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Originally Posted by Preacherman  Quote:
Originally Posted by WilliamBlue I would argue that genocide due to religious persecution is still happening and although the individual numbers involved are not the huge numbers you mention above they are probably adding up to these numbers if not more over time, after all a few thousands here, a thousands there, won't grab the headlines like those you mention. I know you know that people are still dying because of their religious beliefs, right? http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...28/ai_76915684
Not to mention the Israel/Palistan debacle. You could even argue that the current mess in Iraq could be consider religious in nature, although I think it's more about money and control than anything else, most of these things are, religion is used to sway the masses, Only the preachers and the people in power know what is really going on(what is your motivation here anyway?  ). We are an animal that prefers to live in tribes.
If you are arguing that we need religion to control the masses then I would argue that it will only work if there is one religion and we know that that is not going to happen unless 'your creator' makes it happen, which seems he unwilling to do. | Yeah, Christians are getting it worse than anyone in todays world, but we can't ignore our past so I'm not gonna act like its all "their" fault. All of it is horrendous all of it is wrong. My point is that once you take Supenaturally dictated moral mandates out of the equation, and people are free to decide what is moral. And people continue to be as greedy, selfish and power hungry as ever, things get much worse, much more quickly. |
Arguable, about Christianity, you do know that this is a battle taking place over turf and other religion see it as a live or die situation? My point is that organized religion allows people to be fragmented, not that it is the only reason, it is just a major one because it crosses international borders thus more people are involved. Fragmentation into groups or tribes makes it easier for individuals to harm others as it becomes an us versus them.
It also makes it easier for fanatics to rally to a cause such as jihad, I believe it would be much more difficult to get people to commit suicide in such dramatic and destructive ways if the religious element was taken out of the equation?
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Originally Posted by Preacherman on another note, the one religion thing to me is the scariest of all ideas, cause then you get all the power in one small groups hands and people begin to abuse it/consolidate it/ kill for it. Again the problem is people, not religion. But I think God knows better than to let people in their sinful nature have that kind of rampant unchecked power. Yikes. Oh, my creator (and yours IMO) hasn't decided to do that yet. The Bible talks about God's patience and why things are the way they are is because he is giving you time to figure it out. |
I do not want to go into the whole argument why your creator decided to make an imperfect being and then is surprised when it is imperfect...etc, etc. Suffice to say that it makes no sense to me, thus this statement makes no sense to me.
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Originally Posted by Preacherman Thirdly, you are right, because I am a member of that secret organization (of preachers), I alone know what is going on here. So I'd watch your back or you'll soon be spewing my perspective everywhere you go |
I knew it
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Originally Posted by Preacherman Quote:
In the present day it is harder for the major powers to get away with this type of thing as technology has shrunk the planet, look at what China is facing in Tibet(and rightly so I believe), although I am not saying that these major acts of genocide will never happen again, just that the price will be a lot higher.
| Yeah, I think it just shows that nations, just like people get away with as much as they can until it starts to backfire. it will just take a large enough regime to enact their will on the masses...again that one religion thing freaks me out. (Even though I believe in one true religion) As long as Jesus hasn't returned and people are running the show I say watch the freak out. Quote: |
Lots of individuals look like rocks to me | Agreed. Quote: |
The truth of the matter is that you have no evidence other than a 2000 year old book written by men that may or may not be properly translated. I have looked at your evidence and it does not make sense, as far as fences go I don't even see one in sight.
| Translation? is that really a problem for you? I mean we have greek texts, if that's what is holding you back, learn you some Greek. |
I am not talking about a literal translation, I am talking about a culture one, words, as you should know, have had different meanings at different times during history, not to mention the canonization by a different culture, it would be a real shame if Christianity had really lost the path and all those people were lost...