He is the best in your eyes, the whole point is in other parts of the world other religions, prophets, etc are consider the major won. There is about 18-20 million christians in the USA, so does that mean 80% of America is going to hell? Ludacris I tell you.
Are you trying to make the Christians look bad Why would you care about hell if you don't believe in it? Are you looking to show about God's "unrighteousness"? Or should it be more like 80% (according to your figures) living in rebellion towards God choosing their own laws while at the same time rejecting the laws of their Creator. And therefore these 80% choose their own destiny. I am reminded of the fact that sin is the most expensive thing in the whole universe. If your sin is not forgiven you will have a whole eternity to pay for it.
I'm not attempting to make any religion look bad, BUT if you would like an example of Christianity being used to further goals, look at the crusades. The christians murder every man woman and child when they broke the siege at Jeruselam, the Muslims actually let them leave when they took it back. Religion has always and will contiune to be used as a device to control people, they do it in US politics today as a GREAT example. What of the people before Christianity or Islam? Are they all in hell? What of the people for thousands of years that worshipped the sun, moon, stars, etc? These people apparently don't exist in the bible, but historically its been proven time and time again. I'm not knocking religion, its religion thats knocking everyone.
You seem terribly concerned about hell and in my opinion you should be. When you take religion versus atheism I think you could see which is the bigger culprit. Communism was/is based on atheism. In 50 years alone communism (based on atheistic beliefs) killed more people than all the religious wars combined together.
Communism = Athesim? I hope that was a joke, maybe you should research that a bit. http://www.adherents.com/people/ps/Joseph_Stalin.html http://ffrf.org/fttoday/back/hitler.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_North_Korea I feel this was enough, we all know where Cuba lays when it comes to religion.
All nations/tribes were sent messengers and prophets telling them to worship the 1 true God but over the course of time, the message would get corrupt or lost. People would invent stuff to get them 'closer' to God but end up worshiping partners besides God and a few generations down the line, it would be idols etc. Even in hindu scripture for example, down the line they believe in 1 ultimate single creator, but they have invented thousands of other Gods as intermediaries. This is why the Jews were the chosen people for a period of time, it was for their dedication to monotheism. Pauls invented pagan doctrine of original sin, makes no sense because if Jesus peace be upon him had to die for people to be 'saved', it means all the people who died before Jesus's time are now in hell. This particular doctrine is so unbelievably illogical, its rather worrying, since so many people accept it. How can a someone who (wrongly) believes Jesus is God, actually think God would create man with an inherited sin, he never committed and then come down and kill himself in order to save man from the inherited sin that he put in him. Tho, im still looking for the verse in the bible were Jesus tells his disciples he is God or to worship him, the problem is, im only finding stuff about himself praying and worshiping God like all the other prophets before him.
The communist manifesto expressly forbids religion. Hitler denounced and heaped hate on Christianity when he realized it wasn't compatible with his goals. As a compromise, religions that bow down to the communist government are allowed. See Daniel in the Bible for the Christian/Jewish perspective on that. Educate yourself.
Maybe you should read the URLs I posted to you, they are gladly valid enough sources for information. I need to say no more.
Okay, don't read the communist manifesto. http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html Educate yourself.
There are as many varieties of "communism" as there are any number of other ideologies, as well as faiths (the number of religions, or, within Christianity, the number of Christian sects and "lines," for example). Marx's manifesto and its succeeding variants are but one "line." Communism is a simple socioeconomic principle, for good or ill. It began as an idea as early as Plato's Republic, and really took off with industrialization. At the heart of it all is an end to the notion of private property and, with industrialization, the end of the alienation of the producer from the means of production. In the former aspect, there exist throughout history countless examples of societies living according to the following example: The society spoken of and the source for this information? The Bible: Acts 4:32-35. Many, many more religious communist tenets and communities derived from them, including buddhist, jainist, catholic and other christian communities, to include Shakers and Mormons (I'm sure there are others, just don't recall). Later variants that do not include Marx's theories include Robert Owen, Charles Fourier and Pierre Proudhon. There is no necessary marriage between atheism and communism.
Exactly. Communism can only exist in small, localized, like minded groups of people. As soon as people of other beliefs enter, you're forced to pick one. On a large scale, there is always religious division. And the state always picks atheism because atheists have no moral leg to stand on. Morality for an atheist is defined by society which in communism, is defined by the state. It merely allows other religions to exist so far as they are subordinate to the state and do not try to put their morality over the morality defined by the state. Communism, in practice, in the large scale has always resulted in the mass slaughter of religious people. Heaven will be communism. But there will be no religion as religion is based on faith. There will no longer be any issues of faith or what the truth is. And, preceeding this communism, there will be a mass slaughter so that only like minded people are left. Nobody who really understands human nature thinks that everyone, no matter what they believe, can just sing kum bye ya and get along.
Sorry to go off track a little, but KalvinB I must ask: what is your avatar trying to show?? I've been trying for a while to figure it out and I've given up. I have no idea but would love to know cause it's bugging me (not knowing what it is)
Kalvin, this atheist's moral stand is not defined by society, but by my own choices and desire on how I wish to live. Briefly, I hope to leave this one life available to me having contributed something to the world that makes my existence a worthwhile thing. Outside of this misunderstanding of the moral position an atheist may take, I think yours is a fair assessment of communism and atheism in modern practice, and well put in many ways.
evolution exists. everything evolves. everything changes for the good or bad. it's all our perceptions of things and science hasn't developed the tools to measure the immeasurable. science is only as good as its tools. how? why? because science keeps evolving its tools and techniques to make new discoveries. evolution begins in our minds because it is what we see, feel, touch and experience that changes. when things evolve, something devolves ;-)
Can it be we agree on something?! This is an excellent comment and deserves some +REP regardless of our differences in beliefs.
Lets not barrel roll down the alley of disagreement, lets just agree to disagree and be proud we can do it
Of course - but I am asking sincerely, I must have missed it - I really don't know where our views differ. It doesn't matter that they do, or don't, just must have missed where.
This is my honest view.... I once truly believe in God, I was never part of any religion I just believed in something beyond normality. Recently, I've come to the conclusion that it is not as far fetched as it may seem that all creation is chance, who knows what is the real truth. People will say they have faith and know there is a God, but offer no evidence, I wish there was a God, I wish after this life something great waited for us, but I really doubt there is. We must make our time on this earth count, either we doing something to be remembered or get lost in the ages of time. SIDE NOTE: 2,000th post!