Ok, im a little late to the topic, but I will put my 2 cents in anyway. My question for the OP would be..."What would these so called pastors that are killing these children be doing if evangelical Christianity didnt come to their part of the world?" Is it safe to say that they probably would not be upstanding citizens anyway? That they would probably just all be militants killing Christians for the heck of it? Here is an article where over 1000 christians were killed in nigeria in august. http://www.christianpersecution.info/index.php?view=6562
Fair point However Marxism is essentially a variation on a theme. I am merely ever so humbly suggesting those who, like jficquette, try to land communism squarely on Marx, Mao, China, Russia and atheists - whatever, are wrong and need to think twice. "All communism was rooted in religious principles." The previous link I gave describes how historically, Christian religion formed Communism. Hundreds years of religious indoctrination attempting to turn the word into meaning something evil , (it is of course morally objectionable ) hasn't washed the awful fact away that Christianity and religion generally, are inextricably linked to the founding principles of Communism itself. Marxism and religion both applied extreme applications of it. Marx, Mao, Popes and Inquisitions being far later derivatives than the much earlier preceding Christian establishment of Communism. All Iâm really saying is , when the religious, or theists in general, or Christians shout âevil Communismâ , they probably donât even realize they own it.
I knew it you couldn't resist. "despite deliberately making them flawed in the first place" you need to go back and research that one. So, You and I are no different from the animal world except for intellect? Where do you think love, joy, patience , compassion , and alternatively murder, lying, stealing, pride , greed came from in humans. What makes one evil as opposed to being a good person? Your camp provides no satisfactory answers to these questions.
Research shows according to religion the most satisfactory answer for theists is they all come from God. So what makes one evil as opposed to being a good person? .....God does. What kind of a mean capricious cruel trickster would do such a thing to a person?
simple, you are given the freedom to choose, it is called free-will. Man has only himself to blame for the way things turn out.
God made evil so that it wouldn't make people evil? Where is your free will and freedom to choose when evil strikes you down against your will? Freewill? Of course we have freewill. We have no choice in the matter.
i guess you missed this part. they are only following what the bible tells them to do. kind of similar to the muslims. the bible is full of commands to kill your children. "Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
The same rain falling upon all, good and evil. We all die. Time and unforeseen occurence befall us all. That is where you and I differ, in that God is not the author of evil.
"There's a scar above Jane's shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of $60 didn't cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism." "Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner's material worries as well as spiritual ones â eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day" "We cannot afford to make enemies of all the churches around here," he said. "But we know the vast majority of them are involved in the abuse even if their headquarters aren't aware." "Even churches who didn't use to 'find' child witches are being forced into it by the competition," said Itauma. "A series of exorcisms cost Eyekang eight months' wages, or US$270. The payments bankrupted her." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The church capitalize on poverty and uneducated people. This article is so sad.