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Originally Posted by Hardball47
I'm not talking about the OT, or Christianity, or any one specific religion for that matter, I'm talking about the philosophy behind what religion is. But thanks for cherry-picking anyway.
You are a Christian, right? Why is it cherry-picking? He was being specific to the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of theists on this forum.
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Let's try a different route: We both differ in what we think the objective of religion is. You seem to think that's it's nothing but an organized system of control engineered long ago by conquerors to pit people against each other for the sake of their own rule and power. And that it's designed to herd people into groups through other similarities like tribe so that they can be easily steered for political purposes. I get that.
He's addressing a particular subject. I must have missed the part where he said it's "nothing but..."?
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I'm saying that religion is a form of spiritual guidance that unites people through shared systems of morals and values. It is neither political, nor ethnic/tribal, nor personal.
If God really did "write" the Bible, perhaps he didn't intend for it to be political, but it most certainly plays a huge role in politics in this country.
It also is ethnic/tribal for a lot of people.
I don't know what you're saying when you say it's not intended to be personal? Could you elaborate a bit on that?
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You seem to be adding the implication that because a certain people are "chosen," that everybody else is automatically inferior by default. Religion doesn't do or say this implicitly, like you seem to be keen on pointing out.
I can be used as a trump card in certain situations. Why would God even allow someone to use this against someone else? If they're chosen by God, and I'm not, what's the reason for that? Again, perhaps the intention wasn't for it to mean others are inferior, but you absolutely cannot fault someone for taking it/using it the way kurto is suggesting.
Also, it wouldn't, I don't think, make me believe in the Bible, but I think it would be a lot more credible if the "chosen people" were people other than the one's who wrote the frickin thing. Especially coming from the time period it did. That point, combined with a lot of others, fits perfectly in the puzzle that makes up my reasons from being 100% that Christianity is made up by men.
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Who's fault is that, the person's, or a book's? If the book doesn't explicitly tell them to do so, then the person is acting on their own volition.
I'd like to think a creator such as the one described in the Bible would leave less room for interpretation.
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It's clear you haven't studied religion, the philosophy of religion, and/or don't understand it.
Flat out ridiculous statement.
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This has been done many times before, but it might as well do it one more time: You're ignoring context when you're cherry-picking mention about texts and verses which direct followers do to hostile things. Religion doesn't come out of nowhere and say something ridiculous like, "kill all those bastards that don't believe." Instead, it says something like, "if those bastards try and kill you, defend yourselves, be they whomever."
Well Israel has been killed a lot of people in the process of claiming the land the Bible stated as theirs. (I don't mean this to come off as me saying they're all barbarians fwiw)
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If I chose you to do a task, am I separating you from everybody else? Am I making you special? Sure, I gave you a specific task. Does that mean you're more important than others? No, because that task is precisely for the others. What if the task was to unite everyone?
Answered above. But I'll add this: why did any people need to be deemed the "chosen" people by God?
Also, do you think schools would allow a certain race of kids to be deemed the "chosen kids'? No, and the reason is because it implies they're special compared with the rest of the pack.
WARNGING: I am quite drunk. Some of this might now make snse and I'll attempt to come back tomorrow and clean it up and/or answer any questions you might havec.