Hello all,
I have browsed a bit through these forums, and i have noticed that the view of theists as a whole is terribly arbitrary. Some of the atheists here say that they are called by religious people "immoral", or even "sinful" and "evil".
But most atheists have the exact same kind of description of theists, considering them as stupid, uneducated, and feeling superior to everyone else. That is simply not accurate.
Here is my set of beliefs. This set of beliefs is shared by the vast majority of Christians. You will see that we are not as crazy as you seem to believe:
I believe that the vast majority of the Old Testament is non-factual. I believe fully in evolution, even though i think God intended our evolution from apes, in such a way as to do it according to the rules of nature. I do believe for example in Moses and the flee from Egypt, as a historical event and not with the magic bread, crossing of the red sea or the cloud of ash that showed them the way. However Noah's Ark, Adam and Eve, the man who lived 3 days inside of a whale, are all stories that could be compared with mythologies like the Greek one.
But i am a real christian in that i believe, according to the tales of the Gospels, that Jesus is the Son of God, performed miracles, and was resurrected. He had a message of peace and understanding for all of mankind, and unlike the tales of the Old Testament, in the teachings of Jesus no one is beyond redemption.
I do not condemn non-believers or believers in other religions to an eternity in Hell, i just think they havnt had the luck i had, which is to see the beautiful message of the Christ.
I see atheists as people who are disillusioned view of religion and who do not know what or who to believe, so they just reject God altogether. I can understand easily how people can be disgusted by religion. Terrorism, discrimination, pedophilia. But all of those wrongs that religion has done...are not exclusive to religion, far from it. Most of the time, "religious" genocides have for goal to find a scapegoat to appease the population, nothing more.
What's more religion has undeniably done some good in the world. It has united nations, given people a set of moral values that are good for the well-being of society. For hundreds of years most of the education and medicine was practiced by the Church. Finally most organizations that help the poor sick or homeless are originally Christian.
I am not here to convert you all, just to remind you that religion is not as harmful as you seem to think.
I have browsed a bit through these forums, and i have noticed that the view of theists as a whole is terribly arbitrary. Some of the atheists here say that they are called by religious people "immoral", or even "sinful" and "evil".
But most atheists have the exact same kind of description of theists, considering them as stupid, uneducated, and feeling superior to everyone else. That is simply not accurate.
Here is my set of beliefs. This set of beliefs is shared by the vast majority of Christians. You will see that we are not as crazy as you seem to believe:
I believe that the vast majority of the Old Testament is non-factual. I believe fully in evolution, even though i think God intended our evolution from apes, in such a way as to do it according to the rules of nature. I do believe for example in Moses and the flee from Egypt, as a historical event and not with the magic bread, crossing of the red sea or the cloud of ash that showed them the way. However Noah's Ark, Adam and Eve, the man who lived 3 days inside of a whale, are all stories that could be compared with mythologies like the Greek one.
But i am a real christian in that i believe, according to the tales of the Gospels, that Jesus is the Son of God, performed miracles, and was resurrected. He had a message of peace and understanding for all of mankind, and unlike the tales of the Old Testament, in the teachings of Jesus no one is beyond redemption.
I do not condemn non-believers or believers in other religions to an eternity in Hell, i just think they havnt had the luck i had, which is to see the beautiful message of the Christ.
I see atheists as people who are disillusioned view of religion and who do not know what or who to believe, so they just reject God altogether. I can understand easily how people can be disgusted by religion. Terrorism, discrimination, pedophilia. But all of those wrongs that religion has done...are not exclusive to religion, far from it. Most of the time, "religious" genocides have for goal to find a scapegoat to appease the population, nothing more.
What's more religion has undeniably done some good in the world. It has united nations, given people a set of moral values that are good for the well-being of society. For hundreds of years most of the education and medicine was practiced by the Church. Finally most organizations that help the poor sick or homeless are originally Christian.
I am not here to convert you all, just to remind you that religion is not as harmful as you seem to think.
