Laser Link Wrote:Release Animaniacs on DVD or else!

Quote:It's called the Epic of Gilgamesh my friend. Read about it. The Hebrews adapted that as well as many other things during the Babylonian Exile.

It's all fables and stories passed down from generations and cultures.

Quote:In all seriousness, my opinion of religion is very similar to illusion's. Some people take it WAY too seriously or treat its documents and teachings as undisputible fact. Religion isn't bad. It's a wonderful part of human history and culture, and if religion helps you find your path or meaning in life, then go for it! However, I'm not sure if it really is possible to believe in a religion and at the same time think its teachings are mere folklore. That's probably why I don't follow or believe in any religions...

Quote:As for the flood , You can say because the babylonians wrote it down and engraved the epic of gilgamesh and its the oldest written documents of the event, But you come to that conclusion by looking at this and that and say this happend this way and not that. But no one alive today was alive then,If you have faith in the bible you will believe that the flood happend and the event was passed down generation after generation from Noahs decendants who would later found civilizations like sumeria and babylon and of course overtime the story was changed as it passed from person to person oraly, it make sense since the first people to event writing were sumeria and Babylon they would be the first to write it down.But what is interesting is that the meso american Mayans and asians have the same stories on the other side of the world.I believe that god caused the event and the hebrew acount is the true one but thats a matter of faith, I cant physically prove it but thats why they call it faith.

Quote:Faith or blind...well, in your personal case, ignorance? Here it is, 2004. We have people in space, plans to go to Mars, six billion people, the internet...science and technology advancing so fast, and people STILL praise invisible gods, fear invisible demons! If any of you Christians---ANY one of you, had been raised in a non-christian family, you'd be so different. How can you not see that it's all in how one is raised to determines one's religion. If you were born in Iraq, you'd be saying the same truths about Allah, and denouncing everyone else; if you were born in--well, the rest of it goes without saying. It's ridiculous, and I've had enough of it. It's time for action.

Quote:As for Darunia... yes, I realize that probably the main reason I'm a Christian is because I was raised that way and if I had been raised as an atheist I'd probably still be one. Could the same be said about you? If you had been raised in a Christian family (and for all I know, you could've been), don't you think you'd probably be a Christian too? I may've been born into a Christian family, but it was my own choice to stay a Christian this late in life, and I'd say I'm living a fairly good life because of it. I don't denounce anybody for having different religious views (including atheism) because everyone has their own reasons for the beliefs that they follow.

Quote:Ah Darunia. I just want to mention that while it is true that Christianity is sort of the default religion in the US and a lot of Western countries, we can all agree that it is not places like Africa or Asia, right? But that is in fact where Christianity is spreading like crazy. I mentioned this before, but the largest church in the world for many years was in South Korea. I wasn't sure on how large exactly, but I just read that Yoida Full Gospel Church in Seoul had 750,000 in 1994.Now the largest churches now are in Africa. I've heard as much as millions of people coming to meetings. It's hard to know the exact numbers because they don't exactly do things the same as here. I don't think anyone can (or possibly could) keep track of how many people come, but it is a heapload. God is doing amazing things in these places.

Since 2000, 2/3 of Christians live outside of North America and Western Europe. It is estimated that 200 million Christians are currently being persecuted for their faith, which is obviously not happening here in the US. I found the specific details of that here, but I have heard this many times over from so many people. I just didn't remember specific numbers. So I think that effectively disproves your stance that people only believe in Jesus because they were raised that way. You can believe what you want, but now you need to find something new to complain about.

Quote:Darunia...you're far too concerned with what you see that you cannot allow yourself to accept something you can't see or prove. There are still many things science has yet to explain, yet are certainly real. For example, Spontaneous Human Combustion, it baffles scientists worldwide why it happens. They have theories of course, but no one can say for certain why it happens. But it happens.

I don't need an explanation to believe what I believe. The thought that when I die I simply cease to be is a very depressing prospect. Even if that might be the case when my time is up (which I don't believe it is), it's more comforting to think that there is eternal heaven waiting for me. Life would seem awfully futile and pointless if there is nothing to look forward to when it's over. People seek religion for comfort, for guidance, even for a reason to live. Whether or not we have physical proof is irrelevant, because we don't need it.

Long story short: I don't need a speck of evidence to believe what I believe, and all the arguments in the world won't change my mind. That may sound foolish to you, but hey, to each his own.

Quote:Obi, I didn't take any offense to anything you said. Don't worry about it. About Morocco: It's really not a big deal to be American there. Especially in Agadir, where I will be going, which is a huge tourist spot and very modern. Morocco as a whole is one of the most Western of Muslim countries, and in fact the previous king became a Christian and for a time allowed the people to have Bibles. But there was such a backlash from the other leaders of Muslim countries that he unfortunately backed down, and it is once again illegal to posess a Bible. That is the case in every Muslim county I have heard of, which intrigues me, since a lot of the research I've done lately says that Muslims accept the Bible as a word from God. But anyway, we are not going in on our own just for kicks- this is a very well planned and organized thing. We'll be working with residents and doing a lot of practical work, like helping to teach English in Universities. It's not as extreme as Iraq or Thailand, where some other groups from my church are going this summer.

Quote:Nothing--nothing at all, it's stark, comparatively sad, and miserable.

Quote: I've wondered about this before, and I've written some lengthy posts about the subject before... I don't want (or have the time) to do that again now, however.

But I think that for prehistoric man "gods" were easily their best explanation for the question "Why?". Somehow that got burned into our culture and we can't let it go...

Oh, and the Communists tried to destroy religion. It didn't work. The problem of course was that the people already believed so they would not be shaken... you'd have to have people grow up with no religion at all around, with no concept of "gods" except as quaint historical myths of previous cultures (if that), for it to have any chance at all of working.

'Action' won't go anywhere, in short.

Quote:Who are you to claim to know my parents!? My mother is the nicest, most understanding, soft-hearted woman in the world, you fucking cocksucker! You just can't stand to accept that an atheist was brought into this world without his parents being Nazis or Bolsheviks!

Note below how our dear friend ASM calls me ignorant, and yet makes 16 spelling/grammatical errors in this one paragraph.

Quote:I'm ignorant for calling you wrong; but you lampoon all non-Christians as wife-beatin' drunks!

Quote:Nothing--nothing at all, it's stark, comparatively sad, and miserable. Thusly unpopular. But doing things because they're pleasant, if not true, is no reason to be done.

Quote:Only an "idiot Moron" would say "idiot Moron."

Quote:Putting words in my mouth, Weltall. As far as we know, we are the highest intelligence; but the universe is unexplored, there could be highly developed aliens out there.

Quote:Nothing--nothing at all, it's stark, comparatively sad, and miserable. Thusly unpopular. But doing things because they're pleasant, if not true, is no reason to be done.

Quote:You're quite right again; life IS indeed pointless. Produce; spread your seed, and then die. Do you want to know why we have no point? Because we weren't designed; we evolved from the simplest organic compounds, without direction.

Quote:Soviet Russia quest to destroy religion was tyranical , They would grab hole families put them at gun point and say sign this papper stating that you dont believe in god and swear loyalty to the mother land, If they didnt want to give up their faith, They would take away their children and they would be orphaned and never see their parents again, The parents would be put away to siberia and they would be forced to work in a labour camp and have all their possesions ,families and freinds striped from them .Some would be even tortured to extract information. I studied all about this , Ive read and watched documentory films and books all about that. Some of the families never got to see each other untill 30 years after being seperated.

The Russian orthodox church was hard and trickier to break down, But those genius athiest had a wonderful idea , Lets replace christian orthodox traditions with communist party figures and engage in modern day Emperor worship, They had Lenin mummified and used him as the new Religion.So infact they tried to replace God with a Man.Russia became another example at how a dream of utopia can be twisted into horrible things.

The soviet union is history,Acording to bible chronology it was the king of the North after the Nazi reich as said in the book of Daneil (of course you have no idea what I am talking about )

Darunia Wrote:[asm]If you werent raised by intolerant parents you wouldnt be a devout ass hole.

Who are you to claim to know my parents!? My mother is the nicest, most understanding, soft-hearted woman in the world, you fucking cocksucker! You just can't stand to accept that an atheist was brought into this world without his parents being Nazis or Bolsheviks!

Quote:Originally Posted by Darunia
[asm]If you werent raised by intolerant parents you wouldnt be a devout ass hole.

Who are you to claim to know my parents!? My mother is the nicest, most understanding, soft-hearted woman in the world, you fucking cocksucker! You just can't stand to accept that an atheist was brought into this world without his parents being Nazis or Bolsheviks!

Quote:1.) To suggest that no nazi could be wrought unto this world without his parents being nazis is kindergarten-level stupidity. Hitler's parents weren't nazis. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Quote:Fittsize; two points:

1.) To suggest that no nazi could be wrought unto this world without his parents being nazis is kindergarten-level stupidity. Hitler's parents weren't nazis. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

2.) You had better not be calling me or my parents nazis, Fittisize. I'm not fucking around with you. I hope I misinterpreted what you wrote.

Quote:I find it hard to accept that a Nazi was brought into this world without his parents being one.

Darunia Wrote:I am not truly a racist...I do resent Mexicans, Portuguese people, Spaniards...I dislike the Japanese...the same with the Germans.

Fittisize Wrote:1.) What the hell? Did you not notice the : ? SARCASM, YOU STUPID GERMAN SOCIALIST FUCK.

Quote:It is a huge problem in America, and people do resent them with good reason: These people come into America, reap many benefits from the government, in some states getting free healthcare and education that most citizens can't get, but pay no taxes in return. They are moochers, they are ticks sucking out the hard earned money you and I make. If that isn't bad enough, the fact that we're becoming LESS of a melting pot is. If these people come to America, they should adapt OUR language. Instead, people are increasingly being forced to become bilingual, because these criminals won't even bother learning the language. Us, the people who are legal citizens and taxpayers, have to adapt to their needs. That is wrong, on many levels. The liberals of America tell us that we should provide for these people, and in what is probably the one policy I dislike most from the president, Bush essentially opens the floodgates for them. We need to start solving this problem. Either start getting them documented, or start cutting off every single bit of aid and start making them not want to come here illegally. It's too late to start sending them back, the least we could do is to do whatever it takes to keep them from coming still.

Quote:Instead, people are increasingly being forced to become bilingual, because these criminals won't even bother learning the language.

Fittisize Wrote:I have no problem with Mexicans coming to America.



THE language? There's more than one language on this Earth. Learn to speak two languages, adapt, become a better citizen as a result. You might even meet some new Hispanic friends if you learn to speak Spanish.