Evolutionism vs creationism

[JellySlayer]

> If you can, I'd encourage you to track down the documentary
> called "Waiting for Armageddon". It's out on DVD.

Let me guess, it's vid where extremist political brainwashed
yankees tell me how my people really are. Maybe they are in
a position to know better than me though, as all I do is live
here.

It illustrates how and why the Christian right tries to influence the foreign policy of the United States with respect to the Middle East. As usual with docs, I can't make the case that they're completely unbiased without knowledge of how things were edited. As best as I can judge, it treats the material reasonably fairly and isn't overtly trying to introduce editorial bias.

> Joshua in the Old Testament annhiliated numerous cities

and claimed it was gods will, we covered that already.

> it'd be hard to argue that these characters were anything but devout.

it'd be hard to argue they didn't hear voices.

Maybe. But why were they believed?

[gut]

> it treats the material reasonably fairly and isn't
> overtly trying to introduce editorial bias

by that logic, this pic is presented fairly, and isn't introducing editorial bias

but if you think that's how things really are, you are way off base. Like I
mentioned before, I live here.

> Maybe. But why were they believed?

how do I know? I'm a (reasonably) modern hillbilly, not an ancient
middle-easterner. dissent was discouraged?

by the way, thanks to silfir for that link, I liked it

[fazisi]

If you want to learn a bit about how and why religion works the way it does, I would recommend learning about sociology. Belonging to a group and feeling the need to belong causes people do many things for the group. These activities are called rituals. An example ritual could be going to a building once a week to listen to some guy talk for an hour. By a group of individuals performing these rituals together, they increase solidarity and reduce individuality.

My favorite example of this is not religion but rather the military. A bunch of civilian individuals show up. They climb on a bus, get driven to a base, have their personal belongings taken from them, have their hair cut off and are all dressed in the same clothing. This is all to remove as much individualism as possible.

The next step is to fill this gap with feelings of solidarity. They are all refered by the same rank, eat the same food, perform the same training, go to bed at the same time, everything is identical between each other. Often, if one person in the division fails an activity, the entire division fails the activity.

This builds a very powerful bond between each member of the group to a point where in a situation where bullets are flying around and artillery is exploding, these members will do what they are commanded and even perform the most altruistic of actions for the good of the group.

Religion works in a similar way but I usually don't find it to be as powerful, simply because the frequency of the rituals is not on the same level as the military. But if you feel a fear of not being accepted by a group, you are more likely to conform to the group's wishes over your individual wishes. This includes overcoming a person's insticts of self preservation with the urge to strap explosive to one's self and detonate it in a cafe.

[garyd]

JS Hitler made those quotes not because he was a cartholic or any other kind of Cristian but because he was a politician running for office in a country that was still around 60-70 Christian at the time.

If one reads "Mein Kampf" one quickly finds that he had little use for Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular and had it in mind to replace it essentailly with some sort of oddball Germanic paganism that was largely a creation of his own mind.

To say that Mao and Stalin's atheism had nothing to do with their attempts to kill millions of people is disengenuous at best. In fact I'd say their atheism gave them carte blanche to do as they damn well pleased after all if there is no God there is no ultimate justice.

[minchazo]

The statement "I do not believe in God" does not compell you to take any action.
The statement "I believe in God" can compell you to take action.

I really like this statement. Just be very careful to avoid minor changes:
"I do not believe in God and I won't let you believe either."
"I believe in God and you will believe too."

On a different note, isn't communism a form of organized atheism?
Earlier, someone mentioned four people as being remembered instead of philosophers: Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin. Looking them up on wikipedia, only Hilter didn't attempt to destroy all religion in their country.

[JellySlayer]

On a different note, isn't communism a form of organized atheism?
Earlier, someone mentioned four people as being remembered instead of philosophers: Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin. Looking them up on wikipedia, only Hilter didn't attempt to destroy all religion in their country.

No, it's entirely possible to be both communist and religious. Indeed, one could argue that the early Church was the prototypical communist collective--everyone sold their property to be used for the common good, for example. There are also a number of communist parties in various European countries that have enjoyed some measure of success despite many of those countries being highly religious.

[fazisi]

Heaven is a communist nation.

[gut]

how are the potato crops doing?

they reach to the foot of god sir.

we communists believe there is no god...

that's fitting, as there's also no potatos.

[garyd]

Given that archeological studies conducted of these cities indidcate that they were engaged in human sacrifice especially of young children. And further given that such cultures when under stress tend to really get hyper with the practice two things are clear from the Biblical record.

1. God sent messenger for over four hundred years to the canaanites telling them to knock that crap off. They did not and so got the punishment they deserved for such atrocities.

2. There likely weren't a whole lot of children left for the Israelis to destroy by the time they took those cities.

[grobblewobble]

Which cities?

> 1. God sent messenger for over four hundred years to the canaanites telling them to knock that crap off.
> They did not and so got the punishment they deserved for such atrocities.

Serves them right. Bastards.

> 2. There likely weren't a whole lot of children left for the Israelis to destroy by the time they took those cities.

A massacre of grown-ups isn't half as bad as a massacre of kids.