All religions must be delegitimized. It is not enough to ignore them. They deserve to be mocked into obscurity
They corrupt democracy. >Guess who doesn't have to file a 990 with the IRS? Churches are perfect dark money channels. >Both major political parties leverage religion to manipulate constituents. They know atheist voters don't care. They protect pedophiles and hide corruption. >Priests have greater confidentiality privilege than psychologists or lawyers. I'm not kidding. They mutilate babies genitals. >Some sects of Judaism has the priest "kiss" the babies bleeding dick after circumcision. American Christians still mutilate dicks for some reason. Other religions remove the clitoris or other female parts. They stick your tax dollars up their asses. >Churches have more privileges than a regular 501(c)(3), and they don't have to contribute anything to the community. >The pastors I know all use their tax advantages for personal finances including purchase of stocks and cars and houses. They wage wars and justify genocide and terrorism. They convince people that death isn't real. They scam good people out of their money. They justify the destruction of our planet with ridiculous prophecies of an apocalypse. Etc...
I'm happy to source any of the above but you can probably do it too.
If you can't know whether a god exists, there is no reason to believe that it does. It is perfectly logical to act as though it doesn't.
I was raised a Baptist Christian. I recommend that every American read The Bible along with a companion text written by Christian scholars. Start with Genesis and keep reading. I don't want to derail with a version discussion here, but you can compare translations easily on the web. Either way, your mind will be blown. It's some seriously insane shit. The fact that this stuff is normalized is unbelievable.
>that's the cross of st peter lmao stupid atheists probably didn't make soap sculptures in rape camp Shut the fuck up.
You're pretty salty atheist, what did God ever do to you?
Jaxon Lewis
>what did God ever do to you? i don't think that "God" ever did anything. i think we should grow out of this as a society so that we can become better.
Lucas Thomas
Become better? By who's standard are we going by here?
Also God is real, and i encourage you to think hard on where you want to spend eternity.
Mason White
>By who's standard are we going by here? I could ask people of different religions the same question and they would all have different answers too >Also God is real No its not. >i encourage you to think hard on where you want to spend eternity I imagine I will spend it as a dead person, dead. I know this is scary, but that doesn't mean it isn't real. The fairy tale nonsense your parents told you isn't going to change this.
Levi Perez
god is real, but he's also a degenerate hypocrite. we're all going to hell, or living in it right now, user, even religious folks. theres no reason to bother doing anything. read the bible but dont follow the footprint god made for you, live life how you please because god is the same as you.
Nicholas Evans
All of those bad things you said. God is not responsible. The people that did them are. That is why we all agreed to worship god. By putting authority in an abstract ideal that isn't human, we can guide ourselves better for good.
Christopher Lopez
>he thinks religion is holding society down kek
Jose James
>I could ask people of different religions the same question and they would all have different answers too Got it so you're going by an ever changing standard were you chose what's good and what's bad base on your emotion.
>No its not He is, but it seems you've blocked yourself in your own dogma.
>I'll be dead So knowing that you only live once, you actively choose to waste your life away in this place? That's sad, even from a naturalist point of view.
>The fairy tale nonsense your parents told you isn't going to change this. Yet here you are complaining about people knowing that there's more to life than the natural world, and that there is an eternal creator.
Henry Phillips
Its better with religion, trust me. The masses of NPCs can't be moral by themselves, shit would turn to be even more degenerate than todays.
Angel Ortiz
I don't like any religion, either, but I'm delusional enough to think it's actually going anywhere. Live your life and avoid it. Problem solved.
Ethan Price
that sort of passivity is how all the shitty listed are allowed to continue. the nonsense has to be denormalized
Luke Bennett
>The masses of NPCs can't be moral by themselves humans are a social species and tend to want to do good to each other when left to their own devices. good people are good IN SPITE OF religion, not because of
Bentley Wood
Jesus loves you anyway user its sad that youve grown to hate him all your arguments are empirically based and say nothing of the truth of God just because a, or even the, chruch is bad right now doesnt mean God isnt real nor that he doesnt love you >I recommend that every American read The Bible along with a companion text written by Christian scholars i agree but i dont know why you limit it to americans. I think its more important to read christian scholars and popular theologians, however, because the Bible is very heavy and hard for most people to understand especially without a knowledge of the historical and philosophical context it was written in i hope one day you feel God's love: it can be very hard and often one thinks, or possibly fears, He doesnt love you but He does and He died to prove it
>Jesus loves you anyway user its sad that youve grown to hate him jesus was a political figure and is most certainly dead re: the life of jesus critically examined by david friedrich strauss. >all your arguments are empirically based and say nothing of the truth of God >just because a, or even the, chruch is bad right now doesnt mean God isnt real nor that he doesnt love you what the fuck? no dude and scientology isn't real either. you agree with that, right? for fucks sake >i dont know why you limit it to americans i absolutely do not limit it to americans but america seriously has a problem >i hope one day you feel God's love i hope one day you grow up
imo religion on a micro level is fine. it's on a macro level where it becomes a huge problem. the better idea would be dismantling organized religion and religious authorities
Connor Sanders
Wow wtf people actually still belive? Like, you still belive Santa Claus? You still believe marrige and love last forever? You still think that elder people should be more respected just for their age? C'mon then, you really never made something to disobey your fathers? So don't you think by yourself?
Henry Rodriguez
>and scientology isnt real i dont really see what this has to do with anything mormonism isnt true; hinduism isnt true; norse paganism isnt true yet none of these invalidate the truth of God. I cant even begin to see why youd think they do also they are all real in the same sense that flat earthers are "real": they are not true >They corrupt democracy. >They protect pedophiles and hide corruption. >They mutilate babies genitals. >They stick your tax dollars up their asses. >They wage wars and justify genocide and terrorism. >They convince people that death isn't real. >They scam good people out of their money. >They justify the destruction of our planet with ridiculous prophecies of an apocalypse. these are all empirically based taking them all as given and absolutely true does nothing to rebuke the rational existence of God. They may indict the chruches of various faiths but they say nothing about the existence of God >If you can't know whether a god exists, there is no reason to believe that it does. this is a fallacious assumption - some faiths, the Catholic and Orthodox churches being the most prominent, teach that the existence, and even nature, of God can be known by reason alone >It is perfectly logical to act as though it doesn't no it isnt everyone knows pascals wager. Unless you *know* God does not exist its irrational to assume he doesnt moreover, if you are agnostic and suppose God *could* exist then you owe it to yourself to investigate whether or not he does - if he does then nothing could be more important. The fact you dont know these basic facts i present shows you havent done that and clearly simply hate God
>these are all empirically based >taking them all as given and absolutely true does nothing to rebuke the rational existence of God. baseless belief in nonsense is the driving catalyst behind those things. that's the point
Mason Myers
>pascals wager dude you've got it backwards. what happens when you consider all the stupid exclusive religions together? the wager doesn't work you can't do that. every stupid arbitrary belief system would need to be considered at the sane time because they all carry the same empirical weight of exactly zero
Samuel Foster
>baseless belief in nonsense clearly you did not read my entire post or simply dont understand the meaning of >some faiths, the Catholic and Orthodox churches being the most prominent, teach that the existence, and even nature, of God can be known by reason alone the notion that belief in God is based on faith alone is a very modern and distinctly protestant doctrine, which you were raised as i would implore you to read aquinas, principally, and also other scholars but i fear your hatred of God will blind you to any truth they say and so again, i hope you feel God's love eventually user
>All of those bad things you said. God is not responsible. The people that did them are. here's a guy who hasn't read the bible
Jayden Allen
even so there is a 0 probability you win if you take no religion to be true and a none zero taking any given one, assuming, as an agnostic, the existence of God is *possible* given christianity is the largest religion it is rational, if we assume no reason can determine any religion as more valid than another, to elect to be a christian and, moreover, a catholic based on an appeal to popularity
Camden Phillips
you're talking yourself in circles. and why do you keep posting cartoons? >the notion that belief in God is based on faith alone is a very modern and distinctly protestant doctrine you just said earlier that it isn't empirical. i seriously can't even tell what your beleif are from your rambling
Brody White
there's a probability of 1 based on all observations within the known universe that you're spending your only life cucking the shit out of yourself
Bentley Gray
i dont think you know what the words "empirical" and "rational" mean the existence of God is rationally proven to Catholics and Orthodox Christians. That is to say, by pure reason alone, with no material evidence, statistics or experiments, God can be demonstrated to exist. In the same way it can be proven (and indeed can only be proven) that the sum of angles in a triangle is always 180 degrees an empirical proof would be, for example, that gravity exists because if i drop an apple it falls down the existence of God is not contingent on any sort of experiment or worldly demonstration, although one may argue the resurrection is such a demonstration it is very clear to me you are not well versed in philosophy nor in theology and so i really dont see how you can make a thread declaring God to not exist when youre not even familiar with the argument supporting him and i like attaching images - its an imageboard after all