re: God has been squeezed out of our country with each passing year

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So you come into the thread dissing on God and those that believe in Him and you don't expect to get any blow back from a Christian

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That is what your religion teaches does it not. Turn the other cheek and all

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So all Christians HAVE to be tolerant of other's beliefs but you can say whatever because that's YOUR belief.

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It's America chief freedom of religion and speech. Here is the difference between me and you. You will never not once hear me one time telling anyone "Buddha loves you" or "maybe you should try Buddhism" because that's not what it's about. It's about helping your fellow man as much as you can without forcing your beliefs on them.

Christian even teaches you to convert as many as possible. Well I'm just not down with that and I never will be.

And truthfully shitting on your God, I'll even be big enough to admit, is something I probably shouldn't do as much. But I see the hate and the vile contempt most of your constituents have for people that disagree with them and it honestly just pisses me off.

But I take satisfaction in seeing you try to hide behind you peaceful religion then resorting to calling me names and labeling me something I'm not because you got worked up. Only strengthens my convictions more you intolerant a-hole.

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Do you have a personal instance where a meanie Christian kept you from practicing your religion? I'm sorry you live in a country where 70% of the population identifies with Christianity. Maybe you need to move to Nepal.

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Or, you can stop being so rude and judgmental, Mr. high and mighty christian.

Telling this guy he sucks at Buddhism and he should try something else.

frick off with your shite.

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I agree that the golden rule is good, but my basis for it is that we are all created in God's image and therefore have intrinsic value which should lead us to treat all people with respect, goodness, and kindness, as we would expect to be treated. Now what's your justification for the golden rule in a relativistic worldview where morality is nothing more than preference?

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according to my religion we are all one. Violence and hate and against you is violence and hate against everyone. Violence and hate against everyone is violence and hate against myself. I don't know if there is a God and honestly I don't think the existence of God matters.

I do know life exists and we are all part of it. Even further than life we are all part of existence itself. Any action I take to harm or shorten life is also harming myself.

Am I perfect at this. Absolutely not because I love me some steak. But every day I try to improve and get better, and learn, and I'm open to changing my opinions and beliefs based on evidence presented to me.

I don't think the problem is God or Morality. I think the problem is and always has been the lines we draw in the sand. The one that makes us stop and say "this is what I believe, nothing will ever change my mind, I will fight to defend that belief even if it means violence against others." Because if we ever make a discovery that makes my entire belief system wrong then I will change. I'm not sure we have enough people in this world ready to do that enough for us to move forward.

pretty sure there's higher crime rates from religious people than not.

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according to my religion we are all one. Violence and hate and against you is violence and hate against everyone. Violence and hate against everyone is violence and hate against myself.

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That sounds good to me, but why is violence against one violence against all and why is that an objectively bad thing? What is the underlying principle that supports that belief? Like I said, aside from the fact that God said not to murder, the basis for it is in that we are created in His image with intrinsic value because we are His and belong to Him.

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I don't know if there is a God and honestly I don't think the existence of God matters.

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If God doesn't exist, your belief system is again nothing but a preference and is no better or worse than that of a person who thinks it's fine to rape and murder others. Preferences aren't good or bad, they just are. Like my preference for rocky road ice cream over strawberry.

The reason why I think it matters that God exists in terms of morality is that if He has given us a moral standard to abide by, then all of our actions can be compared to that one standard rather than billions of individual standards that everyone might have in their own minds.

Also, if God exists as the Bible says, He hold people accountable to His standards. You think people should be nice to each other? Great! Me too! But if there is no God, why should someone be nice to someone else if they won't feel any negative consequences for the contrary? There is a lot of injustice in this world and without a just law giver in God to punish the law breakers, the world is nothing but cruelty where "might makes right" and those with the power/gold set the rules (the other golden rule).

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Whether willingly or not.

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False. The Bible teaches that the kingdom of God is a spiritual one that can only be entered by faith in Jesus. Making a verbal profession is meaningless and therefore salvation cannot be coerced. Anyone who says differently is clueless about Christianity.

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This is the biggest problem with both Christianity and Islam. They're so similar in their fundamentals. Infidels are to be inculcated or oppressed. Regarding intent, evangelical Christians in this country are every bit the counterparts of radical Muslims. They must be defeated.

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I think you are grossly mistaken in your understanding of Christianity if you think Christians are just like Muslims.

Islam is a very worldly religion, focusing on creating a physical kingdom of God, whereas Christianity is focused on a spiritual kingdom. Islam requires physical conquest of land and people to achieve that land, which allows them to convert or kill those that they meet to conquer the planet for Allah.

Christians teach that salvation comes by faith in Jesus' sacrifice, and faith is not something you can fake. Jesus lambasted the Pharisees for their lack of faith all the time. They did and said the right things (well, sort of; they perverted the truth) but did not believe the promise of the Messiah and did not accept Him when He came. Christians are not to kill others who do not convert. We are to pray for their salvation, instead.

Thinking Christians are remotely similar to Islam in our beliefs or even our practices is just ignorance. I don't know how else to say it. If you want clarification (I doubt it), just ask.

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And it's about time People that need the presence of a "God" to be morally sound are mentally weak and should not be trusted.

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The belief in God is the exact same thing. You prefer to believe there is a God that sets a moral compass for all. I prefer to believe that moral compass is existent in all of us through our evolved intelligence and past knowledge. You retain past history and remember things like the regret our ancestors felt in harming someone after seeing the pain in caused in others. That regret is passed down through the generations. For me God had nothing to do with it, it's something we learning through past error. You call it God I call it shared knowledge.

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Your first a most recent posts have very different tones

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You call it God I call it shared knowledge.

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Or instincts

So you can openly practice religion of hate but Christianity is beat down (VP treatment by the view as only 1 example. Sorry but you have your heaf in the sand, progs want to destroy Americas historical values and that is Christianity.

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If there is no objective law-giver, then all human moral standards are nothing more than preference. The reason why this is concerning is that murder and rape are not objectively wrong. They are only deemed wrong by those with the power and authority to say so and enforce that standard on the society they live within. It also means that if a society exists where it's fine to rape and murder, another society that disagrees has no basis for judging that society as wrong for adhering to that moral standard, because it's merely a preference.

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I kindly disagree. It's more than simply a preference it is knowledge. We have learned the consequences of past actions and have adjusted out way of life to guide us down a better path. We have learned that rape and murder has adverse effects on society and growth through past mistakes and historical data in the human lifespan. We now set new moral guidelines to follow based on that learning. We don't need a God to set that standard we just need a collective understanding and agreement on what is best for us as a society based on past failures or successes.