Thats quite the opposite. You poke fun at the person because they are of another religion. Isn't that just what you were doing 2 posts back. Dont forget the wonders of how the universe started.Also..Isn't atheism a Religion as well? Its having faith in the "fact" that god doesn't exist.
Also..Isn't atheism a Religion as well? Its having faith in the "fact" that god doesn't exist.
Not necessarily.I know where you're going with this, but since all of those facts were true of Jesus as well, a guess of 'Jesus' would be fairly accurate, would it not? :asian:
Dont forget the wonders of how the universe started
No it would not because it shows that the 'Jesus myth' was a copycat affair.It's an assumption to call them facts.It may be Mithra...but I'm going with Enlil or Enki from Sumerian lore...maybe
So we're now assuming that Enil, Enki and Mithra are known fact, and Jesus is myth?Its awesome how your myths are fine, but my "myths" aren't
EDIT: In this post I demonstrate that I cannot read the mind of a duck.
Our understanding of Jewish and Christian history has changed dramatically with the publication of Caesar's Messiah by Joseph Atwill (Ulysses Press), which had previously been privately published under the title The Roman Origins of Christianity. According to Atwill, the Gospels are not accounts of the ministry of a historical Jewish Jesus compiled by his followers sixty years after his death. They are texts deliberately created to trick Messianic Jews into worshipping the Roman Emperor 'in disguise'. The essence of Atwill's discovery is that the majority of the key events in the life of Jesus are in fact satirical: each is an elegant literary play on a military battle in which the Jewish armies had been defeated by the Romans. This is an extraordinary claim-but supported by all the necessary evidence.
Professor Robert Eisenman of California State University describes Atwill's research as rendering contemporary Christian scholarship so challenged that it is now "looking into the abyss". It is worth noting, in this regard, that the general scholarly consensus that there was a historical, Jewish Jesus is itself largely a recent historical idea, traceable to Abraham Geiger in the 1860's. He persuaded scholars that the Gospels were an account of a historical Jewish Jesus, a typical Pharisee of his day. Since then this view, and with it the notion of Christianity as a development of Judaism, has become the dominant paradigm in Christianity. However, as the new discoveries in Caesar's Messiah make clear, this is not just misleading, but a dangerous concession to a false system of belief. The Romans created this new religion deliberately to humiliate the Jews and to keep them in submission. For contemporary Jewish scholars to collude with this Roman literary invention, and to even pretend that this fictional character had historic reality, is the height of irony.In the past, evidence had been put forward to suggest that the NT gospels are literary accounts containing mythological accretions. However, Christians have been able to dismiss that evidence on the grounds that underneath it all there 'must' be a Historical Jesus. Atwill's discovery changes all that. There was no historical Jesus and the Gospels were Roman imitations of Jewish sacred texts created by the Flavian Emperors as ironical 'good news' to deceive the Jews. It is one thing for Christians to use works of literature as their sacred documents. It is quite another for them to continue using what have now been discovered to be deliberate Roman fakes about a non existent Messiah.
Is not using heroin a drug addiction?
Good, it wasn't an exhaustive list by any means!:asian:So what influence did the Egyptians have in writing the Bible?
It is easy to prove to yourself that God is imaginary. The evidence is all around you. Here are 50 simple proofs: Try praying Statistically analyze prayer Look at all historical gods Think about science Read the Bible Ponder God's plan Understand religious delusion Think about Near Death Experiences Understand ambiguity Watch the offering plate Notice that there is no scientific evidence See the magic Take a look at slavery Examine Jesus' miracles Examine Jesus' resurrection Contemplate the contradictions Think about Leprechauns Imagine heaven Notice that you ignore Jesus Notice your church Understand Jesus' core message Count all the people God wants to murder Listen to the Doxology Ask why religion causes so many problems Understand evolution and abiogenesis Notice that the Bible's author is not "all-knowing" Think about life after death Notice how many gods you reject Think about communion Examine God's sexism Understand that religion is superstition Talk to a theologian Contemplate the crucifixion Examine your health insurance policy Notice Jesus' myopia Realize that God is impossible Think about DNA Contemplate the divorce rate among Christians Realize that Jesus was a jerk Understand Christian motivations Flip a coin Listen when "God talks" Realize that a "hidden God" is impossible Think about a Christian housewife Consider Noah's Ark Ponder Pascal's Wager Contemplate Creation Compare prayer to a lucky horseshoe Look at who speaks for God Ask Jesus to appear
stuff
I can understand why people believe there maybe some sort of higher power or being.What I don't understand is how you can be so sure it must exist and that you know what it is.How do you look at a specific religion and decide "Yes I believe this one is correct and all others are wrong".
How do you follow an organised religion?
So where does this faith come from and by that I mean the faith that you have picked the right religion, and that the reason you believe in it has not been influenced by others, and you have choosen it out of your own free will.
Personally I believe that the majority of current day Christians would be muslims if they had been born in the middle east.I think cultural and family pressures play the largest part in religious choice.
If anyone here is a convert to another religion having been brought up in a religion of another type I would be even more interested to hear those views.How did you know with certainty that the faith that your family and national culture had in another religion was wrong.
The big difference between here and there, of course: in New Zealand, you can be a Muslim for all anyone cares, while in Muslim countries you can be a Christian ... if you either move to another country or die.
There are many instances of Christians and Muslims etc living together peacefully, in primarily 'Muslim' countries. Using an article with an instance from a warzone is skewing the results...and there are probably instances of Christians doing a similar thing (think hardcore fundamentalists...I wouldn't be surprised!)
In God is Not Great, Hitchins tweezes through the major religious texts with forensic shrewdness. With chapters entitled 'Religion Kills' and 'Is Religion Child Abuse?' he fearlessly argues for a secular life based on science and reason, tarring religion as man-made 'wish-thinking'. He documents the ways in which religion is a cause of dangerous sexual repression and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos; in Hitchens' opinion, hell is replaced by the Hubble telescope's view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the double helix. Principally, Hitchens argues that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged humanity, and proposes that the world might be a great deal better off without Him.
