(July 2, 2010 at 11:15 am)rjh4 Wrote:(July 1, 2010 at 3:48 pm)Scented Nectar Wrote: Even if you think that word is too extreme, or means something more specific to war, or whatever, there is still the issue of the religion causing fear of doing nonharmful things like thoughts, for instance not actively thinking 'love' thoughts (worship, prayer, adoration, etc) about someone (your xtian god) when ORDERED to, gets punished with eternal torture. That is cruel and unfair, unlike warnings against doing harmful things like murder. Also, the punishment is not real, whereas jail/execution for murder is real. Same with the fact that there is no god reading the kid's mind constantly as threatened, unlike witnesses/clues/evidence/forensics/autopsies seeing that a murder has been done.
Cruel and unfair? That, of course, either presupposes some objective standard of fairness and cruelty or is merely your opinion.
The punishment is not real? And you "know" this how? You may not believe it is real.
Don't get me wrong Scented Nectar, while I think hell is real I do not think it is the best to go around and tell children about Christianity by focusing on hell and scaring them into believing. I think the Christian message is easy to present in a positive way such that one is not scaring them into belief just like I think one can teach a child that murder is not an appropriate behavior without trying to scare them into not doing it because the will be executed. In both cases, while the consequences can be discussed, the focus would not be on that but on the positive. The difference would be like the difference between a malevolent dictator who rules by fear and a benevolent king that encourages the positive. You clearly see the God of the Bible as the former, I see Him as the latter.
Scented Nectar...do you think it is wrong for parents to teach children what they believe?
Just because you believe something is real, doesn't mean it is. So you can stop that "How do you know it's fake? Just cause you don't believe..." shit.
"The difference would be like the difference between a malevolent dictator who rules by fear and a benevolent king that encourages the positive." Well if that's the difference, then you have to scare them into believing just like God does. "If you don't believe in me you will burn forever!" No, that's not trying to scare people into belief AT ALL.
Eeyore Wrote:Thanks for noticing.