Kieren; that was a DIRECT REFERENCE to people of no faith; it is as insulting and harsh as the following:
Christians are mindless ugly bigots using their oppressive dogma to compensate for lack of charm, intelligence, objectivity and grace. They're nitwits idiot with the charm of a 6 week hangover and two pints of urine combined. So poor are their brains and so big are their delusions that they think there is a big Skydaddy In the Clouds that has a personal interest in everyones sex life. So braindead, idiotic, moronic and useless is their philosophy that it is an insult to human intelligence to let this vile piece of puke infect an otherwise healthy and potentialy good mind. It is utterly distateful to see them spread their poisons into the minds of the defenceless; the young kids who have total faith in their parents.
Christians are disgusting. They're appaling. They're the result of eons of superstition and impervious to logic and reason. It is hard not to hate all of them and, personally, I wish they all die horrible deaths, preferrably at my hands".
Nice huh?
If I went around calling Christians all this, would they not be A TAD BIT P'D OFF?
So why apply double standards?
Ice, thanks for bringing it up though; it validates my belief in western humanism.
Seawulfe, the way I've had it explained is that the Christian deity runs by different rules than what we earthlings do - i.e what we think is good, he might not. We don't know exactly how he judges even though we, through the bible, have a good idea of what he considers good and bad, so therefore the only way to get into heaven is by his grace.
Along these lines are Pascal's Wager. Pascal was a great mathematician, which has led me to believe his wager was more of a humorous attempt than anything else: It goes:
If God REALLY exists, and we believe (= bet that God exists), we have an infinite gain.
If God REALLY exists, and we don't believe that, then we have the potential of an infinite loss (hell, or at least eternal separation from God).
If God really does NOT EXIST, and we believe that God exists, we essentially lose nothing.
If God really does NOT EXIST, and we believe that God doesn't exist, we essentially gain nothing.
In short; the rational approach is to believe in god, since you lose nothing and have everything to gain.
It looks very compelling at the surface, but once again, the logic is flawed.
Assume that God is Barney the Atheist Loving God who dislikes believers. You have now reversed the table. That's the most fundamental flaw of it (and there are others, logic related ones).
I find it rewarding to discuss such things - sometimes I am wrong, sometimes the ones I discuss with are wrong. Spent hours on the undernet #atheism and #philosophy channel throwing arguments around for fun in a good natured way - I believe it is good for me to realise the flaws of my positions and I enjoy dissecting the arguments of others.
But this is one thing. Being called selfish and whatnot for being a non theist - and this is *in the bible*, which means that any good Christian is to believe it, since it is God's words, is UTTERLY INSULTING.
How can you NOT get pissed off when some OLD guy who wrote a passage in a book calls you all these names without knowing you, and then gets all his loyal followers to adopt the same position?
It is insulting. As insulting as my first passage about Christians (which is equally untrue) is.
Dude. I'm a good person. The Bible is wrong in that passage. But can it be wrong in the eyes of the bible following Christian, since it is the word of God?
Would really like the input from Christians on this one; are all non Christians this bad?
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Baron Claus "StSanta" Von Ribbentroppen
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I think." - A. Eldritch
