What is "FAITH"

[Bad Writer]

...you are suggesting is that there is no objective moral standard, but the entire world is subject to your views...

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm saying this out loud. Yes to the first, no to the second. You see, I don't believe there will ever be an objective moral standard, but the entire world is certainly not subject to my views. That would be overly presumptuous of anyone, myself included. That's why God is an asshole if he thinks he can dictate morals to people.

If lying is OK to me, there is no reason for me to believe that is wrong, and you are wrong to criticize me, because I am being judged according to your moral standards while and my moral standards are equally as acceptable as yours.

I don't believe any one set of morals is equal, since morality is defined by people. The morals being presented will be judged by others as well, based on their worth.

Even if lying is okay to you, and I'm assuming it really isn't, I'm not wrong to criticize you, for being critical is a right that I have. However, if lying is deemed a better virtue, it doesn't matter if I criticize you, for only I will agree with myself.

What's great is when we both agree on a set of morals, when we set the standard together, working towards what we deem the common good, would you agree? For instance, I brought up Hitler. I think it's safe to say that both you and I would condemn his actions.

Now, using the same reasoning that would bring someone to the conclusion that Hitler is a bad guy because of his atrocities, why not god too? Why does the god of the bible get a pass on his atrocities?

If the Quran sets up a standard for morals just like the Bible does, why then, do the Muslims not get a pass for their atrocities? Aren't they following the guidelines of their holy book just like you are? What makes that any different from you?

Hitler was condemned by pretty much everyone else outside the Nazi party because he was wrong. Antisemitism was never right and never will be. He deviated from an ultimate moral standard and was opposed by a world mostly in touch with this standard.

So then why was slavery okay? Why was oppression of the blacks okay? Was that also always wrong? How is that any different from the antisemetism of the Nazi party?

Christ died a criminal. His own disciples left him. Until Pentecost, he was simply a good story. Famous singers stop performing and we forget about them and move on, in the same way Christ was uninteresting to a people that didn't hear him speak or perform miracles anymore. Nobody had any motive to take serious action in his name. Not to mention that most of those who were in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost were foreigners from outside Palestine, hence the speaking in tongues.

That's an interesting way to look at the Pentecost scene, but it doesn't change what I said. It actually supports it. What are you getting at here? Are we just exchanging interesting Bible stories now, or do you have a point? If it's the former, then we should start a new thread for that.

Life is unfair. Justice is not perfect. Sometimes bad people get away without punishment. Sometimes good people are punished for acts they did not commit. It comforts theists to believe that all bad people will suffer after death if they escape punishment during life, but the fact of the matter is that the universe simply does not care about humanity. There is no retribution after death, and for some illogical reason that fact frightens theists more than the sociopathic glee they experience thinking souls suffer at the hands of a tyrant deity.

Mainstream Christianity has never placed any specific person in hell. We do not imagine people in hell to satisfy ourselves. The decision of what happens to souls when they die is up to God, and we don't claim to have any knowledge of what that decision will be. Who are we to claim to know the morals and motives of even the likes of Adolf Hitler? All humanity has the authority to say is that what he physically brought to the world was bad. What were your motives of posting that about Christians?

So it wouldn't comfort you to think that a person that raped your daughter and got away with it was going to hell after this life?

I suppose it wouldn't matter anyway if he repented of his sins before he died. Heh, you could throw a big reunion in heaven with the former Rapist. I mean, him being there is a just thing in the eyes of Yahweh.

Now we know that parthenogenesis CAN occur, so this means that it has become more likely that there WAS a virgin birth as described in the Bible, contradictory to what BWS had tried to say before. I think we're done here.

That's called special pleading. You can use science to prove your presupposition of a virgin birth all you want. But if you try to explain it with parthenogenesis, you're forgetting that it takes the miracle out of the event, and replaces it with something that occurs naturally (however rare a case that may have been). You can be done here if you want, but I'm never done exposing bullshit excuses for a false book.

Contradiction my ass.

Again we get the traditional notion of hell. Hell is only punishment to those that avoid it, because hell is a place where God's presence cannot be felt. Those who willingly reject God spend eternity without him. Flames and worms are extraneous and there is no reason to believe they are there.

How do you know that?

God has always had objectives. His prime objective is to draw people closer to him. We exist so we can be drawn closer to him. God is a force. A force needs a body to act upon. This not an urgent need, as this force can exist independent of any body, being eternal and self-sufficient. God selflessly made us so he could provide for us. He desires not to only sustain himself but to sustain others. Because God is the force of love.

God doesn't love us if he has his son spouting bullshit like this:
Matthew 19:24
"..It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

So god loves everyone...unless you're rich. Or homosexual. Or a woman. Or a pagan.

I'm reminded of the verse that explains that god made certain people as vessels of wrath in order to juxtapose the good and the bad in the world. How thoughtful of him!

Romans 9:22
"What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:"

According to Romans, it's implied that he made such people on purpose. God is sometimes like a little imp from myth that enjoys making mischief in the world.