Decline of Christianity and Religion

[DNB]

You are the only one who seems to have a problem with it.

Settled!

 

[DNB]

Humans are animals. There are many animal species, not just two, besides humans.

You're making this discussion about semantics?

My critique about you was correct, ...my regret is that I wasn't more deprecating in my remarks. And two, that I knew better after your first post, and especially your pathetic comment about Christianity.
Both you and IndigoChild need to stop being so secular in your thinking. Man creates and pushes the substances that kill him, and that he doesn't need to survive. If it's even true about other species addictions, that is not by human experimentation (which I profoundly question this assertion), their capacity does not indict them as voluntarily promoting self-annihilation .

Man's behaviour presupposes a devil, history has proven that. The atrocities committed against man's neighbours, spouses, children, siblings, nations, foreigners, etc... are inexplicable and without extenuation. Other species, indicatively, act in regard to survival and natural instincts. Man, on the other hand, and equally definitively, will, solely from wicked intentions, destroy everything around him, including himself, ...especially when there was an alternative way to act.

Sex sells, it's a dog-eat-dog world, looking out for number one, only the strong survive, if it feels good - do it, never say you're sorry, men don't cry, it's not my concern, etc..., are man-made conventions that serve only to ostracize and suppress those with exclusively, superficial shortcomings. And, only appeal to the shallow and selfish - but have become common place clichés.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Not sure what this is supposed to mean.

If you watch a show or movie about a historical person, you aren’t watching the person. You are watching a character.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Please explain how this could only have happened if God is real.

If it was something that could have just happened anyway, then it's no more valid than a prophecy that I will eat at some point today.

Yeah, in the Bible getting screwed out of your country is practically a running gag. God forces Hebrews/Jews out of their lives about every other page.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Jacob in Egypt foresaw a Hebrew nation, under theocratic law and governed by a monarchy under the line of Judah,
“until” the Messiah comes. The Gentiles would obey Him.

Or the story dated to the monarchy period, where kings spread propaganda to convince the people that they were supposed to be in power.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Yes, I actually DO find it really cool that chimpanzees are evolving moral sentience (foundation of empathy and justice) and do religious things.

Hail Caesar

 

[Left Coast]

My critique about you was correct, ...my regret is that I wasn't more deprecating in my remarks.

If you think so little of me, then just...stop responding? Your tendency for ad hominem has already been on display all over this thread, but thanks for openly admitting it. When you don't have anything rational to say, you just insult people who disagree with you.

Both you and IndigoChild need to stop being so secular in your thinking.

Actually we don't need to do anything you say. From this point forward I'm taking comments like these as proselytizing and will be treating them as such.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

And that's true - we are the most intelligent species we're aware of.

I’m losing my faith that this is true

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Sure.
1 - can you point to any ethnic group which has been as consistently persecuted as Jews?
2 - do you know of any ethnic group which has lost so many lives (adjusted for population, ie Crusaders)
3 - what group face the most ancient of all racist hatreds in the Western world?
4 - which ethnic group was driven out of over one hundred countries?
5 - the bible said the Jews would be exiled and return twice, did that happen?

1- Literally every population that has been wiped off the map

 

[Tiberius]

No, wot I mean is that the bible said these things of the Jews long before they happened.
A few that come to mind
1 - the Jews would be small in number (there should be about 250 million of them today, but there's only a tenth of that.)
2 - the Jew will be a blessing to the world (look at Hollywood, industry, science awards etc..)
3 - the Jew will be universally hated
4 - whoever blesses the Jew will be blessed, whoever curses the Jew will be cursed.
5 - the Jew will not be extinct (ie like the Phillistines, Amonites, Amalakites etc..)
6 - the Jew will be exiled and their host nations will be their 'graves'
7 - the Jew will return a second time and take back their land with the sword

lots of others... just typing quickly here
Can't remember his name, but one skeptical European king said the only reason he really believed in the bible is the continued
presence of the Jew - if they weren't ultimately God's people then how could they have survive their brutal treatment.

How did you determine how many there SHOULD be?

And saying that a people will be a "blessing" to the world is very vague.

There are lots of groups that are hated by other groups.

And it seems that many people have cursed the Jews, and yet where are their curses in return?

In short, your claims are vague and are not anywhere near specific enough to count.

 

[PruePhillip]

How did you determine how many there SHOULD be?

And saying that a people will be a "blessing" to the world is very vague.

There are lots of groups that are hated by other groups.

And it seems that many people have cursed the Jews, and yet where are their curses in return?

In short, your claims are vague and are not anywhere near specific enough to count.

Ok. There are 192 Jewish Nobel Prize winners.
22% of all Nobel prizes were to Jews
Jews make up 0.2% of the worlds population.

Arabs earned a single science Nobel Prize award (5 for 'peace' of which there isn't much in
Arab societies)

You get similar figures in entertainment and business.
Nations that embraced Jews have benefited and those who purged their Jews suffered.
Example is America taking Jewish scientists and industrialists, and Germany losing the same.

Yes, lots of groups hate other groups, ie Serbs and Bosnians, but ALL nations have had issues
with anti-Semitism.

Arabs have cursed Jews, but attempting to exterminate them didn't go well.

 

[Muffled]

Oh yes, they are.
Do you think that they haven't got their own personalities?
An animal without a soul would be an automaton. They are far from that.
They can be loving and show loyalty to others etc.

I believe it is part of creation that animals have personalities. That doesn't prove they have a spirit.

 

[Muffled]

Yes they are. The departure from seeing animals as living souls is why we now see such cruelty done to them. After all, if they have no soul, I can treat them any way I wish, right?

I believe that is wrong. All of God's creation should be treated with respect for what it is. So in many instances animals are a food source just as they are for lions.

 

[Muffled]

So in what way are babies "spiritual," if they have none of the moral values you're talking about that you think makes us "spiritual?"

I believe it depends. There is no way to know how much a spirit interacts with the body. I believe most spirits tend to be observers.

 

[muhammad_isa]

I believe it is part of creation that animals have personalities. That doesn't prove they have a spirit.

I think you are on shaky ground here.

If we can't "prove" that animals have a spirit/soul, then how can you "prove" that mankind have?

Clearly, they don't have the same responsibility as us, but they are still persons in their own right.
What about angels? Do you think that they have souls?