>I'm just not on the internet 24/7 like apparently you expect.
Fair enough. I retract the taunt.
>Again, that is catholicism which is a pagan cult.
They all do it. The trick candles thing was last used in Eastern Orthodox churches. Out west they have talking in tongues and faith healing using the same crippled man every time. Mormons have magic hats, golden tablets, and secret handshakes. It's disappearing because too many people have cameras.
>everyone knows God exists and just pushes that truth down
Even if that's true, what makes you think the Jews were the one that got it right? Why not the Norse/German pagans. Or the Roman/Greek pantheon? If you want holy symbols, the swastika predates the Christian cross by 16000 years (longer than the earth supposedly existed per biblical chronology). What about neo-Platonism, or Stoicism, or Epicureanism? What makes the bible special other than that it was the last one standing? Isn't following it exactly the same logic as saying the allies won WW2, so they were correct?
Well there are a lot of charlatans who make a mockery of Christianity that's true I'm the first to say those people and their followers are retarded. Judaism is the same as all the other religions, Christianity is very different though. Basically all the world religions can be boiled down to do these things, and you get these other things. Whether the end goal is janna, nirvana, or whatever other made up destination they want to go to, the idea is you follow a list of rules, do certain things and don't do others and you get to go there. The Christian system says that we are unable to attain God's favor, have committed crimes against His law, and deserve death for our crimes. No amount of walking old ladies across the street or feeding the homeless can erase a murderer's actions in man's court, so it definitely won't fly in God's court. We all know that and know its a good thing, murderers and rapists need to be punished and they can't ever 'work off' that debt, they must just be put to death. The problem is, God's standard is much higher and includes lying, stealing, and other things. We know those are wrong by our conscience though. So if we are guilty, there is nothing we can do to earn innocence. It doesn't matter how much money you give to some statue of a dead person, how many vain repetitions of some nonsense prayers you say, you're still guilty. That is why eastern orthodoxy, mormonism, catholicism, and all the other world religions are wrong. You need God's mercy. The only way we can be forgiven by a just God is if the punishment is put on another so justice is still satisfied, that is what happened on the cross. That is why Christianity is different. All the other religions say do these things to get right with God. Christianity says God already did this to make you right with Him, now live this way out of gratitude.
Polytheistic religions don't make sense, how can there be anything but one ultimate uncaused first cause? And if all the systems are wrong, how did everything get here?
I think you will find that the bible has supernatural insight into the human condition. Not to mention, lots of religions are started for gain. If I was going to start a religion, I would say that everyone has to do what I say, I get to have as many wives as I want, give me money etc. Islam lets you marry up to 4 women, mandates percentage based giving. In fact, most religions have this kind of thing because they are self serving. Why would the writers of the bible create a system that is self sacrificial and self denying?
>Polytheistic religions don't make sense, how can there be anything but one ultimate uncaused first cause? And if all the systems are wrong, how did everything get here?
That's the atheist argument. The difference between an atheist and a monotheist is that the former believes the first cause is something extremely simple (energy) while the latter believes it's something of the greatest possible complexity (God). Seeing how nature almost always goes from simple to complex, and how simple things are easier to form than complex, it's much more likely that the former occurred than the latter.
>In fact, most religions have this kind of thing because they are self serving. Why would the writers of the bible create a system that is self sacrificial and self denying?
First, the various Christian movements have a long history of being self serving. They may not have been personally enriching to everyone involved, but many did get personally rich from it, and as an organization it got steadily richer until the kings started seizing church property. This alone means as an organization they had a steady internal motive to keep going like any corporation does.
Second, self-sacrifice is a heroic virtue that instinctively appeals to all northerners because it's a survival trait. This is why the Greeks sang of Achilles and Odysseus for a thousand years after their real life inspiration died, and why the Romans still proudly remember the Horatii brothers long after the city they saved had fallen. The Spartans, the Teutons, and the Stoic philosophers all took pride in living a life without luxury or wealth, just as the Persians taught their children to "ride, shoot, and speak the truth". All of these things are mild forms of self sacrifice, while holding up as an ideal an ultimate self sacrifice, largely because they owed their very survival to it. Religions to survive usually have to have some good in them. The Christian who is told to be fruitful and multiply will outcompete the Darwinist who doesn't even in the one criteria by which a Darwinist judges success.
The problem is Christianity has no self-consistent way to resolve problems or enforce a coherent view. If faction P doesn't like C, P will split off, then if A doesn't like P, the same, and now you're left with a mess of thousands of denominations all preaching something different, with little collective power to resist cultural changes. This is why truth is more important than faith.
There is the standard of the bible and we can reject anyone who doesn't follow it, either to be self serving or follow the changing winds of culture. The most famous and popular 'churches' go along with culture, but there is a small core that is very fundamentalist.
Well again, yes, plenty of people have used Christianity for gain but being true to the bible, it is not actually gainful. The bible says true followers of Christ will be hated by the world and persecuted, so we can tell the ones getting rich, famous, and well liked by the world are charlatans. My point is that there are people who call themselves Christian, but are actually as Christian as a tranny is a woman.
Yes it is hard to understand how God could just exist, but if there is no God, who designed everything around us? It all clearly has design, so it actually makes the most sense that the mind who is above all existed eternally. Atheists think an explosion created order, defying thermodynamics, then randomly complex life just started. I am a biologist and honestly evolution is laughable when you get down to the mechanics of it. Even in their worldview, who created the energy?
Perhaps most damning to the atheists worldview, how can they give account for morality, right and wrong, and truth? If there is no God, there is no standard of objectivity, truth, and morality. To even have this discussion, we need to have laws of logic, which are only absolute and usable if there is a God who is the standard. We have a conscience that tells us there is right and wrong, we all know it and don't need to be taught that, though society does shape the conscience.
(post is archived)