Unpunishable Crimes

[Sidoh]

Logic is important!  I'll believe something based on evidence or logical proof, not on blind faith or somebody else's words.  Religion should NOT encourage blind faith, they should encourage free thought and logical proofs for the existance of God (which exist, and are debated)

I don't think there's anywhere in the bible that discourages finding logical proofs of the existance of God, but eh.  Religion is a pretty touchy subject for me.

[igimo1]

The Bible is a repository for nearly four thousand years of history. Of course there are going to be discrepancies, loopholes, etc.

If you think about it long enough, believing in one deity just isn't feasible for most people; that's why he's called a supernatural God: he surpasses the boundaries of human comphrension.

I also don't believe that crap about "blind" faith": I have met people who have wandered the earth, searching for an answer to the question. Read The Case for Faith: by Lee Strobel. It goes into more depth, but "blind faith" is often a misconception of today's society; the meaning of it is just to take a leap of faith in the existence of a god, and then deepen your relationship with your creator.

[Sidoh]

The Bible is a repository for nearly four thousand years of history. Of course there are going to be discrepancies, loopholes, etc.

If you think about it long enough, believing in one deity just isn't feasible for most people; that's why he's called a supernatural God: he surpasses the boundaries of human comphrension.

I think it's pretty easy to understand God.  We may not be able to understand how or why he exists in the way he does, but we can certainly describe him.

Omnipotent, omniscient, perfect, etc.

[Quik]

I don't really understand how suicide can cause controversy. Its illegal, sure, but what are you going to do if they commit it, throw their corpse in jail?

Mainly about doctors being able to give drugs to terminally ill people / families giving money to the convernment because of what the deceased did.

[iago]

Logic is important!  I'll believe something based on evidence or logical proof, not on blind faith or somebody else's words.  Religion should NOT encourage blind faith, they should encourage free thought and logical proofs for the existance of God (which exist, and are debated)

I don't think there's anywhere in the bible that discourages finding logical proofs of the existance of God, but eh.  Religion is a pretty touchy subject for me.

The Bible doesn't, but the church does. 

[Sidoh]

The Bible doesn't, but the church does. 

What church are you thinking of?  Mine doesn't.

[Blaze]

The Bible doesn't, but the church does. 

What church are you thinking of?  Mine doesn't.

Your church wants you find out that god doesn't exist, thus killing the need to give money to it?

That seems pretty silly...

[Sidoh]

Your church wants you find out that god doesn't exist, thus killing the need to give money to it?

That seems pretty silly...

Your type plain pisses me off, Blaze.  Your beliefs are as blind as Christians who believe in God for no reason.

You're assuming that the church convinces us to give it money?  There are absolutely NO statements in my church's doctrine that say you have to give any sort of money to the church.  Sure, it's implied that you should, since you're obviously there for reasons of faith.  A church isn't funded by the government or any sort of thing, so the only way for it to exist is by the support of its members.  Its a lot like organizations like Wikipedia; if the members don't support it, it's not going to be around for long.

Secondly, there are logical proofs that God DOES exist, which is what iago was saying.  I think you need to re-read his post:

Logic is important!  I'll believe something based on evidence or logical proof, not on blind faith or somebody else's words.  Religion should NOT encourage blind faith, they should encourage free thought and logical proofs for the existance of God (which exist, and are debated)

[iago]

The Bible doesn't, but the church does. 

What church are you thinking of?  Mine doesn't.

I don't mean a church, I meant The Church.  I should have used the capitalized C, sorry. 

The Church is concerned with its own power.  If it can keep people believing that they hold the key to God and whatnot, people will happily believe it, and the Church maintains its power.  If people realize that blind faith isn't the answer (which is pretty unlikely, people are sheep), the Church is going to find itself in a tough place.

[Sidoh]

I don't mean a church, I meant The Church.  I should have used the capitalized C, sorry. 

The Church is concerned with its own power.  If it can keep people believing that they hold the key to God and whatnot, people will happily believe it, and the Church maintains its power.  If people realize that blind faith isn't the answer (which is pretty unlikely, people are sheep), the Church is going to find itself in a tough place.

Again, I don't think that the term "The Church" applies to all relgious organizations.  I don't think the one I associate myself with is like this in any way.  I like to think of myself as a "smart" relgious person.  I don't believe something for no reason.  I like to see proof... and there is proof out there, as you've already said.

[iago]

I don't mean a church, I meant The Church.  I should have used the capitalized C, sorry. 

The Church is concerned with its own power.  If it can keep people believing that they hold the key to God and whatnot, people will happily believe it, and the Church maintains its power.  If people realize that blind faith isn't the answer (which is pretty unlikely, people are sheep), the Church is going to find itself in a tough place.

Again, I don't think that the term "The Church" applies to all relgious organizations.  I don't think the one I associate myself with is like this in any way.  I like to think of myself as a "smart" relgious person.  I don't believe something for no reason.  I like to see proof... and there is proof out there, as you've already said.

The Church applies to the Catholic Church, which lives in Italy and reaches out everywhere else. 

There is plenty of proof against the Bible.  The Bible isn't a factual account, completely, it's full of stories and opinions.  I don't think anybody can argue against that, but you can if you want to.  The Bible is events as seen from a certain biased perspective, and I wouldn't consider anything found therein to be proof of anything. 

[Sidoh]

The Church applies to the Catholic Church, which lives in Italy and reaches out everywhere else. 

There is plenty of proof against the Bible.  The Bible isn't a factual account, completely, it's full of stories and opinions.  I don't think anybody can argue against that, but you can if you want to.  The Bible is events as seen from a certain biased perspective, and I wouldn't consider anything found therein to be proof of anything. 

I kind of figured that, but I wasn't sure if that's what you meant.

[iago]

The Church applies to the Catholic Church, which lives in Italy and reaches out everywhere else. 

There is plenty of proof against the Bible.  The Bible isn't a factual account, completely, it's full of stories and opinions.  I don't think anybody can argue against that, but you can if you want to.  The Bible is events as seen from a certain biased perspective, and I wouldn't consider anything found therein to be proof of anything. 

I kind of figured that, but I wasn't sure if that's what you meant.

I don't know who you associate yourself with.  The only religious organization I know enough about to complain is the Catholic Church.  They're the ones that seem to encourage blind faith and give-us-moneyness

[trust]

All churches/religions request money as religious buildings/entities/etc. aren't government subsidized.

Furthermore, doesn't the Mormon religion strongly encourage that part of your income (like 10%) go back to the church.

[Sidoh]

I don't know who you associate yourself with.  The only religious organization I know enough about to complain is the Catholic Church.  They're the ones that seem to encourage blind faith and give-us-moneyness

I'm Lutheran, Mysouri Synod.  I think that's the same thing Joe is, actually.

Anyway, the Lutheran church was the one that started the reformation in the 1500's.  They broke off of the Catholic Church for a lot of reasons, indulgencies being the main one.