Dawkin's God Delusion

[finlma]

You could have just said "the old testament is fiction, unless you're a complete moron".

Very true but there a huge amount of people out there that take their morals from the Old Testement i.e. The 10 Commandments. Christians think that they can pick and chose which morals they can take from the Bible.

Seems like better logic to ignore the thing entirely and just live life as a good person.

[John83]

You could have just said "the old testament is fiction, unless you're a complete moron".

Red Dwarf had a nice throwaway on this once...

Archeologists near mount Sinai have discovered what is believed to be a missing page from the Bible. The page is currently being carbon dated in Bonn. If genuine it belongs at the beginning of the Bible and is believed to read "To my darling Candy. All characters portrayed within this book are fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental." The page has been universally condemned by church leaders.

[jebus]

Very true but there a huge amount of people out there that take their morals from the Old Testement i.e. The 10 Commandments. Christians think that they can pick and chose which morals they can take from the Bible.

Seems like better logic to ignore the thing entirely and just live life as a good person.

Thanks for the lesson on Morality for Dummies, anyway I think you'll find, if you stop pidgeonholing all Christians for a second, that most Christians, or at least those I know, don't take their morals from the Old Testament, rather they look to the tales (yes Christians don't believe everything they are told in the Bible to be fact) of the New Testament, and try to find the underlying meaning in them as a guideline. Well they use that and the morals they pick up from living their lives, but I suppose you wouldn't want that to shatter your stereotypes would you?

[dahamsta]

Inability to differentiate between the bible and reality is growth industry. Exponential growth. I'd reckon inline with the growth of reality tv, although they're generally two completely different types of stupid.

[jebus]

Inability to differentiate between the bible and reality is growth industry. Exponential growth. I'd reckon inline with the growth of reality tv, although they're generally two completely different types of stupid.

But outside of the Bible belt who takes the Bible as gospel (pardon the pun), as out and out truth? I doubt most Christians do to be honest, but there is always an underlying message in each story, whether its good or bad

[Poor Student]

History is based on fact. The Old Testement is a book which tells people who want to be Christian that they should go out and kill people who are not. The book also tells people to rape, stone gays and adulterers to death and the list of good christian morals goes on.....

The Old Testament mentions Christians? I'm nowhere close to familiar with the complete writings of the Bible but I do know that Christ discouraged the stoning of an adulterer. You've probably heard the quote "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone". To the best of my knowledge the New Testament encourageds a new departure from some of the harsher aspects of the Old Testament.

As someone who would be on the religious side of the debate, Dahamsta is right, the Santa Claus analogy is weak.

[dahamsta]

The phrase "clutching at straws" would be more accurate.

[finlma]

(yes Christians don't believe everything they are told in the Bible to be fact)

50% of Americans believe that the world was created only 10,000 years ago and have a strong believe in what is written in the old testement. And 65% of them believe that there is an actual devil.

I'm yet to hear a single good argument for the existence of a supernatural god and I am prepared to listen if you have one. To say you don't need one and that faith is enough is pathetic. Why only have faith in something that your elders have told you to be true?

[Raheny Red]

As someone who would be on the religious side of the debate, Dahamsta is right, the Santa Claus analogy is weak.

The reason why I brought it up is because Dawkins is an atheist and believes that one should have scientific evidence to back up his or her beliefs. Despite this he still told his daughter about the chap in the red suit, but yet he wouldn't tell her about God as he has no evidence of him. Seems a bit hypocritical to me. He went on to say that if he did have another child (with his 66 birthday approaching he'd be a bit of a hero if this did happen ) he wouldn't teach them about Santa Claus. To me, this suggests that he realises that he shouldn't have taught his daughter about something which didn't have evidence to back it up. I'm not trying to compare God to Santa by the way

[Poor Student]

50% of Americans believe that the world was created only 10,000 years ago and have a strong believe in what is written in the old testement. And 65% of them believe that there is an actual devil.

Look, just because a portion of one country allegedly believes one thing written in the Old Testament (love the lack of a source btw), it does not mean that the New Testament does not mark a departure from things stated in the Old Testament.

You can't say "50% of Americans believe the world was created within 10,000 years ago, the Old Testament says to stone gays and adulterers, therefore Christians want to stone gays and adulterers." Total specious reasoning.

[finlma]

(love the lack of a source btw),

Can't quote the book directly but it's in Dawkin's book from a study undertaken in 2002. Read the book - you might be enlightened.

There are so many holes in any religious argument. Religous folk are coming on here trying to find holes in what atheists say but without giving a single good argument as to why god exists. I'd love to know what you Christians think will happen to us atheists and all the Non-Christians when we die. There are so many imcompatible religions so what happens to the non-believers? I'm only saying Christians as I presume thats what religous people on here are.

[GavinZac]

Via.

holy crap.

wow, i didnt even mean that.

anyway, that is the single most disgusting thing ive ever seen. that one point in the "lesson" - god said it, i believe it, therefore its true - thats just.... ugh.

[jebus]

I'd love to know what you Christians think will happen to us atheists and all the Non-Christians when we die. There are so many imcompatible religions so what happens to the non-believers? I'm only saying Christians as I presume thats what religous people on here are.

I think you'll be just fine, as I've said, you pidgeonholing all Christians into what you think a Christian is does not make it so. Keep up the stereotypes, its as good a way of discussing things as any I suppose

[BohsPartisan]

I think you'll be just fine, as I've said, you pidgeonholing all Christians into what you think a Christian is does not make it so. Keep up the stereotypes, its as good a way of discussing things as any I suppose

If you don't follow the Stereotype you're not a christian. Christianity involves a set of criteria that must be followed for one to describe themselves as a christian. Those biblebelt fundamentalists and their ilk are christians. The rest of you are living a lie.

[jebus]

If you don't follow the Stereotype you're not a christian. Christianity involves a set of criteria that must be followed for one to describe themselves as a christian. Those biblebelt fundamentalists and their ilk are christians. The rest of you are living a lie.

Yeah again, I'd rather not take my lessons in how to be a Christian off an atheist, no offence or anything

[BohsPartisan]

Ex-Christian Atheist.
Some key points of christian doctrine:
Sex outside Marriage is a sin.
Sex is for procreation not pleasure
Abortion is murder.
Sodomy is one of the worst sins EVER! Worse than rape. In fact rape isn't too bad because;
Women are inferior to men.
Jesus Christ is the son of God, he died on the cross and rose from the dead after three days visited his mates and then ascended in to heaven.

So if you are not a misogynistic homophobic anti-choicer who doesn't believe in Sex outside Marriage or for pleasure then you're not a christian. Religion can't be bought as pick and mix. Its a package.

[Lim till i die]

So if you are not a misogynistic homophobic anti-choicer

That's jebus to a tee though

Religion can't be bought as pick and mix. Its a package.

Course it can

Look at all the different sects within Christianity

[BohsPartisan]

That's jebus to a tee though


Look at all the different sects within Christianity

Yeah but they would agree on those basic points. The disagreements are usually on interpretations of vagueries.

[Lim till i die]

Yeah but they would agree on those basic points. The disagreements are usually on interpretations of vagueries.

In fact rape isn't too bad because;

Doubt you'll find too many who'll come out and say that now. Infact stuff like that cheapens your argument a bit tbh

It's the equivalent of me saying to you that all Communists believe in gulags and such

[dahamsta]

Perhaps someone should edit those parts out of the bible then, and get everyone to stop preaching them. And perhaps someone should tell the Pope, so he can start recruiting female priests instead of using them as lackies and scrubbers.