Board Thread:Hosting Game/@comment-30895062-20171117223743/@comment-32942597-20171125012546

Also, remember this article I saved online a few weeks ago

God kills 2.4 million people in his book. Satan kills 10. Who is the more evil one?

God says everyone has to worship him for all eternity. What kind of self-centered egomaniac demands that? What happened to the three-day-old babies when the flood of Noah came? Don’t envision a worldwide flood—hold in your mind the image of a single crib with a single baby, slowly drowned by the cold, dark waters. What could that child have possibly done?

Do you think slavery is okay? The bible supports it. It says you can have slaves as long as you don’t gouge out their eyes or break their teeth. Yeah, that makes it moral.

The bible says that you are to kill those who attempt to lead you away from God. I fully admit that right now, I am trying to undermine your faith and turn you into an atheist. Kill me. Do it. I won’t even defend myself. Why aren’t you? No, I will not respect your beliefs—wars, genocide, gay bashing, honor killing, genital mutilation, suppression of science, forced parenting, and other real-world harm results from your beliefs. That is to be fiercely challenged, not respected.

God made us in his image? What is more likely: that, or that we made him in our image? The God of the Bible is self-admittedly petty, jealous, and vengeful—just like we are. Is it not more probable that we made him in our image? Original sin? You mean holding people guilty for things over which they have no control. How is that remotely just?

What did Satan do? He stood up for himself. He said he wasn’t going to give in to God’s demand to be worshiped. How is that a crime?

What happens to the billions of people who never even hear of your path to salvation? How is sending them to hell for all eternity merciful or just when they have no choice in the matter?

Moses tells his soldiers to rape the virgin daughters of their enemy. Do you support this?

Jesus said “let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. Why are so many Christians so damn judgmental then? Muslims believe theirs is the one true god too. And that they will go to heaven. And that anyone of another religion will go to hell. These are all things you believe too. How are you any different from them?

How do you know the bible is true? Name one thing that it says that could not have been written by uneducated desert tribesmen 2,000 years ago. The cures for polio and smallpox, for example, can be written in just a few pages. Why doesn’t the bible contain anything like that?

Which is more likely, that Mary conceived as a virgin, or that Joseph knocked her up. Billions of people have gotten pregnant the old fashioned way—which is more likely here?

Why aren’t believing soldiers fearless? If they believe God will protect them, they have nothing to fear. If they die, it must be God’s will. And if they die, they will instantly go to paradise forever. There is no reason, if they truly believe, to have any fear.

Genesis gives two factually different accounts of creation. The Four Gospels give two factually different accounts of Jesus’ life. How can these conflicts in basic facts both be literal truth?

You hold roughly the same religious beliefs as your parents and your country. So does 99% of everyone else in every other religion. What’s more likely, that yours is the one true religion, or that we all just get brainwashed into our parents belief system?

Some Christians argue that the New Testament made the Old Testament obsolete. Does this mean you’re willing to abandon the whole creationism farce and acknowledge that evolution is fact?

If your spouse told you that you had to prove your love toward him/her by killing one of your children, you’d think your spouse had gone insane. Yet this is what God told Abraham to do—and you don’t think that’s equally twisted?

Why do believers not regrow limbs? Surely some of our heroes coming home from war with missing body parts are true believers, from believing families, from pious communities.

Why cannot a single amputee with such a strong belief regrow a limb, or have some other miracle that would in no way be explainable by science?

Babies are not a miracle from God. All animals make babies, some of them much cuter than our own, and any 15 year old human can participate in the process.

What would it take to convince you to become a Hindu? A Muslim? A Jew? A Sikh? These religions are thoroughly unconvincing, aren’t they? I simply feel the same about your religion. How are your talking snake, pregnant virgin, blood sacrifice ritual (communion), or zombie claims (Jesus’ resurrection) any different?

If God is love, and Jesus taught peace, why are so many Christians warmongering gun nuts?

Why do communities, states, and nations with higher rates of religious belief also have worse indicators of quality of life and societal good? For example, the Deep South of the US is known to be very religious. Why does it have higher rates of crime, domestic violence, infant mortality, and other such social indicators? Same for, say, pious Central America versus Western Europe.

If religion is necessary for morality, then why do organizations like the National Academy of Sciences, whose members are over 95% atheist, have so few members committing crimes?

The bible says that it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man. The very next verse says that the penalty for doing so is death. Do you advocate the death penalty for homosexuality?

Why aren’t Christian funerals big parties? If you truly believe you’re all going to heaven after you die, why is it not a massive celebration? Why are Christians not all taking up base jumping and volunteer fire fighting?

Hitler was a Catholic, not an atheist. But I don’t blame Catholicism for what Hitler did, any more than I blame atheism for what Stalin and Mao did. Mad men can be mad for reasons other than religion.

As an atheist, I’m just like you—I’m kind to others, I love my family, I continually try to be a better person. I just don’t need the threat of hell or promise of heaven to do it.

As an atheist, I too try to live by the Golden Rule, but I don’t need a god or an ancient text to see the wisdom of the rule. I do unto others as I’d have done to me because I know this is the right thing to do, and it makes me happy when I do.

As an atheist, I am amazed at the wonder of nature and the universe on their own merits. I don’t need to believe there is some sky daddy at the bottom of it to reach this conclusion.

As an atheist, I agree that it is not enough to just say what you’re against. That’s why I am also a Secular Humanist. Other atheists may hold different positive views, but we are more than just anti-religious.

As an atheist, I enjoy sex to its fullest. Particularly in my single years! As long as everyone consents, then I don’t have to worry about the opinion of a god or his threats to my eternal disposition.

As an atheist, I don’t give up 10% of my income year over year, meaning I can retire 5 years earlier.

As an atheist, I deal with death by telling the people I love that I love them every chance I get. That way when they or I go, the one who survives can have the peace of knowing that we loved each other to the fullest.

Any references to God, Satan, or Jesus as anything other than a historical figure, are for the purpose of literary and philosophical analysis and critique only—it is not a statement of their supernatural existence any more than a movie critic referencing Darth Vader believes in The Force.

Christianity and the Bible are my focus since these were the elements of the religious indoctrination of my youth. I trust that those raised in other religions who are now freethinkers can make similar critiques of the religious elements of their upbringing.