That's what you took from it? Someone making you look at that cross? Are they dragging you to church against your will every Sunday? Didn't think so. If they do, let me know. I'll help you stop them even if I'm religious and you are not. I have Muslim neighbors. Gay neighbors. Black, Hispanic, white-trash, Chinese, old, young, Israeli, Catholic, atheists, liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, government workers, stay-at-home moms, private business owners, retirees. Why should I care? I get along with them all. We have our differences and don't force our beliefs on one another in our daily lives. No one cares that I fly the flag outside. But if one of my neighbors came up to me and expressed outrage that I chose to fly the flag, then I would have a problem. I'll be back. I need to put a cross up on my garage door and test this out......
Being of Scandinavian blood, I have that one covered. Hades is a Greek god by the way and not an end location....
Religion is hardly the education of experience. Regular schooling in courses such as math, science, and history are the education of experience. Religion is simply a belief. I'm also curious as to what actions belong to God, because all the actions I see are caused by man.
Not sure why you're trying to tie South Park into Comedy Centrals decision it when they (the creators of South Park) clearly oppose the censorship of their show and have made that point multiple times. Why don't you go do some research and come back to me because it's clear you don't know what you're talking about.
Doesn't matter Believe in God, no God, nothing Don't believe in God, no God, nothing Don't believe in God, God, Hell Believe in God, God, Heaven Simple really. The Founders of the Constitution continually stress "The Creator" as not to define any one religion. They recognized the value of religious teaching, even ones like Benjamin Franklin who had no love for organized religion. Without the moral and ethical teachings of any of the major religions the country, any country, is lost. When man can remove the concentration of self, all men benefit.
How do you force yourself to believe? If you didn't really believe and just said you did to get into heaven, God would know, and you'd basically be lying to everyone around you which is immoral to say the least.
I don't know about you all but I'm going with the cow; that thing is chock full of deities. You need a diet full of deities to be healthy, that's why people keep eating Jesus.
Not really. There is no deeper meaning other than using a phase to express anger or surprise. I could just as easily yell 'Tea Kettle' but it sounds pretty stupid. Also I'd have to make a considered effort, these phrases just worked their way in through time. I'd say it's best not to read too far into things, especially when it's pretty clear there is no other meaning.
Add: Believe in wrong God, hell. Believe in no God, hell. Counting odds, you and I could very well be in the same boat!
You cannot force yourself to believe. One of the tenets of Christianity is belief and to come to that belief on your own. If you do not believe, it does not matter but once you understand the point, it becomes easier. Christianity is the Torah with an additional commandment, love thy neighbor. I am not affiliated with any organized religion, you can define me as a Deist. In fact, you could define me at one time as a stone cold heathen. I understand the point of religious teaching and how important it is to civilized society. That is why I support organized religion as it is a school to teach people the basis of civilized life.
There is no forcing to believe. You just believe. DO you have a wife? or a sister or mother or father? do they love you? how do you force yourself to believe that they love you?
What I am saying is that the argument "better to believe than not" is a false argument because you can't just force yourself to believe. It's not like you can just up and change your mind for no reason, unless your reasons for not believing were pretty much non-existent to begin with.
Only a crazy person wants to live forever. Imagine, you could do absolutely nothing for a hundred billion years and it wouldn't matter one bit. You would still have zillions and zillions of years where you could do absolutely nothing and it wouldn't affect your existence in the least. And suppose you developed some type of ailment. If you couldn't cure it you would have to suffer forever because no matter what you did you could never die.
In fact, the Piraha tribe of Amazonia does not believe in any god or afterlife and their beliefs stress rational, evidence based thinking. Whenever a Christian Missionary went to convert them to Christ, they actually reasoned with him how foolish it was to believe in a God and an afterlife and the such. Now remember, this is a tribe that has been living in Amazonia for hundreds of years and yet they somehow still managed to realize that killing someone was a bad thing to do.
Don't you know that Christianity is based upon the idea that people will return as zombies? Christianity is based upon zombie worship.
Yes you do. Our Constitution is based on Natural Law, the only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations. Natural Law is derived from the divine gift of reason, God's law. One must measure man's law against God's law. Get rid of religion, and you get rid of the basis of just law. Cicero: Justice can never be expected from laws arbitrarily passed in violation of standards set up under the laws of Nature or the laws of the Creator.
How do you know that your family loves you? they might do nice things for you, tell you they love you, but how do you know? lets hear it.
hmmm surprisingly the USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world, amazing for such a christian country
It is the code of "right reason" from the Creator. It cannot be altered. It cannot be repealed. It cannot be abandoned by legislature or the people themselves, even though they pretend to do so. Natural law defined by Cicero is "true law". Natural Law is nothing more nor less than recognizing and identifying the the rules of "right conduct" with the laws of the Supreme Creator. A fundamental preposition of Natural Law is that man's reasoning power is a special dispensation of the Creator and is closely akin to the rational and reasoning power of the Creator himself. In other words, man shares with the Creator this quality of utilizing an rational approach to solving problems, and the reasoning of the mind will generally lead to common-sense conclusions based on what Jefferson called "the laws of Nature and the Nature's God" (Declaration of Independence). Some of the things derived from Natural Law: Unalienable rights Unalienable duties The concept of Habeas Corpus Limited government Separation of powers Checks and balances Self preservation Bear arms No taxation without representation