Religious Debate.

[MUTEscifan31W]

Not exactly.

Religious debates seem to be really popular here. Atheism, Christianity. Who's right, who's wrong. I was reading through one, just to see what people were saying, and most of the comments were completely one sided. Not to mention the comments were short and had nothing backing them up. There are comments of the like from both sides of the discussion and in other discussions other than religion.

Example:

There is no god. I don't need to believe in something fake. It's ridiculous and I don't like Christians trying to force their religion down my throat.

...I'm not sure how exaggerated that is. That's an example of the majority of atheistic comments. To stay unbiased I would like to present the basic Christian comment.

If you don't believe in God you will go to hell. God is the way. God, God, God, Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit.

...I'm not as good at the Christian... Also exaggerated, but it gets my point across. The Atheist example is a stereotype. A stereotype based off of the Christian example.

"Good girls don't/rarely make history." I forget if it's don't or rarely, but that doesn't really matter. The thing is that it is a good example of how a stereotype comes about. If bad girls are the only ones who make history, then people will come to think that all girls are like the bad ones.
People think of Christians as religious nuts who only want to cram their religion upon them. I admit, some are nuts, but because we only hear about the nuts everyone thinks all Christians are like this. Have you ever met a Christian that wasn't forceful? Maybe, maybe not, but you don't know because they weren't shoving religion in your face.
Atheists are stubborn arrogant jerks who only want to put down the religious groups? No, but those are the only one's we've heard about.
Muslims are terrorists? No. But who did we hear about? The ones who bombed the towers. (Too early? Doubt it, it's been 8 years-- give or take)

Basically what I am getting at is: Why is there so much world suck on website dedicated to decreasing world suck? Are you dedicated to decreasing world suck or are you only here to argue with people?

I don't mind reading a discussion on religion as long as the debaters are supporting their statements in a kindly manner. If you are against an idea don't say the other person is wrong, just state your disagreement and explain why. I'm sure there are many people here on the Ning that will agree with me.

[Fatccccchhhhen Khalifa]

First: You mention that putting faith on the line is the whole point of religion. Unfortunately, while I understand that that's the reasoning behind religion, it doesn't, strictly speaking, explaint he purpose. To the contrary, it seems completely illogical to believe in something lacking in evidence. Human belief, contrary to popular opinion, is usually centered around ockham's razor, coupled with ignorance of science. Why does it rain? The gods do it! What are the sparkly things in the sky at night? Giant mythical creatures thrown into the sky! How was the universe created? By a deity, of course!

who's 'dense' now buddy?

 

ur really stupid you know? 

your supposed to ask me to prove the existence of god not the existence of jesus... because when i do prove the existence of jesus, you'd still be left with: what if jesus is some crackpot who wrote the bible? 

wow, and i thought you actually had reasonable doubt. 

 

but if you must insist...

 

the writings of josephus prove that jesus was in fact a real man, oh and the writings of the disciples.

and the writings of those tax collectors who personally knew him back then. 

 

ALL of these writings and inscriptions and stuff tell you that he was the same jesus who was a rabbi and a carpenter. 

 

I dont know what more to tell you... you might as well ask me for a passport... 

 

how do you prove the existence of einstein or leonardo da vinci? 

 

there is more evidence out there supporting jesus christ's existence than YOURS. 

 

really cut him some slack man... its not like you can really get anymore evidence for a carpenter who started talking about a supposed 'christianity'. 

 

[Josh Braun]

what if jesus is some crackpot who wrote the bible?

 

Jesus didn't write the bible, and neither did God. It was a group of people and their works were revised and translated over the next hundred or two-hundred years.

 

As for your last point, I could write tons of stuff proving that a made up person exist from multiple peoples points of view and my tax collectors would keep track of this made up person that I created. How do you know that's not the case of Jesus?

[Fake Crowley]

ur really stupid you know?

 

Somehow, you don't have me convinced.

 

your supposed to ask me to prove the existence of god not the existence of jesus... because when i do prove the existence of jesus, you'd still be left with: what if jesus is some crackpot who wrote the bible?

 

...Didn't you just say that you couldn't prove the existance of God but could prove the existance of Jesus? *slow clap* If you're a troll, then you're doing a good job at it. If not...well, then may God help you.

 

the writings of josephus prove that jesus was in fact a real man, oh and the writings of the disciples.

and the writings of those tax collectors who personally knew him back then.

 

I don't trust the disciples because they were biased as all hell, and I'll have to look into Josephus. Never heard about the tax collectors, though. Link please?

 

how do you prove the existence of einstein or leonardo da vinci?

 

Documented, reliable evidence. A ridiculous amount of it. Not just one Josephus dude and the possibility of a few tax guys who can prove that a guy named Y'shua was a rabbi.

 

there is more evidence out there supporting jesus christ's existence than YOURS.

 

You have no idea whatsoever how wrong you are.

 

really cut him some slack man... its not like you can really get anymore evidence for a carpenter who started talking about a supposed 'christianity'.

 

You're contradicting yourself.

[MadameX]

Part of the problem is that people log on to online forums and automatically decorum goes out the window. go on yahooanswers and you'll see its 1000 times worse than here. In general, society just needs to learn to accept others' viewpoints, whether they agree with them or not, and debate in a civil manner.

[Peter Medeiros]

Yeah, there was an article on NPR recently about precisely that, how decorum on forums just doesn't matter on the internet. It was in response to a bunch of comments on an NPR article about a journalist who was sexually assaulted in Egypt for the better part of an hour, and some of the stuff people said about it... let's just say it's the sort of thing that would get you hit if you tried saying in a public forum. Really despicable stuff.

[Peter Medeiros]

By "really despicable" I mean "really ignorant and sexist and racist."

[Peter Medeiros]

Yeah. I'm all about theological debate, but I'm getting kind of tired of the massive number of religious debates on here. I'm a Christian, but I'm not going to ramming my spirituality down anyone's throat... Wouldn't that defeat the point? But I think you're right on, that the forum has been clogged of late with a bit of worldsuck thanks to people on both sides getting a little too dramatic.

[Ali M]

I'm an atheist but I was raised Christian so I still go to church with my mom sometimes. I'm not going to go around tell people that they're wrong about their religion because how the hell do I know? Personally, I believe that the concept of god is invalid because I don't see the solid evidence in it, but I don't exactly have valid proof either. However, if someone tries to shove their religion down my throat and try to tell me I'm wrong I will fight back. I'm not going to take shit like that.