i dont follow

I know you won't bother trying to dig up evidence to back this up...but i have yet to see any atheist on here claim this.

definitely NOT a strawman...how can you even suggest it is based on what we know of ancient cultures beliefs? (and lol at your last sentence)

i mean, if you want to say there's just as much reason to believe in god as any time in the past, im fine with that. but saying there's more reason is just ridiculous, imo.

It already has the power to move independent research aside and dub it political bias and conspiratorical and make this view mainstream. Over the 21st century we're seeing a shift in conflicts from being purely political towards being in large parts religious. Certain States are passing dictatorial laws because they see certain religions as threat. Theocracies have even managed to change UN charters on free speech, and for that matter the UN's power of diplomacy in modern conflict is just a powerless joke compared to the role it played in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Sure, there might be a dwindling in numbers in believers in a sparse selection of countries around the world - but religion is increasing in power, not fading away.

This logic is flawed. If we understand the what and how, we understand parts. That is more than we understood 2000 years ago when people knew nothing.
Of course we have a lot more gaps to fill, but no one tries to fill them with faith.

Weak minds and thinkers continue to fall for this in droves.

Pilots are no meaner or psychotic than archers.
Machine gunners are not more sadistic than swordsmen.

I'm not going to do the math or history for you, but it does explain your fallacy above.

An increase in gaps does not imply an increase in the unexplained. If this was geometry you would be confusing area with length.

Consider these two:

1. XOOOOOXOOOOOX
2. XOXOXOXOXOXOX

Is the one with the most O (unexplained) the same as the one with the most X (explained)?

A better visualization would be to consider a graph that goes from somewhat jagged to very jagged. More peaks do not imply less area.

What? I'm not following at all.

Lol...I don't think I've ever followed a luckyme post in my whole history of posting on 2+2.

He has a very cryptic style. I'm not sure why but it makes him rather unintelligible.

Where did you get your numbers from? This site:

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstatz.htm#RelCon

attributes ~800 million deaths to the religious wars. If thats only 6-7% of the total, that means there have been over 12 billion deaths cause by war. that seems a bit high.

Prediction By 2300, Scientology will be dominant world religion

Reason: Modern fake religions hoard money and power much more efficiently than old fake religions.

much more likely that mormonism will be the prominent "Christian" theology in the next century.

He means modern weapons can kill more people regardless of the intent of the people using them. I think the thing that matters though is that the world's population has risen a ton over the past 200 years and there have been more atheists in charge recently. Of course the main atheist killers (communists) have done most of their slaughter in "peace time" against their own people so I suppose those deaths have to be discounted.

So, when someone that thought the world was flat was proven wrong, they weren't really wrong, the other guy was closer to the truth? Well, that's one way to make scienetists that supported theories and even some laws that became obsolete as not so bad at all. When Science shutouts beliefs of others that might challenge their belief system, what is that? When it is known that most of sciences belief systems end up looking foolish in time.

Maybe you should just read the article.

We are becoming so accurate that most of science can not be wrong. It may need refinement, but the degree to which it's off is too small to throw up your arms and declare that your whole life is changing.

Spiritual Beliefs have been with Man since before recorded history. Most if not all these scienctific theories and even some laws go out the window over time. Sometimes it takes a few generations or a few hundred years for the science of the day to go with the wind. The trend over our entire history is with Spirituality. That doesn't mean we abandon science, it just means keeping an open mind as opposed to dogmatic adherance to some theory or law that may be failing is Wise!

The ability for scientific discoveries to be found wrong is a strength of science, not a weakness. Besides, religious beliefs have not been constant throughout history. Christians and Muslims are prevalent today, but where do you think they were 'before recorded history'?

So... you didn't read the article?

The Christian tradition begin before recorded history with the Aural tradition. Some of this is even obvious in the Bible. You may notice that the book of genesis has a short story at the start, that was a spoken memorized story told around Hebrew Camps long before most people were writing anything. You may not beleive it, but, the Christian Traditions begin at the beginning of time. The Bible has survived for a minimum of thousands of years. The odds and probability is that that will continue.

Kind of like you didn't read my actual post or respond to it.

The only way that the standard anti-religion line works about wars is if you count atheism as a religion, then deaths skyrocket beyond imagination.

Oh no, I read your post. But you didn't respond to my post. Sure, you quoted me and then typed your message below, but what you said did nothing to further the discussion past what I had said. If you had just read the short article, you would have been able to reply appropriately.

You see, that's what happens in forums. If you just go on posting whatever comes to your mind, then this would be a blog. But the idea is that you take in others' ideas and reply to those instead so that a discussion/debate can develop. But you have to first actually listen to what the other people are saying. And read the article that 2 of us, within 8 minutes of your post, recognized as something that would be very educational for you and applies directly to your post.

But you don't really believe that Christianity has not changed in all this time, do you? The aural traditions you're talking about involved Judaism, not Christianity. Even now, there is a plethora of denominations with a multitude of different practices, rituals, and biblical interpretations. Christianity, just like language, culture, and other religions, has evolved over time.

When you say 'Christian traditions' began at the beginning of time, you can't possibly be correct, because there is abundant evidence of ancient Egyptian and Sumerian religions literally thousands of years before the Jews even existed. Unless you are claiming to be a young earth creationist...?