Reply to What religion has the highest chance of going to Heaven?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Atheists have no beliefs about religion or god? [/quote]

Atheists don't believe in God.  That one should be easy to figure out.

With regard to religion we obviously don't believe in God, Heaven or Hell, but as for scripture and teachings there is both good and bad.  I personally disagree with being anti-contraception, disagree with things like homophobia, I think women should be treated as equal to men (i.e. Catholic church not allowing female clergy), and there are factually wrong things like whales not being fish, rabbits not being ruminants, the earth not being flat to nitpick over but that's trivial - I also think there are some valuable teachings in the Bible, in Buddhism, the Vedas, and other faiths - however none of those things I find to be valuable are tied to belief in a divine being or the supernatural and if you look across cultural and ethnographic studies there are recurring themes like "do not kill, do not steal, treat others as you would have them treat you" showing up in a huge number of societies and cultures, of varying faiths as well as in communities which do not have organized religion.  Much of that is really just human empathy.  Granted, some people are sociopaths and lack such empathy, which may be why churches invent the concept of "you'll spend an eternity in hell if you don't behave" to try and rein the sociopaths in - but for many of us who have empathy and humanity, we don't need those kinds of threats.  [/quote]

So if you don’t believe in God, why would you have any thoughts about scripture? Scripture is the Holy, sacred, and authoritative word of God. If you don’t believe in Him, why is the scripture something you consider and critique or agree/disagree with? It’s from an entity you don’t think exists?

Not trying to be argumentative or rude, genuinely curious. I have to go now, will check back later in case you answered. Thank you. [/quote]

Sorry to bust your bubble but scripture was written by humans.  Sure, inspired by some belief in the supernatural and with some insights from people who put thought into what it is that they thought they should be teaching, but ultimately they are still just the words of humans.  And that shows in places like all of the minor gaffes like scripture saying whales are fish (they are mammals, not fish) or that rabbits chew their cud (they do not).  If it were truly the authoritative word of God those errors would not exist.[/quote]

Rabbits re-ingest partially digested foods, as do modern ruminants. They just do so without the aid of multiple stomach compartments.

The Greek word that is translated “whale” in the KJV (as well as a few other versions) in a brief look in various respected Greek dictionaries quickly reveals that the word is ketos and is defined broadly as a “large sea creature”, “sea monster,” or “huge fish.” Jesus indicated that Jonah was swallowed by a “large sea creature,” which was not necessarily a whale, but may have been.[/quote]

The Bible, or any other ancient or modern book, doesn't have to be completely scientifically accurate to be valuable.

The problem arises, I think, when people feel they must defend the bible as completely accurate, or the "Word of God" or whatever for it to be taken seriously.   It is an ancient book written by ancient people and translated many times.

You can reject it as a rule book or a holy book while still attributing value to it.

It's also understandable that some people who were [b]forced to think of it as a factual rule book[/b] come to reject it completely.[/quote]

NP: ^^ to be clear, this is a small fraction of faiths that use the Bible, and yet to atheists it seems is might as well be everyone.[/quote]

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