Jehova Witnesses

[slosprint]

... Ouch...

Originally posted by cjd

Originally posted by Tidus

^ No Christians were pushing their ideals on you, especially cjd...I read the entire post (regrettably) and the only people pushing ideas are YOU GUYS.

So unless you want Christians to actually start pushing the Christian agenda on you, turning this into a 20 page flameball article, just STFU about it already!

You're not helping...

Fine, this'll be fun to watch then.

[slosprint]

Who's side are you on now?

^None, was on one, but i'm not now. Like I said, we'll see where this goes...XD, gotta love coastercrazy debate in the evening.

I'm just saying, I appreciate the support, but I'd rather not have someone defending me be telling people to "STFU." Whether I agree with them or not, everyone deserves to be heard.

^ You're doing a great job at that dude. You're being heard SO WELL, it's painful to watch.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Gay marriage ban = forced Christian agenda
Abortion bans = forced Christian agenda
Abstinence only education = forced Christian agenda
Stem Cell Research restrictions = forced Christan agenda
Constantly banning controversial books = forced Christian agenda
Texas Board of Education's censoring and "additions" to science books = forced Christian agenda

You are part of the problem! If you don't like it, let others go on with their life without ruining it like a self important asshole.

Originally posted by cjd

Whether I agree with them or not, everyone deserves to be heard.

So is this why you push to censor books consistantly? You're a love hypocrite. Go send more money to ruin Africa even further than it already has been.

Wait, what? Since when have I done that?

Originally posted by Mai of the Fire

*sigh...* nothing has changed here indeed. People argue with each-other, nobody even considers that their opinion might be wrong, and ten pages of "grr" fighting ensues.

At this point, can't you guys just admit that nobody will change their mind and move on?

+1

Let's all argue other issues where people will be easily swayed, like gun control and abortion.

I will change my mind when presented with evidence. Until then I will continue to think that religious people are love.

Way to keep it intelligent.

Originally posted by ProZach626

I will change my mind when presented with evidence. Until then I will continue to think that religious people are love.

Way to keep it intelligent.

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Gay marriage ban = forced Christian agenda
Abortion bans = forced Christian agenda
Abstinence only education = forced Christian agenda
Stem Cell Research restrictions = forced Christan agenda
Constantly banning controversial books = forced Christian agenda
Texas Board of Education's censoring and "additions" to science books = forced Christian agenda

You are part of the problem! If you don't like it, let others go on with their life without ruining it like a self important asshole.

Originally posted by cjd

Whether I agree with them or not, everyone deserves to be heard.

So is this why you push to censor books consistantly? You're a love hypocrite. Go send more money to ruin Africa even further than it already has been.

You're generalizing.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by cjd

Wait, what? Since when have I done that?

You're part of an organization that does. "Everyone has a right to be heard" my ass. You're going into christian education, which is a mechanism to purposely leave out information to help proliferate this censoring. love you. You're a hypocrite.



I'm fairly confident that if you edited the newspaper to say "Gay Marriage, Stem Cell Research, and Abortion Legalized in Texas" you'd have a similar scene to what is in that movie clip above since you're all so loving and everything.

PS - Fundamentalists are statistically more likely to commit rape, murder, theft, and have a child out of wedlock than people who identify themselves as non-religious.

Could we go back to the topic,please?
Anyway I`ve never seen Jehove Witnesses,and I would wonder if ever some of them would knock at my door,thanks to our hidden location.
I kinda lost my belief into religions after I was banned from the confirmation Lessons,when they heard that I have asperger.Although I did not like to visit these lessons(plus it was in french language,since I live behind the "language border"),I was sad when they banned me,because with that I broke up with a family tradition and did not get the confirmation(and the cash and the party as well).As fun fact they used to preach of tolerance and acceptance and such things...Felt like they forgot about their ideals.
So I would not say that there`s a god,but I`d also not say that there`s no god although there are arguments agaist him(example.If god is so great andallmight and shares his whatever with everybody for free,why do we have to pay church taxes?).I`m open for other religions,such as the belief of reincarnations in the hinduism but I will never let a religion control my life
Religions have a important function as explaining unexplainable things(so far)like what has started the big bang?Maybe it was God who made the first step.But when a religion stops to have (only) this function and starts to change the lives of their believers in a negative way/against their "will")
then it is not a real religion anymore.If people start to sacrifice and kill caused by the will a unproven higher might,then it is not a real religion anymore.If they pray peace on the one hand and kill people that have another religion,are gay,have another meaning,etc then they are everything but not a religion.Religions should help people with their decisions,but not controll their lifes.

Thats my opinion.

^ The arguments against God's existence aren't a whole lot different than the arguments against Santa Claus's and the Easter Bunny's existences. Religions made up explanations to unexplainable things instead of accepting the fact that we simply don't know; I can just as easily create a "theory" centering around the Invisible Pink Unicorn as the Ultimate Creator who killed the Evil Black Horsey to save us all just as one can easily say that it was God who sent the His son to save us all. The difference is that people actually believe in the latter. (Lots of people also believe that Muhammad was Allah's prophet. Peoples' belief doesn't make it any more true.)

That's my take on it. =)

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Originally posted by cjd

Wait, what? Since when have I done that?

You're part of an organization that does. "Everyone has a right to be heard" my ass. You're going into christian education, which is a mechanism to purposely leave out information to help proliferate this censoring. love you. You're a hypocrite.

What makes you think that my views in any way reflect those of the established Christian system? My faith is based entirely on my own personal experiences, and in fact the whole reason I am going into Christian Ed is so that I can help raise a generation of rational Christians who aren't seen as radical book-burners that yell at anyone who disagrees with them until they get their way. I have been solidly against that for years, and probably the thing I talk about the most on my Christian radio show is how we have to be the light of the world, who show everyone the love of Christ every time we show un-natural love to an enemy that hates us, and every time we give more to the poor and oppressed than anyone else, and every time we face a challenge in life head-on with confidence while others falter. That has been my mission in life since I first started studying the Bible and noticing all the ways in which our system of religion had strayed off-track.

Feel free to disagree with the system all you want. I'll probably actually agree with you on most of it. But quit trying to make me out to be a part of it just because I want to teach Christian kids and help them live a less hypocritical life. That is why I am in Christian Ed. It has absolutely nothing to do with pushing political agendas, censorship, or scientific denial on them.

(And sorry, everyone, for continuing to allow this topic to stay on the tangent it's been going on. I just don't feel like I can sit here and leave all these accusations hanging without trying to set the record straight.)

[gouldy]

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

I'd convert to christianity for Milla Jovovich.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by cjd
who show everyone the love of Christ every time we show un-natural love to an enemy that hates us

Is that why your religion is responsible for the only ongoing current genocides and most of the ones that occurred within the last century? I'm excluding China's involvement with Tibet from this statement since i don't think that qualifies as a genocide (yet) but I'm not sure about that.

Originally posted by cjd
and every time we give more to the poor and oppressed than anyone else, and every time we face a challenge in life head-on with confidence while others falter.

Maybe if you didn't totally ruin Africa you could allocate more around here. Also donating to The Family or The Fellowship funds genocide.

Originally posted by cjd
Feel free to disagree with the system all you want.

I try to avoid funneling money to dictators and people who try to oppress freedom in the United States with various law campaigns that only serve to make the rest of the country that isn't Christian miserable while we fall behind China in medical research because it's SOOOOOOOOO BAD to take stem cells from someone's nose and love cure blindness. After all the Bible has a passage about that.

Originally posted by cjd
But quit trying to make me out to be a part of it just because I want to teach Christian kids and help them live a less hypocritical life. That is why I am in Christian Ed. It has absolutely nothing to do with pushing political agendas, censorship, or scientific denial on them.

If you didn't have an agenda then you wouldn't buy into this poop in the first place. If your concentration didn't exist, the world would be a significantly better place. Do you even go to real college or is it one of those phony ones that only someone from the Bible Belt would think is credible?

This is what you get to do:
1. Go to the science section
2. Make some poop up based on nothing
3. Force book stores to stock it
4. Force publishers to add your viewpoint that has no evidence.
5. Put these "books" into the science section
6. Insult the 40 years of their lives that PhD's and stuff have invested into their field
7. Go continue to have higher rates of rape, abortion, murder, theft, and children out of wedlock all while encouraging gay teenagers to kill themselves (their suicide rate has skyrocketed with the religious revival that started around the Bush era), all while refusing to learn anything about the world around you and living in a shallow shell.

Here is what I get to do:
1. Find your oil (can't find oil unless evolution and geologic is true, otherwise it's completely impossible)
2. Find your metals and ores (same application as above)
3. But if I protest you putting a sign in the Grand Canyon that says it was carved by Noah's Flood when all evidence points to the contrary, then you have a love heart attack since i'm "insulting your faith" or whatever, and you insult years of work.
4. I get to do nothing

Summary: If I protested outside the theology building as you religious people constantly do in front of science buildings I'd probably go to love jail and get a hate crime charge or something. You get to do the same thing though and it's totally 100% okay.

So people put in a shitload of hard work to your make your life possible. They find your groundwater, minerals, and fossil fuels, and you throw out years of hard work because of some shitty vague passage in the Bible and then restrict everything.

You are an asshole, so is everyone else that pushes this Jesus poop on me. Why don't you guys act like jewish people? They don't other anyone with recruitment poop. No other religion does that poop except you guys.

[slosprint]

Originally posted by coasteragent99

^ The arguments against God's existence aren't a whole lot different than the arguments against Santa Claus's and the Easter Bunny's existences. Religions made up explanations to unexplainable things instead of accepting the fact that we simply don't know; I can just as easily create a "theory" centering around the Invisible Pink Unicorn as the Ultimate Creator who killed the Evil Black Horsey to save us all just as one can easily say that it was God who sent the His son to save us all. The difference is that people actually believe in the latter. (Lots of people also believe that Muhammad was Allah's prophet. Peoples' belief doesn't make it any more true.)

That's my take on it. =)

<-- Don't forget meeeeee!

Slo,you`re right,you`re the biggest argument why god does not exist.

[slosprint]

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Originally posted by cjd
and every time we give more to the poor and oppressed than anyone else, and every time we face a challenge in life head-on with confidence while others falter.

Maybe if you didn't totally ruin Africa you could allocate more around here. Also donating to The Family or The Fellowship funds genocide.

I would like to add to this that Christianity is NOT the most charitable group out there. There are many, many secular organization which do the same things without the indoctrination or because they feel it is their god given duty, but because they want to help for the sake of helping, which IMO is much more moral than the alternative. One of the best known organizations among these is the Red Cross, which despite its name is entirely secular.

Originally posted by coasteragent99

there's no reason to also be agnostic towards the existence of the Invisible Pink Unicorn who can only be seen by those who genuinely believe.

charlieeeeeeee <3

So Caaaaaaaaaaaaaarl! represents the devil?

^That seems to make more sense than the pages of arguing that came before your post.

I was born and raised in a Christian church. My parents taught me about how Jesus loves me and all that stuff. In the past few years though, I started to realize that I was essentially brainwashed. My dad always taught me about homosexuality being wrong, and as a child I believed it, since I was not old enough to form my own opinion. Now I realize that there's absolutely nothing wrong with gay people and I actually support gay marriage. I still go to church (my parents make me), but every Sunday I listen to the sermon and keep thinking, "how much longer do I have to sit through this?"

To be honest, I really don't know if there's a God out there. No one can ever actually know if God exists. But if he really is out there, I don't think he's spending all his time sending gays and other so called "sinners" to Hell. I wouldn't call myself an atheist, but I now realize that all these "Christians" are just corrupt as hell.

Coasterkid:

All of your arguments are still all about what the Christian church has done as an organized religion.

1. The whole point of my post was that ideally, under the actual Biblical instruction about what Jesus said we should be doing, all those things that I said would indeed be happening. We wouldn't be supporting genocide, funding dictators, fighting against things that have no basis in Biblical ethics, and being violent and hypocritical while completely missing the Biblical instruction about loving your neighbor as yourself, loving your enemy, and giving your second coat away to someone who has none. This Biblical ideal is what I am striving to teach kids.

Christianity was never meant to be the political power that it is today. It has its roots as a religion of the poor and oppressed, and of people seeking to help them based on Jesus' instruction. In fact, Jesus spent a good portion of His ministry speaking AGAINST the people of the day who went around telling people "do this, do that, or God will strike our nation down," while they themselves were being hypocrites and devouring widows' houses. My point is, our organized system is corrupt, and not representative of the true religion. It wasn't until the Roman Empire adopted it that it suddenly became the heirarchal power that it is today. And it is this corrupt manmade political system, not the religion itself, that was responsible for the inquisition, genocide, and murder of millions of people that you speak of.

As a final note, Christianity is the only religion that evangelizes because Jesus did tell us to "Go, and make disciples of all nations." There is no problem with that. The problem is that we are also not listening to Jesus' other instruction to not cast our pearls before those who will just trample them underfoot and then turn and tear us to pieces. That is where we are going wrong. There are millions of people out there who do want to hear the Gospel, and are willing to listen to what we have to say, and those are the ones that we should be "recruiting." We are actually ignoring Jesus' instructions when we continue to hassle people who have no interest in converting to Christianity.

And just to clear the air, I have no interest in being an evangelist. My God-given calling is to be involved in discipleship, IE teaching Christians how they should be better.



Sunfire:

You've been taught wrong. If you think that the point of Christianity is "don't sin or you will go to hell," you're missing the real point. Tell me, which does God want more? our obedience to law, or us ourselves? Becuase Jesus said "Any sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven" [Matthew 12:31]. Christ came so that even the adulterer, the sinner, and the homosexual could be forgiven of their sins and have fellowship with God. The point of Christianity is not in following a list of things not to do, but in joy and life and peace in the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God. Read the Gospels for yourself, rather than letting authority figures push their own beliefs on you, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

^ Holy crap.

I agree so much with what you just said, those are almost exactly my beliefs intertwined with some more modern stuff from the Divine Principle. Just like you are a rational Christian, I am a rational Unificationist, masterfully said sir. [:D]