Why do people stay religious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We Christians aren’t rubbing our hands with glee over non-Christians thrown into the lake of fire, we are trying to warn people how to avoid going there.

Like hell you're not! You're downright gleeful about it. You and your horrific worse than Hitler mass mudering slavery endorsing god.

Again, the world is fortunate there is no evidence one exists.

I don’t recall Hitler giving people a choice.

What choice did your wicked God give people in the great flood?

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I know that you have a choice and you are choosing “lake of fire.” Don’t you think they may have done something similar?

You don't know because you weren't there?

I am fine with that answer.

Now: apply that standard to all your other claims.

ps - you're 100% a faker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We Christians aren’t rubbing our hands with glee over non-Christians thrown into the lake of fire, we are trying to warn people how to avoid going there.

Like hell you're not! You're downright gleeful about it. You and your horrific worse than Hitler mass mudering slavery endorsing god.

Again, the world is fortunate there is no evidence one exists.

I don’t recall Hitler giving people a choice.

What choice did your wicked God give people in the great flood?

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I know that you have a choice and you are choosing “lake of fire.” Don’t you think they may have done something similar?

You don't know because you weren't there?

I am fine with that answer.

Now: apply that standard to all your other claims.

ps - you're 100% a faker.

You are talking to multiple people. I’m not the one with the Bible quotes.

I think it’s interesting that you, personally, would choose Hell over Heaven, but you believe other people were forced there by an evil God. What’s up with that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We Christians aren’t rubbing our hands with glee over non-Christians thrown into the lake of fire, we are trying to warn people how to avoid going there.

Like hell you're not! You're downright gleeful about it. You and your horrific worse than Hitler mass mudering slavery endorsing god.

Again, the world is fortunate there is no evidence one exists.

I don’t recall Hitler giving people a choice.

What choice did your wicked God give people in the great flood?

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I know that you have a choice and you are choosing “lake of fire.” Don’t you think they may have done something similar?

You don't know because you weren't there?

I am fine with that answer.

Now: apply that standard to all your other claims.

ps - you're 100% a faker.

You are talking to multiple people. I’m not the one with the Bible quotes.

I think it’s interesting that you, personally, would choose Hell over Heaven, but you believe other people were forced there by an evil God. What’s up with that?

Everything you type is wrong.

- I don't choose hell as I have no reason to believe there is one.

- I don't believe anyone was forced there by any god (this is a good thing, too).

- the Christian god is clearly evil, and fictional characters can be evil, like Dr. Doom, Iago, and Hannibal Lecter, etc. You don't have to believe it is real to consider it evil.

Does that clear it up for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We Christians aren’t rubbing our hands with glee over non-Christians thrown into the lake of fire, we are trying to warn people how to avoid going there.

Like hell you're not! You're downright gleeful about it. You and your horrific worse than Hitler mass mudering slavery endorsing god.

Again, the world is fortunate there is no evidence one exists.

I don’t recall Hitler giving people a choice.

What choice did your wicked God give people in the great flood?

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I know that you have a choice and you are choosing “lake of fire.” Don’t you think they may have done something similar?

You don't know because you weren't there?

I am fine with that answer.

Now: apply that standard to all your other claims.

ps - you're 100% a faker.

You are talking to multiple people. I’m not the one with the Bible quotes.

I think it’s interesting that you, personally, would choose Hell over Heaven, but you believe other people were forced there by an evil God. What’s up with that?

Everything you type is wrong.

- I don't choose hell as I have no reason to believe there is one.

- I don't believe anyone was forced there by any god (this is a good thing, too).

- the Christian god is clearly evil, and fictional characters can be evil, like Dr. Doom, Iago, and Hannibal Lecter, etc. You don't have to believe it is real to consider it evil.

Does that clear it up for you?

Okay. I hear you.
You feel that the Abrahamic God and Jesus Christ are evil, though fictional.

I think it’s reasonable to say that if you lived in this fictional world, you would not want to spend all of eternity alongside these evil omnipotent beings.

So, if you lived in a world where the Abrahamic God were real, you would not choose to spend eternity in Heaven with God, but would instead choose to spend eternity in Hell.

If Hell is real, everyone there made and continues to make the exact same decision that you would make.

Whether Hell is real or not, there is no reason to suppose that anyone in Hell is a victim of a vengeful God. They are people exercising their free will exactly the same way you would in the same situation.

If you want to say that the God of the Bible is Evil or that God asks too much of people, that’s fine. But it’s not because there are people who choose to live in Hell. That’s their choice.

The Christian God made himself from a word or a concept into a corporeal human being just to tell people that He wants them to be with Him in Heaven. It’s quite an invitation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We Christians aren’t rubbing our hands with glee over non-Christians thrown into the lake of fire, we are trying to warn people how to avoid going there.

Like hell you're not! You're downright gleeful about it. You and your horrific worse than Hitler mass mudering slavery endorsing god.

Again, the world is fortunate there is no evidence one exists.

I don’t recall Hitler giving people a choice.

What choice did your wicked God give people in the great flood?

I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I know that you have a choice and you are choosing “lake of fire.” Don’t you think they may have done something similar?

You don't know because you weren't there?

I am fine with that answer.

Now: apply that standard to all your other claims.

ps - you're 100% a faker.

You are talking to multiple people. I’m not the one with the Bible quotes.

I think it’s interesting that you, personally, would choose Hell over Heaven, but you believe other people were forced there by an evil God. What’s up with that?

Everything you type is wrong.

- I don't choose hell as I have no reason to believe there is one.

- I don't believe anyone was forced there by any god (this is a good thing, too).

- the Christian god is clearly evil, and fictional characters can be evil, like Dr. Doom, Iago, and Hannibal Lecter, etc. You don't have to believe it is real to consider it evil.

Does that clear it up for you?

Okay. I hear you.
You feel that the Abrahamic God and Jesus Christ are evil, though fictional.

I think it’s reasonable to say that if you lived in this fictional world, you would not want to spend all of eternity alongside these evil omnipotent beings.

So, if you lived in a world where the Abrahamic God were real, you would not choose to spend eternity in Heaven with God, but would instead choose to spend eternity in Hell.

If Hell is real, everyone there made and continues to make the exact same decision that you would make.

Whether Hell is real or not, there is no reason to suppose that anyone in Hell is a victim of a vengeful God. They are people exercising their free will exactly the same way you would in the same situation.

If you want to say that the God of the Bible is Evil or that God asks too much of people, that’s fine. But it’s not because there are people who choose to live in Hell. That’s their choice.

The Christian God made himself from a word or a concept into a corporeal human being just to tell people that He wants them to be with Him in Heaven. It’s quite an invitation.

That's practically an irresistible way of putting it:

"Look what God did for you -- the least you can do for him is to believe in him -- then you can go and live with him forever after you're dead."

Bet you learned that in Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ lots of words, no actual evidence whatsoever.

All presuppositional that a god exists.

The Bible is not evidence that the Bible is true. Not how logic works.

As for your lake of fire threat: You are a very bad person to wish such a thing on another human being. Despicable, actually. Hitler level horrible. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fortunately, there is zero evidence such a thing exists.

Fail, fail, and fail again.

And you presuppose there is no God.

The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true.

I never said that I wish you to burn. I take no pleasure in that. The Bible is clear about unbelievers like you:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. — Revelation 20:15

Your name is written in the book of life when you repent of your sins and believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God who takes away sin.

You are very much like a hard headed, insufferable man on Freethought Blogs. He went by the name NerdOfRedhead.

I pitied that man, bitter, eyes closed, fingers in his ears repeating over and over mindlessly, “No evidence! No God! Nyah-nyah I can’t hear you!”

Sir, take your fingers out of your ears and open your eyes to see the truth. But maybe this applies to you, a reprobate:

That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. —Mark 4:12

I pray that you will see before it is too late.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
—Peter 3:9

DP here. I see the resident Bible thumping idiot is back.

Your inability to think blows my mind. For example, "The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true." So, using this reasoning, the fact that archeologists have found evidence of the Troy, does this make all the The Odyssey true? Especially things like the Cyclops, after all, the Bible had giants in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ lots of words, no actual evidence whatsoever.

All presuppositional that a god exists.

The Bible is not evidence that the Bible is true. Not how logic works.

As for your lake of fire threat: You are a very bad person to wish such a thing on another human being. Despicable, actually. Hitler level horrible. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fortunately, there is zero evidence such a thing exists.

Fail, fail, and fail again.

And you presuppose there is no God.

The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true.

I never said that I wish you to burn. I take no pleasure in that. The Bible is clear about unbelievers like you:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. — Revelation 20:15

Your name is written in the book of life when you repent of your sins and believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God who takes away sin.

You are very much like a hard headed, insufferable man on Freethought Blogs. He went by the name NerdOfRedhead.

I pitied that man, bitter, eyes closed, fingers in his ears repeating over and over mindlessly, “No evidence! No God! Nyah-nyah I can’t hear you!”

Sir, take your fingers out of your ears and open your eyes to see the truth. But maybe this applies to you, a reprobate:

That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. —Mark 4:12

I pray that you will see before it is too late.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
—Peter 3:9

DP here. I see the resident Bible thumping idiot is back.

Your inability to think blows my mind. For example, "The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true." So, using this reasoning, the fact that archeologists have found evidence of the Troy, does this make all the The Odyssey true? Especially things like the Cyclops, after all, the Bible had giants in it.

Here is where your presuppositional bias shows.

You make a categorical error when you equate the Bible with a work of fiction like the Odyssey (which I read in High School).

The Bible is absolutely 100% true: the Origin of the Species described in Genesis, the genealogies of Noah’s sons and the Israelites; the prophets, wisdom in Proverbs, and eye-witness accounts of wars and the healing miracles of Jesus.

There were indeed giants, as there are giants today, people over 7’ tall.

Archeology does not prove the Odyssey as a true account, only that the story writer, as they do today, drew upon real places to tell a story.

The Bible is not fiction, but truth, and archeology supports the genealogies and places mentioned in the Bible.

Now, Jesus does teach in parables, stories of fictional people like in the Good Samaritan to teach a moral or a lesson.

My authority is Jesus, the son of God. Your authority is the babblings of vain men, some whose brains were addled by opium like Darwin I am convinced was, or Karl Marx an immoral reprobate and thoroughly evil and repugnant man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ lots of words, no actual evidence whatsoever.

All presuppositional that a god exists.

The Bible is not evidence that the Bible is true. Not how logic works.

As for your lake of fire threat: You are a very bad person to wish such a thing on another human being. Despicable, actually. Hitler level horrible. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fortunately, there is zero evidence such a thing exists.

Fail, fail, and fail again.

And you presuppose there is no God.

The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true.

I never said that I wish you to burn. I take no pleasure in that. The Bible is clear about unbelievers like you:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. — Revelation 20:15

Your name is written in the book of life when you repent of your sins and believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God who takes away sin.

You are very much like a hard headed, insufferable man on Freethought Blogs. He went by the name NerdOfRedhead.

I pitied that man, bitter, eyes closed, fingers in his ears repeating over and over mindlessly, “No evidence! No God! Nyah-nyah I can’t hear you!”

Sir, take your fingers out of your ears and open your eyes to see the truth. But maybe this applies to you, a reprobate:

That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. —Mark 4:12

I pray that you will see before it is too late.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
—Peter 3:9

DP here. I see the resident Bible thumping idiot is back.

Your inability to think blows my mind. For example, "The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true." So, using this reasoning, the fact that archeologists have found evidence of the Troy, does this make all the The Odyssey true? Especially things like the Cyclops, after all, the Bible had giants in it.

Here is where your presuppositional bias shows.

You make a categorical error when you equate the Bible with a work of fiction like the Odyssey (which I read in High School).

The Bible is absolutely 100% true: the Origin of the Species described in Genesis, the genealogies of Noah’s sons and the Israelites; the prophets, wisdom in Proverbs, and eye-witness accounts of wars and the healing miracles of Jesus.

There were indeed giants, as there are giants today, people over 7’ tall.

Archeology does not prove the Odyssey as a true account, only that the story writer, as they do today, drew upon real places to tell a story.

The Bible is not fiction, but truth, and archeology supports the genealogies and places mentioned in the Bible.

Now, Jesus does teach in parables, stories of fictional people like in the Good Samaritan to teach a moral or a lesson.

My authority is Jesus, the son of God. Your authority is the babblings of vain men, some whose brains were addled by opium like Darwin I am convinced was, or Karl Marx an immoral reprobate and thoroughly evil and repugnant man.

You are a nut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another religious freak died, scammer, creeper bit golly gee wiz he was a church going dude!

The Louisiana native was best known for being a captivating Pentecostal preacher with a massive following before being caught on camera with a prostitute in New Orleans in 1988, one of a string of successful TV preachers brought down in the 1980s and ’90s by sex scandals. He continued preaching for decades, but with a reduced audience.

Religion is always the scam. And it’s never been the drag Queens.

OPPs why do people stay religious?? They are either stupid or scammers or child molesters or morally corrupt. Or all of the above.

There are lots of religious people who are educated. They're intelligent and have good jobs and are decent people. They're just dumb when it comes to religion.

So they are essentially followers, which is fine, I don’t think I am better than religious people, I just wish people had more evolved critical thinking skills.

DP: Don't you think it odd to just assume highly intelligent people are dumb about one thing? Has it occurred to you that maybe they've studied and thought about it more than you have? Maybe they have a better and more nuanced understanding of their own beliefs than whatever it is you are assuming they believe?

I hear you, pp. Most of the people arguing against religion on this forum have a third grade education in it or less.
Why would OP assume that adults believe in things the way they were explained to them when they were eight?

I cannot fathom how anyone on modern day earth literally believes stories from ancient times, like word for word. Learned adults are doing this. I may not be a religious scholar but this seems insane to me. It’s fine to learn ethics and cautionary tales, etc., but not literally following these texts.

Yeah. It’s really easy to not understand something that you know almost nothing about.

It’s also very easy to be sure that you are right about something when you don’t know much about the subject. That’s why anti-vaxxers are so confident in their rhetoric while medical research papers end with a discussion of where they might have been wrong. It’s easy to feel certain that you are right when you have a simplistic view of a subject.

If you think that educated adults believe the Bible stories in the way you were taught them when you were eight, you are mistaken.

And the Bible is liter-ary. It isn’t liter-al. If it were literal, it wouldn’t make any sense. But there is more than one kind of truth than a description of literal facts. If you were to describe a rainbow to someone who had never seen one by talking about the different light waves bouncing off water droplets in the air and hitting your retina, you would be describing a literal event, but you would be missing something essential about the rainbow. Same thing if you only talked about its beauty. You need to understand some things in multiple ways before you can start to grasp the truth of what they are.

I am guessing you are the same guy that repeats this trope when challenged by the obvious problems with the Bible. Why not just describe the methodology to know what is true and what is metaphorical? Telling people “you just don’t understand” is a clear cop-out.

If it is all literal, then, well no it can’t be as any thinking person can see.

If it’s all metaphorical, then who gives a hoot what it says because it’s no different from any other fiction?

I don’t normally post on this forum, so I’m not familiar with who you are talking about. I’m a doctor, and I find this same kind of thinking frustrating when talking to people about science and medicine.

I thought my rainbow analogy was pretty good on describing why both the literal and metaphorical descriptions are needed to understand something. I’m sorry you didn’t find it helpful.

What is a metaphorical description of a rainbow?

Why bother with all that anyway? Why not just describe the process used to tell what parts of the Bible are truth and which are metaphor? And don’t just respond with “textual criticism” because that has been done by experts and shows the many flaws in the Bible.

I am not familiar with the “process”you are talking about.

If you were to describe a rainbow to an alien who had never been to earth, you would describe light waves, but that’s not all, right? There is more to a rainbow than that. It is beautiful. It makes you feel a certain way.
I’m not sure why you say that a metaphor isn’t true. Would you say that a poem is a less true description of love than an article about oxytocin and dopamine release?

The feelings one gets from reading the Bible or any religious text is not fact. A feeling isn’t fact.

So are you saying that a love poem is not as realistic of a description of love as a textbook entry on oxytocin and dopamine release during intercourse?

Or are you saying that love doesn’t exist because it is a feeling?

I will say that if you believe that love is simply a release of neurotransmitters and nothing else, and a rainbow is simply light rays hitting your retina and nothing else, then I understand why you don’t believe in God.

And I, a DP, think you're trying very hard to make pp look stupid so you can say you understand how such a stupid person would not believe in God -- as if believing in an invisible, supernatural being makes sense. It does not.

NP. It only matters if it makes sense to the person who believes. It does not matter to that person if it does not make sense to you.

It almost sounds like you're saying that a person can make up anything and if they believe it, then it makes sense.

To that person, yes.

This can be beneficial and provide hope and comfort for people, however are you unable to see the many downsides, the dark sides of religions?

So, let those people find hope and comfort in their religion.

Fine just don’t hold nonbelievers to your delusional standards and beliefs.

I'm not. I don't care what you believe/don't believe.

Do you think people who don't believe in God will suffer for eternity in hell?

Catholics believe all nonCatholics will go to hell. Sweet.

That is false.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If that’s how you see things then it makes sense why you reject it. You might start by reading the Bible again.

Which would only convince most people how culturally instigated it is, written by men at the time when those things seemed to make sense without education. It has little generalization to modern humanity.

[Anonymous]

What about the resurrection or the ten commandments given by God or assumption of Mary or the flood of Noah or the parting of the sea or any superhuman activity enacted on earth has been proven by science?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about the resurrection or the ten commandments given by God or assumption of Mary or the flood of Noah or the parting of the sea or any superhuman activity enacted on earth has been proven by science?

Science is not used to "prove" things.

[Anonymous]

Did science show any of these things? Is that better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ lots of words, no actual evidence whatsoever.

All presuppositional that a god exists.

The Bible is not evidence that the Bible is true. Not how logic works.

As for your lake of fire threat: You are a very bad person to wish such a thing on another human being. Despicable, actually. Hitler level horrible. You should be ashamed of yourself. Fortunately, there is zero evidence such a thing exists.

Fail, fail, and fail again.

And you presuppose there is no God.

The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true.

I never said that I wish you to burn. I take no pleasure in that. The Bible is clear about unbelievers like you:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. — Revelation 20:15

Your name is written in the book of life when you repent of your sins and believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God who takes away sin.

You are very much like a hard headed, insufferable man on Freethought Blogs. He went by the name NerdOfRedhead.

I pitied that man, bitter, eyes closed, fingers in his ears repeating over and over mindlessly, “No evidence! No God! Nyah-nyah I can’t hear you!”

Sir, take your fingers out of your ears and open your eyes to see the truth. But maybe this applies to you, a reprobate:

That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. —Mark 4:12

I pray that you will see before it is too late.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
—Peter 3:9

DP here. I see the resident Bible thumping idiot is back.

Your inability to think blows my mind. For example, "The Bible is an accurate, historical record and contains eye-witness accounts of events. Archeology has even proven things in the Bible to be true." So, using this reasoning, the fact that archeologists have found evidence of the Troy, does this make all the The Odyssey true? Especially things like the Cyclops, after all, the Bible had giants in it.

Here is where your presuppositional bias shows.

You make a categorical error when you equate the Bible with a work of fiction like the Odyssey (which I read in High School).

The Bible is absolutely 100% true: the Origin of the Species described in Genesis, the genealogies of Noah’s sons and the Israelites; the prophets, wisdom in Proverbs, and eye-witness accounts of wars and the healing miracles of Jesus.

There were indeed giants, as there are giants today, people over 7’ tall.

Archeology does not prove the Odyssey as a true account, only that the story writer, as they do today, drew upon real places to tell a story.

The Bible is not fiction, but truth, and archeology supports the genealogies and places mentioned in the Bible.

Now, Jesus does teach in parables, stories of fictional people like in the Good Samaritan to teach a moral or a lesson.

My authority is Jesus, the son of God. Your authority is the babblings of vain men, some whose brains were addled by opium like Darwin I am convinced was, or Karl Marx an immoral reprobate and thoroughly evil and repugnant man.

There is no error. The only error is that you don't understand they are both works of fiction. Most good stories weave in bits of truth or reality. Still doesn't make a piece of fiction real, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about the resurrection or the ten commandments given by God or assumption of Mary or the flood of Noah or the parting of the sea or any superhuman activity enacted on earth has been proven by science?

Science is not used to "prove" things.

Science "proves" things all the time. To prove means to establish the truth or genuineness of something.