Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All that Satan stuff is NOT comforting. I wasn't raised to think that it is real, but pity the kids who are told there is evil out to get them.

The problem is, Satan -- "evil" -- is real. He is living and breathing in humanity, just like the Holy Spirit is alive and well in Christians.

Just ask the people at the AME church in Charleston.

No, Satan is a Biblical character. There is no personification of evil. You have used Satan as a metaphor, but that doesn't mean the thing exists.

Anonymous wrote:All that Satan stuff is NOT comforting. I wasn't raised to think that it is real, but pity the kids who are told there is evil out to get them.

The problem is, Satan -- "evil" -- is real. He is living and breathing in humanity, just like the Holy Spirit is alive and well in Christians.

Just ask the people at the AME church in Charleston.

All that Satan stuff is NOT comforting. I wasn't raised to think that it is real, but pity the kids who are told there is evil out to get them.

Anonymous wrote:I don't think God or religion truly gives people strength. It simply diverts the problem, puts blinders on people. It's like a happy pill. The fact that we all will still die and end up a heap of nothing remains true whether we choose to believe it not. Religion doesn't change facts, it only stops you from confronting the difficult questions.

Strength comes from exercising against a burden and overcoming it. Imagine if you were faced with a difficult math problem and decided that it was irrelevant. That's not the same as making the mental exertion to solving it.

In your analogy what is the burden? Mortality? Not getting where you're going with this.

I don't think God or religion truly gives people strength. It simply diverts the problem, puts blinders on people. It's like a happy pill. The fact that we all will still die and end up a heap of nothing remains true whether we choose to believe it not. Religion doesn't change facts, it only stops you from confronting the difficult questions.

Strength comes from exercising against a burden and overcoming it. Imagine if you were faced with a difficult math problem and decided that it was irrelevant. That's not the same as making the mental exertion to solving it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

Why do people refuse to recognize the obvious. Heck the fact that religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind is the reason we have this long thread in the first place - someone wanted help for a little girl who is having an existential crisis that her immature and weak mind is ill equipped to deal with. What's the recommendation? Religion!

Good observation -- plus "weak" needn't be a pejorative -- it describes a condition that can change. Religious people believe that humans are by definition weak and need God to give us strength. They think a good dose of religion is the only thing that could strengthen the mind of the little girl. It's because they want the best for her and her eternal soul, which they are sure she has, to learn all about god and not to learn about the other ways to understand the world. Such information could be dangerous. It has had the effect of turning people away from God. She may go that way in the future, once she is no longer controlled by her mother, but as long as she is still young and impressionable, there's a chance to convince her that belief in God is the only way to relieve her anxiety.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

Why do people refuse to recognize the obvious. Heck the fact that religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind is the reason we have this long thread in the first place - someone wanted help for a little girl who is having an existential crisis that her immature and weak mind is ill equipped to deal with. What's the recommendation? Religion!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

How about for you?

Well, I did get a kick out of the weak mind comment you slipped in there so effortlessly.

How about responding to the substance?

Substance?

The part about the strong desire to hold on to something that you've put a lot of time and effort into

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

How about for you?

Well, I did get a kick out of the weak mind comment you slipped in there so effortlessly.

How about responding to the substance?

Substance?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

How about for you?

Well, I did get a kick out of the weak mind comment you slipped in there so effortlessly.

How about responding to the substance?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

How about for you?

Well, I did get a kick out of the weak mind comment you slipped in there so effortlessly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

How about for you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Felt good when you hit the Submit button on that one?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

*sound of religion collapsing under thw weight of your mighty arguments*

Yawn.

People can and will do anything to hold on to something they've devoted a lot of time and effort to. I can appreciate there. Religion is comforting, especially to a weak mind.

Anonymous wrote:It's true, the death and resurrection of Jesus is so similar to other myths because of its ties to the winter solstice, when the sun is at the lowest point (dies) and rises again visibly 3 days later.

That's right, Jesus's story has roots in pagan sun worshiping.

Satan did that to confuse people, knowing that the time would come when most of the faithful would know how to read and write and could find out for themselves the similarities between their god and the pagan gods of the past. That story worked for a long time, though, because during most of the history of Christianity ( and all other religions, for that matter) people were illiterate and dependent on religious authorities for all their information about their faith.