French Patriot

Not all cultures. I would say few. You do have a point where resources were finite and a population could not be allowed to exceed the resources. That has nothing whatsoever to the scapegoating of Jesus. Regards DL

The cornerstone of Christianity is human sacrifice. Is Christianity a moral creed? I find Christianity immoral for substitutionary atonement as well as many others of their moral tenets. Without the blood sacrifice of Jesus, Christianity fails as a salvific religion. We could thump all day with passages that both support blood sacrifice as well as quote the many passages against it as shown with both types of quotes in this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoHP-f-_F9U Recognizing that there are many contradictory passages in scriptures, let’s ignore them all and just look at the morality of substitutionary atonement. Scriptures tell us that to perfect our wisdom, we must get out of the Christian theology. I think that those passages are asking us to confirm our thinking with analogies that do not include Christian dogma. With that in mind, I offer an analogy for discussion. Scriptures say we are all children of God. Imagine you have two children. One of your children does something wrong – say it curses, or throws a temper tantrum, or something like that. In fact, say it does this on a regular basis, and you continually forgive your child, but it never seems to change. Now suppose one day you’ve had enough, you need to do something different. You still wish to forgive your child, but nothing has worked. Do you go to your second child, your good child, and punish it to atone for the sins of the first? In fact, if you ever saw a parent on the street punish one of their children for the actions of their other child, how would you react? Would you support their decision, or would you be offended? Interestingly, some historical royal families would beat their slaves when their own children did wrong – you should not, after all, ever beat a prince. The question is: what kind of lesson does that teach the child who actually did the harm? Does it teach them to be a better person, to stop doing harm, or does it teach them both that they won't themselves be punished, and also that punishing other people is normal? I know that's not a lesson I would want to teach my children, and I suspect it's not a lesson most Christians would want to teach theirs. So why does God? For me, that’s at least one significant reason I find Jesus’ atonement of our sin to be morally repugnant – of course, that’s assuming Jesus ever existed; that original sin actually exists; that God actually exists; etc. Do you agree that having another innocent person suffer for the wrongs you have done, --- so that you might escape responsibility for having done them, --- is immoral. Do you agree that to abdicate personal responsibility or use a scapegoat is immoral? If not, please show how it is morally and legally good to punish the innocent instead of the guilty, bearing in mind that all legal systems think that punishing the guilty is what is justice. Regards DL

The cornerstone of Christianity is human sacrifice. Is Christianity a moral creed? I find Christianity immoral for substitutionary atonement as well as many others of their moral tenets. Without the blood sacrifice of Jesus, Christianity fails as a salvific religion. We could thump all day with passages that both support blood sacrifice as well as quote the many passages against it as shown with both types of quotes in this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoHP-f-_F9U Recognizing that there are many contradictory passages in scriptures, let’s ignore them all and just look at the morality of substitutionary atonement. Scriptures tell us that to perfect our wisdom, we must get out of the Christian theology. I think that those passages are asking us to confirm our thinking with analogies that do not include Christian dogma. With that in mind, I offer an analogy for discussion. Scriptures say we are all children of God. Imagine you have two children. One of your children does something wrong – say it curses, or throws a temper tantrum, or something like that. In fact, say it does this on a regular basis, and you continually forgive your child, but it never seems to change. Now suppose one day you’ve had enough, you need to do something different. You still wish to forgive your child, but nothing has worked. Do you go to your second child, your good child, and punish it to atone for the sins of the first? In fact, if you ever saw a parent on the street punish one of their children for the actions of their other child, how would you react? Would you support their decision, or would you be offended? Interestingly, some historical royal families would beat their slaves when their own children did wrong – you should not, after all, ever beat a prince. The question is: what kind of lesson does that teach the child who actually did the harm? Does it teach them to be a better person, to stop doing harm, or does it teach them both that they won't themselves be punished, and also that punishing other people is normal? I know that's not a lesson I would want to teach my children, and I suspect it's not a lesson most Christians would want to teach theirs. So why does God? For me, that’s at least one significant reason I find Jesus’ atonement of our sin to be morally repugnant – of course, that’s assuming Jesus ever existed; that original sin actually exists; that God actually exists; etc. Do you agree that having another innocent person suffer for the wrongs you have done, --- so that you might escape responsibility for having done them, --- is immoral. Do you agree that to abdicate personal responsibility or use a scapegoat is immoral? If not, please show how it is morally and legally good to punish the innocent instead of the guilty, bearing in mind that all legal systems think that punishing the guilty is what is justice. Regards DL

Not all issues can be covered and I think Dawkins focus was on religion. Regards DL

Assistant? No. Replacement? Yes. Preferably one without genocidal son murdering tendencies. Regards DL

You might not be looking at the stats that show just how well we are doing down here, in spite of the garbage mainstream homophobic and misogynous religions. They are the best that we have ever enjoyed. I see a near full cup while you see a mostly empty one. My stats prove my view superior. Some of those stats are at the end of this link. I have more should you need them. Regards DL

Is God’s plan on track? Were we created to be sinners? Many think that God has a plan for all of us sinners, a perfect plan actually, to get as many of us into heaven as possible. Even all of us, if God is as perfect as some say he is. No God worth the title would have it any other way. God's plan can never go off track or be fouled as that would show a weakness in God and his ability to plan perfectly. The above being irrefutable, if there is a God and a plan, indicates that this reality is the best that Yahweh can accomplish? It is interesting that scriptures say that to backslide is evil, while it ignores that if there is a plan in place, then the world is in it’s best possible form. Scriptures that show a backsliding God and world must be wrong. Thanks to God’s plan, we are living in perfection. To think otherwise would be seeing God get a fail on maintaining the initial perfection of creation. In the beginning, all was perfect. That perfection cannot be allowed to backslide if there is a God. Do you see God as a backslider or a God whose plan is running along in a perfect way? Sing the hymn with me of Adam’s sin. It says that Adam’s sin was a happy fault and necessary to God’s plan. Were we created to be sinners? Regards DL

I am a Gnostic Christian and think you correct in thinking that there is nothing greater than man. Regards DL

True, but our judging tells us more about us than about God. Regards DL

Does God want us to judge him? I think that God wants us to judge him. We are to emulate Jesus. Jesus judged God and found him wanting. Upon taking the judgement seat, Jesus indicated that it was time to retire Yahweh. Jesus saw Yahweh as no longer fit to rule over or judge man. Man had in essence graduated to his rightful place as the judge of all the Gods. Christians, who are told by their own scriptures to judge righteously, are not doing so when it comes to Yahweh. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. Yahweh is quite a vile God. It is no wonder that Yahweh does not show his face around Christians. They would kill him. Jesus did say that he came to bring War. Perhaps he meant war against God, which would be following Jewish tradition. If God wants us to judge him, why do most Christians not judge God in a righteous and moral manner? Place no God above me, means that God wants us to judge all the Gods, including himself, to insure he is the best of the best. How else could we know that Yahweh was the best God to follow? Do you agree, or are we not supposed to judge God? Regards DL

Perhaps. Regards DL

Dogs wish to serve man. Do you see your God as our servant or our master? Regards DL

Why would anyone want to? Is that what you aspire to think like? Let's chat. Woof woof woof ruff woof. Regards DL

?? So can I, so get the quote to this lie that you put. Regards DL

Jesus is a person to most. Love is a concept to most. Are you saying that Jesus is a concept that humans call love? If not, you make no sense at all. Regards DL

My real name. Signing off is a business habit. Regards DL

So you were just being a hypocrite by saying there is no supernatural, then saying that a supernatural Jesus exists. Typical Christian two faced hypocrisy. Thanks for showing how that hypocrisy expresses itself. Regards DL

So there are no invisible or true Gods and Jesus never did any miracles. Right? Regards DL

I see it more as people ignoring common sense for their tribal natures that they appease. More willful hypocrisy than stupidity, but I can agree that that is not a good way to think and that they are a disgrace to the human race. Regards DL

I see that you do not know either or you would have informed before taking your points. Your crystal ball is cloudy. A sign of a small mind. Your end game was quite easy to spot. Regards DL

I don't know. You will know them by their stats. Here is another set. http://www.pewforum.org/2012/08/09/the-worlds-muslims-unity-and-diversity-2-religious-commitment/ What is the purpose of your questions and let's get to your end game. Regards DL

You might be right, but Fake News is not quite just lying. It is lying to people who want to believe the lie enough to pass it on as real when they know it is a lie. Regards DL

Dumb is as dumb writes. Regards DL

I read white. What color do you read? "Whoever imagines himself a favorite with God, holds other people in contempt. Whenever a man believes that he has the exact truth from God, there is in that man no spirit of compromise. He has not the modesty born of the imperfections of human nature; he has the arrogance of theological certainty and the tyranny born of ignorant assurance. Believing himself to be the slave of God, he imitates his master, and of all tyrants, the worst is a slave in power." --Robert Ingersoll Regards DL

True, but I see that word used quite a bit when Christians are the target and their immoral double moral standard does not help. They forgive God for quite a bit that they condemn people for. That is quite hypocritical. Regards DL