"I'll pray for you"

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:37:30 GMT

Christians often wonder why people get so angry when they say they'll pray for atheists or people from other religions. Pray for them to see the light of christ before they die, so they may be saved from hellfire.

So let me explain to you why this is offensive:

It's arrogant. It's saying: "You are a poor fool who's wasting his life, and I am above you. I'll extend my hand and save you, you little sinning worm."
I know you think you're...

"The Seed of the Woman would overcome the seed of the serpent" - Prophecy?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:11:41 GMT

So here's one dubious supposed prophecy in the bible, and my comments to it:

LottaLou:
Jesus was the promised Savior prophesied in Genesis3:15. The Seed of the Woman would overcome the seed of the serpent. Jesus, being born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit, was the Seed of the Woman. And was tempted like the woman when tempted by the...

What did Jesus look like?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:06:06 GMT

So many people claim to have had visions of Jesus, which is very interesting when you consider the fact that the real Jesus probably looks nothing like they imagined. Jesus was a first century jew. There's no way he had pretty white skin (in fact, with the hygiene they had at the time, he probably had at least some zits and whatnot), a neatly trimmed goatee beard (full beard seems a more likely candidate) and supposedly it wasn't in fashion at the time to have long hair. The bible...

"Star of Bethlehem": Astronomy proves Christianity?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:04:14 GMT

There is a DVD (and a site accompanying it: http://www.bethlehemstar.net/) which claim to use astronomy of the time during Jesus' birth and death to prove christianity:
(Skip the first five parts if you want. The real info starts on Part 6)

Part 1

Jesus fulfilled the prophecies?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:00:50 GMT

Continuing a conversation I'm having:

Mithcoriel:

People who wrote about the life of Jesus knew he had to fulfill these prophecies to be the messiah, so they just added these pieces in. How can you take it as proof that he "fulfilled the prophecies" when you have no proof he really fulfilled them?

So the prophecy implies the saviour comes from Bethlehem, but oh bugger, Jesus came from Nazareth. "No problem," the...

Jesus thought the end was near!

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:58:51 GMT

One of the reasons why I don't believe the christian bible and doubt the divinity of Jesus, is cause Jesus very evidentally thought the world would end in a few decades. He told his disciples he'd be back within their lifetimes! How's that for credibility.

LottaLou:

Jesus never said the world (earth) would end in a few decades.

Well, thanks for asking.^_^ Here are the...

Bible codes!

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:53:46 GMT

If you've never heard of the bible codes, this video will explain to you what they are and why they're bogus. The reason I'm making this thread is cause someone I'm talking to still insists that..

LottaLou:

I know some of the bible codes out there are bogus. Not ALL of them are. The one regarding the Torah is NOT. It's wisdom to put secret...

Is "feeling the holy spirit" or some other god proof he's there?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:47:01 GMT

So, I was chatting with a person named LottaLou, and I thought I'd move the conversation here.
Let me paraphrase her claims, please correct me if I missed something:
She claims she feels the holy spirit inside her. And she doesn't just blindly follow church leaders, because the spirit always confirms to her who's right and who isn't. She also points out sometimes it tells her things she doesn't like, as proof that it's not just her own mind she's...

Prove your religion is right

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:40:54 GMT

Alright, I keep hearing fundamentalists - muslims as well as christians - insist that they have absolute proof their religion is the truth, and that anyone who believes differently is deluded or mislead by satan. This is getting on my nerves, so I'm making a thread about it. Here you have plenty of space to really properly prove your religion is right, without any excuses. My view is that you can't prove a religion right (or wrong) at all, so let's see how you do it.

...

Atheism or Anti-religiousness?

feeds@yuku.com (LTreshan) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:18:33 GMT

1. Aren't many people confusing atheism with anti-religiousness? and
2. are all atheist people necessarily bound to be anti-religious?

A-theism in its strict sense means "without God", but not "against God (Anti-theist?)" or "against Religion".

Do you get the impression that certain people call themselves "atheists" merely to express their "antitheism" and anti-religious attitudes?

3. Aren't these...

Religious symbols: artifacts or fashion items?

feeds@yuku.com (LTreshan) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:25:31 GMT

This is actually a series of questions related to wearing or depicting religious symbols in public. Most democracies on this planet recognize the right to freedom of religion, and thus allow people exercising their faiths to freely carry religious symbols. However, not all locations fully allow this, and certain debates arise when one is not allowed to wear these symbols in certain premises, or when one is granted the right to wear certain items.
...

Near-death experiences

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:01:49 GMT

When asked to prove their religion is true, people tend to point to near-death experiences, where someone saw images of the Christian worldview. However, it seems these experiences are in no way convincing, and science already has explanations for them:

Here is an interesting article about that, which, unfortnately, is in German. So I translated it below. I...

Why does God allow evil in the world?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:33:08 GMT

That has to be one of the most common questions by sceptics of religion: If God exists, and he's supposedly so nice and loving and all, why does he allow so many tragedies to happen on earth?

Well here's my take on this, of course it's just an oppinion:
One thing's for sure: God (assuming he/she exists, of course) is certainly not exactly the way he's depicted in children's stories, the kind of guy who sees the world the way humans do, caring about every...

Does "moderate" belief in a religion exist?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 14:43:24 GMT

I just watched this video here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMip5bcaMao&feature=related
Summary: The author of the video doesn't think it's possible to be a moderate christian. Either you're a fundamentalist, who follows all the teachings of christianity (i.e. all non-believers go to hell, you must convert others..) or you don't believe in it at all. You...

Hell: kind of a cruel belief, don't you think?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:23:04 GMT

(First of all, here's a lovely little joke video on the subject.)

As you know, some religions believe that people who have done evil in their lives, or believed in the wrong things, will end up in hell after death, a place of eternal suffering, often depicted with flames and lots of torture.
I wanna challenge that idea, and argue against it a bit. I know, that's tricky,...

"Pagan rituals, how silly!"

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:29:58 GMT

I sometimes hear people calling pagans ridiculous. For example in this video by creationists, where in part 5:47-6:22, they try to denounce evolution by mentioning the idea had "rather embarassing roots" in paganism, where they believe in "ridiculous" things such as the earth goddess etc.
And I also heard people make fun of the passionate way in which

God's many faces: All religions true?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:49:23 GMT

All over the world, you'll find people who believe in one or more deities that are benevolent, powerful, and want to help all creatures. The believers do their best to lead a good life, helping and loving their neighbours, and trying not to do evil things such as stealing, killing, etc.

But the gods have many different shapes and personalities everwhere in the world. What do we conclude from this? Well, there are two possibilities:
a) All religions except mine are false...

Is Religion stupid?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:23:16 GMT

Something I see atheist say/write every now and then:

After you've told them you're atheist: "Congratulations! That means you're capable of free thinking!"
Or variations of that, like this joke video with an "intelligence test" where, if you specify any religion, the outcome is "you are very stupid", and the only way to finish the test with...

Can the Bible be trusted?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 06:40:05 GMT

(I made the title a bit provocative, to lure both fundamentalists and atheists here, sorry. ^_^ I'm talking about the Christian bible, by the way. I don't know enough about the Qu'ran and the others yet.)

One thing that bothers me is that there are many fundamentalists who insist that the bible should be taken completely literally, as the word of God, and that everything in it still applies to the present day. But there are so many violent, intolerant, unscientific and...

Agnosticism - Good or cowardly?

feeds@yuku.com (Mithcoriel) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:18:13 GMT

I'm an agnostic, meaning I think all religions are equal, and no belief is better than another. I like to believe in things from various religions.
Now, thing is, I'm often told that I'm just too cowardly/lazy to make up my mind. What's your take on this?

Well I think:
I see nothing wrong with mixing religions, or only accepting part of a religion and dismissing other parts. E.g. I'm a christian, but I tend to take care of work on sundays,...