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Originally posted by Shadow248
This is the third time you have failed to understand what I am saying when I say we cannot fully understand God. I'll try it again, yet another way. Humans are limited to fully understanding only what we know.
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And what can we know? Can we know something that leaves no evidence whatsoever? You base all your 'assumptions' and 'generalizations' about 'god' from a few books written by MEN, and most of their original stories were destroyed by Constantine, who wanted to control the masses. Jesus originally spoke of things such as reincarnation, but Constantine would have none of this. So in essence, when you refer to what you 'know' about 'god', you're basing your knowledge on a few books written by men (who are deemed horribly imcompetent and basically evil at core, since anything good we do is because of god, and anything bad we do is because of mankind), with less than 50% of the original text. Even with that, the text has been translated from language to language, and on top of THAT, there were countless small changes to things made during every revision, up untilt he introduction of the printing press. So how can you say you know god?!?
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We have never met an all-powerful all-knowing being...therefore we don't really know what one would be like.
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Your bible speaks otherwise. It not only says WHAT god does, but also explains WHY god does things.
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We can say what he wants for us, because he's given us plenty of references, but we can't really say what he is really like, how he looks, how long he has been around, what things were like before him, or if there even was a "before him"...etc.
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How can you tell what he wants for/from us? Some parts of the bible say that we shouldn't kill, other parts have god himself ordering the slaughter of entire cities (men, women, and children). In your book, we have an excuse to do anything we want to, because there's a verse that supports almost any human action. Slavery, genocide, gangbangs, etc are all contained in the 'good book'.
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See? It is extremely difficult to make generalizations about God.
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Indeed. Which is why I'm not going to believe some book written thousands of years ago by men ( who thought the earth was flat), censored by powerful dictators, and translated and revised hundreds of times.
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Again, your assuming that just because we've written about something, that means we fully understand it. Hundreds of books have been written about black holes....describing what they look like, how they work, and what is on the other side. Yet we largely have no clue what a black hole really is. just because we don't really understand it, doesn't mean we can't talk about it. We can try.
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That might be YOUR opinion, but that is in conflict with your religion's stance. Christianity does not 'try' to explain god, it says that the bible is TRUTH. It isn't a hypothesis, it is written as fact, and you (as a follower) are required to believe it. It doesn't leave any room for error. Books written about black holes are books about THEORY, not 'this is the truth, nobody else is correct except me, and if they disagree with this book, don't worry they're going to burn in eternal damnation forever'. There's a huge difference. One markets itself as 'truth', and the books about blackholes are theoretical in nature.
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So here is the dilemma then. Since, in the legal definition of the word, there is no such thing as a person with no religion,
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>sigh< Again you continue to ignore FACTS. FACT: In order to be religious, you need to believe in a higher power or a supernatural being. Some people DO NOT BELIEVE THIS. HENCE, they are not religious. The very fact that you
refuse to admit this small point is an example of how completley locked down your opinions/beliefs are, REGARDLESS OF LOGIC. You believe in something (that everyone is religious) despite the facts. You have faith.
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how do you decide which one takes precedence? Are public buildings just supposed to not even mention christmas when it comes along? Putting out a manger scene is denying atheists their rights, whereas putting out santa claus, reindeer and a tree, is denying a christian their rights.
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You have NO right to have your religion represented in anyway, shape or form at government buildings. None. But of course, you will refuse to admit this as well, because you cannot accept things that go against your current opinion. I like how you conveniently ignored all the quotes from our country's forefathers as well. It's quite apparent that they had NO desire to mingle religion into politics in anyway, shape or form.
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So what, ever knowledgeable sir, are we supposed to do? Do you really want to turn this country into a watered-down super PC land full of trial lawyers? It sounds like that would make you happy.
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Nope. It's simple: Run this country as it's designed. It was designed to SEPERATE the church from the government, and this basically means that you have NO RIGHT AT ALL to have your religious icons displayed in government buildings. It's also quite apparent that you feel like your rights are being denied when your religion isn't represented all over the place, which is very VERY disturbing.
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Well you are certainly at or above the second grade level then, because you're right. Having it IS my right.
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I'd like you to ask some lawyers about this. You're 100% wrong. You have no right to have your religion displayed in governmental buildings, nor does anybody else.
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Atheists claim that it is their right to have their symbols of their beliefs in public places (i.e. santa claus) but it is not within a christian's rights to have their symbols in public places. CLEARLY you should be able to see that this truly is "freedom of religion".
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You're 100% wrong here too. The free thought foundation in Madison WI tries every year to get the christmas tree removed from the state capital building. They are hardcore athiests, and they don't even want Christmas trees. You're also wrong in your reasoning: Christmas trees, santa claus etc are NOT religious icons..... unless I'm not aware of some religion that actually BELIEVES santa claus is real, but heck, maybe you could prove me wrong on this one. Is there actually a group of people who think that Santa is real, and have an organized religion devoted to him?
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Wrong. I am speaking ONLY in the legal definition of religion, which does not include the believe in supernatural powers (because of the separation of church and state, the government cannot acknowledge the idea of supernatural powers, therefore a legal definition CANNOT include such concept). See how it works? Some people just don't realize the full ramifications of their actions and beliefs.
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Wow. I think I'm actually losing respect for the human race the more you explain your reasoning and beliefs.
- Jim