Is Christianity nonsense?

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its impossible to create a precise map without knowing that the earth is round, something vigilans already mentioned.

so as the devils advocate why did he in this cae [god] as a ageneral concept of divinity, spread or endorse the spread of misinformation about these subjects, many religions include communication with these deities and as such there should have been every chance to correct at least that mistake.

my main issue with actually lending credence to any of this is that even if you do only more, and more serious, problems arise.

Second day of philosophy class and we're already discussing the existence of God. I myself am an atheist, but I know that the true existence of a God cannot be empirically proved or disproved, at least at this point.

Arguments for the existence of God:
-Prime Mover argument: There has to be something that created everything. What made all the matter that expanded during the Big Bang?
-St. Anselm's ontological argument: God is the greatest thing that we know exists in our minds. Things that exist in reality and our minds are always greater than things that exist in our minds alone. Therefore, God exists in reality.
-Watchmaker's argument: Everything is so ordered and perfect that it had to be the work of a creator.

Arguments against the existence of God (besides science):
-If God loves everyone, why do horrible things happen to innocent people for no reason?
-Paradox of omnipotence: Can God create something that destroys himself?
-The world isn't nearly as perfect as a true God would have intended it to be.

Believing without argument:
-Pascal's Wager: It is smarter to believe in God than not to, because if you do, you will be rewarded should your beliefs be true, but nothing will happen if there happens to be no God. (To which I say, "what if another religion is true?")

Also, there are many definitions to consider. What do people consider to be God? Is he a person? A being? A thing? If so, what is a thing, and what is a being? What exactly did he create? How much control does he have over things on Earth?

...And so on.

Believing in God can cause suffering from unnecessary guilt, worry and neurosis. There is a cost to believing.

Believing in a non-existent God can cause one's mind to malfunction.

ruveyn

Not usually the case in modern times... Believing in an appropriate religion makes people at ease, since they "know" (believe) what will happen to them when they die, instead of having to fear the unknown. The Three Imponderables, for them, are answered: Why am I here, where do I come from, and where do I go when I die. Religion only becomes detrimental if people get overly hung up on it, or if it is used to manipulate other believers, or if it results in social exclusion or genocide.

Alternatively referred to as the celestial guy bowel movement theory



I always knew I was God



Nobody even wears watches anymore. Checkmate



Because... he loves them.



More importantly, could he create so much KFC chicken that the universe implodes in a delicious Big Crunch™?





The world actually is perfect in the mind of God, we puny mortals need to quit our whining



Exactly. Should one also believe in Hinduism, Bábism and Zoroastrianism, just to be safe?



BLASPHEMY!! !

@Vigilans:

I appreciate your injection of humor into this thread!

Nothing is completely nonsense. I see Jesus as a symbol for loving others to the very end, even in the face of death and utter rejection. If this facet of it is nonsensical, then I have little hope for this world.

When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized that I was talking to myself.












(A quote by Peter O'Toole in "The Ruling Class".)

Well, your own ego isn't god, but I think there's a divine spark present in all of us and all things. Yah, maybe people who pray are talking to their selves, but that might just be how they work their problems out. I'd rather be dependent on self contained ideas, like God, than other people or external objects.












(A quote by Peter O'Toole in "The Ruling Class".)[/quote]

The concept of Original Sin is the main absurdity of Christianity. There is nothing in Scripture that establishes the existence of an inheritable sin. Everyone's sin is their own, the result of their own doings and decisions. Children do not inherit sin from their parents although they could acquire bad habits from their parents. That is why we must be careful about how we raise our children.

ruveyn

Whether the legend behind its origins is true or not in a historical sense, I think its just an observation that the world is screwed up, we all grow up and do crappy things to each other, there's a tendency for atrophy, and humans are born behind a veil of ignorance and confusion.

I think even the story in the fruit in the garden of eden has value in a metaphorical sense. We were all born innocent, we grow into adulthood and loose that innocence, we indulge in the fruits of the flesh and bare children, we get kicked out of the garden of childhood where we have to toil as adults, and we die.

I think the Garden story is just a basic observation at the state of things, but what's important is how we approach the hand were given as human beings. The second birth is the wisdom that comes with age or can come with it. Not everyone goes through it, but for those that do, they gain a better perspective on life, all its adversities, all its wonders, and become content in it. Just as the veil of your mothers womb is lifted in the first birth, in the second, the veil of confusion and ignorance is lifted.

So, if the crucifixion being the most painful form of death is supposed to make the death of Jesus seem like more of a sacrifice, then couldn't it be possible that it was just a ploy from a sadistic being that is either posing as a god, or is a god, to make humans think it loves them? It would certainly be easy to create a puppet, name it Jesus, and then have it preach some good things, and then have it killed to make the Christian god seem like a loving being.

Also, about the response to "If god made the world why didn't he tell his flock that it was round?" Wouldn't the Christian god have known that such information was going to one day be important? Why not reveal this information anyway so that when the skeptics in the future looked through the Bible, they could see that it does describe laws about nature and existence that can be confirmed scientifically, instead of sounding like religious nonsense. Maybe it could explain the scientific method so the humans could learn to confirm that what the Bible says about the laws of nature is true.

I'm sure if the Christian god was really concerned about teaching morality, it would have at least set a better example. I mean, someone burning their children with fire for disobeying and doing bad things that the parents knew their children would do, is hardly moral. If the Christian god is perfect, then if I want to be like that god it probably means it's ok for me to become a father one day, for the purpose of having my kids worship me. I should also do good things for my kids for the purpose of giving them reasons to worship me and if they don't worship me, then I should have the right to burn them with fire for as long as I want, right?



I thought it said the Earth was a circle. A circle is definitely not a sphere.

Last edited by Alfonso12345 on 07 Sep 2012, 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Clearly, a circle exists on only 2 dimensions, but we exist in (at least) 3.

"Richard Dawkins: Evolution is 'not a controversial issue'"

Excerpt...

Landau: "If there were a God that met you after death, what would you say?"

Dawkins: "If I met God, in the unlikely event, after I died? The first thing I would say is, well, which one are you? Are you Zeus? Are you Thor? Are you Baal? Are you Mithras? Are you Yahweh? Which God are you, and why did you take such great pains to conceal yourself and to hide away from us?"