Joel Osteen

[Nbadan]

WTF is trivial about our lord and creator?

You got me there.......Love me some spaghetti monster....

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

..it's proven wrong by its very trivialness.....Christianity, as well as other religions aren't so trivial....

So who's the authority on what's trivial and what's not trivial?

I also consider stories about a guy who lived in a whale, a guy who lived on an arc with two of every species, and a Jew carpenter who was sent down to earth because god needed him to die for our sins to be about as trivial as it gets.

If when you were young your parents told the story of Jonah and the Whale to you as a fairytale and the story of Jack and the beanstalk as gospel, you're kidding yourself if you think you would have known the difference. You'd be sitting here right now explaining to me that Jack and the Beanstalk isn't a trivial story and the burden of proof isn't on you to show it happened.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

...it also gives some people purpose and hope....and that is a benefit to society as a whole...

No it's not. People who need a mythical man in the sky for a purpose to live would be better off just dying off, not following a religion that tells them to pass their worthless genes down a generation. Southern baptist jeebo s are in no way a benefit to society.

[Nbadan]

I also consider stories about a guy who lived in a whale, a guy who lived on an arc with two of every species, and a Jew carpenter who was sent down to earth because god needed him to die for our sins to be about as trivial as it gets

Christianity has some bases on stories that have been passed around for centuries before Judaism came around...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Christianity has some bases on stories that have been passed around for centuries before Judaism came around...

Judaism was around before Christianity, what the are you talking about?

I also fail to see how anything you just said addressed what does/doesn't make something trivial.

[Nbadan]

No it's not. People who need a mythical man in the sky for a purpose to live would be better off just dying off, not following a religion that tells them to pass their worthless genes down a generation. Southern baptist jeebo s are in no way a benefit to society.

Really sounds like you've been chapped by religion at some point in your life....we all go through phases....I can only hope that some day you find some Christ like peace in your life...

[Nbadan]

Judaism was around before Christianity, what the are you talking about?

Many of the stories from Judaism and the original bible were adaptations from the Anaki and Sumerians...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Really sounds like you've been chapped by religion at some point in your life....we all go through phases....I can only hope that some day you find some Christ like peace in your life...

I'm about to start a career at a bank that's succeeded in stealing money from jeebo s like you for years by duping you into voting for Christians like Reagan and Bush. I've personally benefited from religion. I just live in a country that over the last 30 years has been systemically ed by a strong presence of Christianity and religion.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Many of the stories from Judaism and the original bible were adaptations from the Anaki and Sumerians...

Neat. Still waiting to hear you address how some stick living in a whale isn't a trivial story. Are you seriously trying to argue that if a belief has been around for a long time it doesn't need to be proven right? I guess that's why people believed the world was flat and that the Sun rotates around the Earth.

[baseline bum]

I'm about to start a career at a bank that's succeeded in stealing money from jeebo s like you for years by duping you into voting for Christians like Reagan and Bush. I've personally benefited from religion. I just live in a country that over the last 30 years has been systemically ed by a strong presence of Christianity and religion.

[Nbadan]

Are you seriously trying to argue that if a belief has been around for a long time it doesn't need to be proven right? I guess that's why people believed the world was flat and that the Sun rotates around the Earth.

Your confusing science with faith....one is existential the other theoretical...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Your confusing science with faith....one is existential the other theoretical...

One uses logic and the other doesn't. The definition of faith is believing in something when you don't have a sensible or logical reason to do so.

For instance, you and millions of other jeebo s had "faith" George Bush would be a great president. That worked out well.

[Nbadan]

For instance, you and millions of other jeebo s had "faith" George Bush would be a great president. That worked out well.

you don't know me very well....

[Nbadan]

One uses logic and the other doesn't

One is based on empirical proof and not the scientific method....kinda like the 911 Commission report...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

you don't know me very well....

What I do know is you're dancing around the reality neither Bush nor Reagan would have had a prayer (no pun intended) of getting elected in a secular country.

America being the only religious modern country in the world and also the only modern country in the world w/ the infrastructure of a 3rd world country, a tax system that favors the rich, a privatized healthcare system, a struggle for public education/science funding etc. isn't some magical coincidence. Religion holds societies back from progression.

[Nbadan]

America being the only religious modern country in the world

I guess that depends on what you consider 'modern'...I'm not so sure that we are meant to spend our lives rushing from place to place, appointment to commitment to responsibility...but that is the life some of us live day to day..

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

I guess that depends on what you consider 'modern'...I'm not so sure that we are meant to spend our lives rushing from place to place, appointment to commitment to responsibility...but that is the life some of us live day to day..

way to dodge the point completely, again by going off on some pointless and sentimental tangent.

If you're trying to say America isn't a modern country that only proves my point even more since that would mean ALL modern countries are secular.

[Nbadan]

a tax system that favors the rich, a privatized healthcare system, etc. isn't some magical coincidence. Religion holds societies back from progression.

But the people have the power, the vote, to change Government....that is the ultimate irony in the melodrama that plays out in this forum everyday...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

But the people have the power, the vote, to change Government....that is the ultimate irony in the melodrama that plays out in this forum everyday...

My point exactly....the people have the power but they don't change anything because their pastor tells them to vote for the guy who's pro-life and hates teh gays more.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

And people don't even have the power anymore. The jeebo baby boomers took the power out of the American people's hands by voting for Reagan and Bush who gave America to corporations and banks (yay for me, for you).

[Nbadan]

If you're trying to say America isn't a modern country that only proves my point even more since that would mean ALL modern countries are secular.

Your getting into stuff that has been argued since the very creation of our nation....clearly, most of the fore fathers knew how religion could corrupt government, that's why they adopted the separation clause....but 80-90% of our 'modern society' believes in some supreme being and that belief influences legislation...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

So now you're agreeing that modern societies shouldn't be religious.....?

I feel an "I was just trolling!" card being pulled shortly.

[Nbadan]

My point exactly....the people have the power but they don't change anything because their pastor tells them to vote for the guy who's pro-life and hates teh gays more.

My Pastor does not talk about politics..but people vote along with their ideological beliefs..the only thing that challenges those beliefs is education...

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

My Pastor does not talk about politics..but people vote along with their ideological beliefs..the only thing that challenges those beliefs is education...

Which is why America's educational system is deteriorating.....Christians don't want people to get educated and learn evil things like the theory of evolution and math. The less experience people get thinking logically, the stronger religion is.

[Nbadan]

So now you're agreeing that modern societies shouldn't be religious.....?

I feel an "I was just trolling!" card being pulled shortly.

Whether I agree with this or not is immaterial, modern society is religious...and it does help to define peoples ideological, and consequently, political beliefs...