Ok.....So you killed off Religion...

[Cato]

My relationship with God is a personal one.

How personal can this relationship be? You voluntarily join an internet community called atheistforums.org to wax poetic about your 'personal' relationship with God? Your significant other must be very proud.

[ronedee]

Acounts? No you are saying the myth is popular, sure it is and for 2000 years that myth has been handed down to to the point of billions today. So?

If in 5,000 years there are billions of copies of Harry Potter does that mean little boys can fly around on brooms?

Well....women have been flying on brooms for a thousand years now....and they have a small following in Salem, Mass. And that could blossom in a few millennium!

Listen to what he said. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE during the alleged claimed time of the claimed Jesus character. Every account about the character was WRITTEN AFTER THE FACT. The Romans were excellent census takers and if someone had been going around gaining the popularity as alleged in the bible, the ROMANS OF THAT TIME would have taken note of it OUTSIDE the bible. They did not.

I believe ....and tell me if I'm wrong now....but weren't Romans trying to exterminate Christians? Also, I think they were big on extinguishing the names of "anyone" who would be a hostile king? Maybe even their own people?

Actually...it makes perfect sense to erase a guy like THAT!

And even if a man named Jesus did exist it wouldn't matter anyway. It takes two sets of DNA to manifest into a baby from a sperm and egg. And human flesh does not survive rigor mortis. So even if we agreed he did exist all it would prove is a MERE MAN and not a god/man, started a cult that got popular and went on to become a religion. Just like L Ron Hubbard was a mere man who started Scientology.

You sound a lot like L Ron Hubbbaabbler...right now!

The bible was written over 1,000 year period by 40 authors and books left out. That is hardly the work of an alleged "All powerful" god. It is absurd to claim that a god could "poof" everything into existence then resort to mere mortals for his manual.

The bible was written by humans, not handed down by a god. You can pepper works of fiction with real people and real places but it does not make the fiction real, otherwise Superman is real because we've seen him fly around New York City.

Funny thing is? You and I are still arguing about that old "manual"! LOL!
...and I can't think of another publication that is still on the best seller list 2000 years later!

Wouldn't you love to have that publisher$ bank account! WHEWWWW!

Ok I am going to make a claim right now. "I claim that I know Bill Gates and he gave me 1 billion dollars." By your stupid logic, since Bill Gates is a real person, I must be a billionaire. Are you willing to blindly buy my claim now?

There is no such thing as a god or gods, there are certainly real people who have created many different religions, but none of the claimed in them are real because a person started a cult. Otherwise I am a billionaire merely because I claimed it.

OK! I will believe you......... When: a book is written about YOU by 40 different authors. Get a cult started because of YOU. And then YOU die and come back from the dead... we'll have dinner together!

As a bonus? I'll pay for your dinner!

[Esquilax]

You haven't stated why we should teach only common beliefs. I agree with you that demonstrable subjects are worthwhile. But why not add classes that deliberate and answer more important questions which are undemonstrable? --questions such as the nature of knowledge, our purpose and whether there is a God. Esquilax, what is the purpose of education? Use only undisputed demonstrations in your answer.

My high school and university philosophy classes both had whole sessions dedicated to asking precisely those questions. There's a theology course at my university too. But there's a difference between offering these courses as electives once students are more equipped to think critically, and making them mainstream courses that everyone takes regardless of conviction.

More importantly, there's a difference between taking those questions as subjective and open to examination, as my classes did, and teaching the tenets of a specific religion as historical fact. I don't think anyone here would be opposed to schools offering these classes optionally and without a pretense to being absolute fact, assuming budgetary restraints can handle that and they don't, say, detract from science or math classes, but that's also not what we're objecting to here.

If you want someone to teach you that the bible is literally true and all, go to a church. If you want someone to treat your religious claims with the same processes as we would any other non-demonstrable claim, then that's fine. Religion is a part of the culture in which we live, ignoring it isn't going to change that, but no religion should be given special access to children at a time when they're open to new information in order to preach.

[ronedee]

My relationship with God is a personal one.

How personal can this relationship be? You voluntarily join an internet community called atheistforums.org to wax poetic about your 'personal' relationship with God? Your significant other must be very proud.

I'm here to make you smile! You're so grumpy looking and old! Cheer-up before your dust pops!

[Esquilax]

OK! I will believe you......... When: a book is written about YOU by 40 different authors. Get a cult started because of YOU. And then YOU die and come back from the dead... we'll have dinner together!

As a bonus? I'll pay for your dinner!

Can you verify for us that Jesus came back from the dead? Apart from recourse to your personal relationship with him, I mean?

Because if not, everything you just said is more insulting to your own religion than it is anything else. You'd be calling it a cult, a fraud written by forty authors who didn't know the things they claimed to know.

As has been pointed out several times, there's a difference between the claim, and evidence for the claim. You are, all at once, accepting the claim to be true, because the claim says it's true, while ridiculing the very idea of it being repeated today as stupid.

Can you not see the irony there?

[ronedee]

OK! I will believe you......... When: a book is written about YOU by 40 different authors. Get a cult started because of YOU. And then YOU die and come back from the dead... we'll have dinner together!

As a bonus? I'll pay for your dinner!

Can you verify for us that Jesus came back from the dead? Apart from recourse to your personal relationship with him, I mean?

Because if not, everything you just said is more insulting to your own religion than it is anything else. You'd be calling it a cult, a fraud written by forty authors who didn't know the things they claimed to know.

As has been pointed out several times, there's a difference between the claim, and evidence for the claim. You are, all at once, accepting the claim to be true, because the claim says it's true, while ridiculing the very idea of it being repeated today as stupid.

Can you not see the irony there?

Equi...I know you are trying your best to one up me on that post! But your coming up short! Keep trying though... "we're rootin fur ya"!

[Mystical]

You sure say we alot. Do you have a group of people in your livingroom rallying for your plight or do you speak of the invisible being friends you claim to have? Either way why don't you answer the mans question. We all know how honest you claim to be, fess up or bring something to the table. Anything, really. A single shred of evidence that verifies your assertions that shows us why you believe Jesus was an actual non fictional character will do.

[Esquilax]

Equi...I know you are trying your best to one up me on that post! But your coming up short! Keep trying though... "we're rootin fur ya"!

I would take issue with this, but then I realized that I don't take vaulting over the incredibly low bar you've set to be a point of pride at all. The vast, yawning void of the assumptions you've made speak for themselves.

And how polite of you not to offer a rebuttal, so I don't need to shame myself further by dealing with more of your kindergarten level theology and argumentation!

[Cato]

I'm here to make you smile! You're so grumpy looking and old! Cheer-up before your dust pops!

Grumpy? That picture was taken in the height of ecstasy! You do realize, perhaps not, that the Vapor's song 'Turning Japanese' had nothing to do with Japan, don't you?

I don't fault a nun like you. The only time you could experience a man's face like mine is if a camera was strapped to the back of the head of an alter boy.

[ronedee]

I'm here to make you smile! You're so grumpy looking and old! Cheer-up before your dust pops!

Grumpy? That picture was taken in the height of ecstasy! You do realize, perhaps not, that the Vapor's song 'Turning Japanese' had nothing to do with Japan, don't you?

I don't fault a nun like you. The only time you could experience a man's face like mine is if a camera was strapped to the back of the head of an alter boy.

LMAO! Thanks cato for having a sense of humor! There are too many serious people around here! cya!

PS.. I had a cat named cato! Best durn feline ever!