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I would be! Only reason I’m agnostic is because I just don’t know. If I had definitive proof that Christians are right, I’d make the switch in a heartbeat. Their hell doesn’t sound delightful at all. I rather conform to rules and a lifestyle that I think is sexist, stupid, and homophobic than burn for all eternity.
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I wouldn't, the God of the bible is immoral in my opinion. That's like asking a Christian if they found out they had to worship Satan or be tortured for eternity would they do it?
shareSimply because, if the bible is right - god has a lot to answer for first.
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You can’t question your leaders, parents or authority figures? We are used to democracy because it is more moral than fascism.
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Why is my concept of morality kinder than a perfect being’s? That right there should tell you something.
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I’m kinder for ONE because I know that owning people as property is immoral. Whilst God didn’t have a problem with it and even permitted the beating of slaves. The amount of kindness I have doesn’t depend on my parents or some other creator because I can reason that it’s wrong to do these things. My morality comes from my society, culture and empathy that I have developed through both experiences and my internal willingness to treat my fellow humans with dignity.
shareAdd to that the fact that this supposedly moral superbeing also ordered followers to commit acts of genocide! Being more morally righteous than the god of Christianity is easy as pie.
shareAgreed. That an infinite moral being would suggest slaughtering men, women, children and infants because they were on the land he told ‘his people’ they could have seems awfully contrived doesn’t it?
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It makes me feel sick to my stomach when people condone truly terrible things. You are working so hard to make it okay but these things are not okay.
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No one with any sense regards fetal tissue as "babies".
You people don't, either. You just pretend to. Otherwise you'd have citizenship papers for them right at conception and hold funerals for miscarriages. That you don't do these things demonstrates conclusively that you don't really believe this sort of crap in reality. It's just an excuse to control women's bodies and sexuality. That's why so many groups who oppose abortion also interfere with women's access to birth control as well.
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Sure.
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The determination to grant personhood to an entity is not a scientific or biological issue. It is a cultural and political issue. There are no objective boundaries to draw lines around. So this distinction you are trying to make up out of thin air between "living life" and "just tissue" is bogus if you think you are making a scientific point.
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Did I say that "culture and politics determines biology"? No, I did not. You pulled that nonsense right out of your ignorant behind.
I used the term "personhood", which if you weren't as philosophically illiterate as you apparently are, is a term referring to the way culture grants special privileges and responsibilities to fellow humans over time.
Most human beings do not grant personhood to fetal tissue, which is why abortion is legal in every civilized country in the world. After birth and childhood, we grant partial personhood, as evidenced by the fact that we don't hold children to the same standards of responsibility that we do for adults, and why we also place great restrictions on what they can and cannot do. Full personhood essentially means we regard a person as an adult.
Very little of any of this has to do with biology. I'm guessing, though, that it is still going over your head.
You anti-choicers talk a big game about the sanctity of life, but it's all talk. Your behaviors show that in fact you do not assign personhood to fetal tissue until it has formed an organism that can survive outside the womb, and sometimes not even then. Otherwise you'd hold funerals for miscarriages.
And I'm guessing that like other Christians who make excuses for the mass genocide of both children and adults, you likely favor the death penalty, another sign that life if far from sacred to you.
Quite pathetic, really, but also quite typical.
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The recognition of "personhood" doesn´t automatically disqualify a fetus from being a living being, otherwise why was it against the law in the first place?
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This made no sense at all. setting limits or rules on things doesn't mean you re against it. In fact, by definition if you set rules allowing it, you by definition support it.
You say a lot of silly things in all your posts.
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No if we make rules around something, and don't outright abolish it, when we have the power to do it easily (like god in this case). That isn't saying society is against said thing. It means society is okay with it.
it wasn't the "rare" instance or exception LOL. the bible gave multiple instructions on slavery such as buy them from the heathens around you. As well as how to treat jewish vs non jewish slave.
Please stop lying. This wasn't the exception, this was the rule. we both know that. But you cant admit that a man made book would be fallible.
No matter what mental gymnastics you do. You cant change the fact the bible supports all sorts of horrendous things. Including slavery.
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God could have done either. SO he condoned it. He could have not let it happen. But chose to apparently tell men to write down the rules about it.
Nice not addressing my point at all though because you know you are wrong.
LOL you really want to get in to free will? hahah that alone proves your god is made up nonsense.
if he knows everything, created you, knows everything you will do, how is that free will? there's no choice because the way god created you knowing predetermined everything you will do ever and he set it in motion.
If I create a program that I know will run an equation and ive predetermined that by programming it to do so. does the program have "free will"?
Thats without even getting into the nonsense about evil, which god created himself. this is without even getting into the nonsense of Jesus dying to fix a loophole that god himself created in the first place.
Thats without getting into that if god is indeed all powerful, and can do anything. he could create a world free of evil but with free will, and chose not too.
look I know the bible helped you stop watching porn and jerking off. and you know it was the Holy Spirit cause "I got goosebumps".
But you sound like a joke and no one here takes you seriously.
You cant change the fact the bible supports all sorts of horrendous things. Including slavery.
Hence way they say the bible is the greatest path to atheism.
My guess is like most theists Billy never even read the whole bible. or at least not multiple times in-depth. and instead sticks with the classically quoted parts that make christians "feel good" and "special"
The arguments they give against that slavery thing is such nonsense. Billy is just giving one of the batcrap crazy ones.
"well god didn't condone it! he made rules about it so since he didn't say the slave should be a slave forever he was against it!"
He is currently and temporarily infected with that dangerous and destructive brainwashing viral-disease that has infected many others as I have witnessed this many times through the years. It should pass sooner or later.
shareAmazing how all these lowely Christians. Can read the mind of god and know exactly what he wants. And are all too willing to tell all those silly nonbelievers what to think and believe and how to live their lives and of course their interpretation of god is the right one even though there are 1000s of denominations of christianity alone
Imagine the sheer sense of self delusion and self importance that level of thinking must take.
Very simple - if you make the rules and make everyone follow them, but you don't - you're an asshole.
share"if buddhism were right!"
"if islam were right"
"if hinduism were right"
you seem to make a lot of assumptions. Prove god exists please, let alone your specific version of him different from the hundreds of thousands of other gods people believe and the billions of versions people have in their head.
Ill wait.
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Well how could I possibly know what i'm supposed to worry about if you cant explain it?
You say "christian" and yet in the USA there are over 200 denominations, all who believe different things. Sometimes on key fundamental issues of doctrine and belief. How could I possibly be worried about some nonsense you didn't define?
This seems to be a version of pascals wager in a sense.
Either way its nonsense.
Prove your god please. Otherwise I have nothing to fear other than your own imagination
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You seem incapable of reading easy statements.
there are 200 denominations of christianity in the usa alone. thousands worldwide. WHICH CHRISTIANITY.
How could I possibly know anything about the version of Christianity im supposed to of be wrong about when there are thousands of versions and you cant specify which? which differ on many things?
THIS IS THE PROBLEM with your posts. You make vague comments, think they are deep, and everyone just reads them dumbfounded someone could say such things.
Yes and I consider islam and extreme islam a fairy tail too... I guess if I disagree strongly and make fun of them i'm "rather combative".
LOL did you go to the Kent Hovind school of how not to argue? Seriously man this is cringe.
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Yes because you are frankly a joke. you aren't deserving of any sort of respect because everything you say is so laughably ridiculous you
LOL complains how rude atheists is. Whines and takes shots like a petty person.
You keep adding to why no one takes you seriously mr high and mighty.
but hey who am I to talk. I never felt "goosebumps" that stopped me jerking off soo. I never felt god I guess haha
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I was asking if you went to the Kent school... Because you just regurgitate tired only long debunked apologetic nonsense like Kent.
Again this obsessions with "righteousness"
You sure you aren't a caricature of a christian and just trolling? You have this insane idea in your head not only about your conversion, but about atheists and how they perceive themselves.
Please stop pushing your Christian propaganda atheist caricature on others.
This is why no one here takes you seriously. But hey he stopped you jerking off cause "you felt goosebumps" soo.... everything you said must be true LOL
You will not get through to a newly infected indoctrinated theist as this will take sophisticated deprogramming or time. I was much worse many years ago and it took much time to "wake up" and see truth.
shareIf only they treated their own god and religion like they do every other one they dont believe in.
You are right though. waste of time.
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I have no resentment about it since no one forced it on me, it was never necessary to force
religion since almost everyone around me was superstitious and they too were catholics...LOL.
I choose it voluntarily for one of the reasons that I mentioned on one of my other replies to your post, which is a very common reason as to why 99% of converts choose to believe in fantasy and superstition.
You are simply going through a temporary euphoric phase that will pass sooner or later and then "you will realize and see the truth"; not with your eyes and ears, but with your heart and mind.
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Here's a short list of bible verses that should make you wonder just what sort of god you and other christians give their lives to in sincere patronage to what you may call 'Holy'.
1. God himself will kill tens of thousands if it pleases him: 1st Samuel 6:19 in the King James Version: “And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men (50,070)”. Kill 50 000 men for looking at something?
2. You can kill a woman if she seizes a man's private parts without his permission: Deuteronomy 25:11-1: If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
3. Perversity and human trafficking condoned: "Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse." (1 Peter 2:18)
4. Sex slavery condoned: "When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again."
Exodus 21: 7-8
5. Divorce akin to debauchery: "Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery." (Luke 16:18)
6. Cannibalism: "And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son...." (II Kings 6:28-29)
7. If your genitals have been damaged, stay out of church: "He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord."(Deuteronomy 23:1)
8. Incest and getting drunk with dad is no problem if the world is running thin on suitable DNA donors: And the elder said to the younger Our father is old, and there is no man left on the earth, to come in unto us after the manner of the whole earth. Come, let us make him drunk with wine, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the elder went in and lay with her father: but he perceived not neither when his daughter lay down, nor when she rose up. And the next day the elder said to the younger: Behold I lay last night with my father, let us make him drink wine also to night, and thou shalt lie with him, that we may save seed of our father. They made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in, and lay with him: and neither then did he perceive when she lay down, nor when she rose up. So the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father. [Genesis 19:31-36]
9. Looking at a woman with desire is akin to adultery: "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28)
10. But incestuous rape is cool: And when she had presented him the meat, he took hold of her, and said: Come lie with me, my sister. She answered him: Do not so, my brother, do not force me: for no such thing must be done in Israel. Do not thou this folly. [II Kings 13:8-12] But he would not hearken to her prayers, but being stronger overpowered her and lay with her. [II Kings 13:14]
11. Pray in private, and if you do so in church, do so quietly: Matt 6:5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others."
12. If you offend God he will kill you: "And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also." (Genesis 38:7-10)
13. God smites women, children and often animals with equal gusto, he seems to equal evil and wrong doing by association, rather than by being guilty of the personal, individual act: "Behold with a great plague will the LORD smite thy people and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day." (II Chronicles 21:14-15)
14. Rev 21: 8 "liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." Eternal damnation for lying? In South Africa murderers and rapists often get released for good behavior, lying is politics.
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You know; I made a bet with myself that you would condone, excuse, or justify at least one or more from that list and you didn't disappoint.
So, you choose to dedicate yourself to an imaginary deity responsible for all manner of atrocities, suffering, and death committed by him and by others in his name because of your "fear of eternal punishment". This is an obvious reason why anyone would use that excuse to convert since this is something that cannot be proven or disproved by anyone. However, that does not matter since no personal conviction regardless of how devoted and persistent they are, will be guaranteed eternal salvation since this cannot proven one way or the other.
This is one of the fallacies that many overlook, scriptures states that the only unpardonable sin and punishable to an eternity of damnation is rejecting christ(HS), so that alone gives every convert the freedom to commit any sin they want in their minds, whether they deliberately want to or not, yet, according to those scriptures, good non-religious and non-superstitious people that live a life of kindness, respect, honesty, generosity, and good virtues are damned to eternal damnation because they choose not to believe in an imaginary deity that even if it does exist, it is without any doubt half good and half evil as all evidence has proven that in scriptures and in the modern age.
With this logic, it is no surprise that every year more and more religious and superstitious people are realizing the truth and are turning away from such misguided and false beliefs.
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This is actually not true at all and a false gospel
I have already been saved. Nothing I do or don´t do matters now
we execute people too, its fine when we do it but when God does it, that makes him "evil"
I don´t defend God because I fear eternal punishment
I defend God because I simply know he is the perfect being who was kind and gracious enough to give me salvation even though I sinned against him and his laws.
He cannot by definition be "immoral" because he created morality
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Your entire firs half of your statement is something that I have heard recited numerous times as this is all part of the same indoctrinated and regurgitated scripts passed on by most of the brainwashed (nothing new and nothing different), they all said the same more or less and then they went back to their hypocritical sinful ways.
Break it down however you want and justify it however much you want, the fact is that you will not stop or prevent yourself from sinning which means you fall within one of the two categories that I mentioned previously.
OSAS has given every convert that I have ever known, met, or heard of the freedom to continue with the same 'and/or' new sins. It is impossible not to sin. You provided that verse in reference to the "only unpardonable sin", whereas I included the second category of OSAS as you clearly admitted that you believed in as your method of salvation; they are separate and different.
You accept his supposed "moral flaws" in killing people as an argument for why he is an "evil" God but then you reject that he is the omnipotent being that created morality in the first place. If he is not omnipotent enough to create morality, then him killing a bunch of people by his will is a moot point since he would never have been able to do it in the first place. You don´t get to have it both ways. He is either omnipotent for the sake of the argument or he isn´t.
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I cannot stop myself from sinning but God can. This is supported by Galatians 5:17. 2 Cor 1:21-22. 1 Cor 1:8
Then you have never met or known a real convert. Some sins we break by accident such as speed limits, etc but as far as willful sin goes and the sins listed in 1 Cor 6, a real convert will not continue in them.
You have the patient of a saint :p as we said before Billy has gone full delusion. but he cant be wrong because he has faith. and his omnipresent, omnipotent god he cant prove always is the answer because by definition it can do everything and anything.
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You have contradicted every statement that you made all over this entire post about "free will" the moment you mentioned this:
I cannot stop myself from sinning but God can.
You are under the false assumption that Catholic priests who sexual abuse children are saved. The Bible freely admits that false converts exist and are like wolves in sheep´s clothing.
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There is no such thing as "complete free will", we only have "partial free will". The scriptures are a perfect example of that. What you are referring to is the voluntary elevation of serotonin and dopamine levels that can also be self-induced when one becomes euphoric in a fantasy type delusion; no drugs or alcohol are required.
It is completely unpractical and irrational for people to live in a modern civilized society and practice biblical (black/white) principals unless they live like the amish or the monks in secluded monasteries.
That is incorrect; sin is determined by both scriptures and personal subjectivity dependent on cultures, experiences, and upbringing. To them it was accidental 'and/or' unintentional which is how they would excuse their actions, and neither you nor anyone else can prove otherwise one way or the other. You consider their actions a condemnable sin based on scriptures alone, whereas I consider them sick with a mental illness also known as a psychiatric disorder. Your delusion judges and condemns them without considering the scientific and clinical aspect of such people, and that alone shows that you are already guilty of self-righteousness, judgement, and condemnation of others.
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Did you watch Star Wars? Do you know how it ends? How about Harry Potter? Any thoughts about how it ends?
Sure, Jesus and the holey bibble tell us what we are supposed to think. Nice try. Next !
Not really, also fear is not a good reason to accept something. If Christianity is based on threats then I don't want to be apart of it anyways.
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I think a better analogy is someone holding a gun to your head and threatening to blow your brains out unless you give them all your money. And your God is the one who decides who "falls into danger" because he created this alleged system. He could decide to just not torture me for eternity but he doesn't according to your bible because he's a very thin skinned sadist. If you found out that Islam was the correct answer would you convert to Islam to avoid eternal torture? (in their holy book you are going to hell).
Oh yeah there's another group of people who try to dictate others through fear: They are called terrorists.
Fallacy on your part.
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How do you know Islam isn't true.
My analogy is perfect, both involve someone using bullying/fear tactics to get someone to submit to them. Your God tortures people who don't submit just like the mob boss would blow your brains out if you don't submit.
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The mob boss is promising peace, joy and comfort as well because you won't be dead. Also how does an unverifiable promise mean it's going to happen? Politicians promise us stuff all the time that don't end up happening. (Also if God is all powerful he could send you to hell anyways, just like the mob boss could choose to just blow your brains out anyways)
How do you know the Holy Spirit is also the "Spirit of Truth"?
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Why should I believe “gods word”?
How do you know God isn’t a liar? A liar is never going to admit he’s a liar.
But he’ll send me to hell just for not figuratively licking his butthole my whole life? Sounds like he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in himself.
First prove to me that I should believe that parable then we’ll talk
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So does this mean you can't prove your assertions?
share"gods words true cause god is always true"
How do you know?
"cause the bible says"
how do you know?
"cause its the word of god"
Jeez the circular reasoning here is astounding
That's Christian logic in a nutshell. The Bible's true because it says it's true.
shareI said he sounds like Kent Hovind. He just rehashes all the sad apologist arguments that have long been debunked
Did you read his conversion account? He said the Holy Spirit stopped him watching porn and jacking off. and he knows it was the Holy Spirit cause "he felt goosebumps". You'd think it was a satire if you didn't know this guy is a diehard
Kent Hovind is one of the most infuriating people ever as is his son Eric, they are so smug and sanctimonious yet they misquote and misuse every scientific principle they use to try to justify their fairy tale nonsense.
shareAgreed. Sounds like Billy though. The amount of assertions he makes and thinks we should just take as facts is astounding.
I love watching Matt Dillahunty smash those fools.
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Yes I cant argue better than Dillahunty, arguably the best modern atheist debater.. how silly of me to be humble and a realist lol. I should just have faith im the best like you and it'll make it true!!! who needs facts, evidence or reality!!
every single person who has argued with you has destroyed your nonsense fallacies.
But hey god stopped you jacking off and watching porn LOOOLLLLL. he must be real cause "I felt goosebumps" and cause an intelligent thinking agent with free will could never do anything so miraculous themselves. Its proof s of JESUS!!!!! With arguments like that how could the atheists ever win
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Yes how do I debunk something I never read... WOW your logical capacity is truly astounding.... this is your brain on religion man. Your ability to think critically and logically has been fully destroyed and replaced by your insane magical religious alternative.
literally everyone here disagrees with and is making fun of you and your fallacies. You re the laughing stock of this board. I have yet to see an argument you won.
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Nice dodge. again your logical capabilities are lacking
Yes i'm sorry your fellows try and push their dellusion's and imaginary friends rules on others and we reject it. How dare we call them out on it and expose their insanity.
you rent the brightest bulb are you little Billy?
but what do I know. god magically stopped you jacking off and watching porn. Because a human making a decision to do that themselves was truly astounding to you. and goosebumps "prove the Holy Spirit"
I cant believe you actually wrote that nonsense.
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still waiting on even an ounce of proof of god other than "I have faith"
shareWtf are you even ranting about, 90 posts creep? You don't even have the presence of mind to construct a grammatically correct, coherent sentence and you want to rail about "logical capabilities"?
shareI dont think you know how logic works..... yes sorry I dont have almost 10000 comments. I have a life
shareI think logic just cornered you. Every year at this time, you cockroaches come squirming out of the woodwork, as if you're infected with the same, hateful virus. I don't expect you to last here, superior knowledge creep.
shareYes logic "cornered me". how does logic corner someone?
hahah yes I base my opinion on facts, reality, evidence and science. I dont base it on useless faith.
How "superior" of me. You guys nonstop self own and embarrass yourself then declare victory. its hilarious
Yeah, I'm sure you're really laughing right now, you intellectually impotent a-hole. Like I said, you won't last here.
sharefrom just a few exchanges I imagine you are an neckbeard with a lisp and retainer. With insane delusions of self importance and grandeur on this site because its your entire life and filling the void for the lack of actual real life importance or success.
yes I won't last cause I dont agree with a theist who makes wild claims and says he knows god exists cause he "got goosebumps" and god helped him stop watching porn..
Fine. You're just acknowledging that another spineless jellyfish is biting the dust.
sharedo you also own replica weapons and armour? call women milady but constantly get rejected?
Yes im spineless because im asking people for evidence and dont except "I have faith" as an explanation. how spineless of me!
I actually do lol every time I read your posts. You are the most cringe person i've encountered on here so far.
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Everyones destroyed your nonsense. Im sorry you cant actually support your position. other than using logical fallacies.
But hey you found god by not jerking off. You are the pinnacle of christian intellectuals LOL
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double standards? did you just compare imperfect grammar to fallacies?
WOW you are truly hopeless kid. Again this is your brain on religion. Your ability to think properly has been crippled because you do not live in reality.
you actually think someone not caring about grammar on the internet is akin to logical fallacies, faulty reasoning and making baseless assertions.
Your life must be such a confusing scare place...
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I have a degree in political science. I really dont care about grammar on the internet I write lazily and cant be bothered to correct mistakes whether its here or YouTube.
No that's a non sequitur you are desperately trying to latch on because your own belief is based on nothing. And hence all you can do is try and slander me.
I'm sorry you live in la la land and have faith in unproven feelings and cant defend them.
every single person who has replied to you has taken you to task, unmanned you and destroyed your ridiculous points.
this post should be renamed "how to get constantly embraced and intellectually destroyed and still come back for more"
In today's world, occupied by so many people who didn't get an adequate education, misuse of phrases is far too common. The logical fallacy known as "Begging the Question" is typically misunderstood and thus misapplied.
So it's nice to get a clear example of it, to help some people to better understand it.
Here, MCU asked how Billy knows that what God says is truthful. Billy relies by simply saying, "Because God said it." Here, Billy is presenting an illogical "begging the question" response to MCU's question. Instead of attempting to prove his assertion by actual debate of details, Billy has basically just presented his assertion again. As if the assertion is the proof. If he were to continue doing that, over and over, it would be as if he is "begging" for MCU to believe him. Or, more specifically, it would be like the question itself "begging" for acceptance by MCU.
The only way Billy could have made a more obvious fallacy would be if he had said, "God says he is truthful, and we should believe him when he says that because God is truthful."
I think the concept of God has its origins in perfectly natural human wish-fulfilment. Every human being spends the early part of his life in the care and protection of a "superior" Being whom he trusts, and who punishes him if he does wrong or disobeys, and gives him "gifts" when he does good.
But when he reaches independence from that powerful Being, he feels a need to replace It. Man is uncomfortable without his habits, especially comforting habits like living with a Powerful Being; in fact he is a creature whose continued survival depends on maintaining habits that have satisfied him before. Since he only has two parents, and nobody else in the world quite qualifies, he mentally invents an invisible superior Being, who, not surprisingly, happens to have all the qualities of the original.
But it's a fragile habit, and Man has to continuously reinforce it. Hence, dogma.
It is not even a matter of whether there may or may not be some supreme being or creator as 99% of all evidence everywhere that include matter, space, time, people's actions, and nature prove that there is no such thing. All logic and reason affirms to all of this, but of course, the religious and superstitious abandon the two most important and critical qualities for their beliefs which are "science" and "reason" in order to embrace the irrational world of myth and fantasy.
As for the 1%, is what I never could fully comprehend of how the converted willfully, deliberately, and blindly choose to ignore all scripture and modern age evidence where this imaginary being is directly responsible for more cruelty, suffering, and death which are also perpetrated by those religious people in his name than any other cause or reason in the history of mankind.
Their fear of eternal damnation must be more powerful than any absolute, irrefutable, and incontrovertible scientific evidence.
This is a similar analogy: If I were to live in a country ruled by a tyrannical dictator with a good side and a bad side and from his bad side, he occasionally tends to amuse himself with molesting underage children and permitting some of his closest followers to do same. He also manufactures biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction that he occasional uses on men, women, and children when they disobey him or not bow to him or for any reason that pleases him. He also tortures and murders men, women, and children or have his commanding followers do it for him when they do not pay their 'taxes/dues' or when he needs to prove something to the people of his country. I know that the fear of torture and death is the most powerful of all emotions, however, I will not blindly choose, accept, and embrace this tyrant because all I choose to see is his good side and 'excusing/justifying' his cruel side. This is truly and unnaturally defying all logic, reason, and sanity.
The best and most that I would do is to go through the motions of pretending until the first 'chance/opportunity' to leave that country by any means necessary.
IMHO, god is a construct people have made and only exists in a manner people can comprehend.
God is all-powerful, and yet he is jealous. "he" needs validation to feel wanted and needed.
It's BS. If there is a god, he's beyond our understanding, and all this blather about what god wants and expects is ridiculous. We are out here on our own, god doesn't care. We need to make a better world for ourselves w/o worrying what "god" thinks.