Defining the Christian Life

[Cypress]

Cypress: "If you are hostile to religion, there is no need for you to patrol the board's religion forum."
Jack: I support 'science', the opposite of 'religion'. When you, as a smart person, promote Religion, I can only attribute that to 'childhood brainwashing'. I question your reasoning.

Cypress: "I am interested religion, science, existentialism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, moral philosophy, intellectual history, post modernism, paganism, et al."
Jack: Awesome. Rather than cloak yourself in names of Famous People from the Past, why not articulate what you feel is noteworthy. Like, how many Angels can dance on the head of a Pin?

Why do you not get angry and belligerent when I post a thread examining the Hindu tradition, the Daoist tradition, the indigenous American animist tradition?

[Cypress]

You can believe in something greater than yourself and still support science.

About half of all scientists believe in God or a higher power. Pew poll.

It is precisely because I was trained in science and have had a life long interest in physics and cosmology that I came to realize science does not provide us truth. Science is humankind's most effective procedure for gaining provisional knowlege of how natural phenomena behave.

I have always had the utmost respect for good science and the scientific method. I made it a career. But at a deeper level, science cannot provide truth about the nature of reality. Science, reason, and inference have limitations - as does the cognitive abilities of the human brain. I think it is just honest to admit that.

[Jack]

Why do you not get angry and belligerent when I post a thread examining the Hindu tradition, the Daoist tradition, the indigenous American animist tradition?

I haven't seen you do that.
If you have an interest in talking about Egyptian, Greek, or Gods of the Past, in a Mythological context, I have No Problem with that. That's an interesting pastime.
YOU seem to be PROMOTING 'Religion'. Religion is a DANGER to current Society, to Modern People. I'm completely flabbergasted at why you do this.

Please, tell us all what is praiseworthy of Religions. Belief in a 'Man-God'? Paradise with 72 Virgins? Stoning the Queers? God telling people to 'smash the heads of the children against the rocks'? Miracles? Virgin Births? Dying ... then coming back alive after 3 days? Killing somebody for 'working' on the Sabbath?

Rather than you previous replies of: uh, uh, uh, Martin Luther King, Jr., please explain your PROMOTION of Religion.

[BidenPresident]

About half of all scientists believe in God or a higher power. Pew poll.

"higher power" is meaningless. Could refer to mathematics.

[NiftyNiblick]

People who believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy at least don't try to insert those beliefs into the laws of the land.

Believe whatever makes you feel good, but remember, America was never meant to be a theocracy.

We don't need or want anybody's god or that god's rules in our laws.

[Cypress]

I haven't seen you do that.
If you have an interest in talking about Egyptian, Greek, or Gods of the Past, in a Mythological context, I have No Problem with that. That's an interesting pastime.
YOU seem to be PROMOTING 'Religion'. Religion is a DANGER to current Society, to Modern People. I'm completely flabbergasted at why you do this.

Please, tell us all what is praiseworthy of Religions. Belief in a 'Man-God'? Paradise with 72 Virgins? Stoning the Queers? God telling people to 'smash the heads of the children against the rocks'? Miracles? Virgin Births? Dying ... then coming back alive after 3 days? Killing somebody for 'working' on the Sabbath?

Rather than you previous replies of: uh, uh, uh, Martin Luther King, Jr., please explain your PROMOTION of Religion.

I write about other religious traditions all the bloody time. You are never found complaining on those threads.

Which leads me to believe you are not actually a consistent, dispassionate atheist. You are an anti-Christian zealot harboring some deep-seated resentment towards Christianity - and Christianity in particular out of all the world religions.

[Jack]

I write about other religious traditions all the bloody time. You are never found complaining on those threads.

Which leads me to believe you are not actually a consistent, dispassionate atheist. You are an anti-Christian zealot harboring some deep-seated resentment towards Christianity

Well, I am an Agnostic. I prefer to believe in what's REAL, rather than what is IMAGINARY. I support Philosophy, and those people that have a different philosophical point of view than I may have.
'Religion' is part 'philosophy' and part mysticism.

My rejection of the Christian Religion is that it is a Slave Religion. It's COMPLETELY understandable why the Kings of Europe adopted it.

A thousand years of Christian domination ... called the Dark Ages for a reason.

[AProudLefty]

"higher power" is meaningless. Could refer to mathematics.

"Higher power is meaningless and that includes you, boss."

[BidenPresident]

"Higher power is meaningless and that includes you, boss."

you're always an asshole troll

[AProudLefty]

you're always an asshole troll

Asshole for making a joke?

[BidenPresident]

Asshole for making a joke?

Bye, asshole troll.

[AProudLefty]

I guess George Carlin was a major asshole? Maybe he was.

[Cypress]

"higher power" is meaningless. Could refer to mathematics.

Everyone knows, especially scientists with PhDs, that when a pollster calls you with questions about one's religious convictions, they are not asking your opinion on logarithms.

[Cypress]

Well, I am an Agnostic. I prefer to believe in what's REAL, rather than what is IMAGINARY. I support Philosophy, and those people that have a different philosophical point of view than I may have.
'Religion' is part 'philosophy' and part mysticism.

My rejection of the Christian Religion is that it is a Slave Religion. It's COMPLETELY understandable why the Kings of Europe adopted it.

A thousand years of Christian domination ... called the Dark Ages for a reason.

Academic scholars have largely abandoned the concept of a Dark Age, as it was taught in school in the 1950s.

I do not begrudge you your hostility to Christianity. It's your life.

In my life, I attempt to keep my mind open to the wisdom and moral philosophies of the world's religious and intellectual traditions.

I am equally willing to consider the life and philosophy of Saint Augustine as I am the atheist existential philosopher Frederich Nitzche.

[BidenPresident]

Everyone knows, especially scientists with PhDs, that when a pollster calls you with questions about one's religious convictions, they are not asking your opinion on logarithms.

You did not cite that PEW survey.