Almost no one believes in it.

People SAY they do but they don't read it and they don't know what is said in it.

I will tell people what Jesus said all of the time and they are like----WHAT---no he didn't!! Meanwhile, if they actually read the Bible they would know I'm right.

I'm not even religious and have read much of the Bible more than once.

If you say you believe in the Bible, god, etc and haven't read it then you are a type of retard. There is no WAY you believe the creator of the universe wrote a book and you are not reading it.

Religious people are frequently like retarded robot people who were taught to say something and have responses but not actually mean anything. It would be like your phone or computer saying "Hello" and you thinking it actually means it.

That's how people still believe in the Bible.

HOWEVER, metaphorically ANY story is a valid story if it has good meaning. So, parts of the Bible, like the Jesus story, has a lot of "truths" and "facts" although it's just mythology. For instance, "love your neighbor" is a REALLY F@CKING GREAT IDEA and it doesn't matter if a mideast superhero told you or not.

Who the hell cares if some religious people are hypocrites? The relevant analysis is whether religiosity pulls more people on the net away from degeneracy than alternative counterfactual secular belief frameworks. Is "owning what you are" really worth it as a societal trade-off when it means MORE people are pushed towards poor decision making, mental illness, social instability, etc? Just because religion and religious practitioners are flawed (as are all humans), doesn't mean organized religion is not a force for overall good. The alternative of clown world is absolutely intolerable and worse by any objective metric.

Humans have waged war and caused suffering for each other both with and without the help of modern organized religion. Religion (because of its prominent position in human society) has historically simply been the excuse. Just look at the death tolls and repression under communist regimes in the 20th century to see that suffering and destruction is nothing inherent to religion. Rather, religion has consistently been a driving force for societies to embrace higher and more humane ethical standards (but this is far far too long of a discussion to fit into one post).

I posted this thread on Easter. If you doubt the Bible, take 2 minutes to read this threadhttps://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showt...3&p=1659789513

"13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29:13

Horrible!

Phucking poor Voidcel.

Will never do enough self improvement and cold approach to surpass being a cringe ****get.

Very sad.

You really are

I have difficulty with this part (I know you said “to an extent). I think man’s defining feature is that we seek truth. I understand what you mean but I can’t justify teaching my children about a god and that it’s the reason to do what we do. I do teach my children the same values that I think the bible tries to (Irish catholic family but I admittedly don’t know the bible that well).

To go back to my previous statement regarding outdated/irrelevant messages. Good point by whomever said peace, love, joy, greed etc have always been there. If you view this book (as I do, and you’ve said one can) as a moral guidebook that isn’t from some divine being then surely it can’t be perfect. So is it fair to say that maybe some of it is no longer relevant or was bad advice etc?.

It wasn't until recently I became religious and found God. It was spurred by losing my Father and my own health issues. Its funny because I did the one thing I swore up and down I would NEVER do, which is turn to God/Religion in a time of need. But I was humbled I think looking back on it. Its easy to say a thing, but another when you're actually faced with it. Looking back on my life I think God was always with me, but I turned my back on him. To which I feel a lot of shame in. Ive had incidents in my life where I should be dead or disabled. Or when I was a kid I seen what I think was an Angel.

You could dismiss all of this logically by way of assumption. But would it actually be true? You could say I lost my father so I went looking for another, but no one can replace my Dad. Nor would I try. You could say when I was a kid I seen a reflection of light that can logically be explained, but even as a kid I have always been logical and not prone to any sort of delusion or fantasy. I know what I saw, a perfect circle of light in my bedroom floor. I couldn't see the carpet through that light. And I specifically looked at the window to see if anyone was shining a light. There was no light from the window. I looked at the only two entrances to the room, nothing. I looked below (bunk bed) where my sister was asleep. Nothing. It scared the chit out of me. I hid under the cover for a few seconds, then checked again, it was still there. It slowly moved across the floor till it was in the center of the room. I hid under the covers again. A few minutes later I checked again and it was gone.

Even then I was trying to think of a way to explain it because I was not religious in the slightest. At the time my mother was dying of lung cancer and died not too long after. I wonder now if it was an Angel.

Twice I should have died in my life or been disabled. The first time I ended up in the ICU literally on my death bed from a blood infection. I was in shock when I arrived to the ICU. My BP was so low they almost couldn't find my femoral artery to insert a IV. It took them like 5 min. The only reason I survived was I was given an experimental drug that is now the standard I believe. I remember the doc coming in several times asking me if I wanted to call my family. I didn't understand why at the time, but now I know it was because he thought I wasn't going to make it. Even with the medicine I had a 40% chance of dying or getting it again within a year. I fully recovered and never an issue since. Seems to me I was protected.

The second time I landed dead ass square on my neck onto hard packed dirt. all 240lbs at the time of me. I don't remember the fall and barely remember the ambulance ride but I was fully checked out and NOTHING wrong with me. Everyone there later told me they thought they just witnessed someone die. It must have been that bad.

Even though Ive never been religious as time went on, as clown world has progressed Ive found myself siding with Christianity more and more. There are some in the prepping community believe God has called them to prepare. And more and more I think that might be true.

Before COVID Ive always had what seemed like an irrational fear of needing to prep. and wasn't a drive I could explain why I had. When COVID did hit, and we all thought it was the next plague I had ZERO stress or worries, because I was literally prepared. In fact I was even able to help some others out to make sure they were ok. It was really weird, because you would think someone who had an irrational fear would be freaking out in that situation, but I was at peace. That inner drive COMPLETELY vanished until recently again. But not in the same way, this time I have an urge to prepare as much food as I can. I didn't even realize it at first until this last week. I thought I was just buying healthy food until I realized how MUCH I have now. You could say its just a mental illness or because I went hungry at times when I was a kid, but ... I don't think so.

I still struggle between the logical/atheist side of my thoughts and what I know/feel to be true with God. I don't just blindly ignore those thoughts, I use the same logic to analyze why I think that way. And Ive realized I think that way, because that is the way Ive always thought and never bothered to even try any other way. Perception is what defines your mind. Its so powerful even knowing this, I still learn how Ive been blinded to this or that in life because of my perceptions. Its not a matter of intelligence or logic.

I don't just think they're hypocrites, I think organized religion has enabled degeneracy by hiding it behind a veil of great-sounding beliefs. And I have no doubt that people have used religion as a tool to pursue their degeneracy while excusing it, atoning for it after the fact, or whatever

There's nothing wrong with the teachings, they're part of what make it so alluring. If people want to pursue those beliefs without trying to impose them on others, that's A-OK by me. We have protections in our part of the world that help ensure beliefs can't be forced upon us, but that certainly isn't the case elsewhere in the world even in 2022.

I think seeking truth is a self-fulfilling individual pursuit and ultimately subordinate to the moral good of promoting the well-being of those around you. My recommendation would be to try to seek truth in finding faith in God. It's the ultimate intellectual test, if nothing else, for a non-believer. And in the process, empower those around you to live healthy fulfilling lives. That's where I've landed.

Even if we accept that the Bible and its teachings may be flawed in some respects (assuming its non-Divine origin), by trying to disentangle the good from the bad on an individual-level you undermine the credibility of the entire edifice. If it's flawed and man-made, why believe in any of it over any other secular belief system? I think this strongly diminishes the emotional pull, and by extension positive incentive mechanism, provided by "full adherence." This trade-off isn't worth it, because you lose much of the benefit in the process.

I know you say that you believe "religion has enabled degeneracy" but this is just objectively false (relatively speaking) if you look around you for one second to see the degeneracy wrought by our post-Christian secular culture. It's just not true. That lesser hypocrisy of religiosity yields better individual and collective outcomes. It's undeniable.

Yeah just LOL if you don't believe in two atoms colliding billions of years ago and then exploding so they could infinitely expand in a universe without limits.

What's it to you anyway? It's not bad for folks to hold on to some kind of faith, especially when it does more good than harm

Just lol if you think degeneracy is worse in post-Christian secular 2022 than any number of points across pro-religious history


I don't think we'll look back at Canada's history in 2122 and be hit with the realization that many thousands of indigenous children over the last century were subject to cultural genocide at the hands of Christian and Roman Catholic assimilation schools... Is the emergence of blue-haired transvestites and LGBTQ++ whatever, who already existed but were unable to emerge, is that supposed to be worse somehow?

Or is it worse for you on a personal level because you feel affected by these things but you weren't affected by all the harm that has been done by organized religion leading up to this point

Christ is eternal. This does not change

Are you an angel? Has the time come? I've been waiting so long.

At the end of time, a moment will come when just one man remains. Then the moment will pass. Man will be gone. There will be nothing to show that we were ever here … but stardust. The last man, alone with God. Am I that man?

I can't believe 2022 was 0 years ago......

Of course there are religious hypocrites. But not in a higher percentage than the non-religious population.

At least the religious have a reason to self-examine and try to be better, because they believe that what they do in this life matters and they will be judged and may face the consequences of the actions of their life. The non-religious have no reason to not just look out only for themselves and YOLO.

Compare literally every indicator of individual well-being and familial/social cohesion in the 1960s to today. By every objective metric things are worse. Reported happiness levels, divorce, suicide rates, marriage out of wedlock, mental illness, loneliness, substance abuse, sexual abuse, violent crime, etc etc. Are you really arguing otherwise here? Are you delusional srs?

You cannot compare the values represented by an institution at one point in history to the collective values of modern day society. You need to compare events contemporaneously with other things happening at that same time on a relative basis. The reality is that those assimilation schools would have occurred in one form or another with or without the presence of religion, it is a conquering people attempting to subjugate the conquered. Nothing different than what the Romans did in their time. And objectively, the civilizing values of Christianity, the technological advances of Western civilization, etc, offered a superior quality of life, in the long run, than the primitive tribal life lived by those indigenous people.

I am assessing things on a utilitarian basis for "what is good for society." There are always winners and losers who suffer in different ways under different moral/social frameworks (such as authentic sexual minorities under a more traditional moral framework), we are discussing what is best for the most amount of people.