I don't question your well being because you are 'trashing religion'- I question it because you are consistently throwing out challenges to no one in particular and seem to have a compulsive shouting problem. You have been oddly fixated on a single point for many months now, and have been shouting the same few tired lines over and over; the subject matter of the point is irrelevant to the fact that you are fixated. No one else on this board that I can see has continuously been shouting the same argument into the wind, thread after tired thread, without having anything substantial or beneficial come of it. There are plenty of controversial subjects and plenty of strong opinions around here, yet you are apparently one of the only ones to keep shouting, over and over, tirelessly trying to pick a new fight. As for your repeated points, I'm surprised you have the nerve (or the lack of common sense) to bring them up again when they were so thoroughly addressed a long time ago (almost a year ago now in fact, if I'm not mistaken). Your entire argument seems to consist of three repetitions: 1) religious people are "brainwashed" 2) religious people believe what they are told since birth 3) religion conflicts with science and thus must be wrong All of these have been adressed ten times over in the threads where there was actually a back and forth discussion occurring. Point one is not an argument, it's a meaningless statement. It's not an argument or even a logical position, it's simply an insult. Saying "YOU ARE WRONG YOU ARE BRAINWASHED" is tantamount to saying nothing at all. All it does is demonstrate that you aren't skilled enough to tell the difference between logical debate and insult, or alternatively that you don't care or don't have anything logical to say. Point two is patently illogical from the start, and if you thought about it for more than five seconds you would not keep repeating it. My father does not hold the same beliefs that I do, nor does my mother. I was not "taught" anything early on in regards to metaphysics, and I did not make any firm conclusions about God or purpose or existence before 20 years old. But forget my own example; your point #2 is completely irrelevant because there are countless numbers of people who switch positions midstream. There are atheists who become christians at 30 years old. There are christians who become athiests at 30 years old. There are agnostics who become hindus, hindus who become catholics, catholics who become moonies... you name the combination, there is someone out there who has changed position midstream. The key point here is that it doesn't have to matter at all what you are told from birth. Just because many are given their path by their parents, it does not mean that all are given their path by their parents, and thus giving a blanket generalization of indoctrination across the board is patently stupid. Last but not least, if you continue to shout point #2 then you fall into your own trap. You have said that your father is a scientist, which dovetails nicely into your worship of science. If you declare everyone who disagrees with you to be full of shit because they just believe what they are being told, then you have to put yourself in the same camp. Again I'm surprised that you aren't intelligent enough to see this glaring contradiction and spare yourself some embarrassment. Point three is also more evidence of ignorance, and has been addressed ten times over by threads you have participated in in the past. Questions of God are not defined or answered by science because science is limited by empiricism and deals with a closed system. You don't have to believe in God to recognize the limitations of science. You just have to be logical. Read Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or Lila by Robert Pirsig. Pirsig doesn't believe in God, and his answers are not necessarily better than anyone else's, but his questions- i.e. his analysis of the limitations inherent in a subject/object approach to metaphysics- are pretty hard to argue with. So much of life and reality is outside the realm of empiricism that it's hard to believe anyone could assume otherwise. You can't even assign a value to empiricism without moving outside of empiricism. And furthermore, science cannibalizes itself at the edge. All the logic and rigidity just fades away, leaving us with mystery again. Mathematics is a self-defining system; Riemannian or Lobachevskian geometry have just as much validity as Euclidian. We only choose to accept the axiom that parallel lines can never intercept as a matter of convenience. The truth is they could, if we chose to use an alternate base system that is just as internally coherent. Bertrand Russels empty set paradox shows further contradiction at the heart of mathematics. In otherwords, the concrete bed of scientific logic turns to quicksand if you look at it hard enough. Science is no place for the atheist to plant his flag, because in addition to being blind as Einstein noted, it is just as susceptible to mystery and seeming contradiction as anything else. So if you are going to fight, fight like a man. Put away your meaningless insults. "You are brainwashed" is about as intelligent as "YoU aRe A pOoPyHed". Drop the crap about indoctrination, it's embarrassing to see you leaning on such a weak crutch. And recognize that science will not save you. Can God be debated? Most certainly. But it's a philosophical debate, not a scientific one, and continued references to and reliance on your limited knowledge only highlights the limitations of your knowledge. And for crying out loud, please stop shouting. You really do sound like a drunk.
LMAO! Darkhorse, I'm can hear the WHOOSH of your (undeservedly) dignified response going right over his head! Please, Weeble, for your own sanity, do get a clue.
You know Weeble most people use religion to find happiness in their life and inner peace with themselves. One thing is for certain about you. You are not a happy person. You are a very angry person. This is very obvious. Your life is very empty and you seek to vent out that inner anger but justifying its existence in the first place. So I guess the religious people are one up on you because they seem to be very happy with their life and you clearly don't know what it's like to be happy so I declare this argument to be over.
All I have to say to Weeble is HELL YEAH!!! Creationists send their kids to church to get physically raped and mind-fucked. Weebleâs fights against this kind of depravity, you creationists cheerlead the depravity.
God may not bless America, but He sure is pissed off at a lot of other places. Unlike many here, I for one am extremely grateful to live in a country with the freedoms we have and the opportunities to make a better life for ourselves and our families - by trading equities, for example. So go ahead and say God isn't blessing America, but also thank Him for blessing you individually in that He had you born a citizen of this great land. I hope you are at least grateful for that.
The conclusion that anyone is blessed on the basis of what happens to them externally demonstrates a lack of understanding of what a blessing from God would be. Judging that God is blessing or cursing on the basis of what happens to one's country, family, person, etc. is simply wrong in my opinion. I am not a Biblical scholar, but I do recall that people often met major challenges in their life in the Bible. These challenges were "blessings" as they were intended to develop character....or so the story goes. These challenges may have been viewed as a curse by the person undergoing the process, but God was in fact blessing that person by His actions designed to help that soul in the bigger scheme of things. So to claim that because something good happens in America is a blessing from God and something bad happens in another part of the world is a curse from God, is to say that "I know what God is thinking, and what God's motives are in every particular situation." To do so would be to elevate oneself to the level of God, and would be considered vanity. Unless you know what God's motives are you will never know if you are being blessed or cursed by any particular event happening to you or your country. A real man of faith in God feels blessed by the life he has, no matter what trials he has in life. He simply accepts that whatever happens, good or bad, blessing or curse, is God's will for him, and thus in his best interest at all times. The curse or the blessing from God would be in the intent behind the event, not the event itself. Spoiling a child may make the child feel "blessed" in the near term, but may well have a cursed effect later on in life. So, would I feel blessed by God to be living in America? No more than I would feel blessed by life itself and having God planning my life if I were a real man of faith. I contend that God is equally blessing all souls according to what they are needing at any and every particular time....even if what they need is not viewed or experienced as a "blessing" at the time.