God does not exist

Interesting but again what you fail to realize is that mutual respect is a Christian principle and thus those who have mutual respect for others are living within Christian principles. I mean, where do you think the phrase "do on to others what you would have them do on to you" comes from?

It is pretty obvious that you are not very familiar with what the Bible actually says.

If anyone makes the statement: “I love God,” and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should be loving his brother also. (1 John 4:20-21)

 

No, it is not.

Their religion yes but that was not how God asked us to worship him.

In large numbers or small numbers, if they follow Bible principles they can not be monsters.

Just because the majority of religions and philosophies do not follow God's principles does not mean that no religion does.

That is kind of the way it works. What can I say, robbing, stealing, rape and murder just aren't God's will.

Well maybe for you but that is not God has asked us to do.

 

What religion were the settlers?

Historian William E. Weeks has noted that three key themes were usually touched upon by advocates of Manifest Destiny:

1.the virtue of the American people and their institutions;
2.the mission to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the United States.; and
3.the destiny under God to do this work.

 

Did someone call me?

 

Thank allah i'm muslim

 

Just because someone calls themselves an astronaut doesn't make them an astronaut and just because someone calls them self a Christian, that doesn't make them a Christian. Also just because someone says they have a destiny under God to do this work, that doesn't mean they are doing God's work. People lie you know.

 

Well it boils down to my original point. Whether God exists or not is irrelevant, since the world works the same regardless of one's belief or disbelief. So, the assumption that there is no God is equivalent to the assumption that there is, except that it removes one motivation to be an asshole.

 

I'm afraid it appears different.

 

I'm not being an asshole just because I don't feel like paying lip service to a fruitless question that has plagued mankind for eons. We as a species just enjoy blowing hundreds of generations on this kind of thing. Doesn't obligate me to agree.

 

I didn't mean just you with that. It counts for most agressive atheists on here. Really, they have proven that such motivations are not limited to those who believe in God :biggrin:

 

I have a resentment towards religion that few people understand. Tune away now if you don't want to risk burning in the fires of hell forever out of god's supposedly infinite love.

Believe what you want, the only thing I ask is... please don't screw up your kids. Let them make their own choices after they've become adults.

Teaching a child that there's a magic invisible sky dictator? That's stealing a child's ability to reason. No matter how well intentioned, the damage is most often permanent. They do it to kids because they can, and because after all only child minds fall for religious doctrine.

I think parents should respect their children enough to wait until they're 18 before trying to sell them on the talking snake or the necessity of bloody human sacrifice (because gawwwwd made us defective, after all).

Once upon a time I kept my mouth shut, but since the Republican Party of the USA is ramming christianity down everyone's throats... NO.

Just my opinion.

 

I think you are exaggerating. Of course it happens and has happened a lot but the majority of people raised with those teachings appear to be perfectly able to reason. I know so because I see it a lot (the majority of people I know are perfectly alright and raised with the belief in Jesus, most do not belief in Jesus anymore btw) and a lot of great reasonable thinkers in the past were raised with the christian religion.
So it is unfortunate this belief in a magic invisible sky dictator has scarred other peeps (I was not raised to view God like that btw, He was more loving so it appears to differ greatly HOW exactly you are teached) but it does not make religion a bad thing by definition and to get on topic again, it certainly doesn't say anything about the existence of a higher being...

I personally think waiting to teach your kids about religion when they're around 18 is a great idea by the way. But please see the things for what they are and not judge the whole thing because kids are raised with their parents religion. Not all christians are so from birth. But yes, it would be great if none of them were so out of cultural tradition but instead out of personal adult faith.

 

the most horrible thing my parents did was have me -
as an 8yr old - watch a hellish , brutal film documentary
of the ww2 german death camps .

i shot the tv .

then it took a decent lsd trip to help my
mythological story mind be ok again .

 

Once again, your reasoning is faulty. Yes, the world "works the same" regardless of one's belief or disbelief but that does not make whether God exists or not irrelevant and in fact has no bearing on on God's existence at all.

Here you make the assumption that belief in God is a motivation "to be an asshole" which is not proven and you have shown no causal link between the two, in fact you show the opposite in that the removal of that "assumption" in your case has not prevented you from becoming one.

 

Also, one might ask what other things we should prevent our children learning about until they are 18?

What parents don't teach their children others surely will.

Actually, I feel sorry for you, because from your comment, it appears that you have never been introduced to true Christianity.

 

Oh Believe you me, I'm well aware.

 

Christianity

 

In my opinion, nothing could do a kid a greater disservice than to let him or her grow up without a strong grounding in moral values. It's naive to think that children can get by until age 18 in the world we live in without a moral foundation, and then use reason to develop one. Children acquire good values from parents who love them, set a good example, provide discipline without being abusive and arbitrary about it, and impart common sense and good judgment, along with rules. Nobody develops good values without training, and parents are usually the first agents on the scene who can do this. We don't want kids to learn about sex on the streets, or about drugs from the dope peddlers. And the values come largely from society. Parents are important agents of the process sociologists call "socialization" in which we all acquire the basic values of our society.

So where does religion fit in? For many parents, religion and morals seem inseparable. I think atheists can be excellent parents, as long as they have good morals themselves and take the job of imparting them to their kids seriously. It would be asking the impossible to expect parents who are believers to keep their religion to themselves, while trying to impart morality. Hopefully, this can be done without the mind crippling effects of narrow, anti-rational beliefs that stifle inquiry. I was raised Christian, and am a Christian, but I don't think this renders me incapable of rational thought. By the way, what should an atheist parent do when the kid comes home from school or the playground with tales about how Jesus loves them? Straighten them out, or say nothing until they're 18?

And we can't escape distinguishing among religions. What goes into our minds or our kids minds can make an enormous difference in how we and they relate to the world. If we have a fear-based, demon haunted worldview and impart that to our children, we're giving them a mind crippling disease that they can pass on to their children. But not all Christianity is like that, by any means. I think more should be done to combat viral memes before they infect the rest of the population. By that, I mean encouraging knowledge, reason, and science as best we can.

 

It's almost impossible for parents not to instill their value system into their children.

Also, it seems like a huge assumption to say that billions of people are having their minds warped while the minority are all peachy keen. Majority of the world believe in some god and many are pretty sharp cookies and decent individuals.

If the Christians shouldn't teach their children about god then atheists by principal should not teach anything about atheism; let the kids decide. And isn't that what most people do anyway? People have their own minds and I believe many have the ability to decide for themselves what they think.

I think you would be hard pressed to try to go to child protective services if what you really thought was actually child abuse. But of course you wouldn't do that because you know that thinking isn't true. You'd think that experts in child psychology would have concluded that value systems and faith to be damaging to a child's well being.

That's just me.