Fretless

Theists, what else do you believe without evidence....

Ok, let's say for example, you're on a jury. The defending attorney is cross-examining the arresting officer.

Officer: That is the man we believe committed the murder.

Lawyer: Did anybody see him do it?

Officer: No, but he told us he did it.

Lawyer: So, the defendant confessed?

Officer: No, the victim told us the defendant killed him.

Lawyer: So, a dead guy TOLD you who killed him?

Officer: Don't be ridiculous... he wrote it in this book.

Lawyer: The dead guy wrote a book?

Officer: He actually inspired others to write it.

Lawyer: So who actually wrote it?

Officer: No idea, we just found it.

Lawyer: Ummm Ok, so where is the body?

Officer: Don't know.

Lawyer: You ummm... don't have a victim?

Officer: Well, not in the physical sense, but I've felt his presence.

Lawyer: So, you have no body, no weapon, no evidence that a crime was even committed, but you believe that this man is guilty of murder based on a book you found and "feeling the presence" of a victim that nobody can see???

Officer: That about sums it up.

So, would you... as a jury member, vote to convict this person? I'm just trying to get a sense of continuity.

Thanks.

A lot of same-sex marriage opponents claim that their opposition stems from the fact that "Marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman". My assertion is that this is simply a distraction from the fact that they are trying to impose their will or religious hang-ups on people they don't know.

If this is not the case... If you REALLY think you're "defending traditional marriage", tell me:

1. Where is marriage defined as "one man, one woman"?

2. Exactly what harm will if do to my marriage if my neighbors (a lesbian couple of several years) get married? (I mean, aside from giving them the same civil rights that I enjoy).

Thanks.

Have you ever noticed that every time you do laundry, there's always one sock missing when you're done? Where does it go? Well, I'll tell you: There are sock goblins that live in another plane of existence. The flash into our dimension, grab the sock, and flash out. They do it in a matter of pico-seconds, so don't bother trying to catch them on camera (they don't show up in our visible light spectrum anyway). They bring the sock to their Queen FruitoftheLoomia; Mistress of the Golden Toes. Queen FruitoftheLoomia demands your respect and adoration. Don't believe me? Well then, enjoy spending eternity in GlaxiΩ5. That's the eternal dryer. It's in another plane of existence (actually, it IS another plane of existence) where the winds blow at 1000 degrees and you are forever tumbling in a drum lined spikes the size of swords. You wounds healing just in time to hit the wall of daggers again.

Ok, I know... I've just told you a wild story that can't be tested or proven... BUT, it can't be dis-proven either! So why not just be safe??

...even their OWN religion... when compared to ANYBODY else?

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/28/dont-know...

Christians: Are you offended when people refuse to say Merry Christmas?

When some one saves a baby from a burning building, and later in a news interview they say that God told them what they had to do... Christians say "you see...God really does intervene", but when somebody kills his family, rapes his mothers dead body and eats his fathers spleen... then later says he did it because God told him to... Christians say he was crazy? I mean... It's not like there is no precedent in the bible for God to tell people to do some truly heinous things... In fact, given the track record set in the bible, the second guy has a better chance of being right...

Why is it that when a sports team wins, the athletes thank God, but when they lose, they don't blame him? "We'd have won if Jesus didn't make me fumble!".

Why is it that when someone survives a horrible tsunami, religious people say "you see...God really does intervene", but they don't say "Wow... God must have really hated those 250,000 people that were swept into the ocean"?

If we were designed by an "intelligent" designer, why do our flawed eyes see such a small band of the entire light spectrum? I mean, wouldn't we benefit greatly from being able to see UV, X-rays, Gamma rays, and other frequency energy that... y'know... can kill us? Why would God not give us a way to see these dangers? Or is he just not a very good engineer?

I see a lot of questions here from religious people trying to disprove either the Big Bang, Evolution, or both. I really don't get the logic there.

Ok, let's assume that you got an advanced physics degree... studied planetary motion, mathematics, and all the other things that go into the Big Bang theory and actually found a repeatable experiment or formula that nullified the Big Bang...

OR let's say you got a molecular biology degree.. a genetics degree, an archeology degree, etc...etc... and you found some situation that completely nullified the mountains and mountains of evidence for evolution...

Neither of those things would be proof of the existence of gods... It would simply mean that those two theories are wrong. It would mean that WE DON'T KNOW some things we thought we knew. But there's nothing in that statement "I don't know" that implies the existence of a divine being. It simply means I don't know. So, what is it about those two long-held theories that offends you so much?

Oh, right... the mushrooms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbvDYyoAv9k&feature...

Your messiah has commanded it.

http://bible.cc/matthew/19-21.htm

Or do you just follow the parts that are convenient?

Talking snakes, Talking bushes....

Why is it that the only thing in the bible that even sounds remotely possible is that there was once a guy who walked around telling people to be nicer to one another, so the church elders turned him in to the state to be nailed to a post?

So, I saw this argument unfold on another forum, but it disintegrated right where I thought it was getting interesting. So, I'd like to move it here and see where it goes. Here's the argument.

Christian: The universe is so perfectly put together, there must be a God.

Atheist: The universe is NOT perfect. For every plant we can eat, there are a thousand that will kill us. For every planet that can support life (the count is 1 so far.. with a couple of "maybe"s), there are billions of billions that can't... there are birth defects, genocides, war, etc... the universe is not perfect.

Christian: It's not perfect according to YOUR definition. But you are a mere human. You can't gauge God's creation by your flawed definition of perfection.

(This is where it disintegrated)...

So, to continue... Since we can't judge the work of a divinity by our flawed definition of perfection...doesn't that also apply to the original statement? How can you say "The universe is so perfect, there must be a God", when you're using your own flawed, human definition of perfection?

This is a serious question... I'm just trying to understand the logic behind the whole "intelligent design" thing... Obviously, if you're a christian and this is not an argument you would make, the question doesn't apply to you...

Thanks.

I was just thinking about how convenient the timing was for the release of the 'long form' birth certificate. I mean, in light of bin Laden and all, the sheer stupidity and pettiness of the whole 'birther' thing is all the more obvious. Could they have released the certificate when they did just to implicitly prove a point?

Thoughts?

Whenever there's a question about Christianity, you invariably get many different answers from people all claiming to be 'Christians'. How can these people all believe that they are absolutely right when they can't even agree with each other about the basics of their belief system?

I know this sounds crazy, but it's almost as if their instruction books are written so vaguely and contradict themselves so many thousands of times that anyone who reads them and claims to be a 'believer' can cherry-pick parts of it and build their own Christianity to suit their own prejudices and sanction their own actions... I know... that would be ludicrous....

Every laundry day, after two or three loads, ONE sock is always missing. EVERY TIME!! How does your "science" explain that? It can't, that's how! Therefore, the existence of sock demons living in my laundry room is irrefutable.

Sock Demons: 1

Science: 0

So, I've heard Christians saying the the tsunami is god's wrath for something or another... a 'sign of end times' and so on. Since their current nuclear crisis is a result of the tsunami... does that mean that god hates nuclear power?

Did Japan make a deal with the devil too?

Christians like to say that the biblical prophesies that have come true are proof that it's the word of God. But you never mention what prophesies you're talking about. Please enlighten me. Reference the prophesy (chapter and verse) and reference an instance of it coming true. This way we can all be amazed at the accuracy.

Here are the conditions:

1. A prophesy in the bible can't be proven by the bible (eg: "Moses prophesised Jesus"... and "Jesus' life is documented in the bible").. sorry, no good.

2. It can't be so vague that it could pertain to anything (eg: "It's going to rain" ... Of course it's going to rain... but if you don't say WHEN... it's not much of a prophesy).

That's it. Two simple rules...

Now let those prophesies fly!