The Atheist Experience

jar writes:What makes the God you created special?

jar writes:I am a believer Phat.

Because, as the Bible stories show, the source really is irrelevant.

John 6:28-29 writes:Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

And that the author of John was vigorously marketing his product.

Electricity has no corporeal form, yet it can be studied objectively.

Theodoric writes:How dare you claim that your beliefs are more important or relevant than other people's beliefs.

jar writes:GOD, if GOD exists, is not going to be anything like what humans have created as gods or Gods.

jars belief statement writes:I think that is accurate, and the base for my belief that most Christians will end up as Goats, not among the Sheep. They have been given much, the whole instruction book as well as a personal tutor. The sad part is that most will never get it.Many believe all are born damned and sinful, and that they have some sinful nature. It's not their fault, mankind is fallen. But they have this Get Outta Hell Free card.Unfortunately, when it comes to judgment day I believe they will see the card stamped "Not Valid".GOD will judge us with full knowledge. We cannot lie, bribe, flatter or fake our way through that. (...)We are the sum of our experiences.I am also a Christian. As I see Christianity is both a set of teachings and also the body, the communion of Christians down through the ages. Some Christians were great, some evil, most simply forgotten. All though were Christian.Later I learned more about the history of this thing, this communion called Christianity. What I learned was not always pleasant, much, in fact, was horrific. Very little was as simple or serene as what I had been taught.What I learned was that down through the ages many horrific things were done in the name of Christianity and by Christians. Protestants oppressed Catholics, Catholics oppressed Protestants, and both oppressed every other religion. Down through the ages the Jew came in for special attention, being expelled from nearly every country and their property seized. Time after time it happened.I learned about how the Native Americans were taken from their homes, given new names, had their hair cut, forbidden to speak their own language, sent to Christian Schools where they had to learn a new religion, how their old religion was mocked and forbidden.I learned how the Codices and tablets were burned by the Padres that accompanied the Conquistadores, what happened in Hawaii, what happened throughout South and Central America.I saw the white church members standing at the curbs shouting Let the dogs loose or Turn on the hoses, and saw the Christian Schools popping up like toadstools as the white Christian parents pulled their kids out of public school so they would not have to sit next to a monkey. I saw churches that had been bombed or burned out, bodies of people working for equal rights after they had been shot, sometimes mutilated.I look around today and see other Christians shouting God hates Fags and voting time after time to ban same-sex marriages and claiming that Islam is barbaric.Christianity must, IMHO, accept responsibility for the evil as well as the good done in its name.In discussions at EvC and at other places, when the more horrific acts are brought up, one response I often hear is They were not real Christians or That is not what Christ taught. I disagree with the former and agree with the later. I also think that using either as an excuse or as a way to shirk responsibility is dishonest. Granted it is not what Christ taught but it IS what Christians did, and in every case I examined, the people were honest, sincere and believed strongly that what they were doing was right and that it was the Christian thing to do. They were all sure that they were morally right.The Missionary teacher that helped bring the poor savages to the Missionary School, who clothed the kids, cut their hair, gave them good Christian Names, taught them to read and maybe even write, taught them about GOD did so to save the kids souls.The Padre that accompanied the Conquistadores and that burned the Codices did it for what they saw as the best of reasons, saving souls. This refrain has been repeated time after time and over issue after issue. It is only later when we look back on the sermons written on how to civilize the savage, what the place of the Blackman in society is, on the terrible wrong we did in destroying cultures and beliefs that we realize how wrong we were.If we are to avoid making such errors in the future, I believe we must honestly acknowledge what we have done in the past, that but by the grace of GOD those people could be us and that we too are capable of committing such horrific acts. If we try to claim that they were somehow different than us, that they were not real Christians, then I fear we are bound to continue down that path.