Reagan: Evil empire speech - 'I'd kill my daughter for God than let her be a commi' Bush: 'Crusade against the evil ones'. So on so forth.
Hmm, lets see, god can do nothing and does nothing, yet the state forces them to pay taxes, obey laws and live by certain standards. In the cases of some govts, they can execute people for no real reason, force them off property, jail them for little of no real excuse and on and on. Hmm, I guess those that believe a god is more powerful than a govt are just nuts?
Throw in there the judgement of thoughts and the threat of eternal punishment for victimless crimes, and all of a sudden you have yourself one hell of a contradiction.
Your question doesn't make sense. The simple answer is the Christian believes in God because God is there. And He is all powerful, and certainly more powerful than any human government. As to the human government the Christian is under, he seeks to obey it the best that he can. All of which will depend on the various countries method of rule. The Christian does not oppose God as the All powerful ruler over all. We are of God. When God is the dictator, all is well. Why? Because He rules in righteousness. Of course, this means all is not well with those who despise God. He is The Dictator you don't want. Perhaps that is the crux of your question. Quantrill
no, you never had a case. in response to my post, you stated it was a crock , but didn't explain why it was a crock other than to say that I was talking about what I THOUGHT about human nature. You didn't explain why my reasoning would be wrong. so you have no case.
They play psychological tricks on themselves that allow them to ignore the incoherence of their world-view.
You also make no sense, because I can say exactly the same thing you do with equal force. Atheists do not believe in God because there is none. The emboldened is the catch all, but you have no defense of this claim. You merely have a claim. How do I distinguish your unsubstantiated claim from the mere mesmerism of a member of a cult of personality? I dont' distinguish, in fact, as they are the same thing as far as I can tell.
911 was performed by Religious nuts, based on their hatred of American actions in the Middle East. The reason for 911 was NOT religion. But, religious nuts make easy to find fools for most any stupid action someone wants to take.
And, attacking Iraq for something done by stateless terrorists who were originally from Saudi Arabia.
The Christian/Hebrew God believes in the concept of free-will and free conscience. Ideally government is instilled with Godly values....not totaltarian laws forcing worship. Christians worship God not government. Atheist societies fear the concept of individual freedom and free-will....because the ideal is to worship government and the government must be all-controlling and totaltarian to make that successful.
Which atheist societies are those then? Mine here in Cymru? Estonia? I think you've been at the communion wine.
True...atheist civilizations don't seem to thrive...but we do have N. Korea, previous communist Russia. China struggles to contain its religious population....by controlling it rather then outright stompping it out (smart on their part). More and more....as a population turns atheist it either turns weaker and is taken over by something stronger or turns more totaltarian. I do guarentee you that Europe will turn muslim...not atheist. Atheism can't stand up to a devout faith unless it becomes the god itself.
This is childish defamation. I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about my evidence is in your phraseology. "God believes in the concept of free-will." I have to ask, then, what if God believs in something that doesn't exist. i.e. what if God is wrong? "Atheist societies fear." Atheist societies fear nothing, because societies fear nothing, because, on the simplest level, societies are not people and only people fear. People and other animals... Societies are comprised of individuals and there has never in the history of the world been a one-sided society. There may have been societies that were largely Christian or atheist or whatever, but there has never been a Christian society in the way that there can be a Christian individual. By the same token, there has never been an atheist society or anything else. Oh sure, there have been official positions. But behind every official position is significant dissent, requiring that if we are to talk of societies as they actually are, we must prefer the reality over the official position.
About the only good thing I have to say about reliigon is that it is effective as a placebo. So in this sense I agree with you. But as far as your simplistic sociological ramblings, you are completely off your rocker.
No - those are not atheist societies at all but atheist states. It is just like saying that because bloody Mary was a Roman Catholic Queen, England under her was Roman Catholic. If you think that Europe will turn Muslim, incidentally, you certainly have been at the communion wine!
A society is built upon the values derived from the majority belief system. Which means--yes--a society's values can be based on Christian values, or Atheist values, or Islamic values.
I didn't say that. Religion is PARTICULARLY fertile ground for excuses because of its all but inherent anti-intellectualism.
Atheism itself has only one value, the truth whatever that may be. You attirbute to atheism all kinds of imaginary gremlins, just as you attribute to your own world. You must make a demon of atheism but atheism is not your enemy.