Why are Christians so incredibly gullible?

So improve those things, Brainiac. This is not rocket science.
I am more moral than you because my basis for morality is largely "what is the best for the most concerned", but Jesus' is "what is best for Jesus"....hence hell is still in play, as hell is not best for the most concerned, but is a Saddam-like torture chamber for Jesus the torture master.

I'm far far more moral than Jesus, and so are you, generally, Karma. I'd rather have YOU deciding my fate than Jesus. I think YOU would let me into "heaven", but Jesus is too much of a prick for that.

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My 12 year-old niece with Downs Syndrome can communicate better than the Bible...what does that tell you about the Bible....get it?

 

Their is as much jury-level of evidence that I am god as there is that Allah, or Jesus, or Zeus, etc. is god. In other words there's no evidence. Stop believing in fairy tales. Reality awaits.

 

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I'm happy that you found such nice calm words which in no way, shape or form would put a billion people in the same basket.

This is definitely not the way to address that issue. I am an Atheist myself but I don't think that accusing all people who believe being insane is the right way to do it.
I was praying a few times in my life and most were in the time of war. So I do understand people seeking comfort. If you're in severe danger 24/7 your faith may be one thing which makes you keep your sanity.

I personally think Atheism is the next society step. We had tons of gods a few thousand years ago, and we steadily decreased the number of gods ever since we started to understand more and more how our planet works. I think that the next society step therefore must be to get rid of the last god. But I don't think offending people of faith is the way to convince them. The older generation won't change their beliefs anyhow, and the crucial years are usually considered the years between 16 and 26. Rarely do people in their 50s become atheists. But natural progress will take care of the issue anyhow. If faith truly is the better way religious people shouldn't be worried of the times ahead.

 

I appreciate your input, but I think that praying is just a coward's way of avoiding reality. Face the problem, don't sub it out to an invisible friend that has no proof of his existence whatsoever. "Jesus is on the case, so I don't need to be."

 

If they don't believe in those things then they are poor parents for not seeing that the next version of those texts that their children are given have the dragons, kill gays, mistreat women, etc. parts not brought forward, for their children's benefit. A good parent would care about their children enough to do that. They don't. They put the fear (the bible says not to alter it) above their own children's welfare. Sad, really.

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You are smarter than Jesus. Seriously.

 

In my now-defunct blog, I discussed some studies that examined the biology of belief, and whether belief was an evolutionary advantage or disadvantage:
http://midtopia.blogspot.com/2007/03/evolution-of-religion.html

For instance, the fact that we're designed to see patterns, and that until age 4 or so we think everyone knows what we know, likely predisposes us to believe in gods.

And there are two schools of thought on why religion persists (given that believing in invisible unprovable things could be considered a maladaptive use of resources): the "byproduct" school, which says that religion is not advantageous but is a byproduct of our brain, which is; and the "adaptionist" school, which argues that the social advantages of belief -- including increased social cohesion -- outweigh the evolutionary costs of doing things like burning perfectly good food as an offering or building gigantic, expensive buildings that serve as the empty home of a god.

 

You do realise in Islam self harm is forbidden?

 

just wanted to say ... excellent thread!

agree with everything FS has said thus far

 

What does the Qur'an say about martyrdom???

 

Martyrdom doesn't mean self harm.

There have been many martyrs in history who were put to death.

What does the Qur'an say about martyrdom? You tell me.

 

My statement about blowing themselves up was a reference to martyrdom. You brought up "self harm", as if martyrdom was an equivalency.

So I'm not sure what your point is. Please elaborate.

http://www.prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Quotes_Martyrs.Islam

 

Martyrdom doesn't equate to suicide. Agree?

 

Martyrdom does not have to involve death, but it can equate to suicide if one takes their own life for religious or political causes.

 

Go to Syria and be a civilian for a few years, and lets see if you're the one of the few who can deal with reality and come back the same man. I know people's personal stories who are still in therapy and on medication. Things you can't even remotely understand if you've never been in a war scenario. And I personally don't think there is a moment in life which is more brutal and where you loose hope that you survive the day than in a war situation.

Tell me how does one deal with reality in this case: 3 girls are locked in a seller without food or water, no toilet or any accommodation like a chair or something. Just an empty small room. The girls are all in their young teen years. One of them is heavily overweight. They've been put into the seller for the soldiers to have someone to rape. So groups of soldiers would come into the seller to rape on or all three of the girls and if they were lucky they received food or water. After a few weeks the soldiers move on and forget them. They remain in that seller for 3 weeks. Only the formally fat girl is still alive as the other two starved to death or dehydrated. The formally 200lb+ girl is now weighing under 100lb and has to be hospitalized for 3 months to survive. Never mind what they mentally went through.

This is just one example of what people went through. The thing is that the first human need is security. Not food not water not sex not something else. Only security matters. And if you're 13 to 15 as these girls were and multiple 20+ year men would come to rape you on a daily bases, you really don't wanna "face the problem", never mind after the ordeal is over and if you by some miracle survived such a tragedy. How can you expect people who're now out of the hospital at 15/16 you go back to high-school although all (and I literally mean all) relatives are either missing or dead? If you lived through that it's a big achievement if you're even remotely capable of rejoining society. Maybe getting some job or something. I'd much rather see that this girl (whom I happen to know) would turn to Jesus than to medication. Maybe with the help with religion she might be able to deal with what happened to her.

If you are in a crisis situation you really go back to religion believe me, because it's easier to deal with reality. I don't think that you can classify just anybody as crazy just because they choose to turn to god. There are exceptions. If you've never been faced with a situation like that or remotely close to that and you have a decent education, ok then you can ask why people believe. I don't think you're allowed to label a billion people crazy just because you don't understand them.

Have you ever read anything about sociology? My guess is not, judging by what you wrote. Just google "Karl Mannheim" and see what he wrote in 1928. Very fundamental which has been further developed since in sociology and philosophy, but at least this will give you a start into the understanding of how most people orient themselves.

It's just so strange reading what you say. I can't get the image out of my head of a guy in his midlife-crisis. Please tell me that I'm wrong with that.

 

Can you expand on that comment? What were the "very dramatic developments that it was in no-one's interest to make up?"

 

Biggest lie I've ever seen on this board.

 

As I've maintained all along, all gods are imaginary. If you believe in a deity it conforms to your idea of what he should be. It's highly unlikely that anyone else imagines your deity exactly like you do. The reason for that is because gods of any kind do not exist outside of superstitious people's minds. So if you don't want Jesus to be God then he isn't. One thing is for sure and that is he will never show up.

 

People of multiple faiths (including Eastern religions) have tried to convince me that their God has talked to them. Either God is the most manipulative bastard ever, or they're imagining things.

That said, never doubt the power of subjective experience. Ultimately all we have are our senses and our mind. The former is fallible to a greater extent than the latter. I'd probably accept God's existence if he/she/whatever appeared before me.

I'm a little confused as to why he's giving certain people a free ride to Heaven (having God appear before you is sort of hard to deny), but not others.

 

I think you have the cart before the horse here. It's not that Christianity (or any other religion) makes people gullible. It's that gullible people fall for religion. You say things like "is religion a mental disease". No, religions are just stories. They are not malevolent anymore than Aesop's fables. The problem is that somewhere, someone got the idea that there ACTUALLY existed the boy who cried wolf, or that ants and grasshoppers can ACTUALLY talk to each other. Fables were taken literally somewhere along the line in the "telephone game".

 

Religious and spiritual beliefs are a natural part of man.

 

so is killing eachother, but that doesnt mean we should encourage it.

 

in my line of work I've spent time around folk who've experienced the horrors of war, and I can assure you that these experiences are just as likely to turn a previously religious person into a confirmed atheist. some of most horrible stories I've heard have come right before that old chesnut 'there is no god'

 

Yeah,... facing Reality is the issue, and Christ said he represented the Truth which can an will save the religious people, if they will accept Truth and abide in its light.

Some of this symbolic representations, like talking snakes, must be revised so the church people recognize them as the literary devises they were intended to be.
The Bible is not a legend, however, it is a sociology book that demonstrates its own ability to be heard in every society, generation after generation.
The psychology that founds this effort has used different groups found in every society, to pit one against the other in a Social Dialectic which in the end, will Synthesize into Social Change for the good.


The issue isn't that people on the one side, he atheists, are accepting Reality, while those on the side of religion deny reality.
The fact which will founded the final outcome here is that neither side has been aware of the Facts-of-Life, and had they been, neither would have accepted them, for various but different reasons.

The Applied Sociology utilized here, 3362 years ago, was to define two of the major social groups in every society, those who want no parental restraints on their sexual behavior, and those who fear the consequences of the children getting pregnant before they have developed a plan by which ton care for those children.

Sex, then, if the basic fuel for the Dialectic set into motion.

 

Right.
Our children will feed into the idea of some higher power than Mom and Dad, who are usually less than good examples.
The idea that Mom and Dad, and all the uncles and aunts, big brothers, etc are bad, in need of salvation, sinners, breaking God's Laws,... etc...

That kind of upraising will have weight in the mind of the kids before the Sex Hormones become active.
It will act as an initial break on impulses and desires.
It will make the next generation weigh their own CONSCIOUS and self-willed decision making in regard to how far to go, sexually.

If the culture represses overt sexual behaviors, like Homosexuality/discussions of Homosexuality, public nakedness/dress codes, porno in Movies, TV, etc, and, in general, PRETENDS to be sexually prudent and like the Amish or Muslims, then all the evils inherent in adolescent sexual promiscuity can be avoid as marriage become the right time and place for such expression between boys and girls.

 

Oh yes I know. I'd even consider myself in that group of non-believers. But this wasn't my point. I found it unfair to generalize a billion people as crazy for believing like the OP suggested. Some people lived through hell and I understand their firm belief. I actually find it very "racist" (for the lack of a better word) to generalize a billion people insane like that.