monkeyseemonkeydo

Never come across Monstercolors before, might give them a go next time the Inspired changes colour .

Nicely put.

Beigemaster seemed to be saying that the Bible wasn't fiction. Symbolic or metaphorical makes no odds, that's still fiction in my book. Fiction with a meaning of course, but still fiction. If the stories in the Bible are symbolic or metaphorical then it would appear to me that the existence of God, the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (in the Christian sense) must also be ficticious. Anyway, we're still going over old ground here that was all covered in Dave's 'Is anyone a hardcore chirstian' topic.

1. Bible = 99% Story/Fiction. A guess of course but burning bushes, great floods, parting of seas, talking snakes? I call bullshit . 2. Of course there were some incredibly intelligent people thousands of years ago but we did have the dark ages when it would appear everyone forgot all the useful things the human race had learned and suddenly went a bit retarded... At that point the church owned all the land and was the most powerful body in Britain. There were the Crusades as well when in the name of God thousands of people were ethnically cleansed because Jesus was a white man from Oxford. I guess that then leads to the reason for scaring people. There was (is?) a lot of money and power involved in Christianity and by scaring the weak public into believing in you there was a lot to gain. Any free thinkers (heretics) were murdered so they couldn't spread the knowledge they had gained. I think the Church has a lot to answer for and considering it's based on he bible (which I think is as factually based as Harry Potter) they don't have a leg to stand on.

I've known a couple who thought that things like 9/11 were God's will and of course the freaks who preach on the streets reading passages from the Bible... They're out there though of course that's a minority.

1: There's also a very readable series of books based on a very special young man who is the saviour of mankind without ever asking for his gifts. He had a scar shaped lightning bolt on his forehead. Did Jesus? Didn't think so . 2: Because people are (were moreso in days gone by) gullible and uneducated so when people told them that this is how it is, follow this or you will spend eternity in excruciating pain having a pinapple inserted in your anus while pushing a rock uphill. If I knew no better I'd probably've done what they ask just in case they were right! However I do know better. Because deep down they know what they believe is questional at best and completely insane at worst. [/sarcasm but not really]

Just noticed Tarty now have the DVD in stock .

It couldn't hurt...

But it's incredibly difficult, so I understand, for someone of any other faith to become a Jew. Isn't that weird? I can't really follow either of those points I'm afraid. I think it's pretty safe to say that nothing in the bible actually happened and that all the stories are 'metaphors' and, if assumed to be taken literally are bull shit. If the creation story is bullshit then surely it has to point to the rest of the book (religion?) being bull shit too (in the sense that the stories, not the meanings, are ficticious). As for Scientology I think you'll find that if Tom Cruise were to fly down from the sky in front of a bunch of reliable sources, film crews, photographers etc and start preaching that he has seen Xenu and Scientology is the only way forwards then there would be mass conversions and a lot of people would start following him as the new Jesus. Not kidding. And as Anal says, chances are in 2000 years there will probably be a thread on 'jet bike observed trials on Neptune-forum.com' wondering how half the population of Earth could possibly believe some stupid story about an alien, a volcano and some strange little man who's stuck in a closet but was considered to be the saviour of mankind...

Just watched a bit of the Panorama program on there. Scientology should be banned worldwide if you ask me. I really don't get why so many 'famous' people have been dragged in, unless they have money invested in it... which is very possible.

I was quite close to becoming an arsonist when the Church of Scientology opened up in Bournemouth. Had a couple of fliers through the door which made me want to letterbomb them...

They seem to spend 10 minutes politely talking without actually saying anything... they would make excellent politicians.

Ok, I hear what you're saying. My views mainly relate to Christianity though, sparked by those retards in the first post, Americans who seem to be primarily Christians and the basis of Christianity which is the Big Book of Fairy Tales Bible. The logical reasoning for there being a 'first cause' or whatever you want call it from biology and maths etc strikes a chord with me but anything to do with the Christian Bible I consider laughable.

DAMNIT!!

My sincere apologies, never actually watched any Alan Partridge :$ .

You know what I mean! I'm perfectly willing to accept the possibility of an afterlife, god or whatever else. However, that possibility is so minute that I might as well preaching that there is a variety of pig unfound by man who has wings and can fly. Of course there's a possibility (gotta keep open-minded here) but the actual chance of it existing are so small it's not worth considering. Cue BBC newsflash reporting the finding of a flying pig...

My main problem is that I see things as black and white. In my mind there is no God- there has never been any kind of evidence to point to the slightest possibility that there is. There is no afterlife- why should there be? We've evolved from amoeba, do the single cell organisms of today have an afterlife? I doubt it so why should we? I know I come across exactly as you say and I don't really mean to but in my mind I just find it completely preposterous to believe anything in the bible and can't understand how anyone could. Of course good can come from religion, but as I've said before, only in the common sense kind of way of 'be nice to each other, don't rape, murder or steal' kind of stuff (which funnily enough is the opposite of what's in the old testament so go figure). I've argued my opinion with logic and reason 'til the cows come home in the previous threads and it all comes back to science=sensible, logical and open-minded while religion=close-minded, illogical and completely irrational. Basically in my mind, those that disagree are wrong. Much like anyone who strongly believes in Christianity and the bible think that I'm wrong and will burn in hell for eternity for my sins. Anyway, please don't be too pissed off with my comments- yes I believe what I write but a lot of it is tongue in cheek to provoke a response. How dare you... How very dare you.

You'd never be able to get rid of religion completely. There's waaaaay too much money in it and it's faaaar too good an excuse to be incredibly shitty to each other and murder people in its name. There will also always be the less intelligent, less confident people who want and need to be told what to do and think. In days gone by people truly didn't know what was out there and so the nutjobs could spout their rubbish and people knew no better. These days I think more people are willing to question what's around them and combined with the progress in science probably helps to reduce the number of todays youth who attend church. It would appear that Amercians might be a bit behind us in that department .

Or everyone accepts the truth and starts following my FeS religion. Or Scientology.

Of course not but the basis of the religion is the same; believe all this made up tosh and you'll be ok. Don't believe it and bad things will happen. No really, they will. Those guys have taken it to the extreme and are just being retarded and exploiting kids at the same time, but the truth remains that a lot of Americans are scarily Chrisitan. In the UK it seems like there's (thankfully) a fairly strong trend moving away from the Church and Christianity in the youth of today. From what I've seen of Americans this isn't the case, with a worrying number of 'normal people' (and I'm talking BMXers, motocrossers and whatever else) thanking god and jesus for helping them get to where they are. Each to their own but I find it really disappointing when I hear that sort of stuff.

Like it .

I'd prefer to think it's about the money but I honestly think they believe the crap they peddle.

My mum works with a physio up in Scotland who's working on the scheme. Hate the way they call them 'customers' but otherwise it is at least trying to weed out the real wastes of life from those who could actually make something of themselves. However she also works on the childrens panel and a lot of them would benefit from sterilisation at birth...

Phew, I'm glad that's cleared up. Everyone can relax .