No pithy quotes, but I found the stats on America rather sad. It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That's roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year. About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. This is down from 35,000 ten years ago, and 41,000 twenty years ago. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five. Famine and wars cause about 10% of hunger deaths, although these tend to be the ones you hear about most often. The majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition. Families facing extreme poverty are simply unable to get enough food to eat. In 1999, a year marked by good economic news, 31 million Americans were food insecure, meaning they were either hungry or unsure of where their next meal would come from. Of these Americans, 12 million were children
Yes those statistics are sad. This should make you realize how badly sin is looked upon by God. Nonetheless, it is what it is. If all of mankind would do as commanded, then there would be no problems--NONE! So, instead of blaming God, take a look in the mirror. Think about it if you will, every man, woman and child working toward the greater good of humanity instead of their own selfish needs. Stop all the lying, cheating, fornicating, stealing and all the other self motivating interests and those statistics would go away. Think real hard, you free thinkers... BOLT
god LOVES sin or HE'D do something about it! after all HE PUT IT HERE! oh yeah what did these poor kids do what sin did they commit do deserve the WRATH OF GOD!? huh! so you think it's OK for god to leave these innocent lives to starve, and suffer and die??!! is this the CHRISTIAN WAY??!! is this your "benevolent" god in action??!! you are disgusting stay away from me
So what you are saying here is that these stories, from the New Testament, which you agree were not even written until about 1500 years ago or so, supercede the teachings from the Old Testament, that, according to you yourself covers pretty much everything from the of beginning of time (time of the "creation"). And from that time, which was the beginning of the world...what, about 6000 years ago or so?... at least certainly not the billions of years all the fools think it took for life to "evolve" and through the following 4000 or so years when "hell" did not exist, is not a contradiction to you? No such guy as Satan? What is the truth here? Was the Old Testament all meaningless? Or only the parts that do not exactly fit with the New Testament? Or your particular brand of Christianity? Hell is real; the fact that it did not exist in the Old Testament renders the Old Testament meaningless. But the Tree of Knowledge story is real. So then the Old Testament can't be meaningless! Wait, it is all way too confusing to me. Why don't you just make a concise list for me so I know what to believe. And what not to believe? Peace. rs7
Yes, those are sad. Those also tell me that all the people that are professing to be Christians, are really just paying it lip service and not acting. If your god has the power to stop this and doesn't then he is no one I would ever want to meet, much less serve. An innocent child, well millions, starve because two women kiss. Give me a break. That does not even come close to making sense. As for take a look in the mirror. I have and I also take notice of the three charities that I am ACTIVELY involved in. Actively means 10-15 hours of MY time each week. And you know what, occasionally I will run into people who make the commitment, but very few. I would think with all the BS I am reading about serving the lord and self sacrifice I would meet more. Laughable how actions speak louder than words. And I am not sure who you are referring to as a with the allegations of lying and cheating. Maybe you think I am Jim Baker or Oral Roberts praying on the needy, taking their money, in the name of the lord. Nope just a guy who walks the walk. Go to a NICU sometime and see how many loving caring people are standing in line to hold a shaking crack baby, much less adopt one. Maybe in church this weekend you can ask how many babies are abandoned after delivery each year. Hint, it is just a little shy of the number of adoptions.
"Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." --bill gates me too bill (like recovering from a hangover )
"The survival value of the god meme in the meme pool results from its great psychological appeal. It provides a superficially plausible answer to deep and troubling questions about existence. It suggests that injustices in this world may be rectified in the next. The 'everlasting arms' hold out a cushion against our own inadequacies which, like a doctor's placebo, is none the less effective for being imaginary. These are some of the reasons why the idea of God is copied so readily by successive generations of individual brains. God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture." --richard dawkins evolutionary biologist
In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference. --richard dawkins this one puts me at ease, it makes sense to me. i feel a little better after reading this. and what truth it smacks!
Katrina, The Bill Gates quote smacks of some truth. I have always wondered how much better we would be if people spent those three hours helping in the community.