Summations Only

Yes. No. Or, to be precise, not necessarily. God isn't a person now? Yes, and "God wants them dead" would be a religious reason, wouldn't it.

Hi Portillo, Ah, I see. You were being sarcastic. You have to be careful with that. Sarcasm can be tricky to pull off on the web.Well then, I have to agree with Butterflytyrant and disagree with Purpledawn.If you believe that God has personally committed genocide and that his followers have repeatedly committed genocide at God's behest, then you are poorly placed to criticise others for genocide. After all, you believe God is good don't you? If God can commit genocide and remain "good", why must others be condemned for it?I really don't think that it matters that there are people on this board who don't think these stories are true. What matters is that you think them true. That leaves you engaged in a double standard, where it's fine for theists to kill, but unacceptable for anyone else to do the same.I think that this is a good illustrative example of just how theists - who often accuse atheists of having no objective morality - have a very tenuous grasp on what constitutes a moral or immoral act. Apparently, whether genocide is wrong or not depends on who does it.Mutate and Survive

If the atheist was The Godfather, would it be a mafia-motivated atrocity or an atheist-motivated atrocity?

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PUrpleDawn writes:

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If you killed someone because an atheist wants them dead, is that an atheism-motivated atrocity?

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No. Or, to be precise, not necessarily.

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Why is it not an atheism-motivated atrocity?

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God isn't a person now?

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I don't believe the words people or person are used to refer to gods.

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Yes, and "God wants them dead" would be a religious reason, wouldn't it.

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No. What do the killings done by God have to do with religion?If an atheist wants someone dead, is that an atheist reason?IMO, you're not being consistent.

Do you really not see any connection between god and religion?
Do you really not see any connection between what god does and religion?
Do you really not see any connection between a holy book (which describes what god did) and religion?So far we have you stating that nothing in the bible is historically true and that god and the bible have nothing to do with religion.
Weird.

Buz, during the Inquisitions the only Christians involved were Roman Catholics. There were no "true Christians" other than the Roman Catholics in the West.

Read Foxes Book of Martyrs. There were many non-Catholic true believers who were non-violent persecuted people who refused to recant and subject themselves to the Roman Catholic Popes and Bishops.Anyone, Roman Catholic, Jew, Muslim or professing Christian who dared practice or propagate any doctrines contrary to that of the RCC were persecuted and/or executed. Nor were they allowed to interpret scripture other than that of the popes and bishops.In Central and South America this sort of inquisition was applied up into the 19th and 20th century. I remember back in the 1950s and 60s when lives of protestant missionaries were in grave danger in nations like Columbia, Peru, etc by the actions of the priests and bishops who inflamed their adherents to forbid the preaching of the evangelical gospel.No practicing Roman Catholics were brutally tortured and burned alive at the stake by the Roman hierarchy during the Inquisitions.

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Although early Christians experienced heavy persecution, by the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had significant religious and political power in Europe. To maintain its authority, the Church suppressed heretics. The Church had a very specific definition of heresy: A heretic publicly declared his beliefs (based upon what the Church considered inaccurate interpretations of the Bible) and refused to denounce them, even after being corrected by the authority. He also tried to teach his beliefs to other people. He had to be doing these things by his own free will, not under the influence of the devil.

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The Inquisition officially began with Pope Gregory XI (the Papal Inquisition). In 1231, he issued a bull, or decree, that set up a tribunal court system to try heretics and punish them. He chose the Dominican Order, known for being very well-educated and knowledgeable about complex theology, to conduct the Inquisition.

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The Spanish Inquisition was unique in that it was established by secular rulers,

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So far we have you stating that nothing in the bible is historically true and that god and the bible have nothing to do with religion.

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I didn't say that nothing in the Bible is historically true and I didn't say that God or the Bible had nothing to do with religion. Careful with the absolutes. Please pay attention to the argument being made.BFT is adamant that deaths from the Bible should be included for those people who believe the Bible is historically correct. For those who believe the Bible is historically correct, the deaths listed are to be counted in the death toll as deaths due to religious reasons, according to BFT.If we are going to count them because they are considered true by a believer, then we need to look at the actual reasons for the deaths according to what's written. Just because the events are included in a religious book doesn't mean the reason for the deaths were religious.God is not a religion, he is a supreme being.In the flood account. The supreme being destroyed the people he created. He didn't like the way the majority turned out. What's the supreme being's religious reason?Judges 14:19- Samson didn't slay 30 men for a religious reason. What is the religious reason for the killings in the Samson story?You've already seen the rest of my list in Message 124. Show me what the religious reasons are according to the stories.Saying that because God did it or because it is in the Bible makes it a religious reason is no better than saying because an Atheist did it makes it an atheistic reason. Please address the argument being made and the verses brought up in Message 11 by Butterflytyrant. What are the religious reasons behind the events.

Oh good grief Buz.In the West the only Christian Church was the Roman Catholic Church, the Church founded by Jesus untilFoxe's Book of Martyrs is a work of fiction and propaganda written long after the Inquisition.And if you want to honestly look at religious persecutions there were few as likely to kill others as the Protestants. Look at that Puritan Cromwell.If you would like I would be happy to see a thread where the subject can be discussed.

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Foxe's book is in no sense an impartial account of the period. He did not hold to later notions of neutrality or objectivity, but made unambiguous side glosses on his text, such as "Mark the apish pageants of these popelings" and "This answer smelleth of forging and crafty packing."[36] David Loades has suggested that Foxe's history of the political situation, at least, is 'remarkably objective'. He makes no attempt to make martyrs out of Wyatt and his followers, or anyone else who was executed for treason, except George Eagles, who he describes as falsely accused."[37]

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Sidney Lee writing in the Dictionary of National Biography called him "a passionate advocate, ready to accept any prim facie evidence". Lee also listed some specific errors and pieces of plagiarism.[22] In developing the same metaphor, Thomas S. Freeman argues that Foxe "may be most profitably seen in the same light as a barrister pleading a case for a client he knows to be innocent and whom he is determined to save. Like the hypothetical barrister, Foxe had to deal with the evidence of what actually happened, evidence that he was rarely in a position to forge. But he would not present facts damaging to his client, and he had the skills that enabled him to arrange the evidence so as to make it conform to what he wanted it to say. Like the barrister, Foxe presents crucial evidence and tells one side of a story which must be heard. But he should never be read uncritically, and his partisan objectives should always be kept in mind."

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Source
This is from doing 2 mins of research.
Enough said.

"God in three Persons, blessed Trinity...." goes one popular churchly song. So some people do. My dad certainly did in his sermons.....

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"God in three Persons, blessed Trinity...." goes one popular churchly song. So some people do. My dad certainly did in his sermons.....

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We are working with stories in the Bible and since I said people or person, we are talking about humans. Where in the Bible do they refer to God as a person as in human individual? Are gods presented as humans in the Bible stories?

You remember wrong. I wasn't bragging about it. I had to temporarily live somewhere else at the time and completely forgot to register there. I missed out on the last pres election. You remember wrong, again. I don't believe democracy is a scam. I believe democracy is one of the best political tools we have. But I also think we could do a lot better than this. What democracy does is allow dumbasses in the unwashed masses to think they are so great.I strongly believe that we could improve our current system by having some kind of standardized test to license people to vote. Who am I? I am an American citizen who doesn't go out of my way to vote to have other people's rights taken away. Unlike the damn morally superior christians. I don't have a thing against democracy. I do have a thing against democracy of the unwashed masses.Go outside and ask random people if they can name the current 5 major Republican candidates. In fact, why don't you go out and specifically find hardcore republicans and ask them if they can name the current 5 major candidates in the Republican party. Now, ask them to name the 6 candidates who debated on fox in Iowa 2 weeks ago. Ask them to describe each candidates' position, their past controversies, etc.Chances are, you won't even find one person who can do this.Since when did we value people voting out of ignorance? And don't tell me them germans who voted for the nazis didn't know about their anti-semitic stance.I wasn't an Obama supporter until very recently. You could say I was a disgruntled hillary supporter for the first 3 years. But say I vote for candidate X and X turns out to be Hitler II, then yes I share responsibility just like everyone else who voted for the bastard.We live in a modern age where information is just a few keyboard strokes away. There's absolutely no excuse anymore for people's ignorance of the candidates they vote for.Added by edit.I'll make it easy for you. Ask your republican friends what Bachman's official position is on how to deal with Iran in regard to the downed spy drone. This should be an easy one for them to answer. If they are serious about who should be the next president, they ought to be able to answer this very simple question.Edited by Taz, : No reason given.

There's this guy, named jesus. Maybe you've heard of him?

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There's this guy, named jesus. Maybe you've heard of him?

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Sigh... The Synoptics do not present Jesus as a supernatural being.