The great and all powerful religion thread!

[knives]

Cool. I agree the Bible is not all true. I would just like to point out that the reason we now don't take the Bible literally is that our morals have progressed past the point of slavery, rape and stoning. Therefore the statement that bible guides you or gives you morals is untrue.

Well, I don't remember any places in the Bible where it says that rape or slavery are ok...could you show me the references to those?
As for the stoning, well hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will provide a better answer, but I have generally held the concept that in the Old Testament, there were certain laws that are no longer applicable today, because of Christ's coming. Again, this is not necessarily correct, it's just what I've generally believed.

 

[A8]

Has anyone read the Koran before? And if so what did you think of it?

 

[skeptik]

What exactly about Christ's coming changed the applicability of certain laws?

http://www.evilbible.com/Rape.htm
http://www.evilbible.com/Slavery.htm

 

[cookiecutter]

Well, I don't remember any places in the Bible where it says that rape or slavery are ok...could you show me the references to those?
As for the stoning, well hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will provide a better answer, but I have generally held the concept that in the Old Testament, there were certain laws that are no longer applicable today, because of Christ's coming. Again, this is not necessarily correct, it's just what I've generally believed.

Read pretty much the entirety of Deuteronomy

 

[knives]

Ok guys, I will read the links and Deuteronomy and get back to you

 

[skeptik]

"If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife."

Hmm, sounds like Islam.

 

[cookiecutter]

Remember God wrote that

 

[Matt]

Actually no, man wrote that.

 

[Rabid Headbanger]

Actually no, man wrote that.

SHUT UP AND PUT ON YOUR BURKA, BITCH, OR IT'S A LASHING FOR YOU!

 

[Matt]

Wow ur funny

 

[CAIRATH]

Someone linked me to this review earlier today. Has anyone here read that book? I'm mainly interested in whether it offers anything new or interesting (or just fun) to read to someone who has read Dawkin's The God Delusion (great), David Mills' Atheist Universe (great), and Sam Harris' The End of Faith (not so great in my opinion).

If so I might pick that up at some point.

 

[WhiteRaven]

Religion is a method of control established by people that want to make your life as bland and boring as theirs. Only the weak-minded believe something without first rationalizing it. Hail Santa!

 

[ivry91]

Religion is a method of control established by people that want to make your life as bland and boring as theirs. Only the weak-minded believe something without first rationalizing it. Hail Santa!

And he's cute sexy helpers.

 

[skeptik]

I don't know how many times I have to tell you to stop goading Blue Jay on.

 

[cookiecutter]

Sam Harris' The End of Faith (not so great in my opinion).

I am reading this now. Started out alright but it's going downhill. He has taken the angle of pointing out why religion causes bad things, as opposed to why it is untrue. I think this is an alright approach but won't change anyone's mind. You don't become an atheist because religion is bad, you become an atheist by understanding that belief in god is irrational. He's also now going into talk about ethics, consciousness and spirituality, which, while interesting, is not really why I bought the book.

 

[Crimson Velvet]

The utter lack of any real spirituality is what I think is most interesting about modern religion, actually. Heh. What aspect of spirituality does the book deal with?

 

[cookiecutter]

I am just getting into it, but I believe the spirituality he means is somewhat akin to Buddhist nirvana.

 

[CAIRATH]

Thanks for deleting all that shit Nec.

I am reading this now. Started out alright but it's going downhill. He has taken the angle of pointing out why religion causes bad things, as opposed to why it is untrue. I think this is an alright approach but won't change anyone's mind. You don't become an atheist because religion is bad, you become an atheist by understanding that belief in god is irrational. He's also now going into talk about ethics, consciousness and spirituality, which, while interesting, is not really why I bought the book.

Yeah I feel more or less the same way. I didn't hate the book overall (I'll be honest, I stopped reading it about 2/3 of the way through so I should probably finish it sometime to see if it picks up again towards the end) but compared to a book like The God Delusion it just doesn't offer that many interesting insights. His writing style also doesn't grab me as much as Dawkins' does.

 

[AchrisK]

I am considering reading that Dawkins book, maybe. If I ever get to anything it will probably read the other one recommended in the evolution thread. But I just thought about it and I am wondering some things. Who is he? Is he an evolutionary scientist? That's what I thought he was. I only ask because I wonder the motives behind that book, The God Delusion. Is he also sepereately an Atheist activist or something?

 

[CAIRATH]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins