hey athiests! i'm chatting with a person from liberty university on yahoo

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Spiffor
And this is why California is probably the best State in the US. Are you converting your latinos into heathens as well ?

Slowly but surely.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh


Whoooooosh! Yet another comment goes flying over Boris' head.

Oh right, try playing it off as something other than what it was...

Admit you assumed he was one of those ungodly gay atheists and were wrong.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
That is interesting because Christianity is almost directly opposite in viewpoint - that we are all flawed.

Do you honestly believe that the vast majority of huminity are 'good' inside? I don't I think most people are pretty much out for themselves.

How horribly cynical. I can't imagine most Christians agreeing with this. Do you honestly think most people are bad inside?

Nobody said "perfect"--of course, every human being is "flawed" in the sense that nobody acts 100% rightly 100% of the time. Everyone is prone to bad thoughts and inconsiderate deeds.

But I agree that I think most people are, in the core, basically decent and will be generous and altruistic to others when called upon to do so. Considering how often I've seen people responding to disasters with outpourings of support and help, I have to say the evidence shows people are capable of great altruism.

Certainly, there's a lot of greed and stupidity in the world, but I don't think it outweighs the goodness and generosity in the world. If it did, I think we'd be living in a far darker world than we do.

[Adam Smith]

Originally posted by Starchild
With no God or gods, it falls down to us to strive to be better than what we currently are.

"God needs the people themselves to save the world."
-Oscar Romero

[Dinner]

What if I don't want to save the world? What if I just want to sit in my own squalar?

[Adam Smith]

Originally posted by Oerdin
What if I don't want to save the world? What if I just want to sit in my own squalar?

You could pick up a dictionary and learn to spell "squalor" properly.

[Dinner]

But then that would be trying to improve the world.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Oh right, try playing it off as something other than what it was...

Admit you assumed he was one of those ungodly gay atheists and were wrong.

It was supposed to point out that calling someone a 'fvcking lunatic' for saying what the believe in is not nice. Just because their views aren't mainstream doesn't mean they should be insulted for holding them. Thinking gay sex is wrong is a matter of opinon, just like you might think christianity (or whatever) is wrong. My Fun's religious beliefs have nothing to do with it.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Starchild
How about "Do to others what you'd have others to do you"? Or be a nice, happy person that cares about other people? Try to leave this world better than when you entered it? Do the least harm possible?

Only the first statement is not dependent on another definition, ie. 'nice', 'happy', 'better', 'leat harm' etc. The first one is fair enough as a definition though, but what makes you think that other people want the same things out of life as you do?

How does a religious person define good? It's Plato all over again. Is something morally right because God says so or do morals (goodness) exist independent of God? If it's the first, then the religious definition of good is baseless and down to the whim of God, which removes moral authority. If it's the second, then God isn't the source of morals and athiests are just as free to call upon that independent moral (good) guide as believers are.

Do you mean that you think morals are somehow transcendant? That they are not manufactured, but fixed laws of nature? hmmmm. I had always thought the atheist viewpoint would be that they come from man (e.g. a consequence of evolution - everyone benefits if we have a code to order ourselves by, so it is evolutionarily programmed into us).

I have no problem with morality being the 'whim' of God.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Adam Smith
You could pick up a dictionary and learn to spell "squalor" properly.

Do you mean 'squalour'?

[korn469]

I don't have a problem with Christianity per se, but I do have a problem with certain sects that have warped it almost as badly as Bin Ladin has warped Islam. I think that the greatest draw of Jesus whether he was the son of God or not, was that he preached about inclusion of all people into his religion, and that people should love and tolerate others.

I think that some Christians have lost sight of this, and those Christians are the ones that I disagree with the most. I personally feel that Jerry Fallwell is one of those christians, and that Liberty University to me is the Christian equivalent of the madrassas (pro-taliban religious schools in pakistan), in the fact that they both teach intolerance, ignorance, and that as long as you are doing God's work that the ends justifies the means.

While Fallwell is no Bin ladin in any shape, form, or fashion; I think his work could lay the foundation for a wacko like Bin Ladin, just as the Muslim Clerics that came before Bin ladin.

[Elok]

The problem with the Golden Rule is that it gives sexual masochists free rein.
Anyway, the doctrine of the Christian faith in general, if any such broad proclamation can be made, is that we collectively are madmen. We do not know why we are here, we cannot see where we are going, and we will not make it "without the crutch." Why do you need to go without the crutch? Are you going to get a prize for going it alone? How many people stand in awe of your wisdom, that you don't believe in anything? In short, what do you stand to gain by your pride? Self-esteem? Self-esteem is not related to pride; even despair and self-loathing are a kind of pride, because pride is the refusal of outside influence of any kind on the unwarranted grounds that all else is inferior to the way you wish it. If you think you can stand alone you are mistaken; if you don't know that you can but want to try anyway for the sake of self-glorification, you're just frigging nuts. Which is not to say I argue for Christianity so much as against atheism...

[Ramo]

It was supposed to point out that calling someone a 'fvcking lunatic' for saying what the believe in is not nice. Just because their views aren't mainstream doesn't mean they should be insulted for holding them. Thinking gay sex is wrong is a matter of opinon, just like you might think christianity (or whatever) is wrong. My Fun's religious beliefs have nothing to do with it.

Falwell is a bigotted authoritarian ****wit. He deserves to have his views insulted. Not because they aren't "mainstream," but because they're asinine and lead to oppression.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh


It was supposed to point out that calling someone a 'fvcking lunatic' for saying what the believe in is not nice. Just because their views aren't mainstream doesn't mean they should be insulted for holding them. Thinking gay sex is wrong is a matter of opinon, just like you might think christianity (or whatever) is wrong. My Fun's religious beliefs have nothing to do with it.

Thanks for the lesson, Mr. Rogers.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by MrFun
Thanks for the lesson, Mr. Rogers.

Who the hell is Mr. Rogers?