Ask a Catholic

[dyresand]

Hey Randy, how about you start an "Ask All Atheists," thread, since you claim to know better about what we're all thinking than we do?

He wouldn't want to know we all secretly worship satan and wear black robes and on the weekend have secret atheist meetings plotting to take over heaven
and let satan rule over everyone's souls.

[pocaracas]

I know I asked this before, but you seem to have missed it: define truth.

How would you know that a particular set of beliefs is true... or rather, because that makes no sense at all, how would you know that what a particular religion claims is the truth?

By the grace of God.

Make your point, poca. There are lots of posts I need to respond to...

Would you believe if I told you that you failed to answer the question?
What is "the grace of god"?

Maybe I should remind you that, as far I am concerned, there might as well be no god at all.

[Cyberman]

Hey Randy, how about you start an "Ask All Atheists," thread, since you claim to know better about what we're all thinking than we do?

He wouldn't want to know we all secretly worship satan and wear black robes and on the weekend have secret atheist meetings plotting to take over heaven
and let satan rule over everyone's souls.

He already knows that. After all, we're all angry at his pet god after the abuses we suffered as children.

[nihilistcat]

He wouldn't want to know we all secretly worship satan and wear black robes and on the weekend have secret atheist meetings plotting to take over heaven
and let satan rule over everyone's souls.

He already knows that. After all, we're all angry at his pet god after the abuses we suffered as children.

I so hate the "angry at god" crap that we're so often accused of ... I mean, if the obvious contradiction of being angry at something that we don't think exists isn't enough, how about this. Why would a god have to be benevolent? I mean, that doesn't seems to be an argument against the existence of god (although it may be an argument against the reasonableness of worshiping such a being). Surely, a malevolent god is just as plausible as a benevolent god, in fact I would say more so. If we were created in god's image, then it would stand to reason that god is just as selfish, violent, and self-interested as we are (and when I read the buy-bull ... that is precisely my impression)

But I'm just as skeptical when it comes to new age (peace and love) type religiosity as I am with conventional religion. Bullshit is bullshit, whether pleasant and dressed up with swirling lollipops and flowers or not. 

[dyresand]

He already knows that. After all, we're all angry at his pet god after the abuses we suffered as children.

I so hate the "angry at god" crap that we're so often accused of ... I mean, if the obvious contradiction of being angry at something that we don't think exists isn't enough, how about this. Why would a god have to be benevolent? I mean, that doesn't seems to be an argument against the existence of god (although it may be an argument against the reasonableness of worshiping such a being). Surely, a malevolent god is just as plausible as a benevolent god, in fact I would say more so. If we were created in god's image, then it would stand to reason that god is just as selfish, violent, and self-interested as we are (and when I read the buy-bull ... that is precisely my impression)

But I'm just as skeptical when it comes to new age (peace and love) type religiosity as I am with conventional religion. Bullshit is bullshit, whether pleasant and dressed up with swirling lollipops and flowers or not. 

Pretty much god of the bible is not benevolent he is more of an malevolent being who has human issues.
One of them being insecure and a lair so yeah. It doesn't matter how much a book says that being is good in that same book
it shows gods fuck ups and clear neglect to his own creations. And when his creations united and started building a tower to the heavens
he knew that humanity no longer needed him and he just destroyed the tower and disbanded humanity with his power. If that story is not
clear cut for a jealously or fear of being unneeded i don't know what is. 

Because god like with some parents are like the crazy parent who doesn't want to let go of their child and let he or she grow up on their own. 

[The Grand Nudger]

"You really -do- believe in the deliciousness, you're just angry at Captain Crunch because your uncle touched you in a bad place!"  
-Is that where we're at now, the fucking Sorbo Gambit?  

Apologists really are a cancer eh, eating away at themselves and their religion.  You'd think, if they counted themselves as friends to the almighty....they'd shut their mouths and sit on their hands.

[Randy Carson]

By the grace of God.

Make your point, poca. There are lots of posts I need to respond to...

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The existence of the graveyard of the gods does not prove that Christianity will one day rest there.

Just because some conceptions of God are fictional, how does that prove that all conceptions of God are fiction?

It does not prove anything, but surely even you won't deny it sets one hell of a precedent to go by. Just because you were born in this little slice of time, you think your particular brand of bullshit carries any more weight than the literally tens of thousands that have come before it? Come on.
I'm sorry that you cannot accept that in the grand scheme of things, your faith really is Nothing Special, but reality has this funny habit of being just so whether you hide from it or not

In the long run, this world and all your precious science will pass away. 

Heaven will not.

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Hey Randy, how about you start an "Ask All Atheists," thread, since you claim to know better about what we're all thinking than we do?

There is already an active thread like that.

---

Pick your favorite argument against Catholicism...just one...and give me your question.

My favorite argument against Catholicism is the same argument against religion in general ... it's based on bullshit. 

1) first we believed that the universe and man was created in seven days, then came biology, physics, geology, etc., and now most religions call that story figurative.

2) most mainstream archaeologists have concluded that the Exodus narrative never happened, which suggests that Moses never actually existed (this is a development that most churches have not yet been willing to concede, nonetheless, when you look at the evidence, it's very decisive). 

3) Paul claimed 500 witnesses, the context of the sermon on the mounts implies there were perhaps thousands in attendance, yet not a single corroborating report or artifact in history. 

4) we now know the gospels were written by well educated, native Greek speakers, not Aramaic speaking barely literate fishermen from Galilee. The churches response to this, to the extent they're willing to admit the inherent problems in their ancient manuscripts, it doesn't matter because all those authors were inspired by god, and how do they know, because they say so (and since they claim to be the official representatives of god on earth, the normal skepticism with which we treat circular reasoning shouldn't apply e.g. they get a special pleading, why, cause they say so, never mind that you could support any claim, even the most absurd, with this flawed reasoning).

5) Islam is a religion with over a billion followers, based on a story about one guy who entered a cave, alone I might add, and emerged from his cave with a nice bedtime story about his encounter with an angel (and of course he emerged fully equipped with a new buy-bull). 

It's just one big long DUH!

I'm reminded of the story of the prehistoric tribe who would pray to the rain god to avoid drought, floods, famine, etc. Then they realized that rain would occur when clouds formed in their proximity, so they changed the story, and started praying to the cloud god. They then realized that the direction of the wind influenced the direction of movement of clouds, so they changed the story again, and started praying to the wind god. In fact, with each new bit of knowledge they acquired, they had to change the story. Eventually, a few of the smarter members of the tribe recognized the trend .... and became atheists.

If this were differential calculus, we would say the limit is approaching bullshit
  

Thank you, Cato.

---

By the grace of God.

Make your point, poca. There are lots of posts I need to respond to...

Would you believe if I told you that you failed to answer the question?
What is "the grace of god"?

Maybe I should remind you that, as far I am concerned, there might as well be no god at all.

Google an article entitled, Grace: What It Is and What It Does

[Esquilax]

---

Hey Randy, how about you start an "Ask All Atheists," thread, since you claim to know better about what we're all thinking than we do?

There is already an active thread like that.

Sure! But that's run by atheists. You've already stated that you know more about atheists that you've never met than atheists do! I'd rather hear what somebody who doesn't know any of us has to say about what we think; obviously it'd be so much more accurate than our own accounts of the things in our minds!

[Iroscato]

In the long run, this world and all your precious science will pass away.

Heaven will not.

...
That's the best you got? Tell you what, just keep clinging desperately to that comfort blanket, you'll probably do less harm than if you actually started thinking for yourself. There's a good boy.
*pat pat*

[The Grand Nudger]

Hehehe, Esq..you;re being to harsh.  Poor old Randy can;t help that someone told him there was such a thing as "the atheist" - and then proceeded to fill his head with as much strange and discomforting shit as possible.   I'm always reminded of the scene in Fear and Loathing at the law enforcement/drug convention when we find ourselves here.

That's how he came by these ideas, after all.  They aren't -his-...so they can't be properly blamed upon him.