skip wrote: ↑Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:54 am
Tsunami wrote: ↑Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:37 am
I love how you say the truth of Christianity depends only on one event that is unfalsifiable, and you ignore the numerous other Biblical claims that were considered to be literal historical events a hundred years ago that are now ignored as parables, like the great flood and young earth creationism. How many times does a religion have to be wrong to cast doubt upon the other parts of the myth?
I agree with dynastyninja that the discussion on forums is pointless because no one comes with an open mind, they come to argue and criticize. As such, I'm not going to take part in the debate but I will address a couple of things that you mention in here.
I am a young Earth creationist and believe absolutely in a global flood. Not only do I take those things on faith, but I also believe science supports such a view. So please do not act like believers only pick and choose the parts of the Bible that fit their beliefs.
Young Earth Creationists make very very incredible claims indeed. These claims must then have incredible evidence to support them. They do not.
Science most certainly does NOT support such a view. There are trees as old as the so called flood. There is no way to explain life on earth today based upon a flood event. There is no way to support our understanding of Genetics if the human race were to have gone through a genetic bottle neck that consisted of ONE family. There are ice core samples that go 4-5 times longer than the so called flood that is said to have occurred 4000 years ago. The Arc itself could not have been built in such a way to have been able to do the things it is said it did. How do we go on to explain island biology, How about Australia's population of unique marsupials, reptiles, etc....? I mean.... it is crazy to think that some otherwise intelligent people on this planet can somehow talk themselves into dismissing valid testable, observable, and varifiable science on one hand,yet then dismiss nearly all of it in order to make room for a simplified children's story. How be so incredibly hypocritical and accept the SAME science that lends itself to the technology that we all embrace, yet then dismiss it if it doesn't conform to what you've been brainwashed to believe? So, to say that science even remotely supports such a view - is a very false statement and It MUST be refuted in order to stop such propagation of lies to our youth. Whether it changes someones mind on this forum is irrelevant. At any opportunity to refute or to educate, we owe it to future society to do so. Childhood believe systems that are rooted in fantasy and are propagated by disillusioned adults are dangerous points of view as they minimize the importance of evidence. Evidence his how we as a species and a society move forward. If you want to choose to live in a 2nd century way of thinking fine, but, it is now 2018 and I hope beyond all hope that we stop brainwashing our youth. I suggest you folks that buy into ancient ways of thinking that are based off of ancient values, ancient and primitive knowledge and world views, make an attempt to get with the information and knowledge of the times. Look into the recent and current information available within these fields of study and what they say about a global flood event that supposedly took place 4000 years ago. Geology, Biology, physics, Astronomy, radio-metric isotope dating, anthropology, paleontology, mythology, Genetics, and Geo-Biology, This creationism, is an unsupported believe that gets propagated by child hood indoctrination. It is not in anyway supported by credible science. NOT IN ANY WAY.
Think of it like this, would any educated rationale thinking adult be easily persuaded into believing this magical story? likely not. A 3-6 year old child on the other hand.... well, that proves to be pretty easy. This is why childhood indoctrination is So very important to all religions.
And, yes, believers absolutely cherry pick the parts of the bible they choose to believe. This is the entire premise on old testament refusal and the embrace of the savior in the new testament. The christian churches and their bible do this very thing. To say otherwise self incriminates one into being categorized as a racist, sexist, murderous, torturous bigot.
So many claim to be religious but sadly they understand less about their own religion and specifically the history of their own religions origin that they claim to embrace, than those of us atheists that have done the objective research.
In summary, Atheism is the absence of faith. Faith is the belief in something without proper evidence. Faith can be good but unfortunately, it can also be very very dangerous as it can compel normal educated logical people to do some very crazy and destructive things. Atheism is not a religion at all. It is a frame work of a world view and it has nothing to do with any faith or any gods (Thor, Horus, Zues, Jesus, Sol, Buddha, Shiva, Appollo) or devils of any kind. There is truly no need for religion in today's world. Everyone that has a smart phone has access to near unlimited knowledge and information.
Take the time and look things up. Try to be skeptical of what any authority figure says. Ask yourself is their is an underlying motivational factor at stake. Money, politics, power? Is what they are telling you believable, explainable? You'll find at the very root of every single religion that there is a rationale explanation that is stemming from a source. For the modern day King James version of the Bible - you can thank the Roman Emperor Constantine for his editing of the Gospel. He did this to insure that the Roman Empire would consolidate and collaborate under his rule.
Truth is found through Evidence.
Science is the poetry of reality.
* Reality (as defined by Webster's dictionary) - A word for things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional ideal of them.