GlamourKat makes a good point.

If god created man, and if man is meant to die and go to heaven, then technically god kills everyone!

hahahah.....

No but I'm subliminally making a point to people who will visit this site as a result of the Blasphemy Challenge, who might be wondering why an atheist would ever commit himself to hell if there actually was one.

Look also at the number of people God has given life to as opposed to Satan. To be honest, I'd rather be created and *then* die, instead of never existing at all.

Besides, Christians believe that God has conquered death and has even better things in store in the next life, so if you believe he exists (I'm assuming you're saying he does as you accuse him of 'smiting' people), then there is nothing to fear about this life coming to an end (providing you haven't placed all of your values in it).

That sounds a little biased, since you already exist. Find me one non-existent person who minds not existing.

Okay. Do you believe it should be immoral to kill a Christian? You'd be doing them a favor, after all. (Start countdown until some dumbass thinks I'm endorsing killing Christians here...)

I believe you're not familiar with the debate tactic of assuming the other side's position to be true for the purposes of discussion, even if you don't believe that it is, in order to point out a flaw or contradiction inherent to that position. Sapient doesn't believe God killed those people, and it's probably safe to say he doesn't believe most of those victims ever existed in the first place.

Do you fear your life coming to an end, then?

Is it just me or...does it seem that God took a prozac before jumping into the NT. None of these deaths occur in that portion. Why the sudden case of bi-polar disorder?

Following those events...

O.T.: God gets bored and makes humanity, promptly loses it over a piece of produce and begins reign of fear and terror by inducing psychological harm to the populace. He begins by simultaneously mixing miracles and false hopes with destruction and murder by such horrible methods as making a man's "Bowels fall out" and commanding a two bear team to consume a town's fourty-two children for making fun of a bald man. The end result being an almost Stockholm Syndrome-like mass effect amongst the populace. At the time, according to the bible itself his presense could be physical or audible in nature, to one or more witnesses.

N.T.: God, quickly tiring of his new toy, sticks with the tried and true false hope shtick, makes a few promises of everlasting awesomeness and blahblah, and sends his PR guy/son to sort us all out and build the bridges (and towns, cities, armies, families, and even souls) he burned in the O.T. Unlike the O.T. however, God has not been seen or heard from since.

Even if any of it made enough sense for me to deem any of this possible, I still don't see why people who believe what this book says don't see God sauntering off to some other corner of existance as a good thing.

Come on. Less bowels falling out all over. I think everyone here can admit that's a positive no matter which side of the fence you're on.

Oh! Almost forgot. My reason(s) for why it's bad to die....The experience is less than desirable.

First off, there are no guarantees, and if you count the bible as defining proof of the afterlife, we have some talking to do about what real empirical evidence is. This lack of guarantees leads to a feeling of insecurity, terror and fear of the unknown. A rather primitive response.

Second, in case you haven't noticed, there's a good chance that shit's going to hurt like hell. The odds of a painless, sudden death against the odds of dying in any of the other billion ways is slim. Don't think your going out comfy.

Third, hypothetically, if you are correct about the existance of god, and we'll even go two steps further, that it's the Christian god and the only one to exist, then there is also a good chance one could end up in Hell. That place doesn't exactly invoke images of joy and happiness.

The Hell factor revolves around time of death, how you died, what you were doing when you died, where you were when you died, various levels of sin, your (non)belief in God, God's views on your people, God's opinion of your life (actions and inactions), God's current mood, whether or not Hell exists, and whether or not God exists.

Given the current situation where we are unable to entirely prove the (non)existance of God one way or another to any degree of universal acceptance, this leads once again to the possible experience of fear, terror and insecurity in a portion of the dying populace.

Those are my reasons for why experiencing the end-stages of dying is shitty. I will concede however that acutally being dead probably isn't that bad. Actually, it's probably a lot like standing around the watercooler in an office building. Kinda boring.

If you, or someone that you know is suffering from stockholm syndrome, get the facts at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

 Have a happy Secularmas!

/rant

You do have to keep in mind what the Bible says is the main reason for death: humans brought death into the world (Rom 5:12). Humanity killed us all. God/Jesus offers you new life, for FREE, he died  once for all and is the only one who can save us (Rom 5:17-18). Even if God killed so or so many, he's the one who gave life in the first place, he has the full rights to take it. But he doesn't, he wants us all to live and made it possible by dying himself.

There's nothing wrong with abortion. God in the Babble killed actual people, not just fetuses - and look how many miscarriages there are! If God exists, he's the greatest abortionist ever!

 The Greek word for the devil is diabolos (dia-bolos: throwing apart in two parts; splitting in two - note two*). Satan is a Hebrew word with etymology relating to the concept of opposition.

According to the rebellious interpretations, which existed throughout the history of religion, the Devil / Satan refers to human reason and the doubt* it creates. The endless dialogue that we maintain inside our heads; fear; calculations; the illusion of choice - this is Satan / Devil.

If you can't control your mind, you need somebody to blame. You chose what you were taught was Satan, but there are no external creatures - you are your own "heaven" or "hell".

Yes, I can read both ancient Greek and Hebrew.

--------------------
*note that doubt implies at least two viewpoints

Then why are you posting? You tell RRS what do to, thus violating your own "leave beliefs alone" policy. Hypocrite.

I do believe that there is evil exists because of free will, but I don't think that God has a "plan" that we are forced to follow. God can still allow free will and be all-knowing. We still have a choice, even if God already knows what choice we will make.

It truly saddens my heart to see all of these brilliant but clouded minds go to waste.

perhaps you all would be interested in looking into the brazillian pentecostal movement known as the "restauration assembly of god". as you have researched by bible a lot (i presume), you would know that the bible speaks of "true worshippers", if there is anyone that are the true worshippers the bible speaks of, it is these guys.

now, allow me to point out a few things. in order for you to understand God's works, you must first believe and understand that God has no reason to justify anything to anyone, yet he loves us, and ocne you understand how he works, he justifies andshowsyou everything in a new light, it is what thebible calls "true happiness". he IS THE omnipotent being, no one is more powerful then he is.

now onto the little list you have there of casualties. first off, God created all things, he "borrowed" life to all. itis his, and he has the right to takeit away at any one time. the bible speaks of men who were close to God's heart. what they expirienced cannot be hoped to be understood by any physical means. matters of the Father can only be understood through the knowledge given from God to the one's he choses to give to.

try and look at things in the view that God would see it. everything is yours, you have created all, you can do anything that you so desire. why wouldn't you? we as humans cannot comprehend why god would choose to even allow us to live when he is so powerful and could simply obliterate all things? it is because HE is love, he is good, he is kindness, he is the friend you need in lonely moments.

the bible explicitely pretells the future to those who gain understanding from the Father. the bible speaks of thinkgs which occur today, very explicitely, closely linking it to the end.

allow me to ask you a few questions. if there is no God, then surely there would be no devil. correct? if so, where would have evil have come from, if not from satan?

if there is no god, there is no creator right? then explain to m how the universe came to be? EVERYTHING has a beggining, even if perhaps thereisno end, there is always a beggining. and if you wish to imply thebigbang theory, who created that infinitely small point in which the universe was contracted in? who caused the "tick" that sent everything flying to create the universe? and if you wish to imply that the universe is infinite, and thatis has always existed, what was there before time, before infinity?

who created everything? how can things come to be from nothing if there is no creator? chance? create planet out of nothing and i will believe you.

and EVEN if you choose to tihnk that religion is wrong and incorrect, realize that it keeps balance in the world for the most part. it makes people live happy lives, which even if the values they live by were lies, it gives thema happy life, and forthe most part a content death. the definition of a human being is to seek, to learn, to try and understand. once someone finds an explanation for all that was formerly unexplained, he experiences true balance, equilibrium of all between himself and life, THIS is true happiness.

i too, was once an atheist. however i met God, and he took me in toshow me great wonders of his works. God's wonderfulness must be felt by one's self to be understood, it cannot be described.

i have had many experiences with the Father and time after time, he confirms his existence to me in manners rather alarming. often he reveals the future to me, visions occur to me quite often as well. one who does not understand such things might say they are just "imagination", and any connection between such things and occurences in the future are pure coincidence. you could say that, or you could realize that the odds of you knowing exactly what is going to happen in the next hour without no one ever informing you of it is probrably less then 10 $100 bills to fly into your window and land on your keyboard right now.

a few more words. God is justice, anyone which he might have "killed" as you call it, was delt as form of punishment for the crimes they committed. and as you claim, satan killed 10 people. what you failed to realize, is that satan gotall of those souls which God dealt justice to, and he has been torturing them in hell ever since. which is the crime? to deal a swift death to a wrongdooer, or torture him for all eterny because of it?

if there is no God, there is no satan, correct?

and if there is no satan, whois driving you so fiercily to oppose the religion which worships the one god who created everything, loves everyone, and gives everyone a secound chance? not to mention giving his child to be slaughtered on earth. if you are a parent you know what this would be like.

i will pray for all of you tonight, and i hope the father touches your heart and shows you the true path in life.

______________________________________________

pardon the typos or glued words which i missed, im only 15 years old, don't type that well.

i just saw the "blasphemy challenge.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY DO NOT SAY THAT!

you are damning yourself to eternal torture and pain! how can anyone be so blind! in the instructional video it even said so blatantly. i weep bitterly for the souls which have been thrown away due to that video. 

people will believe what they want to believe, whether athiest or religious, most of the time its because it suits them and makes life that easier to bear.

we also have to realise that we dont have a monopoly on knowledge, every generation that has gone by thought it was brainer that the generation previous, and the goes for us today, we dont know everything, maybe one day certian questions will be answered but just because we dont understand them now we should not dismiss them as false or falicy whatever our beliefs.

for instance, at one time the general opinion of the brains of the time thought the earth was flat, but we all know differently as time progressed and so did technology and understanding of the universe and earth.

Interesingly isaiah 40:22 says that the earth is round. how did he know that? he lived about the 8th century b.c.

one thing is for sure, all christian religions are divided in their beliefs and interpretation of various scriptures, why?? surely if they took out all the dogma and tradition and doctrine and also personal opinion out the scriptures and looked at the original writings, things maybe more clearer and less confusing. But unfortunately many of their followers like that kinda stuff and so there will always be friction between them.

i dont know much about the muslim faith but from what i see from recent events they too are divided in their interpretation of the scriptures, this is my personal observation.

many( not all) athiests are put of religion because of religion, they claim to represent god yet they act like the scriptures mean nothing or are pretty stories or they twist/change scriptures to suit their needs. athiests may also not like to think they maybe answerable to a higher being for the way they live their lives.

me, i look around see what man is and has done on the earth and the future frightens me, if this is all there is then the human race is truly doomed, now or way in the future, if this is what evolution has brought then it also has failed, we should be getting better not worse.

i would rather believe in god and be proven wrong on my deathbed than believe in nothing and be proven wrong on my deathbed.

there is nothing wrong in believing in god, it is religions interpretation of what THEY think god  wants us to do,not what god wants us to do, what is wrong.

also actions speak louder than words, do they practice what they preach with regard to the bibles opinion of murder, adultery, stealing etc.

you should not murder yet christian countries go to war and sometimes in the so called name of god kill other christians, that to me is hypocritical.

cant be bothered writing more at the mo but will latter, got me tea to get

First of all -  

This is not a false or made-up statistic, there are many accounts of women who have had an abortion and regretted their decision later due to the physical and emotional distress it caused them.  Yes, I have read or watched them myself.

Also, do you honestly believe that because miscarriages happen that there is nothing wrong with abortion?  Isn't that like saying that because death happens there is nothing wrong with murder?  If you want to have a flippin point of view, you might want to try to base it on fact.

I'm not here to tell anyone how to think, but you may want to consider that there are certain aspects of Christianity or the world that we feeble humans were not meant to understand, cannot possibly fathom, and simply must accept - and I do based on faith.  Also, do any of you RSS actually believe that God owes anyone ANY explanation for the evil and suffering that exists in this world?  

I happen to concern myself much more with what will happen to me after my (physical) death than my shortass life in this world.  I am not suicidal nor do I believe that there is no purpose for my life or existence.  I am here to do what I can with what I have been given.

 Oh, and one more thing -

So if I say that the tooth fairy imprisoned other fairies, I am affirming that the tooth fairy exists? (Circular reasoning)

No, Noor.  This just means that you haven't rejected the existence of the tooth fairy.  Yet.  You may want to look at what Sharky wrote again.

Reading - You can do it!

 Do you give any of your money to any Church in the process?

yeah, sorry circle is right, my bad, so here is some research i come across on that point:-

Tadlington,

 So the verse says the earth is round as long as you stretch the translations to fit?

 You'd think that a God who wanted eneryone to accept who he is would be able to tell the people ghost writing for him what he wants them to know in unambiguous terms.

Illogical. This omnipotent, omniscient god would be responsible for creating the concept of death, and the possibility of it entering the world. Next, this omnipotent, omniscient god would be perfectly responsible for every parameter of his creation, meaning that he would and must have perfect responsibility for everything that occurs.

So attempting to move the responsibility for any outcome from a perfectly responsible omnipotent creator is simply ridiculous.

This 'god' would be responsible for creating this dilemma in the first place.

So, do you have the right to kill your own children?

Nope. An omnipotent, omniscient creator is responsible for all the parameters of existence, which makes an omnipotent, omniscient creator perfectly responsible for every aspect of 'his' 'creation'

i find it interesting how you were the only person who dared attempt to question my post. very well. allow me to answer you your response. abortion is wrong. not only by christian standards, religious standards, but even by yours,you would think it was wrong . y ? according to you, this is the only life we get correct? well if that is so, by having an abortion you are denying a newborn child his life. his only life, just because you don't feel suited to have a child. if i knew for a fact this was all there was for me, and that i would never come to liveagain after i died, i sure as hell would rather go hungry for a few days then to get dismembered inside my mother before i was even born. abortion is murder.

Interesting.

Let's suppose for a second that abortion = murder.  For you to be able to say that abortion is wrong (without resorting to religion), you must also say that murder is wrong -- not just sometimes, but all the time.  If you say that murder is sometimes ok, then it doesn't necessarily follow that abortion is wrong, and you have to come up with some other justification.

So... You are obviously opposed to the death sentence in any form... ever.

You are also opposed to fertility clinics because they "kill babies" all the time.

You are also opposed to the IUD as a method of birth control, as it is not 100% effective in preventing pregnancy, but it virtually always causes a miscarriage when fertilization occurs.

You are also a pacifist.  You believe that we should never defend ourselves with lethal force if our house, country, etc... is invaded.  You believe that if someone tries to kill you, you can protect yourself, but that you cannot, under any circumstances, kill the person who is trying to kill you.

It follows that as a good Christian who believes that murder is always wrong, you believe that America, as a Christian Nation, should destroy all of its guns and weapons, for if we used them, we would be sinning. 

Would you care to chime in?  Do you agree with everything I've said?

 i simply quoted "creation" because the point when the universewent"poof",was mroe likely then not the moment god created  the universe.something made that little point go off, and that, was God. 

abot the stephn hawkings theory. the only thing that it says is that we pretty much would be walking on the line of a circle trying to fid the limit. it doesent explain what i mentioned.

and you still didnt explain the background radiation floating around the universe. 

Yes, it does explain what you mentioned. It demonstrates that the universe could be finite both spatially and chronologically, meaning that there was not 'creation point'

would you care to quote the other half of my first sentence which you cut off at the point where it would favor you?

and even if the universe is a a pace with finite spatially or chronologically, does this disprove that the "circle" which we are walking on could be expanding, or that it came from a single point? as faras i can see, we wouldnt notice much cna ge in the zsize of the circle we are walking around the bigger it got because we couldnt tell where was the beggining to start off with.

explain how the planets and galaxies are moving apart form each other if theuniverse is nto expanding.

again ill tell you why i said "(creation)" a few posts back. i only said that because that is the point when god created the universe by making that inifnitely small point go off. i wasent saying the "big bang" was a "creation theory". make sure and quite the entire phrasethis time and not only the half that favors you.

What is this? "Invasion of the irrational and illiterate"-day?