Monday, August 30, 2010

Stump the Christians #3

The Bible says to worship God (obviously) and to obey your mother and father, but what do you do if your parents tell you to worship other gods?

16 comments:

  1. There's a verse Paul wrote, can't remember the exact reference, that says we are to "obey God, rather than man." I think that that scenario would fall under that verse. ;) And I do believe prayer works wonders.

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  2. God is honored above all else.

    The Roman oppression of the Christians came about because they refused to honor Caesar as a god. Would an atheist have made such a refusal, on threat of torture and death?

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  3. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the bible say to honor your parents not obey?

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  4. Yeah, I think I agree with the other comments on this one, Ginx. Besides, there is another commandment to have "no other gods before me", and one commandment can't cancel out another one (well, maybe they can, but I'm talking as if I was a believer in the Bible, which of course, I'm not).

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  5. God prevails.

    "Sorry ma, love the risotto but I can't pray to the rice gods."

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  6. Would an atheist have made such a refusal, on threat of torture and death?

    Probably not, but what compelling reason would an atheist have for being tortured to death over something like that, when they don't believe in any afterlife (generally; a few atheists have believed that life continues as a part of the scheme of things).

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  7. I think if you're willing to die for atheism, you missed the point.

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  8. [Finally I found one easy enough for Christians to answer... I should keep lobbing them over the plate...]

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  9. From what I understand, the majority of suicide bombing attacks were the Tamil Tigers, although various Muslim groups have come close to their record. These people are a group of atheist communists who don't particular believe in an afterlife. Granted, I doubt their atheism has much to do with their suicide bombings.

    I guess the answer here is that you won't be an atheist if a Muslim state is established where you live. Or you won't stand up for your beliefs as an atheist.

    Please understand, I'm not saying that there is something inherently wrong with that. Personally, I don't think many American Christians would maintain their Christianity in an Islamic state if it rose up in the United States either, but in their case they are suppose to.

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  10. The Tamil Tigers are predominantly Hindu...

    And if you ever read the Quran, you might realize Protestants borrowed a lot of their ideas from it. The only difference between a Protestant and a Muslim is that Muslims don't have a major boner for Jesus.

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  11. Don't see a lot of Protestants killing in the name of God. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen (like the Northern Irish militants), but I think the Muslims have far outweighed the protestants in terms of militant 'evangelical' tactics.

    Of course, like I've said before, lower body count doesn't make you morally superior.

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  12. Protestants aren't killing people... unless you count US presidents who kill tens of thousands based on a war God told W to start. Or you might count the over-representation of Protestants in jail, far outpacing other religions or atheism.

    I guess you only count American civilians as kills?

    And explain to me how body count is not important. Wouldn't a group with a body count of zero be rather noble?

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  13. Like I've said before, most American Christians are cowards and only pay lip service to their church. And, like to paraphrase George Carlin, Christians are just like any other people group: few winners, lots of losers. I make no excuses for the behavior of people I don't associate with in general.

    You, however, were the one who brought up the absurd notion that Protestants are the same as Muslims, just a different reverence for Jesus. This is patently absurd if you observe the differences in their religious attitudes, the differences in the respect for life, and the long history of the two groups. Islam has a very bloody history of conquest while protestants have only recently begun conversion by the sword, only to have abandoned it in the past century. Most wars in the 20th century that are started by Western civilizations are not fought for God, but for other reasons. I didn't see George W. Bush pushing Christianity on the Afghans or the Iraqis, regardless of what God may or may not have told him (and more than likely, he wasn't told by God to go to war at all, but that's all speculation on my part, not divine prophesy). In fact, Iraq is probably closer to a Muslim state now than it was under Saddam (one more reason why I think the Iraq War was a huge mistake and regret supporting it).

    And if you want to talk about body count and the (non)religious beliefs of the perpetrators, then look no further than the famous atheists like Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, and Joseph Stalin. There is more blood on their hands than the Spanish Inquisition (by the millions).

    Oh, and the Tamil Tigers are a non-religious organization and are, in fact, secular Marxists. They do compose of Christians and Hindus, but their goal is not a religious one. So I was wrong to consider them atheist, but they are not solely Hindu either.

    The point here is that people suck, no matter what their religious beliefs are. The ultimate problem is leaving power in the hands of people who have ambitions to 'fix' humanity. Regardless of his atheism, Stalin wanted to fix things, just as Bush wanted to fix things, just as Bin Laden wanted to fix things. Humanity seems to be plagued with people who are determined to perfect things through their own hands while wholly unable to truly understand the foolishness of such a quest.

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  14. Muslims have a long way to go before they can catch up to Christians, be they Catholics or Protestants. I think you'll find many aspects of Islam identical to Protestantism, however, if you ever took the time to learn about Islam. Both react violenting to opposition, both rattle on about the lake of fire, judgment day, blah blah blah. It really is pretty much the same shit, different different language.

    Anyway, it does say you should obey your parents in Ephesians 6 (as well as slaves ought to obey their masters).

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  15. Protestants have dropped way off in their killing people efficiency rating. If you think they haven't done it in the past try reading up on the "Thirty Years War."

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  16. They do it today. Tends of thousands od Muslims died in the Middle East because God told George W. Bush tp invade.

    Don't kid yourself, Christians are every bit as violent as Muslims... which is to say most are really peaceful.

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