"add a talking snake and a virgin who has babies" great line Colbert.

>> ^MarineGunrock:
No religion has ever said that bread turns to flesh and wine turns to blood. Your short sighted attempts at insulting Christianity is ill-founded.


Check out this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist#Christian_theology_concerning_the_Eucharist

"According to the Catholic Church, when the bread and wine are consecrated in the Eucharist, they cease to be bread and wine, and become instead the body and blood of Christ"

"Orthodox Christians affirm the Real Presence in the Sacred Mysteries which they believe to be the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ."

"Lutherans believe that the Body and Blood of Christ are 'truly and substantially present in, with and under the forms' of the consecrated bread and wine"

You could probably still say that no one actually believes they physically turn into flesh and blood, but either way, I think ponceleon had a good point. I think Scientology is way more retarded than Christianity. But I often wonder why. Maybe I'm just used to the stories of a talking snake, and god talking through a burning bush. Maybe they're equally as absurd as the story of Xenu blowing up alien bodies in a volcano 75 million years ago.

But in any case, I'm fine with people believing in crazy things. But it becomes a problem when they start affecting the rest of us. Christianity is much more prevalent, but I think Scientology is currently much more sinister and dangerous.

Jesus would without a doubt wholeheartedly agree with BillOreilly, as would his talking snake magic friend and all his humanoid bird-winged fairy buddies flying above the cloud tops in magical LA LA land.

Palin sure gets the Jesus Juice(tm) flowing.

Why would there be talking snakes or lush gardens in space? I don't recall reading about space snakes in the Bible.

Another few questions ...

"Have you tried poking pinholes in the cloak of night to make new stars?"

"When the ISS orbits around the edge of the Earth... what does it look like on the other side? Lots of hanging tree roots? Is the Earth really supported by pillars as stated in the Bible?"

"Can you see God's big castle floating in the clouds above Earth's surface? Any flying people with wings, talking snakes, or lush gardens?"

The religious base that continues to believe a lot of the chit the McCain camp spews isn't known for fortitude in logical deduction. Heck, anyone naive enough to believe in talking snakes, flying people, and some magic guy living up in the clouds will EASILY believe the lies spewed by the NeoCon establishment. That is what they rely on for their electability.

Top drawer collection of videos and documentaries exposing religion for what it is. An ancient fairytale, written by a bunch of madmen in a contest to conceive the the vilest madman of them all. Oh, and don't forget the talking snake. Kidchaos..

ug! i was so loling about this, but if u scrutinize the last few seconds, it is faked.
"believe in a talking snake" then it cuts, the senators comment is not related to bill's snake comment. if u listen to the senators uneasy laugh again, u can tell its dubbed. to bad, toooo bad.

listen to :42 and on a couple times, u'll see what i meen

Why, how belittling of you to say so. I actually don't have a heck of a lot of time on my hands and sacrificed sleep in an effort to make you all see that you are intolerant, but I'm never going to win against such blatant and blind egocentrism, so it was a waste of my time.

I don't see how your arguments against the Bible relate to the topic at hand, so I'm not going to give a rebuttal. We aren't trying to legitimize religion here. We'er trying to make people realize that they don't know all that they think they do about Mormons and that they need to be more tolerant.

I agree that creationists who deny the scientific facts are blinding themselves to truth. Not all Christians believe that Creationism and Darwinism are mutually exclusive. There are many books on the subject of justifying the two ideologies. Pick one up if you care.

I don't have the energy (or the TIME!) to go too far into this point right now. But, YES, many, many, many Christians are hypocrites. I completely and utterly agree. We should all be tolerant of each other.

Many people believe that there are safeguards against following and believing implicitly in the words of others. Some but not all of which are:
1. Personal revelation
2. Agreement with already existing doctrines and morals
3. Intellect
4. Rationality

Why not get the same health benefits from non-addictive substances? Caffeine in addictive and in tea. And who said that rationality has to justify the interworkings of religion? Pah-lease! Have you ever heard of faith? What's the difference between doing what the Bible says and doing what Joseph Smith says? I don't know why you're even bothering to bring this up. Like SDGundamX said, he was taught WHY he did things. I think that most Mormons know why they do the things they do.

What's wrong with tithes? They aren't forced out of anybody. They go to good causes. Members of the church do not get paid for their service, and church members can easily find out where their money is going. I don't see the problem, honestly, or why it seems important to you.

GAH! If anyone uses anything akin to the term "forcing beliefs" one more time, I THINK AM GOING TO VOMIT.

>> ^spoco2:
Holy crap pinky, you've got an AWFUL lot of time on your hands! That's a lot of comments! (Still, that's the way of uni students... At least it was for me)
Ignoring whether you believe in a supernatural being or not, my issues with pretty much all religions, but especially the Christian ones:
The belief that the bible is the word of god... even though it is:
a) A bunch of things written by a group of different people, all with their own points to get across and axes to grind.
b) Proven to have been altered and changed over time by whoever happened to be in power at the time (the Romans changed it, it's been changed during translations etc.)
c) That it's full of things written by the people of the day which reflects the beliefs of the time and includes things like slavery being ok, and so Christians pick and choose what they wish to believe from the book while still trying to say that it's all god's word.
The attempted forcing of what they believe onto the rest of us:
This forceful pushing of Creationism and refuting of the proven facts of Evolution is damaging the countries where this is becoming mainstream (the US in particular). Creationism was a way for people who DID NOT UNDERSTAND how things worked to explain them, now that we do, it should be relegated to the history books as where we've come from.
The heinous hypocrites that most of the organized Christian churches are:
Do unto others as you would have done unto you... except if you're gay, or of another faith, or believe in something we don't believe in, then we're going to treat you like dirt and try and pass laws to stop you being YOU.
Believing that there are those that have 'authority from God':
Under what proof? That the existing ones who have authority from god give them that authority? Who gave them it? Those before... and so on until you get to someone who just said 'Yeah, you know, God spoke to me and kinda told me I speak for him...' It's an utter cop out in general life to hand over your entire moral code to someone who just says that they speak for some being that you believe in, and so anything they say goes. 'I don't like gays, they're unnatural'. 'Why is that then?' 'Well, because my pastor says so'... 'Riiiight'.
Issues with Mormon's in particular from this video:
The excluding or including things in your life just because someone said so
With nothing to back it up other than that Joseph Smith said so, you're going to give up all alcohol, coffee and tea? Why? Tea has antioxidants, as does coffee. Red wine has been shown time and time again to have many positive health benefits. Sure you can overdo any of these, but that's MODERATION, not outright shunning of something with no rational reason behind it.
Handing over of 1/10th of your income for the 'work of God'
So, really, you're handing over a HUGE amount of what you earn to those that have self proclaimed themselves to be in communication with god to do with as they please... wonderful
But most of all demonstrating their amazing gullibility in believing the charlatan that was Joseph Smith. Even from a LDS website itself, which is obviously PRO him, the story comes off as just plain ridiculous.
And it mentions the hat and if you read that, then watch South Park THEY TELL IT LIKE IT IS. That is truly the insanity of the beliefs.
But hey, if people want to believe that, good on them, just DON'T COME TO MY DOOR TRYING TO MAKE ME BELIEVE IT.
But the good thing about Mormons... because so many more people can see their beliefs as being pretty ridiculous, it allows us to say, "Really, so a guy who puts a hat over his head and rambles off things from 'sacred stones' is a pretty insane thing to follow? OK, what about people who believe that there really was a Garden of idyllic majesty with no sin, and a talking snake with a magic apple? What about believing that you can fit two of every single species of animal onto a wooden boat built by ONE GUY and then live on it without them all dying for 40 DAYS? That doesn't sound a bit loopy to you? Good luck with that."
Surely religion should be about passing on a GOOD moral code, to teach a 'right and wrong' way to treat people. As SDGundamX said he received from his Mormon church, teaching WHY things are not good to do to people from a humanistic point of view, not just because some book says so.
I think one should invest more time in organisations that aim to help their community with NO bias as to beliefs at all, but just aim to treat everyone fairly and equitably.
If you believe something that I don't, and if it doesn't mean that you treat myself or anyone else in a poor manner, then go for it. But when you try and force you beliefs on others, try to tell others that they are wrong, try to force people to change who they are (no, you've only CHOSEN to be Gay, repent now), THAT IS WRONG.

Holy crap pinky, you've got an AWFUL lot of time on your hands! That's a lot of comments! (Still, that's the way of uni students... At least it was for me)

Ignoring whether you believe in a supernatural being or not, my issues with pretty much all religions, but especially the Christian ones:

* The belief that the bible is the word of god... even though it is:
a) A bunch of things written by a group of different people, all with their own points to get across and axes to grind.
b) Proven to have been altered and changed over time by whoever happened to be in power at the time (the Romans changed it, it's been changed during translations etc.)
c) That it's full of things written by the people of the day which reflects the beliefs of the time and includes things like slavery being ok, and so Christians pick and choose what they wish to believe from the book while still trying to say that it's all god's word.

* The attempted forcing of what they believe onto the rest of us:
This forceful pushing of Creationism and refuting of the proven facts of Evolution is damaging the countries where this is becoming mainstream (the US in particular). Creationism was a way for people who DID NOT UNDERSTAND how things worked to explain them, now that we do, it should be relegated to the history books as where we've come from.

* The heinous hypocrites that most of the organized Christian churches are:
Do unto others as you would have done unto you... except if you're gay, or of another faith, or believe in something we don't believe in, then we're going to treat you like dirt and try and pass laws to stop you being YOU.

* Believing that there are those that have 'authority from God':
Under what proof? That the existing ones who have authority from god give them that authority? Who gave them it? Those before... and so on until you get to someone who just said 'Yeah, you know, God spoke to me and kinda told me I speak for him...' It's an utter cop out in general life to hand over your entire moral code to someone who just says that they speak for some being that you believe in, and so anything they say goes. 'I don't like gays, they're unnatural'. 'Why is that then?' 'Well, because my pastor says so'... 'Riiiight'.

Issues with Mormon's in particular from this video:

* The excluding or including things in your life just because someone said so
With nothing to back it up other than that Joseph Smith said so, you're going to give up all alcohol, coffee and tea? Why? Tea has antioxidants, as does coffee. Red wine has been shown time and time again to have many positive health benefits. Sure you can overdo any of these, but that's MODERATION, not outright shunning of something with no rational reason behind it.

* Handing over of 1/10th of your income for the 'work of God'
So, really, you're handing over a HUGE amount of what you earn to those that have self proclaimed themselves to be in communication with god to do with as they please... wonderful

But most of all demonstrating their amazing gullibility in believing the charlatan that was Joseph Smith. Even from a LDS website itself, which is obviously PRO him, the story comes off as just plain ridiculous.

And it mentions the hat and if you read that, then watch South Park THEY TELL IT LIKE IT IS. That is truly the insanity of the beliefs.

But hey, if people want to believe that, good on them, just DON'T COME TO MY DOOR TRYING TO MAKE ME BELIEVE IT.

But the good thing about Mormons... because so many more people can see their beliefs as being pretty ridiculous, it allows us to say, "Really, so a guy who puts a hat over his head and rambles off things from 'sacred stones' is a pretty insane thing to follow? OK, what about people who believe that there really was a Garden of idyllic majesty with no sin, and a talking snake with a magic apple? What about believing that you can fit two of every single species of animal onto a wooden boat built by ONE GUY and then live on it without them all dying for 40 DAYS? That doesn't sound a bit loopy to you? Good luck with that."


Surely religion should be about passing on a GOOD moral code, to teach a 'right and wrong' way to treat people. As SDGundamX said he received from his Mormon church, teaching WHY things are not good to do to people from a humanistic point of view, not just because some book says so.

I think one should invest more time in organisations that aim to help their community with NO bias as to beliefs at all, but just aim to treat everyone fairly and equitably.

If you believe something that I don't, and if it doesn't mean that you treat myself or anyone else in a poor manner, then go for it. But when you try and force you beliefs on others, try to tell others that they are wrong, try to force people to change who they are (no, you've only CHOSEN to be Gay, repent now), THAT IS WRONG.

I think I like the talking snake/burning bush theory better. Just think... columns of fire, parting waters, whales eating people and ejecting them alive, massive global flooding.. and the resultant water recedes to.. umm.. where did the water recede to? Thats right. It fell off the four corners of the flat Earth... that's where.

Um, isn't all of creation less than 6000 years old? What happened to all the magic, flying people, and talking snakes? That makes far more sense. Does it not?



BTW, Sagan was a brilliant man. His death was a great loss to humankind.

Jesus can return from the dead. Magic people from heaven with wings can fly. Burning bushes can talk. Snakes can talk too. A man was swallowed by a whale and survived. The whole earth was flooded.. and all the water just magically disappeared (where does the water drain -to-?).


... and Floridians think disappearing tootpicks is the 'work of the devil!'

Its evil I tell ye! Demons! Demons are everywhere!

Magic is real! Flying people (Angels) with wings are real! Talking snakes are real! The universe is 6000 years old!

I ask this... if Angels are non-corporeal entities. Do they need wings? Do they need feathers? Really? Is there 'air' in heaven by which they can 'fly'? If it is all magical ghostly flight.. then why wings? Just to be pretty?

Why do Demons have horns? Do they use them in mating ritual when headbutting other Demons? Maybe its just a style thing...

Assuming Demons are real and have red skin.... that means the 'spiritual world' must be composed of both matter and energy. They must have eyes just like humans to see in the same spectrum of light the living see in. Otherwise... would they know what 'red' is? To see red, they need light. Thus energy. For 'red' to be seen on a body, the body has to made of matter to reflect/absorb light such that the wavelengths for 'red' are appropriately expressed.

Interesting questions for sure. There must be an answer in the bible somewhere. Right?

Magical men! Flying people! Talking snakes! Old men walking on water! ITS ALL REAL! 100% REAL! REAL REAL REAL!

Send me $99.99 and you too can get a stake in the magical joo joo. No delivery required. I simply need to channel it to you through the ether, and WHAM! Its in your pocket!