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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
November 30, 2014 at 9:46 pm
(November 30, 2014 at 8:20 pm)Lek Wrote: The problem is we can't keep from doing bad things to other people.
That would seem to make any gods in the equation rather irrelevant. With a god or without, we are apparently capable of good and bad things. The only difference, it seems to me, is that all too often the person with a god will use it to justify his/her bad actions, or claim some sort of moral superiority due to having a personal saviour to whom they can confess and be forgiven.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
November 30, 2014 at 10:22 pm
(November 30, 2014 at 8:24 pm)Chad32 Wrote: Lots of people keep themselves from doing bad things to other people. That's the defining point of being a good person.
I'd like to meet them cause I haven't met any yet.
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
November 30, 2014 at 10:37 pm
(This post was last modified: November 30, 2014 at 10:39 pm by Chad32.)
You're talking to one now. Granted I tend to stay to myself a lot, but I haven't done anything malicious in years. I don't steal or murder. I don't torment people for not paying attention to me, or torment people who are paying attention to me just to see if they'll continue paying attention to me afterwards.
Actually one of my problems is that I'm too nice. There have been multiple times that I've stuck my neck out for people, and have been taken advantage of. It's a shame that people would use other's generosity to gain more for themselves, but there wouldn't be people taking advantage of others if there weren't also people nice enough to be taken advantage of.
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
November 30, 2014 at 10:37 pm
(November 30, 2014 at 10:22 pm)Lek Wrote: (November 30, 2014 at 8:24 pm)Chad32 Wrote: Lots of people keep themselves from doing bad things to other people. That's the defining point of being a good person.
I'd like to meet them cause I haven't met any yet.
 hock:
Are you for real?
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
December 1, 2014 at 6:58 am
(November 30, 2014 at 8:20 pm)Lek Wrote: The problem is we can't keep from doing bad things to other people. And religion does nothing to alleviate this. In fact, by claiming that we are imperfect and that our sins are forgiven by proxy and that we'll be as good as we need to be once we are dead, religion excuses such behavior today. Depending on the denomination, there are some who believe that once you take Christ into your heart you are saved no matter what you do. There are others who believe that any action taken in support of their faith is just, regardless of how harmful it is (which follows the example of the OT god, after all).
So not only does god never show up, his effects on our behavior amount to a net zero at best. It's almost as if he was never there at all!
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
December 1, 2014 at 10:26 am
(December 1, 2014 at 6:58 am)Tonus Wrote: (November 30, 2014 at 8:20 pm)Lek Wrote: The problem is we can't keep from doing bad things to other people. And religion does nothing to alleviate this. In fact, by claiming that we are imperfect and that our sins are forgiven by proxy and that we'll be as good as we need to be once we are dead, religion excuses such behavior today. Depending on the denomination, there are some who believe that once you take Christ into your heart you are saved no matter what you do. There are others who believe that any action taken in support of their faith is just, regardless of how harmful it is (which follows the example of the OT god, after all).
So not only does god never show up, his effects on our behavior amount to a net zero at best. It's almost as if he was never there at all!
Also didn't religion also say kill [insert specific people] and it doesn't go again love thy neighbor.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization join today.
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
December 1, 2014 at 2:14 pm
(November 30, 2014 at 10:22 pm)Lek Wrote: (November 30, 2014 at 8:24 pm)Chad32 Wrote: Lots of people keep themselves from doing bad things to other people. That's the defining point of being a good person.
I'd like to meet them cause I haven't met any yet.
I suspect you have met dozens, maybe even hundreds, of good people -- but you deny their goodness if they don't share your beliefs. That makes you a not-very-nice person, but you probably deserve a bit of sympathy as well as a lot of condemnation for subscribing to a belief that encourages its followers to be so bigoted and judgmental.
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
December 1, 2014 at 3:40 pm
I assume he means "good" as in "perfect," or someone who has never sinned. You can be the model of human kindness and good behavior, but if you ever lied to your kid... you're not "good." Ever stole a pencil from work? You filthy sinner! Ever had an impure thought? What's that? ALL THE TIME??? Sinner, sinner, sinner!!! Hell awaits!
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
December 1, 2014 at 3:46 pm
Just out of curiosity, is telling a child about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Faerie an 'evil sin'. After all, it is an intentional lie. Of course, if it is OK, where does one draw the line?
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: Eternal punishment is pointless.
December 1, 2014 at 4:14 pm
(December 1, 2014 at 3:46 pm)IATIA Wrote: Just out of curiosity, is telling a child about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Faerie an 'evil sin'. After all, it is an intentional lie. Of course, if it is OK, where does one draw the line?
Depends on the person i suppose.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization join today.
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