The Redundancy of Debate

[SNP1]

Is it just me or do religious debates seem to go on without end. Everyone has another complaint, contradiction, proof, and someone else always has an explanation or refutation. Its obnoxious

Religious debates, unlike many other debates, isn't usually to persuade the debaters. Usually, those that are debating already know enough about the other side that they won't change their minds (that does not mean that there won't be any conversions/deconversions). It is mostly there to persuade those watching/reading the debate, especially the fence sitters. It is also for the debaters to see if they actually know enough about their own position.

[Contemporary Protestant]

i was refering to theist atheist

[Contemporary Protestant]

i say increasingly accurate because the translations have improved

[Hydra009]

i say increasingly accurate because the translations have improved

They have simply changed.  I have yet to see a translation of a translation that was better than the source material.

[Solitary]

i dont agree that belief in God is delusional

Psychiatry: a delusion is a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact. If you can provide reliable evidence that religion is rational, and deals with facts about God, or gods, then it is a delusional belief whether you believe it or not. Not all religious dogma is irrational or not true, but the belief in a God or gods is without reliable evidence and sound and critical reasoning, and just based on emotional needs and feelings. This doesn't make it not desirable and needed by people, just a false belief. If it brings you comfort to believe in God good, I think we can all agree, unless it brings harm by His teachings in the Testaments that do. We all have our own delusions from ignorance, but they can be good or bad..Solitary

[Moloth]

Isnt it strange how the definition of 'faith' and 'delusion' are functionally identical...

[Contemporary Protestant]

solitary - i see your point, i concede, if delusion is belief without empirical evidence then i am delusional
hydra - the NIV is better than the KJV
and the dead sea scrolls brought translators closer to the original

[Moloth]

solitary - i see your point, i concede, if delusion is belief without empirical evidence then i am delusional
hydra - the NIV is better than the KJV
and the dead sea scrolls brought translators closer to the original

Sounds like someone might be close to taking the Red Pill...

[Solitary]

solitary - i see your point, i concede, if delusion is belief without empirical evidence then i am delusional
hydra - the NIV is better than the KJV
and the dead sea scrolls brought translators closer to the original

How could you or anyone else know what the original is when there is none that exist? Better, yes, but still not the word of God, and still ambiguous to support any belief, including atheism, by picking and choosing, like this that is quoted different in every bible: "I was a child, and thought like a child, and played like a child, but now I am a man, and gave up all childish things." You really need to study it again, and not in Bible class. Solitary

[Aroura33]

that is not the point i am trying to make, i am listening, i see atheists saying christianity is irrational but my question isnt that

my intial question was what evidence is there that religous (generic, sorry i didnt specify) people cant reason or are violent

Hi CP, you seem like a very decent guy.  No one here thinks all religious people are violent, or atheists are all the most intelligent.  The original claim wasn't that religious people are violent, it was "It is Dangerous Bullshit!"  And it is. 

Let me explain why all religion is dangerous.  Because it teaches people to accept things without using their mind to reason things through.  Christians and Muslims can be scientists and intellects (though most who take that route far have a crisis of faith, for good reason too), those that do retain their beleifs must partition them off from the how the rest of the world works, and make special exceptions for these unreasonable beliefs.

It teaches bad mental habits that make you more prone to letting in all sorts of woo.  Faith healing, prion water, homeopathy, right on up to strapping a bomb to a chest and killing people.  If you actively practice a way of thinking that allows in all sorts of nonsense, then you re more likely to fall for other nonsense.  That is dangerous at all levels.

So that is the main reason it is dangerous, I think. 

[Solitary]

Ditto! And it also allows non productive parasites to prey on the credulity and ignorance of their fellow man and children like the Priests do when no body questions their authority like little children. Solitary

[Contemporary Protestant]

i would first like to thank you for being kind in delivery of your point, and i think its both thoughtful and valid

i do agree that the bible cant be the literal word of God especially not my bible because its been translated over a few times

i am studying it, independentley, my only conclusions are that apologists talk too much and fundamentalism is wrong

[Solitary]

So what is left? Seriously, just a belief in God with no reliable evidence. Solitary

[Contemporary Protestant]

eh, does everything require evidence? like my parents love me and i only have feelings to go off of that

[Hydra009]

Well, call me strange, but I really do think that asserting that there's some superhuman entity somewhere out there really deserves some sort confirmation beyond mere belief.