Simple question?

Quote: FrGamble

I think to answer this question you have to use your imagination a little bit and imagine how perfect we as human beings can be. Imagine us in perfect health and clear intellect able to grasp new concepts, ideas, and things as quick as possible. Imagine ourselves completely giving and loving the other person who in response completely loves us as well. Imagine everyone treated with equal dignity as we celebrate our differences. You seem to be judging God's creation by looking at the used floor model instead of the first new out of the box awesome human being we are created to be and what we are striving to become.

What I see is that God made two flawed humans, who were not in perfect communion of him as evidenced by their ability to give in to temptation and sin.

The very first humans, before the fall from grace, were created to behave less than like saints, who are in communion with god and lack the ability to sin and still have free will.

Can't you see the contradictions and inconsistencies in this?

God wanted us to sin by giving us the ability and desire to sin, knowing that we would sin when he made us, yet the ability and desire to sin is not required for free will, if what you said about the saints in heaven is true.

Quote: FrGamble

Actually Christianity is pretty clear who is right and which God is real and what happens after we die.

So is Hinduism, and Buddhism. Islam, too, who share the same God as you except for the difference of opinion on whether or not Jesus was the son of god.

They are all very clear on who is right, which god(s) are real, and what happens to us after we die.

They also have had and continue to have millions of adherents lasting through more than a millennia of time, which apparently is important to you for establishing legitimacy, and they all answer the important questions that you like to put forth.

There is an absence of evidence to prove that any of them are right, and there is an absence of evidence to prove that any of them are wrong.

So what it comes down to is people first believe what they were raised to believe, and then choose to believe what they like to believe.

Quote: FrGamble

Why do you say this?

All myths are lies. They're made up stories meant
to teach lessons. Fairy tales and fables are pretty
much the same. All made up, dressed up, lies.
Constructive lies, but lies none the less. Mistaking
the world of myths and fairy tales for the real
life we live every day, can lead to many disturbing
things. Like witch hunts and Inquisitions, to name
just a few.

Quote: FrGamble

I know why you won't bother to list examples,

We discussed this at length a year ago
and I listed many examples, you just
don't, as usual, remember. And you
always pull the Holocaust card as your
up the sleeve example that, of course,
evil really exists. It seems to delight
Catholics no end that something
finally came around to top the Crusades,
Inquisitions, and witch hunts put on
by gods Church. You finally have something
to point at where you can say, see, we're not
the only ones who did horrible things in
the EU of the past.

Quote: Dalex64

They also have had and continue to have millions of adherents lasting through more than a millennia of time, which apparently is important to you for establishing legitimacy, and they all answer the important questions that you like to put forth.

I do believe that something that attracts millions of people is worth paying attention to and must have something that attracts people to it. It is true that they all answer the important questions I put forth. This is where to look to further explore which one is the truth. Whose answers jive with the human experience. For example, is eliminating all desire and passion the way to remove suffering from our lives?

Quote:

There is an absence of evidence to prove that any of them are right, and there is an absence of evidence to prove that any of them are wrong.

So what it comes down to is people first believe what they were raised to believe, and then choose to believe what they like to believe.

I should not come down to just what we were first taught to believe. At some time we have to explore our religion on our own and make it ours and not something just given to us. There is a plethora of evidence to prove that any of them are right. You need to look again at their philosophy and worldview. What is universally true and what corresponds to the human condition and helps us understand ourselves and our world.

Quote: Evenbob

Mistaking
the world of myths and fairy tales for the real
life we live every day, can lead to many disturbing
things. Like witch hunts and Inquisitions, to name
just a few.

What leads to many disturbing things like witch hunts and the abuses we saw in the Inquisitions and much, much worse things like we saw throughout the 20th century is NOT considering these so called myths true and serious.

Quote: FrGamble

There is a plethora of evidence to prove that any of them are right. .

Actually, there is zero real evidence
proving any religion is right. However,
fake evidence abounds for the gullible
and those willing to be fooled. I've
never met a stupid atheist, but I've
met a boatload of dang dumb Christians.
People who couldn't string two thoughts
together if their life depended on it.
The fact is, some people need religion
because they're lost without being told
what to think.

Quote: FrGamble

I do believe that something that attracts millions of people is worth paying attention to and must have something that attracts people to it. It is true that they all answer the important questions I put forth. This is where to look to further explore which one is the truth. Whose answers jive with the human experience. For example, is eliminating all desire and passion the way to remove suffering from our lives?

Selecting the one we like the best, or eliminating ones that we do not like, either on the whole or line by line, does not help us understand which one is actually true, if any.

Quote:

I should not come down to just what we were first taught to believe. At some time we have to explore our religion on our own and make it ours and not something just given to us. There is a plethora of evidence to prove that any of them are right. You need to look again at their philosophy and worldview. What is universally true and what corresponds to the human condition and helps us understand ourselves and our world.

And you see a constant motion of people from faith to faith. Some people never switch, some people may switch only once, but there is a constant motion back and forth and around the different groups.

This also does not help us determine which one is right.

It can't be that once people learn the real truth for themselves they would never switch, otherwise that particular religion would only gain followers and never lose them.

Still, it looks like you are advocating declaring one religion as the truth because of how much you like the answers to the questions you have come up with.

What comes to mind is a similarity perhaps in calling ice cream healthy because of how good it tastes and how good it makes you feel.

Quote: Dalex64

Still, it looks like you are advocating declaring one religion as the truth because of how much you like the answers to the questions you have come up with.
What comes to mind is a similarity perhaps in calling ice cream healthy because of how good it tastes and how good it makes you feel.

That's exactly what FrG is doing. He's equating
actual truth with how it satisfies him, or makes
him feel. If he could see the real truth, he'd
become an atheist instantly, in the blink of
an eye. It wouldn't make him feel good, in
fact he'd hate it. He would pine for the days
of his ego being stroked by a god he made up.
But he would never go back, the cat was out of
the bag..

Quote: Dalex64

God wanted us to sin by giving us the ability and desire to sin,

Remember: if you don't sin, then Jesus died for nothing.