re: Without God, are all men truly equal?

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You don't seem to want to credit religion for the good things its followers do in its name...

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like what?

My moms church went from Tennessee all the way to southern Mexico to build a school. should i be impressed by that?

because I'm not.

they sought out one of the poorest places in our hemisphere, and these impressionable young children can either come to their school for 8 hours with food and water and AC, while learning about jesus, or they can frick off.

thats not kindness. its preying upon the weakest members of society for the sole purpose of indoctrinating them into religion. its a purely selfish act, and theyre proud of it.

its one of the most evil things i can imagine.

MastrShake, may I ask you a question? You're obviously free to ignore me ....

I'm wondering why it seems that so many athiests/agnostics/skeptics become so belligerent and argumentative about Christianity, yet they're so much less confrontational about Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, etc.? Is it simply an issue of numbers (i.e., more Christians than Hindus)?

I don't mean to put you in a homogeneous group by asking you to speak for all non-believers, but I'm genuinely curious about your perspective.

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I'm wondering why it seems that so many athiests/agnostics/skeptics become so belligerent and argumentative about Christianity, yet they're so much less confrontational about Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, etc.?
I'm genuinely curious about your perspective.

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i think its like most other things, you talk about what you know.

i'm from a deeply religious family, on both sides. my moms parents were apostolic christian missionaries, her dad was also a minister. my dads sister is a nun. i went to catholic school my entire life, even a boarding school for few years run by nuns and brothers, where i'd wake up early and go to 6am mass a few times a week.

i know christianity. very well. i know the history. i was in deep, a complete believer.

I dont know nearly as much about Buddhism, Judaism, and Hinduism. I know as much about Islam as many others here, and I'm very critical of that as well.

i know its extremely hard for a true christian to understand an atheist.

i get that, i really do, because ive been there, and i felt the exact same way. and i was depressed as hell for a long time when i became atheist. it was devastating. i didnt want to be atheist, i liked the notion that someone was watching over me.

but its not true.

the more i learned about history, the more obvious that became.

its just a story.

its just a ridiculous story, one that doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, cobbled together from other stories about other gods, and once you can step back and look at it with a clear head, you see how insane the whole thing is. and dangerous.

im very happy being atheist now. i like knowing that this one life is all i have.

im a better person now than i was when i was religious. religion constantly puts divisions between people, it puts you in one group and tells you the other groups are wrong, and that they're against you. it tells you certain people are different from you, that they're worse than you.

i remember, when i was maybe 10 or so, asking my mom if i should hate jews since they denied our god.

thats fricked up.

no child should ever think that way. but i did. because of religion.

i dont help people now just because im told to, or because of a threat hanging over my head, i do it because its important to help people. i dont just sit and chant when someone is in trouble, then congratulate myself for it on facebook. i get up and i fricking help them.

when i do something wrong, i have to live with that. it weighs on me. religious people just ask the ceiling for forgiveness and then they're in the clear. nothing good can come from that.

this one life is all we have, and we're all in this together. its extremely important to know that. you become more kind when you think of everyone as "us" and not "us and them". youre more willing to help those who need help, because we are all each other has. its up to us.

So... you use an example of your mother going to Mexico to build a school and chalk that up to indoctrination for personal gain? You're pretty sick, dude.

A quick google search uncovers the good that Christians have done over the years ( one list is here). From saving children from death on the streets by building orphanages to saving lives of all ages through providing medical care where none existed prior, Christians have been helping to save lives for the past 2,000 years. Whether they do so in order to preach the gospel (to save souls) as well doesn't negate what good they have done both in the name of Christ and within the charge Christ has given in the scriptures to help the poor and needy.

Those who help others in Christ's name are acting consistently with the religion. Those who hurt others in Christ's name are not. You are eager to point out those who contradict the faith they claim to hold by performing evil to others yet minimize those who are consistent to the faith they claim to hold by doing good towards others. I believe that is due to your hatred of Christ and of His followers, which is what we've been told to expect by Jesus, Himself.

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While I agree that species evolve as a result of select breeding or isolation, it is quite a jump to state as fact that is how humans came into existence.

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I shouldn't be too terribly surprised but I can't believe no one has addressed this. Your issue is with abiogenesis not evolution. Every single thing that has ever been found above or below ground has a place and perfect slot in the taxonomy (phylogenetic) tree. Evolution is the most sound theory we have for how life got from single cell to today, and continuing for as long as life exists. Literally nothing makes sense in any type of biology without the light of evolution. It's the one thing we honestly DO know how to use in the lab. If your problem is believing in something as a Big Bang or how life may have initially started then I understand that as there are way less in the scientific field who can really put faith into some of the 'assumptions' made in abiogenesis and cosmology. I took a few courses in cosmology and more astronomy then I'd sver care to use and some of it, while fascinating and scary, some was almost unbelievable in the theory department.

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So... you use an example of your mother going to Mexico to build a school and chalk that up to indoctrination for personal gain?

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correct. because it was indoctrination and the motives were purely selfish.

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Whether they do so in order to preach the gospel (to save souls) as well doesn't negate what good they have done

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yes, it does, and the fact that you cant see that shows how selfish and cruel you are.

show me one of these schools or hospitals that doesnt involve jesus, that is purely there to help people with no other motive or agenda, that isnt preying upon the needy and the sick and the hungry and using that as an opening to change someone while their guard is down.

that would be a truly kind and commendable act. that would be great, id love to see that.

instead i see evangelicals sending bibles to Haiti after earthquakes.

not food or water or medicine, but 600 digital audio bibles.

that borders on torture. these people have nothing, they are in desperate need, and youre gonna send them crates filled with something you like, that you care about.

heres something called Mission to the Worlds Global Disaster Response Team, which says...

"We’ve worked in the aftermath of floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires."
"Ultimately we are ambassadors for Christ, joining local teams in the work of bringing the gospel to the whole world in times of adversity when people are often the most receptive to a message of hope."

in other words, when they're at their weakest and most vulnerable. these people are scouring the planet to find the easiest victims, people who have lost everything, and using personal tragedy as a way to sneak in thier sales pitch.

this is reprehensible. the level of arrogance and delusional self-importance it takes to do something like this defies belief.

these people did the same in Cuba.

"They also visited the homes of sick and shut-in members. While there they read Bible passages and sang hymns in English with them."

there's no mention anywhere of helping those sick and infirmed people with medical care or food, but they sang hymns. in English, even though 90 percent of Cuba only speaks Spanish.

what could be more selfless. truly thats what those people need.

speaking of the needy, here's how christian author Philip Yancey, who has sold 14 million books, interprets “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

"With no where to turn, the desperate just may turn to Jesus, the only one who can offer the deliverance they long for."

once again, the stated goal is to find people who are desperate, because their defenses will be down, and change them. because its what you want.

Monika Hellwig is a theology professor at Georgetown, and a former nun. here are some of her thoughts on the poor...

- The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption.

- The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated need of privacy.

- The poor can wait, because they have acquired a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence.

- The fears of the poor are more realistic and less exaggerated, because they already know that one can survive great suffering and want.

- When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like good news and not like a threat or a scolding.

- The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything.

the cruelty of this is hard to even fathom. as if the poor arent real humans, but simply things to be used. that awful little bitch Mother Theresa felt the same way

"(She was) less interested in helping the poor than in using them as an indefatigable source of wretchedness on which to fuel the expansion of her fundamentalist Roman Catholic beliefs.”

Christopher Hitchens - "Hells Angel"

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Without God, are all men truly equal?

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With or without God

Nothing is equal.

Period.

There is no equality in people. We all have our own uniqueness. tldr.

God is and always will be.

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Satan has been deceiving the world since Adam and Eve

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link?

People are not "equal". Everybody does not have the same set of talents. They should have the same rights. As babies everybody lays around and doesn't do much but after that it is on the individual. To say a high achiever is equal to someone who doesn't do anything is an insult to the high achiever.

and there are lots of people who achieve more than I do and they are my betters, doesn't bother me

Most of the assholes in DC are not.