do we really have a problem with some religious groups, or is it that we have a problem with their culture. after all both muslims and jews cannot eat pork so this would indicate it being a question of culture rather than religion. and all main religious groups seem to cover their heads in some fashion, both men and women, when entering a religious building so again that could be put down to culture. in my opinion the difficulty is that religious groups have got their culture all tangled up with their religion and need to differentiate between the two so that they can operate more flexibly on the culture side, e.g. allowing women to cast off the head covering, without going against religious texts etc. the thing is that a lot of countries presently described as 'muslim' have fairly oppressive/repressive cultures and i believe it is predominantly the culture we have a problem with rather than the religion.
You have to understand that religions do have a chronology and that they get stricter and dumber by the century The order goes like this: Jews Christians Muslims That's a fact, and Islam is simply taking the older concepts and adding more things to lock up believers (muslims) to the religion. So no surprise that islam does have a bigger problem of integration than the rest of religions. But in my opinion all religions are boring to a certain extend and children should definitively be protected from any religious teaching until they become old enough to make their own choice, not their parents/family.
hey we agree, this isn't fair i want an argument. can't you be just a little bit religious so that we can chew this over. where is proteindude?
I just saw this post now and I must make a correction: I am not condeming anyone. He who does NOT believe is already condemned. This is a quote from the world's best selling book. Remember that scary thing called Free Choice?
Hahaha proteindude it's funny what you say. The world best selling book is shit, remind me who is the world best selling singer? That's not a reference! I have a hard time understanding how someone can still believe in his religion. What do you think of other believers? Not talking about the attheists, but about the other believers? So they're all wrong, misguided and such? Pfff.. that's pathetic!
I'm Irish in Ireland both Factor's have an impact not against any culture out side of England, their prod's and with the occupation the had over our country has made a big impact they killed our govenment leaders in 1916 when the country went into a big uprising we won back our independents Ireland and England have had a lot of fights over the past few hundred years. Ireland had a famine England steped in and took over the country while we where at our weakest people dieing of hunger 3 million people left for America one and half made it there while upto 2 million died here in Ireland. This then formed the IRA (Irish Repubublican Army) they bombed England from the 70's to the late 90's. This had also stared a war in the North of the country the longest war of all time against the most power full country in the world and we won (power to the IRA)
I have a hard time understanding how someone DOES NOT still believe in religion. After all you got the most influential man of all time Jesus Christ (even time was split because of him bc/ad) and yet you listen to other dudes. Where is the logic? There is no logic. Or perhaps you don't like his teachings and THEN you say you don't believe. I don't know, it's beyond me how you can trust in someone LESS influential than the most influential person throughout history. Regarding your other question. Jesus (the most influential person of all time) said the following: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." That part where it says no man, that means no exception. So if you're talking about non Christians the answer is above. If you're talking about the different denominations then the answer is the same as above. But then you add Matthew 7.21 which says: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven."
It's so easy to understand why one would not believe in a religion if he used his brain a little and not bury his face in his holy book everytime he wants to think! You think with a brain, not with a book! With internet and TV, ok now you have no excuse to ignore that there exist several different religions and that all teach that they are the truth (for different reasons) and the rest is false or misguided, so... WHY ON EARTH would your religion (which you picked up probably by your family or social circle) would be true over the others? It's stupid to think that by chance you happened to believe in the only true religion. I'm sorry if you feel it's a personal attack, but how can I express it better? OK not stupid then, but maybe your brain is actively fighting and finding reasons to hold on faith because you've been believing for so long that it would be a shock to come to not believe anymore, your brain built itself around the notion of god, so removing this totally would require years of active work, which you're not willing to do of course because life gets in the way and we don't have much time on this earth and it's easier to simply continue believing more and more until you die, plus as you approach old age, it's even more confortable to feel like a baby with a parent taking care of you after you die. But this is childish. You say I trust other dudes? which dudes? I did my homeworks myself, I studied history of religions on my own to understand it, I was first a sort of agnostic, but after studying it became quite clear, there's nothing to believe in, and people believing can only be explained by exposure in early age within the family circle and society. That's why I recommend that democratic countries be more proactive in saying that religion is bullshit, respecting the beliefs of people by allowing them to believe, yes, but stating that they believe in bullshit. Teach that to children at schools, and make it illegal to teach religion to children up until a certain age, like for the driving licence. Then they can learn about their family religion. That would cut down on the current madness!
Dude you brought up some very valid points. HOWEVER, there are still people who influence you or me whether we want to admit it or not. So, since I/we let myself be influenced, does it not make sense to be influenced by the MOST influential, the #1 person? Many opinions come and go and I wasn't always a Christian. I was brought up in a communist country and these guys made quite an effort to say there is no such thing as a "Divine Being". So don't think that I wasn't exposed to both aspects. And yet even under communism we still used a calendar referring to Jesus (bc/ad). The main difference was that just like the Jews they changed it to bce/ce. Anyway, if you can find someone wiser, more influential, more down to earth with teachings than Jesus I may look into it. But until then, let me quote what one atheist by the name of Ingersoll had to say: Ingersoll a well-known atheistic writer referring to Jesus: "With Renan, I believe Christ was the one perfect man. <Do unto others what you would that they should do unto you> is the perfection of religion and morality. It is the summum bonum. It was loftier than the teachings of Socrates, Plato, Mohammed, Moses or Confucius. It superseded the commandments that Moses claimed to have gotten from God, for with Christ's <do unto others> there could be no murder, lying, covetousness, or war" One thing you must agree with me on. When it comes to UK you know a lot more about it that I do. I have NEVER been to UK. You live there so you know more about me. NOW: there was a time when I was NOT a Christian but now I am. You were NEVER a Christian so when it comes to Christianity I (proteindude) know more about Christianity than you do. So I am in a better position to judge having experienced both. You probably heard the expression born again but aren't sure of its meaning. When you get born into this world you get born in a physical way, therefore you have a love for physical things: cars, women, money, etc. When you get born again you start having a love for spiritual things: worshipping God, praying, going to church etc. You know what separates us from animals??? It's not just the ability to reason but more importantly it's the ability to worship. And BTW, you can say whathever you want to me: I am not a dude that gets easily offended or whatever. And I do not consider any opinions expressed as a personal attack.
Who you calling an idot England destroyed this country and lots of other's around the world and you people wounder why you get bombed
In fact when I was 5 to 10 I have been rised by my grandmother in France who was a catholic christian and made me pray every night before bed, saying things like "small jesus, please protect my mother, father, blabla. in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit, amen" And she took me sometimes to the mess on sundays but my parents took me back at 10 and even before refused to make me go to a jesus school on wenesday afternoons. So my exposure to religion was somewhat limited but it is because of that I had to find out by myself, other wise I would not even question it, I would say this is total bullshit and never spend any time on it, like many attheists do. So now I'm convinced. After you can say that the teaching of jesus are good, that is not a factor in believing in the whole story or not, it's not becaus I will find something interesting, super inspired that I will allow my mind to believe in the whole thing or even the most unbelievable parts. I also reckon that praying and overall feeling protected by a divine being is probably very good, but once again it's not a reason to allow yourself to buy the bullshit, you understand? Those are all good reasons, but not logic enough to allow a brain to buy it. Except of course if you do it at an early age or when someone is weakened by life events and religion comes as a savior. So anyway I don't know what to say, since we have no real argument going on here. You are not saying anything is true, just saying that it's good to believe in it. So that's fine to me, I think that too.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." I believe Jesus was NOT a liar so therefore I believe he spoke the TRUTH. You believe others spoke the truth. That's your call. Again, why believe some and not others. The point remains: you know more than me about UK (you've experienced it). I know more about Jesus/Christianity. I have experienced it (and still do). You just experienced catholicism which is different regardless of how well intentioned your grandmother was.
I believe who spoke the truth??? Honestly you're talking about a man 2000 years ago, and everything ever written has been by people who were born after he was dead, so it's all stories. You know I'm used to christianity, they are funny when they don't burn attheists, but islam is something even more screwed up, they believe their god wrote their holy book, and that their super great prophet wrote it but directly commanded by god. Pfff this too is only stories, but go and tell them that, of course they'll give you some part of their book to show you how true it is. Anyway, I think we cannot understand each other, it's not religion or culture, it's just that the brains have different axioms. One believe there's a god, and all stories after that. And the other believe there's no god and then some limited reasoning about what other scenario might explain our existence. The believers like to have everything laid out for them, they just have to read their book more and more to understand the world better. but the truth is not so easy, and I'm not afraid of being in a state of not knowing, I just accept. Believers don't like that in general, they think attheists are lost souls who seem to have no purpose in life. Well I think having no purpose in life is the state of all beings. We are not anything special despite what believers love to think. IF we were dolphins then god would be a god caring for dolphins, of course.
Thats another thing about you pricks they called the rebels here in Ireland terrorist when they where freedom fighters its the same thing with the muslims you attack their countries saying its to help them from oppression when you fuckers dont leave the country killing kids, rapping women yes its all been seen, reported on your own news station yet you retards say lets support our troops. Its not down to what faith you have Its to down fighting for a real cause. If france was to invade England do you think your people would let it happen, do you realy think you would not do the same as the fighters are doing now killing them selfs for a greater cause.