Ekim,
Christianity failed your test? Tell me something, do your students test YOU to find out what THEY know?
To any intelligent student it does not take long to tell whether a teacher is teaching anything. If a teacher cannot answer direct questions and is evasive then the teacher soon loses respect and students.
You think living a righteous life is easy? Heck, it was too hard for you wasn't it?
It is easier than dealing with reality, since you have an outlet – God will guide me, God will not let me down, etc. etc. Phrases I have heard so many times from xtians. When the going gets tough you will pray for help and hope it arrives. I.e. a dependence on a fantasy rather than working harder to solve your own problems.
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Cris wrote:
The xtian way is to give up everything, make no effort, and trust everything to a fantasy.
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How painfully wrong you are. The above statement proves you know nothing about what the Bible teaches:
I’m talking about the struggle for human survival not about following a set of rules to please an imaginary god.
If you think it is easy to live a holy life in an unholy world then you are misguided at best.
It is easy to believe in a fantasy than to search for reality. Your perceived struggle is a constant trial trying to resolve ancient contradictory mythology with the real world. In the end your desire is to die and be with your god – that is in essence giving up everything. The real effort is the struggle to survive when times are hard.
I think you may need professional help if you think Christianity is "the greatest evil of them all". Maybe you need to visit a cancer ward in a local children's hospital, or maybe an inner city morgue.
And xtianity provides what solutions? It doesn’t. It teaches that those dying will find a better life in heaven. It is science that solves problems, it is science that cures diseases, and it is science that helps prevent diseases. Xtians merely pray and hope, i.e. things of no practical value.
The evil is the teaching that life is temporary and that real life begins after death. The effect is to cheapen life and to give hope that the struggle in this life will soon be over and that paradise is waiting. Instead, if people were taught that death is the end then IMHO they would make a greater effort to preserve life and the thought of risking one’s life in a war would be unthinkable.
All significant religions teach an afterlife, all such religions give such false hopes. Xtianity is the worst offender because it deliberately and very actively attempts to convert others to its unfounded ideas, and present them to the gullible as truth.
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Cris wrote:
As others here have indicated, xtianity teaches that man is corrupt, and has no hope, and that life has no value, in short xtianity teaches ultimate negativity.
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Really studied those scriptures eh? That is a grossly inaccurate statement. Your theology is weak, sir.
Do you deny that xtianity portrays every man as sinful and that he must die? This is the primary teaching of xtianity: The entire reason why he must be saved and the entire reason for the need of a savior.
The fundamental essence of xtianity is the teaching that man is bad and must be saved. The entire conversion process rests on convincing others that they are inherently bad and corrupt and hence they need to be saved.
It looks more like you have missed the entire point of xtianity.
As a humanist I see man as inherently good and capable of solving his own problems through knowledge and understanding of the universe. I.e. I encourage and look for the positive.
Xtianity says you are bad so repent you sinner or suffer eternal torture. Very positive huh?
Isn't it difficult NOT to sound condescending when one of your students lectures you (without respecting your experience) in regards to a subject you know more about than he does?
No never. What I teach can be shown through objective proofs independent of any experience I might have. I never have a need to sound condescending. You on the other hand have no objective proofs to offer. You have no choice but to resort to condescension.
Well, it's similar here. You portray yourself as some kind of Biblical anti-theologian or something. Yet even the most shallow theology is misunderstood by you. Yet you're going to tell me what I believe.
Show me an objective proof for the existence of your god then you can rightly say you are not believing in fantasy. Until you can do that there is no way to distinguish your beliefs from fantasies and dreams.
It seems your unbelief is not because you know everything about Christianity, and chose to reject it, but because you choose to know NOTHING about it to begin with.
When a fantasy can be easily recognized there seems little point examining further details when one is looking for reality. Any scrap of evidence for the basic claims that xtianity had any substance would have ensured my continued interest.
Since to you, Christians are the scourge of the planet, here's something for you to mull over... what would you do if one of your children became a Christian?
Since my time as a xtian was most valuable I’d encourage them to enjoy the experience. If they are as rational as I suspect then I would leave it up to them to reach their own conclusions. I have not taught them to be atheists.
But you paint yourself in far too high esteem. Two thirds of the world is not xtian, and many who claim to be xtian hold those beliefs only out of tradition or upbringing. Truly devout xtians are definitely in a minority in the world.
Scourge? No, just irrelevant.
Cris
