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Originally Posted by Butcho22
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.
No, I'm Muslim, but it's obvious why people would mistake me for Christian (see: majority of theists here).
He missed the point that was: One religion, or even still, one specific verse or line in one religion does not mean that religion itself pits man against one another, as was claimed.
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
He's addressing a particular subject. I must have missed the part where he said it's "nothing but..."?
Yes, he's addressing what religion is according to his take on it. I simply spelled it out.
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
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?
Because it plays a huge role in politics - which itself is just the outcome of mixing society and economics - does not mean that it was its intended purpose. If you take the time and study philosophy of religion, you'll probably see that fairly easily.
Again, people make it tribal. Moses', Jesus', Mohammad's and many others' messages were not intended for their own people only; it was intended for all of mankind. Sure, the message was sent to a group of people initially, but that doesn't mean that the message must be insular to that society or group of people.
As for it being personal. What I meant was that it would be incorrect to think, "this is our/my religion," in the possessive and exclusive sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Butcho22
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.
Note the inappropriate usage. This is simply talk of abuse of power, which holy messengers never did, but people to this day still do. It's fallacious thinking to say, "well, people abuse religion for power, so religion
must be a tool for power abuse." You'll note that 100% of the time when somebody abuses religion for political purposes, they are going against the very tenets of that religion.
In other words religious people don't do such.
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
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.
That's up for personal contention. Believe what you will, but not before examination, investigation and analysis.
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
I'd like to think a creator such as the one described in the Bible would leave less room for interpretation.
If you had the job of explaining wifi technology to people from the bronze age, how and where would you begin? You get the idea here, right?
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
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)
See above. It's the biggest example of politics abusing religion. If you were to personify the two, politics would be the shady, sleazy guy with that TV anchor smile in a suit that stinks of a used car salesman, and religion would be that wise, quiet person that people know and generally know is a good guy, who on occasion happens to get tricked and deceived by politics into doing something wrong.
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
Answered above. But I'll add this: why did any people need to be deemed the "chosen" people by God?
You can reduce that and ask why did any one person need to be chosen by God? You're turning something simple into something complicated.
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
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.
You have to add what they would be chosen for exactly.
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Originally Posted by Butcho22
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.
I'll be holding my breath.