Noooooooo. While Doctor Who is based in twenty-first century Britain; The Doctor is a time traveler, and has been everywhere; from the first written words, to the end of the universe; from a soap bubble universe on the outside of ours, to a parallel one. First written words: (I can't find the video of this, but it is a part of "The Pandorica Opens") End of the Universe: Soap Bubble Universe: (Skip to 9:22, then 6:52) Parallel Universe:
Well, we can't have a proper argument if you involve emotion, so that's unfortunate. However, you are making claims "most reliable thing in this world you can read," and "All of the other books have had Christ erased," but you're not giving me any supporting evidence, so why should I accept it? If you haven't noticed, I'm not just bashing the bible out of fun or hatred or whatever other reasons you think I might have. I have researched the history of the bible, read up on its accuracy, its flaws, its contradictions, and I have come to the conclusion that as anything other than a fiction book, the bible isn't worth the paper it's written on. If you didn't have an emotional attachment to it, you might have been able to come to the same conclusion, after doing the same research. I have presented some of it to you, but: I don't think it's ever a waste of time to read up on material that challenges one's current beliefs. It's how we learn new perspectives, correct our misconceptions and rarely, but most importantly, change our minds. I guarantee you it wouldn't be a waste of your time, but I have a feeling it's not really the time it would take that really concerns you. See, I can understand that you don't want to risk finding out that you might be wrong, it's a very normal response when things you have emotional attachments to are challenged. However, if you won't or can't read and see material that contradicts with your own position, you've clearly just decided that you are already correct. I have another good video on that topic, and I will post it in case you change your mind about my videos and books being a waste of time. And really, I only need you to see 09:54 to 10:37. That is only 1 minute and 14 seconds... Less than the ads between TV shows take! I recommend again the whole thing, obviously, but the most relevant part for our purposes is that 1 minute and 14 seconds. I would listen to your argument and respect your opinion. No need to say I have qualities that I don't. However, you argument needs to be supported by evidence, otherwise you're just making hollow claims. Your opinions are yours freely, but I obviously don't have to share them.
Even though I'm on the other side of this argument I completely agree. Jtc, you can't use the bible as proof in an argument because that requires him to already believe in God. Also he's not trying to attack Christ. If you are completely close-minded then an argument like this is futile since you won't learn anything. You can't have an argument on the internet and not expect your belief to be challenged. If you really want to build up a strong testimony of Jesus, you need to let people challenge that very testimony. It's kind of like working out. Your muscles are your testimony and working out is people challenging you. The more you work out, the stronger your muscles get. The bible isn't 100% accurate. It's been translated many times, and originally Roman Emperor Constantine (I think) changed the official religion to Christianity from Paganism not only because of personal beliefs but to prevent a war. He had certain men pick and choose which parts should be or shouldn't be in the bible, and then it was translated. And translated. And translated. And translated. Some languages had different words with multiple meanings, so if for example (This is inaccurate) it said "Jesus walked on water" it may be translated to Spanish, to French, to german, and back to English and instead be "Jesus moved on top of the water." The translations weren't perfect. So yes, there are flaws in the bible, but those aren't because of God. Those are man-made. For people like you and I, we rely a lot on faith to believe that it is God's word, but Alex prefers looking for proof to support that, which is completely understandable. Alex has clearly done a lot of research on the topic, and even though I don't know all the terminology or could quote his and like-minded peoples beliefs exactly, I understand and am able to respect (most) of their perspectives. I know this was kind of long, but bear with me haha. If you really want to grow, you need to have your faith challenged. Like my earlier analogy about muscles, if you constantly bench press 20 pounds, you aren't challenging yourself and aren't getting any stronger. You need to put that extra weight on and branch out more. You can't be firm in your faith if you refuse to listen to other people. I've spent hours debating with Atheists and people of other religion, and I've spent over one hundred hours questioning my own beliefs, and all that has made my personal Testimony so much stronger. tl;dr: Don't shut out other peoples opinions. They may change yours, or make them grow stronger then ever before.
I agree the "love your God" statement comes up a lot and is therefore important according to the bible. However, the bible also states that God created the universe *. Therefore in my opinion, the importance looking after the planet is a direct consequence of this. Clearly, the "love your neighbour as yourself" command means "be nice to each other". "Love" is used in an interesting way in the first command. I don't think anybody's entirely sure what exactly Jesus would be meaning by "love" in this context. Especially due to the various translations over the years, I'm not sure any texts really capture exactly what this means. It depends how the individual reading it pictures/imagines/understands God, really, in my opinion. Basically, my view on the Bible is that it's spent too long being rearranged and re-translated for us to be able to take meaning out of every little bit. This is where the contradictions, confusion and mistakes come from. Instead, I think we should step back and look at the bigger picture. The example of how confusing the use of the term "love" is in the Bible demonstrates this quite well, because originally it would have been some Ancient Greek word with a slightly different meaning, and it was up to a biased translator to decide which word in his language fitted the meaning best. (Edit- Crazy1800 beat me to this point) * When I say "God created the universe", I'm not suggesting what happens in the Bible happened. If the Book of Genesis started talking about quarks and how time is relative, then I don't think it would have seemed too plausible before science created a framework for it. I did try to keep this post compact, but I failed. I'm sure most people know about most the points I've made, but I put them in here anyway for completeness, not to be patronising.
some evidence (From the real world) In public schools, the moment of silence might be removed. Public schools do not allow prayer (besides in the moment of silence) or the bible on school campus. Other countries throw people in jail or KILL them because of their faith. With Christ being erased in books, i was half wrong. Christ is in books, but must be hidden or else people will become angry. So if i can't use the Bible as proof, he cannot use science either because it would require me to belive that science is the answer to how the world came to be
I assume you're talking about the US in particular here? I don't think this is necessarily true everywhere. That is because the US is secular, and cannot promote any particular religion in government. Since public school is run by the government, it applies there as well. However, you're only partially correct. Students are allowed to pray anywhere and anytime they want in public schools, assuming it doesn't interfere in class. The school just can't endorse or lead prayer. That is to say, a teacher or other school official cannot tell the class to pray, or lead students in prayer. It makes sense that it is this way, though. The Muslims and the Jews, and so on probably wouldn't be happy with a prayer to Jesus or Yahweh. The Christians and Jews and so on probably wouldn't be happy with a prayer to Muhammad or Allah. And so on, and so forth, for all the different religions and their adherents. Yeah, religion sucks, doesn't it? I'm being somewhat tongue-in-cheek here, but religion is often being used as the justification for these horrible actions. Christianity is (or was) no better, by the way. Ever heard of the Crusades? Or the witch hunts? How about the dark ages? No. Science hasn't yet answered how the world came to be. Nobody knows that yet. Though we are coming closer to the answer every day. We know there was The Big Bang. We know evolution happened. What we don't yet know is how abiogenesis happened or what happened exactly when The Big Bang happened. So, instead of appealing to something supernatural and unverifiable, we simply admit that "we don't know for now." Science is trustworthy, while the bible is not. Why? It's called reproducibility. Whenever science gives an answer, it also says "Here's what we found out, here's how we did it, you should try it too." And that's exactly what scientists do. They verify that the other scientists are right. Or rather, they are actually trying to prove that they are wrong! One of the greatest achievements one can accomplish in science is to prove an existing, accepted theory wrong. Now you tell me how many Christians are trying to prove Christianity wrong, and you'll see why one stands much better up to scrutiny than the other, and why science is considered to be factual and based on strong evidence, while religion is called faith. Here are some of the things science has achieved: Spaceships, computers, high speed rails, The Internet, cars, airplanes, nuclear power plants, electricity, modern medicine, television. Do I need to say more? Now... what good has religion done for us lately?
The defination of faith is belive in something you cannot see, and that is all you should need. You should not have to have proof that something is real. A few things: -In my school, a child was sat in "Time out" for praying before his/her meal (I am in 7th grade at it has been two years since i have been to that school, so that is all i know.) -In a high school somewhere in San Antiono, a teacher asked a student to hide his Bible in his locker. -And in another elementry school, a student was screamed at, and taken to the principal's office fir praying before a mean Also what blows my mind is that your an atheist, and you know so much about Jesus and God and the Bible.
Kind of like how I believe that the inside of the moon is cheese? That's how I became atheist, without having the biased opinion of the community. "At that time the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead, and led an army against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. He said, "If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the LORD the first thing coming out of my house to greet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." "So Jephthah led his army against the Ammonites, and the LORD gave him victory. He thoroughly defeated the Ammonites from Aroer to an area near Minnith – twenty towns – and as far away as Abel-keramim. Thus Israel subdued the Ammonites. When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter – his only child – ran out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. "My daughter!" he cried out. "My heart is breaking! What a tragedy that you came out to greet me. For I have made a vow to the LORD and cannot take it back." And she said, "Father, you have made a promise to the LORD. You must do to me what you have promised, for the LORD has given you a great victory over your enemies, the Ammonites. But first let me go up and roam in the hills and weep with my friends for two months, because I will die a virgin." "You may go," Jephthah said. And he let her go away for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never have children. When she returned home, her father kept his vow, and she died a virgin. So it has become a custom in Israel for young Israelite women to go away for four days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah's daughter." (Judges 11:29-40 NLT)
Actually, one thing I've noticed about most atheists who debate on forums, here and other places, is that they often know just as much, if not more about Christianity than many Christians, whereas few Christians know much about science. It seems to be a problem for many Christians, they expect to just be able to shout stuff about faith or that Jesus loves everyone and that will somehow convert all the atheists.....definitely never works out that way
These are all violations of the students' rights, and if their parents take it up with the schools or with the ACLU, I'm sure they would get the help they would need to fight these injustices. Neat, huh? It's a topic I care a lot about. There are two main reasons: I wasn't raised in any particular religion, so I was a de facto atheist as a child. The topic of religion or faith never came up in my family or anywhere else, really, so I had no reason to give it any thought. Not until religious studies in school, and by then, I was too old to just blindly accept it anymore, so I just laughed it off as silly stories. However, in my teens, as teenagers do, I wanted to know who I really was, and to find truths about various things. And after all, considering how these religions all promise pretty harsh punishments for not believing, I figured it would be wise to make sure I'm not rejecting them if they are actually correct. Obviously, I wasn't convinced after doing my studying, and aside from a few experimental prayers (and attempts at "being spiritual," whatever that is supposed to mean, really, lol.) I cast it aside as fables, myths and stories, and accepted that there simply is no higher purpose to life than we make for ourselves. Second, I've seen and heard of the atrocities committed in the name of religion (and there are new ones every week, or month at best), and while they're too numerous to name, there's a great book on the worst of them, for anyone interested. Anyway, I care deeply about people, and I think a lot of things in this world would be much better if people quit believing in unfounded, illogical myths and stories, and instead embraced the scientific method, critical thinking and evidence-based choices. Luckily, that seems to be the way things are going. Worldwide currently, "non-religious" is the fastest growing religious affiliation (more like non-affiliation, really) there is.
Okay, so, I have a question for you then. You say that you now believe that there is no higher purpose to life than we make for ourselves. I'm having difficulty phrasing my question, but hopefully you will get my meaning. If you can't find higher meaning in life, and that our lives end completely after some 90 odd years, do you ever feel meaningless? Like, that there is really no point other than enjoying yourself, and bringing happiness to others, for the time you have. I know that if I did not believe my higher purpose came from Christ, I would feel kinda hollow and meaningless.
This is one of the main reasons people turn to religion. I learned some years ago that there is no meaning in life (at least for me). We are all rotting sacks of meat on some insignificant piece of rock floating in a vast universe.
Do you believe in Odin and Thor? Zeus and Apollo? Shiva and Ifrit? Minerva and Maia? Any of the other hundreds if not thousands of deities mankind has ever believed in? If not, why not? Just have faith, right? Why Jesus in particular? If I were to make an educated guess, I'd say it's because your parents or grandparents believe that way. The strongest predictor for what a person beliefs in is what their ancestors believe(d) in. The second one is where on earth they were born... Starts to sound less like divine revelation and more like simple geography and inherited dogma, doesn't it? Here's a couple of good quotes from Richard Dawkins on this:
Not really. How could I ever feel that way? We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. With such stupefying odds against my very existence, how could I ever feel meaningless? What a waste of time that would be, huh? Nah, I say to make the most of this existence, by tapping into all that it is to be human. Experience emotions, both high and low. Enjoy your family, your friendships, your coworkers and even random people on the street. We're all walking "miracles" of improbability. Enjoy walks in parks and nature, rollercoaster rides, skydiving, or even stamp collecting or Minecraft! Whatever makes you feel like you're doing what you love! You say that like it's something bad, haha. Evolution has made us what we are: We are pack animals (which is to say that social interaction matters a lot to our species), we feel strong connections to other people, through empathy and sympathy, we have developed advanced brains, that let us get satisfaction from learning new things, from experiencing novel experiences, from making new connections! I can't understand how anyone (healthy and able, that is) can ever come to the conclusion that this is somehow meaningless. Life is wonderful, exciting and so crazy unlikely. What a waste it would be to only sit around and think about your eventual demise. Sure, we're going to die one day, but damn it, we're going to enjoy it while it lasts!
