[johnaulich]

(Original post by Spaz Man)
I would find it far more depressing that atheiests feel that this crappy world is all there is and that there will never be justice for all the evil that humanity does and no reward for the good. That the good will be treated just the same, if not worse than evildoers.

Well, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nature and Science... from the impossibly small to the enormous is remarkable to me. Maybe you should learn to appreciate what you've got. You diminish the value of life by assuming you get another one.

[Fallen]

(Original post by Chief Wiggum)
Yeah, I know some Christians doing that.

I think it's pretty funny. I'm not religious myself, but if you aren't going to follow what your religious text (in this case, the bible) says, then you might as well just stop being religious.

Not necessarily, perhaps they feel they are sinning and do feel bad / repent? Everyone does things which are against their morals (whether they are religious or not), and we feel bad, but doesn't necessarily stop us.

For the record, I am not religious at all and have no problems with sex before marriage personally, but being honest everyone is a bit of a hypocrite. For instance I know that I can sometimes be a dick, and I feel bad about it and try to be better, but despite this is still can happen.

[poogly]

Sure, so we are going to ignore the burdensome stuff like chastity or Easter Lent, keep lying and bitching around and call ourselves christians. Why? "Oh, I like the part where it says that we have to help those in need, to love everyone, not to murder,...and you have to recognise that Christmas is quite fun" (this is an actual answer I got a few weeks ago)
Excuse me but this is just being a good person. You dont have to put a tag on and even be pround of having hanging around your neck a cute little cross which in fact represents as well the mean of torture and deth of thousands, real people. To me at least this is quite disrespectful.

[tssf_skye]

(Original post by viriol)
It's not. That would be ridiculous: stealing for food being the same as killing 10000 jews...

a sin is a sin

[-Liberty]

(Original post by Really_Gonna_Rock_)
So Christians are not supposed to have sex before marriage, as that's forbidden in their religion.

But I've met a lot of people who claim to be Christians who are having sex with their girlfriend or boyfriend, who they are not married to.

Where in the Bible does it say that having sex with your girlfriend or boyfriend is allowed? Look in the Bible. Nowhere does it say this is permitted.

So Christians who have sex with their girlfriend or boyfriend are basically hypocrites and are committing a sin, according to their religion.

Any Christians here who have sex with their gf or bf? How do you justify it to yourself, when your religion blatantly says not to have sex before marriage?

People confuse the word fornication with premarital sex. If you look at the use of the word when it was written, the meaning has changed. At first it meant having sex with people who claimed to be Gods. Research it

[Hypocrism]

(Original post by hannah60000)
The Bible say no fornication, one of ten commandments. Fornication is sex outside marriage therefore translated to no sex before marriage.

Nuh uh. It says adultery, which is to do with married people not sleeping without their spouse. Even if it said fornication, that is a mistranslation and should read sexual immorality, which is completely open to personal and subjective interpretation.

[AmyJ]

(Original post by kashim91)
The beard is part of the natural disposition of a man, it's what differentiates them from women. Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) ordered Muslim men to trim their moustaches and grow their beards. He himself had a long beard, as did many of the prophets, including Jesus(Isa), and John(Yahya) (Pbuh) I come from an Asian background where people believe you should only be religious when your an old person, some people in my own family have ridiculed me for growing my beard, telling me I'm too young. People say that some Muslim women are forced to wear a headscarf. While this is true, in some cases many Muslims parents children up beat them up for wearing it or even wanting to wear it. This has also been an issue with people converting to Islam, and is also a frequently occurrence when the child becomes more religiously conscious than their parents. And their apparent 'justification' for this is that the child is too young. I'm not saying Muslims aren't oppressed, they are, I view myself as oppressed for being ridiculed by my own family for wanting to practise my religion. I just think that the west needs to see that there's more to the story than just the surface facts, and the underlying issues need to be addressed. As a side point, Sikh men are also forbidden to shave, so Islam isn't the only religion that forbids it. Sorry for such a chunky reply

This reasoning doesn't make any sense. Men would still be men (and look like men) whether or not they were clean-shaven, surely? "We wear beards because the prophets did" isn't really a reason for doing it, it's just imitation. Wearing beards in ancient Israel was a cultural signifier as much as a Jewish instruction - shaving was associated with mourning, 'outsider' tribes, old superstitions about the dead. But today...how does having a beard make you more religious . It might make you look more religious, superficially, but what good is that?

[Emzio]

[QUOTE=roflcakes1;38463183]The Bible also says that we should stone disobedient children, so are Christians apparently sinning if they don't do this [/QUOT


i really find it hard to come to terms with people who thinks everything recorded in the bible apply's to the modern day chrstians or even to the early christians. will like someone like you to know that some books in the bible are actually historical recordings related to the jewish community, so if you have read in the bible that the jews way of punishing the law breakers of their community was stoning them it doesn't mean thats what's required of the christian community. just as sometime ago in britain they use to behead law breakers, or even hang them in public does not mean that's whats been practise as now.

[Vernon9]

(Original post by Alpharius)
I went to a Catholic school.

I can't think of anyone (aside from the socially inept) from there that are still virgin.

Good old religious hypocrites, gotta love 'em.

As a non-believer, and biology student, sex is completely natural, and a very natural desire that is mentally unhealthy to try to repress.

Why did you attend a Catholic school if you are an atheist?

[KingMessi]

Gigantic 'who cares?'. I mean, really? No-one suffers. No-one has any ramifications to bear so long as the people in question are mature and responsible.

[Alkain1607]

(Original post by Chief Wiggum)
But how can they be christians if they are consistently disobeying the bible?

If they feel they need to fulfil 1) and 2) listed above, then they should stop considering themselves christians.

I don't think that's fair- because otherwise we'd (as in Christians) would go around cutting off our hands, stoning witches and condemning homosexuals to hell.... Plus, i can't speak for Islam, but parts of the bible are conflicting i.e. an eye for an eye (old testament), (new testament) turn the other cheek.

[Martyn*]

I know a few people who profess to be Christians, go to Church, take drugs and have gay sex. It is the way of the world it seems.

[Spaz Man]

(Original post by johnaulich)
Well, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nature and Science... from the impossibly small to the enormous is remarkable to me. Maybe you should learn to appreciate what you've got. You diminish the value of life by assuming you get another one.

It is to me as well. I'm not talking about the beauty of the Earth though am I?

[Felchingman]

OP, the 17th century is over. Just sayin.

[Spaz Man]

(Original post by concubine)
And there are evolutionary explanations for people wishing to do things for others even if they are disadvantageous to themselves. 'Altruism' is probably one of the most oxymoronic words in the English language.

Do you deny the evolutionary basis for this, or do you think more along the lines that God set everything up so that we'd evolve in this way? Because I don't really have anything to say to someone that believes we were created as we are now. To an extent I can understand, given that most people were brought up in X faith, there is a God/s and he set up the conditions for our evolution into our current form but... That's about as far as I can go. >_>


And surely, if you put all credit in the hands of God/Allah/whatever... You've immediately discredited his omnipotence. Because he'd have made us all 'correctly', and we would all be good.

What on Earth would be the point of a hereafter if we were all created perfect?

[resentment.]

(Original post by Really_Gonna_Rock_)
So Christians are not supposed to have sex before marriage, as that's forbidden in their religion.

But I've met a lot of people who claim to be Christians who are having sex with their girlfriend or boyfriend, who they are not married to.

Where in the Bible does it say that having sex with your girlfriend or boyfriend is allowed? Look in the Bible. Nowhere does it say this is permitted.

So Christians who have sex with their girlfriend or boyfriend are basically hypocrites and are committing a sin, according to their religion.

Any Christians here who have sex with their gf or bf? How do you justify it to yourself, when your religion blatantly says not to have sex before marriage?

religion is open to interpretation, we're also not meant to work on the Sabbath but who doesnt?
masturbation is also forbidden but where do you cut the line if you never masturbate you'll simply end up having wet dreams...
i havent read the bible extensively enough to discover whether drugs are simply frowned upon or sinful but its definitely the case that; sex > drugs

[Alpharius]

(Original post by Vernon9)
Why did you attend a Catholic school if you are an atheist?

Evidently a closet believer...

Why do you think. I was brought up a Catholic. In an Irish family.

Go figure.

[Indo-Chinese Food]

Phew...Thats lucky, I only have sex with other peoples girlfriends

[kashim91]

(Original post by AmyJ)
This reasoning doesn't make any sense. Men would still be men (and look like men) whether or not they were clean-shaven, surely? "We wear beards because the prophets did" isn't really a reason for doing it, it's just imitation. Wearing beards in ancient Israel was a cultural signifier as much as a Jewish instruction - shaving was associated with mourning, 'outsider' tribes, old superstitions about the dead. But today...how does having a beard make you more religious . It might make you look more religious, superficially, but what good is that?

Rationally you are correct, and with biological and scientific reasoning this point would be further enforced. However, it isn't my opinion, this is the reasoning of classical scholars and following the prophet. It is imitation you are completely correct on that point, if you look up to someone wouldn't you want to imitate them? It doesn't make you more religious in the sense that you're more religious, it makes you more religious in the sense that your following a command of your religion, if that makes any sense. Religions make sense and they don't, I guess that's just how it is

[M1011]

OP has been around for 5 days, yet had managed to produce 11 threads all of which are clearly designed to drive discussion. No consistency between threads either.

Anyone else ever get the feeling that a fair few of these random threads are being produced by someone working for TSR simply to drive page views?