shrouds or all the other stupid things people think he does. It's highly unlikely that we'd be able to recognise him anyway, since he would be, by definition, not human.