He said "we don't like your kind'

That was offtopic SORRY

Yup. I know what he said. And it is still obviously a joke.

"WTF at the devil worshippers voting."

WTF at the idiocy. Since when was Satanism Devil worshipping?

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

It depends what you'd class as 'evidence' then, surely? There've been many-a-stigmatism-shenanigan, but would you accept them as 'miracles'?

i pray but in my own way, i don't really have a religion i was raised catholic but my sister changed her religion shes muslim now and really i think as long as your nice to other people make love not war etc you don't need a religion

Isn't Lucifer typically considered to be the Devil?

Yeah, but Satanists don't actually believe in god or the devil. They are really just hedonists who like to piss off christians.

Then doesn't that just kill the concept of Satanism entirely? My point is still made.

They call the religion Satanism so they can create a stigma of evil around themselves and piss off christians.

do you ever think religion is just another way to divide people? no offense to people who are religious

I know, but what about the actual Satanists? you can't say they don't worship the devil if they are true Satanists.

Well some satanists actually belive in God and Satan, they are considered as being the most evil type of satanists, ruomurs clame that these people make blood sacrifice.

The satanists who don´t belive in God and Satan, consider satanism as a philosophy, in which you don´t shall give any charity to people that don´t deserve that.

In some cases

i mean religion is not inheritantly evil but holy wars? isn't that kind of like an oxymoron

What is oxymoron?, it does not stand in my english-danish dictionary.

I don't think it, I know it. Israel and Palestina anyone? Thats a prime example.

Hey sorry for my mistake according to the deists, i was thinking of pantheists, which means all is god.
Deists belive that a supreme being, have created the universe, and then have the universe to take care of it self (no divine intervention).

Primus inter pares - oxymoron means: a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined (Ex.: thunderous silence, sweet sorrow)

Thank you Skillya Glowi.
P.S. do you know what there is standing on your avatar, because i know,
it is pronounced: "ne boltai", and means: "do not gabble" (i can talk russian).

Uhm, I was born in Moscow and lived there for 7 years. I won the Language Olympiad there in 1st grade. I know what "Ne Boltay" means.

I'm an atheist because of the observations I made. Organized religion makes certain observable claims and the claims don't bear out. Its like Einstein's theory of relativity. According to the theory relativity would change certain things like the speed of light, how gravity functions, and so on. British people check it out and confirmed it about a decade later. I hear all of these whizzbang claims by religious people and they simply are never born out. All I can conclude is that, barring further evidence to the contrary, that its all just a pack of lies. That is reasonable, that is logical.

I don't care. Seriously. I don't give half a diarrhea shit if you're an atheist. All I did was point out that you claimed your belief is the only logical one when that obviously isn't true.

I say we start posting in the other faith thread, although this is too hilarious to close.

OANST and Stat. Behave please.
All hail the Dread Lord Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

I came across the unofficial tenets of Deism a while ago when I was looking up some info on the whole idea of God as "The Clockmaker." Deism fit my preexisting spiritual beliefs almost perfectly, so I adopted the philosophy as my own.

Hmm, Jefferson was a Deist, you're in good company.

I think people are already divided and have an instinct for violence and wars. Religion is merely an excuse.

That's a remarkably naive statement. The Israel/Palestine issue is over territory, not religion. Israel has good relations with several Muslim countries (Jordan, Turkey, Egypt to some extent and several North-African nations). Also, it should be noted that Jews and Muslims were very close up until nationalistic Zionism grew as a movement in the second half of the 19th century. Jews were generally better treated in Muslim countries than in Christian ones, the Golden Age of Spain being the best example.

There's evidence of a large volcanic eruption several millenia ago that could have caused all the symptomes of the Great Plagues (with the exeption of the final plague). It happened around the right time and around the right place.

Again, if you study science you quickly learn a great deal of it cannot be proven, including Einstein's theory of relativity (which is flawed, and only works in certain systems. It's about as acurate as using 3.1415 as the absolute value of pi). They all seem to work fine, and a lot of the hypotheses aren't easy to argue away, but the fact is they're not proven. And if you're only going to accept things that are provable... you really won't be able to accept much.


Yes, it is.
This is where you could argue the people who undertake violent Jihad {because if you read up on it, they're not supposed to be violent} and The Crusades were not truely following their religion. They were just using it as an excuse.
There's nothing in Christianity {that I've ever seen in the Bible} about killing everyone who's not Christian. It is corruption which seems to cause the violence and you can only blame humans for that.

Yea it's over territory, but as far as I understand the core of that story it's because Israel believes that the Palenstina land has been promised to them by the bible.

Certain people are unwilling to hand back the west bank because it is part of ancestral Israel, yes. But the majority of Israelis would prefer to give back the west bank as long as they could be guaranteed safety in return.

I don't see this amazing tie to the land that Israelis have. "God" told them to take the "promised land" so they committed genocide to get a hold of it. They lost control of it and haven't had it for a century. Now they want it back because of the Holocaust and b.s. claims to divine promises and holiness? If you were Palestinian would you roll over for this crap? Hell no. Sorry Zionists, karma is a bitch.

Ignorance is bliss, but allow me to step out of my ignoramus device and ask a question - the people in Israel, what are they? Jews?

I guess. Weren't Israelites in the Bible Jewish or soemthing?

On Israel
 

Sorry to butt in, but few people know that the "Palestinians" are actually Jordanians from the 19th century. There has never been a "Palestine" run by "Palestinians". The name was invented by the Romans as an insult to the Jews living there (Palestine is derived from Philistine, an adversary of the Israelites in the Torah/Bible). It was later recycled by Islamic fundies as a way to justify their anti semitism

Basically true, except that there weren't Jordanians back then either. Basically, the concept of Jordan/Palestine/Saudi Arabia/Iran/Iraq/Syria/Lebanon/etc is an artificial construct established by the British and French after they conquered what was then the Ottoman Empire in WWI.

Erm. Genocide is a strong word to use here; conquering of land was quite common at the time (approx 1300BC). There have been Jews in the region constantly since then - the population has been significant since people started moving there from Europe in the 1860's.

Even before the holocaust Jews have been trying to establish a self-governing nation in Israel. There were discussions with the Ottomans to take control of what was then a backwater of the empire. When the British conquered the region, they made promises to both the local Jews and Arabs that they could have the land. Eventually the British washed their hands of it and let the UN decide. They established the Partition Plan where two countries would be established; a Jewish one and an Arab one. The Arab countries (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq) didn't approve and they invaded Israel. Miraculously, Israel managed to defend itself and established itself as a democracy. The regions that were set aside for the Palestinian state was taken by Jordan and Egypt.

The Palestinian 'problem' is one that was created by Jordan and Egypt, not Israel.

Firstly I'd like to apologise for any stupid or poorly researched things I may blurt out, and aslo state that anything I do say in this thread is in no way definitive and that there are always exceptions or minorities. You read my posts at your own risk. Bullet Magnet and his affiliates accept no responsibility for any damages, physical, mental or spiritual, that occur from reading my posts. Anything you do say can and will be given as evidence. Disconnect from the mains before removing cover. Warranty applicable for 90 days after original purchase, copyrighted 2006. I the the event of an overdose seek medical attention immediately. No refunds.

Okay.

Voodoo is not African. I believe it originates from Haiti.

It originated in Haiti, but evolved from a set of smaller tribal religions in west Africa.

Has anyone read the book Conversations With God? It's currently my brother's bible. My mum is reading it and throwing out random quotes to me but it just sounds like second-rate Deist claptrap to me*. It's clearly written for people from a Christian background (references to Jesus and the 10 commandments) and yet it seems to be saying that God and religion is unimportant; God doesn't care what you do, just that you think that you're doing the right thing. It actually says that Hitler is in heaven!

Anyway, I just wanted to know if anyone else had read it and what their impressions were.



* I'm not saying that Deism is second-rate claptrap. Just that the book is.

I think the whiole idea of Hell is stupid. I don't see the logic of sending someone to eternity in a pit of fire if everything is supposed to be at peace in heaven. I mean, if everyone goes to heaven, then why would anyone hold any grudges when they get there? If someone truly belives what they did in life was good, and they spent their life working on it, then they deserve a reward. What they may have done may not have been considered good by others, but I can see the logic in that book you're talking about, Nate.

Sounds like it vaguely touches a few deist beliefs, but from what you've said, it does sound like a pretty crap book.

However, I also think that organized religion isn't important at all. It's up to anyone who believes in a God, not just Christians, to seek out that god on their own terms. People need to focus more on finding their own spirituality, rather than listening to a man on a soapbox every Sunday morning. I understand that, on paper, church is a positive idea, but for many people, a relationship with God begins and ends with a one-hour sermon, a few songs, and some stale crackers and wine that they don't even care about. Through organized religion, God can become a chore.

Not badmouthing any church-goers, though. I know for a fact that there are those that can get a spirituality fulfilling experience from religious congregations. It would be wrong of me to say that no one can get something positive from organized religion.

As for the whole "God doesn't care thing," what right does the author have to make such conjectures over his Creator? You can't tell God what he does or doesn't do. The sheer arrogance of that... and Hitler in heaven? Wow, there's just no explaining that little tidbit.

Stop posting that, LV.