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AngelThMan Wrote:Keeping this in mind, here are some recent events:
2004 Tsunami killing 300,000 people, occurring mainly in Buddhist and Hindu regions.
2008 China earthquake: 68,000 dead.
2010 Haiti earthquake: 250,000 dead. This in contrast to the 2010 Chilean earthquake, which killed only 521. While Haitians consider themselves mainly Roman Catholic, the majority of Haitians practice Voodoo as a syncretic religion. http://www.travelinghaiti.com/haitian_voodoo.asp
2005 Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people in Louisiana, which has the largest Voodoo following in the United States. The greatest concentration of casualties occurred in New Orleans, which has the greatest concentration of Voodoo followers.
And so on and so forth…
Ever since I can remember, whenever there are huge world disasters, they are usually happening in idolatrous regions or nations. God punishes people and nations for different reasons, and Christians get punished as well. But it appears idolatrous nations get the worst of it.
In addition to the examples which other people have given, what about African countries which are predominantly Christian and are yet ravaged by AIDS, drought and famine? God seems pretty arbitrary in his smiting, if you ask me... as well as being a bit of a prick. If he wanted to do some real good, he could start by making the posters on here have malfunctioning keyboards, which gave us lethal electric shocks.
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
(June 8, 2010 at 2:38 am)tackattack Wrote: @ Thor- Could you please define the cceptable parameters for a " a rational point that "points toward the existence of God"."so I could answer your question.
Something stastically significant (I've mentioned this before. Show me where believers -in whatever deity you want to use - have a longer life expectancy, are wealthier, have a lower rate of childhood cancer, have lower rates of blindness, paralysis, birth defects, etc... than non-believers)...
I’m not sure there’s even a study to address such issues. If there is, please point to it. For now, here are some things to consider:
Have you ever noticed that whenever there are big disasters in the world, they are usually happening in regions that either worship different gods from ours, or practice non-Abrahamic religions? Idolatry is one of the most offensive sins to God, if not the most, as evidenced by the constant warnings and admonitions mentioned in the Old Testament. The bible also cautions that entire nations will be punished for this sin.*
Keeping this in mind, here are some recent events:
2004 Tsunami killing 300,000 people, occurring mainly in Buddhist and Hindu regions.
2008 China earthquake: 68,000 dead.
2010 Haiti earthquake: 250,000 dead. This in contrast to the 2010 Chilean earthquake, which killed only 521. While Haitians consider themselves mainly Roman Catholic, the majority of Haitians practice Voodoo as a syncretic religion. http://www.travelinghaiti.com/haitian_voodoo.asp
2005 Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people in Louisiana, which has the largest Voodoo following in the United States. The greatest concentration of casualties occurred in New Orleans, which has the greatest concentration of Voodoo followers.
And so on and so forth…
Ever since I can remember, whenever there are huge world disasters, they are usually happening in idolatrous regions or nations. God punishes people and nations for different reasons, and Christians get punished as well. But it appears idolatrous nations get the worst of it.
I could’ve posted this on a separate thread as additional evidence God exists, but here it is anyway.
*I’m citing the bible not to proselytize, but to demonstrate how the scriptures can be corroborated in today’s world.
Right here.
That's where religion crosses the border to perverted delusions that are detrimental to society.
"I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped, in the blinding headlights of vacuous crap" - Tim Minchin in "Storm"
Christianity is perfect bullshit, christians are not - Purple Rabbit, honouring CS Lewis
Faith is illogical - fr0d0
July 7, 2010 at 2:19 pm (This post was last modified: July 7, 2010 at 4:01 pm by Thor.)
You know what would be evidence that your deity exists? If there was a natural disaster that affected only nonbelievers. Imagine a flood tearing through a community, but the only homes destroyed belonged to nonbelievers. The homes of believers were all nice and dry with an apparently invisible force holding the water back from inundating their property. Imagine a hurricane decimating an area, but the only homes blown away belonged to nonbelievers. All the believers return to their homes and find nothing out of place! Imagine an earthquake that levels a city, but the homes of believers are untouched. Nonbelievers have their homes reduced to a pile of rubble. If anything like this happened, I would be convinced your deity is real. But we find NOTHING like this at all. What we find is that disasters randomly kill people and destroy property. Believers and nonbelievers alike. Why would that be? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Science flies us to the moon and stars. Religion flies us into buildings.
God allowed 200,000 people to die in an earthquake. So what makes you think he cares about YOUR problems?
(July 7, 2010 at 2:19 pm)Thor Wrote: You know what would be evidence that your deity exists? If there was a natural disaster that affected only nonbelievers. Imagine a flood tearing through a community, but the only homes destroyed belonged to nonbelievers. The homes of believers were all nice and dry with an apparently invisible force holding the water back from inundating their property. Imagine a hurricane decimating an area, but the only homes blown away belonged to nonbelievers. All the believers return to their homes and find nothing out of place! Imagina an earthquake that levels a city, but the homes of believers are untouched. Nonbelievers have their homes reduced to a pile of rubble. If anything like this happened, I would be convinced your deity is real. But we find NOTHING like this at all. What we find is that disasters randomly kill people and destroy property. Believers and nonbelievers alike. Why would that be? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
It's called the Rapture. Lots of Christians are just itching to get their just rewards when the Zombie Jew comes back and puts them all on the bus to their magical theme park in the sky.
(July 7, 2010 at 3:40 pm)tavarish Wrote: It's called the Rapture. Lots of Christians are just itching to get their just rewards when the Zombie Jew comes back and puts them all on the bus to their magical theme park in the sky.
We've been waiting 2,000 years and it hasn't happened. I'm sure in another 2,000 years we'll still be waiting for it to happen. And in 20,000 years I have no doubt they'll still be expecting him to show up at any moment! I'd even bet that when the sun burns out there will still be some among the last of the survivors looking to sky expecting Jesus to show up.
They could make a movie about it! "Look Who's Not Coming to Dinner"!
Science flies us to the moon and stars. Religion flies us into buildings.
God allowed 200,000 people to die in an earthquake. So what makes you think he cares about YOUR problems?
(July 7, 2010 at 3:40 pm)tavarish Wrote: It's called the Rapture. Lots of Christians are just itching to get their just rewards when the Zombie Jew comes back and puts them all on the bus to their magical theme park in the sky.
We've been waiting 2,000 years and it hasn't happened. I'm sure in another 2,000 years we'll still be waiting for it to happen. And in 20,000 years I have no doubt they'll still be expecting him to show up at any moment! I'd even bet that when the sun burns out there will still be some among the last of the survivors looking to sky expecting Jesus to show up.
They could make a movie about it! "Look Who's Not Coming to Dinner"!
You're wrong. He's going to show up within our lifetime. 100% for sure. Maybe.
(July 7, 2010 at 3:40 pm)tavarish Wrote: It's called the Rapture. Lots of Christians are just itching to get their just rewards when the Zombie Jew comes back and puts them all on the bus to their magical theme park in the sky.
We've been waiting 2,000 years and it hasn't happened. I'm sure in another 2,000 years we'll still be waiting for it to happen. And in 20,000 years I have no doubt they'll still be expecting him to show up at any moment! I'd even bet that when the sun burns out there will still be some among the last of the survivors looking to sky expecting Jesus to show up.
They could make a movie about it! "Look Who's Not Coming to Dinner"!
You're wrong. He's going to show up within our lifetime. 100% for sure. Maybe.
Man, if I could make bets with the boobs who believe this, I could live like a king!
Science flies us to the moon and stars. Religion flies us into buildings.
God allowed 200,000 people to die in an earthquake. So what makes you think he cares about YOUR problems?
It's funny because according to the scriptures Jesus promised he would come back in their lifetime.
Mark 9:1
And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.
Mark 13:26,30
26.And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
30.Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.
In the citation from Mark after Jesus got through a laundry list of things that are supposed to happen as a preamble to his return he then promises that he would return during their generation. What a lying prick! I'd like to see the greatest theologians christianity has try to refute this biblical passage just for fun to see what line of bullshit he is going to give us.
There is nothing people will not maintain when they are slaves to superstition
(July 7, 2010 at 5:57 pm)chatpilot Wrote: It's funny because according to the scriptures Jesus promised he would come back in their lifetime.
Aye, tis he said he would return but since his crucifiction, he has never returned, he is a liar. I reckon that's because he is dead and so no longer exists. Can't return if you no longer exist. If he did come back in human form that would prove his claims, I would believe but he has never shown up. I don't think he ever will. If there was such a character as this jesus fellow, he was no god. Just a normal human being who died and has remained dead. Someone who claimed to be god but was nothing but a preacher.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan
Mankind's intelligence walks hand in hand with it's stupidity.
Being an atheist says nothing about your overall intelligence, it just means you don't believe in god. Atheists can be as bright as any scientist and as stupid as any creationist.
You never really know just how stupid someone is, until you've argued with them.
Maybe he got sucked into a black hole and is still stuck there, or he just got lost in this vast universe of ours and does not remember how to make his way back to Earth.
There is nothing people will not maintain when they are slaves to superstition