There is one thing: Worship G-d. Sure, people who don't follow faith can be benevolent, help people, make the world a better place. If you don't believe in God, however, you can't worship G-d. That is the difference.
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Can we ignore the link between religion and religious violence?
- Thread starter gsa
- Start date
Cephus
Relentlessly Rational
Worshipping God doesn't demonstrably do anything. How many amputees has God healed anyhow?
We of the Christian faith have a belief: G-d doesn't take away our troubles, He helps us deal with them. That may sound pretty lame to non-believers, but it isn't lame to us.Worshipping God doesn't demonstrably do anything. How many amputees has God healed anyhow?
Cephus
Relentlessly Rational
Then your prayers are worthless. Thanks for admitting it.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
That little amputee boy looks happy though.
They're not worthless in the slightest. I didn't say that nor did even insinuate that. Since you see it that way, there is no need for me to debate this any longer. G-d isn't a genie, people have the misconception of what prayer is. Prayer is simply talking to G-d.
Cephus
Relentlessly Rational
Then prove that they actually work and actually help someone. Otherwise, that's the very definition of worthless, unless you're satisfied to just feel good like you're actually doing something while people are going unhelped worldwide.
And what gives you the idea that I never help anyone? Do you want me to turn into a magician and grow people's legs back? I am not G-d. Your reasoning is not making sense to me.
Why do I need to make the world a better place? Religions are supposed to be doing that, they have the inside tracks to "the Gods." Religions/Myth teachings created "the Gods" and demand humans to honor and worship them. Yet when "the Gods" fail, humankind miraculously has been given "free will."
If it is "the Gods" running things, then humankind is without error. If it is humankind with "Free Will" running things, then humankind is without error. If it is "the Gods" and humankind running things together, then humankind is without error.
What final position will the religious take and stick to that position? The thread tittle demands an answer.
Sorry, but it's too damned easy to say: Why should I make the world a better place, someone else needs to do it? It's up to each of us to try and make our small portion of the world a better place, whether we are of a religion or not. People have the capacity to make our world a better place. That is why Yeshua, in my beliefs, commanded us to take care of the poor, amongst other things. Sitting back and saying "Let G-d do it" is apathetic. My faith has never taught: Sit back and relax, let G-d do it. No, it teaches us to help one another.
People were taking care of each other long before any Yeshua showed up in any writings. And why would you need Yeshua to command you to take care of others, then You demand a non Yeshua follower to do the same?
Sorry but Your "faith/religion" is really not making the world a better place. Just making "demands" from a name in a book.
It is to me. That's all I can say.
I am not saying people and I didn't say that we should help others because "Jesus said so" but because it is a human thing to do. I don't think we should complain about the state of the world if we are not doing what we can to make it a better place ourselves. Also, Jesus offered other things than telling us to help others, by the way. There is much more to my faith than meets the eye.
Cephus
Relentlessly Rational
I didn't say you didn't. I said that the only difference between the religious and non-religious is something that doesn't actually help anyone but the person doing the praying. Everyone can, and should, get up and help others. Prayer is a waste of time when it comes to actually accomplishing anything.
There's a lot more to my faith than praying. Praying, to me, is very important, it is speaking to G-d. Talking to someone is never a waste of time.
Cephus
Relentlessly Rational
It is when you're specifically talking about solving problems. Why do you keep dancing around that little requirement?
Because prayer does help me solve problems. That's the key word: HELP. G-d, in my opinion, wants me, and everyone else, to do things ourselves. If we didn't, there would be no reason to exist. It's like parents, they can help us with our homework, for example, but they expect us to do the actual work. If they did it for us, why would we go to school?
Cephus
Relentlessly Rational
We're not talking about your problems, we're talking about the poor and the hungry and those in pain. How does your prayer help them, otherwise how is what you're doing any different than what I might do? We both have to get up and go help these people, belief in gods has zero impact.
It is within our means, as the human race, to feed people. Governments are the ones responsible for these kinds of things. I remember all those charities back in the 80s (Do They Know It's Christmas and We Are The World) who made money, bought food and the food did not get to the starving people because governments wouldn't let it be distributed. Prayer alone isn't going to help anyone, there has to be action along with it. We pray to help us with our actions. My Church feeds poor families, Churches donate food all the time to poor families in my area. You still don't seem to know what prayer even is. When we pray, we don't say "Please G-d, make a car fall from the sky so _____ can have one", we instead say "Please, Father, help for __________ to find a car, give him or her guidance in his or search". As I said, G-d is NOT a genie and He is not Santa Claus.
catch22
Active Member
How many does Cephus say He is supposed to heal? What would appease Cephus?
morphesium
Active Member
% Contribution of Muslims to world population = 23%
% Contribution of (world) terrorism by Muslims = 95%
In other words, 77% of non-Muslims contribute to 5% of world terrorism (this includes terrorism due to politics).
So on an average, Islamic preaching makes a person 65 times more prone to be violent than an average non Muslim.
The Islamic scholars may say that they never understood "true" ISLAM, but since people end up to be more violent because of (being )ISLAM than without ISLAM, - it is just a lie to hide the truth. Moreover, a percentage of the Zakat money is used to fund terrorism around the world.
So, despite this high rate of violence, how does Islam appears peaceful; kind of candy coating- They fund the press to write for them, make interviews that emphasis Islam is peaceful, fund the politics to make law for them - making the world much more ambient for them to grow.
ISLAM is a ticking time bomb.
When the rate of growth of population of other religions is stabilizing or even decreasing - the population is of Muslims is exponentially increasing. They use all possible strategy to increase Muslim population in a population where Muslims are minority.
ISLAM is the most intolerant religion in the world.
Once, the Muslim population gains a upper hand - they will legalize slavery, child marriage etc, and will start to eliminate people in other religions before starting to fight among themselves. They are destined to throw humanity to dark ages to the living conditions that prevailed during the times of Prophet Mohammed (approximately 1400 AD or back).
It took Christianity 1800 years to refine itself. But since Islamic preachings and rituals are implemented much more systematically and frequently - it is much more effective at suppressing free thought. So how many years will it take to refine ISLAM? - or will it ever?
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