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Re: Why did you vote for Obama? [message #362395 is a reply to message #362388] Wed, 10 December 2008 07:35 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
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Darkknight wrote on Wed, 10 December 2008 07:24

And what if he is plain wrong when he dies he turns to dirt. What if your wrong Spoony? What then?


Do you actually read what the people you're arguing with are saying?

You seem extremely reluctant to address the fact that you were absolutely dead wrong about almost every single thing you've said so far, but it'd be nice if you at least made the token effort to read my explanation as to why I'm not a Christian. I have, after all, made it quite plain in several posts.

Quote:

Finally, I would repeat something I have said several times already. I am open to the idea that there may be a God. If you prove to me there is a God and that every word of the Bible was true, I would accept it. But I would not worship him and I would not become a Christian. I have already said that the main reason I am not a Christian isn't because I find it all very difficult to believe (although that's part of it). The main reason is that I find many of its moral teachings absolutely despicable. If the Bible was true, God would be the most staggeringly evil entity that ever existed. But then, unlike you I've actually read the Bible.


Quote:

It's an absolutely disgusting moral concept. Whether he was a man or a God or the son of God makes no difference. The idea that I can be forgiven thanks to the torture and execution of someone else is DESPICABLE. Get that word, DESPICABLE. Assuming the whole crucifixion business happened at all (a generous assumption), I would rather be unforgiven than gain redemption through the punishment of somebody else.


Quote:

See, I believe sins or crimes or whatever you want to call them can be forgiven, but only if you freely accept your error and you, you yourself, are willing to make amends. I can barely express my revulsion at the doctrine of Christ dying for our sins; there simply aren't words in the English language capable of expressing it.


Quote:

Not only that, but if I reject this barbaric drivel on moral grounds (which I do), I'm told that I have an eternity of torture in store for me after I die. And you want to teach this to children and call it morality. I'll take my chances, though... like I said, if the price of my redemption is the torture and execution of somebody else, I'd rather be unforgiven. So who's the better man, you or I?


Quote:

Actually, maybe the 'fact' Christ was God (whatever sense that makes) does make a difference. A quick read of the Old Testament (again, assuming it's true) shows God to be the most evil entity that ever existed. Maybe the crucifixion was punishment for everything God did, albeit a relatively lenient one.


Quote:

What kind of moral teaching has it that you can be punished for a sin committed by someone else? Again, assuming the Adam business happened (STAGGERINGLY unlikely), how moral is it to hold a remote descendant responsible for his crime (a relatively minor one at that) Like I said, the point is made again and again in the Bible.


Quote:

My objection to Christianity is not just that I find it very difficult to believe (even as a child, and like I said it was "taught" to me with the same certainty as what was being taught in, say, physics), it's that it contains moral teachings that I find absolutely appalling. See: vicarious redemption, inheritance of punishment, the ghastly idea that one can be punished for an eternity after death, etc.

There you have it. It's not just about the fantastical improbability of Christianity and the absolute lack of evidence for it; it's also that I find many of its central teachings to be absolutely appalling.

Christ died for my sins. Sounds great, but if you stop and think about it for a moment, it's horrific. If I commit a crime I'll make amends for it myself, thank you. If the price of forgiveness is the torture and execution of somebody else (be he a man or god or son of god), I don't want forgiveness.

It gets better; the concept that you can be punished for a crime committed by someone else. This point is made again and again in the Bible. For example, in the Old Testament God rants again and again that punishment for sins will also be visited on successive generations, such as those breaking the Commandments; he also proclaims that some people can be disqualified from "the congregation of the Lord" based on the sins of their parents, such as if a child was born out of wedlock, for which the child itself can hardly be blamed. Another example: original sin, the idea that we inherit the sin of Adam (a relatively minor sin at that). Need more examples? The collective guilt imposed upon "the Jews" for deicide. Not just the Jews who were there at the time of the Crucifixion; Christianity has for the last two thousand years held all Jews responsible, without which doctrine there very probably would not have been a Holocaust. Islam does the same thing to Jews, but for a different reason (encountering Mohammed and deciding he was not the true prophet). Again, this is morally despicable and I want no part of it.

Like I've said, I am well aware of the teaching that if I reject this barbarism on moral grounds (and I do), then I'm going to hell when I die. So here are my choices.
A. I can stick by my moral ideas, and risk ending up in hell for it, as unlikely as the existence of hell seems.
B. I can abandon my moral ideas (and all reason), and subscribe to an ideology which morally disgusts me, out of self-interested fear.

I'll take A, thank you.

By the way, I think the world would be a much better place if everyone else thought along the same lines - i.e. don't hold people responsible for crimes they didn't commit, make amends for your own 'sins' yourself - although unlike Christianity I don't plan on bribing people into my way of thinking by making promises of heaven I can't keep, or bullying them into my way of thinking by promises of horrific, everlasting torture.

That's the long answer. If you want the quick answer (given your tendency not to read what the person you're arguing with is saying), then:
Darkknight: "And what if he is plain wrong when he dies he turns to dirt. What if your wrong Spoony? What then?"
Spoony: "The same thing that happens to you and Jecht if you're wrong about Islam."


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[Updated on: Wed, 10 December 2008 11:11]

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