Well, for people who already share this view, it's a nice vid, but I doubt it'll accomplish making anybody who's firmly entrenched in their religious beliefs question them very hard (for the most part).

"We are all one"? Really? On what basis is that believe established, or is it just blind faith?

I'm not sure if the last minute makes up for the torturous first two.

I bet they could have made it 15 reasons if they were willing to reuse "Your ancestors were ______" a few more times.

Everyone is born without any religion (atheists) then the religion attaches itself to the brainstem and controls your life. When you are 66 years old the religion have gestated fully and will burst forth from your back in a cacophony of meat and blood and a priest is born.

The priest, driven by the need to reproduce, attaches a new religion to the brainstems of young boys. This is where the "child molestation" rumors come from.

Ignorance comes in all shapes and sizes, mostly the ironic kind. Isn't there something inherently stupid about telling someone they're wrong about their beliefs because "no one knows"? Well then, how would you know dummy? The whole thing is actually more dogmatic than any religious belief I've heard of yet. We're all one? So, if we're all one, then why is your belief valid and mine isn't? Are some of us just more special than others? Wait, you said we weren't special, so it can't be that. Maybe you're just a prophet from the vast and endless void of unbelief. Preach on, brotherman. It's a sick kind of irony to do the very same thing you're accusing someone else of doing, especially whilst doing said accusing.

I find this video disturbing, not just for its blatant idiocy, but for the fact that it just further cements this mainstreaming of militant antitheism. How is it that atheists seem to believe they can just go around and treat someone like garbage and talk down to them like children because they think they're right about something..why is this socially acceptable? I'm sorry, but just as atheists like to say that Christians don't have the license on what is good and moral, atheists don't have licence on logic and reason, as this video clearly proves.

I'm a Christian and I didn't come to be one because I was brainwashed. I didn't grow up with religion, nor was I interested in it. I saw it as counterproductive at best. I wasn't sure if Jesus even existed, and if He did, that He was surely a man and nothing more. I would even entertain myself by going into Christian chatrooms to argue with them against the existence of their particular God. Being agnostic, I didn't rule out that the Universe could have been created, and I knew that humanity, not even having left the solar system, could not possibly have enough information about what is going on to know either way. However, due to my pitiful understanding of the bible and Christianity in general, I believed they were all brainwashed too.

What changed my mind? Direct revelation. God proved to me, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that He existed. Yet, even then I did not become a Christian. I simply had faith in a Creator, and I believed that all religions and paths (eventually) led to Him. It was not until some 5 years later that I was born again. The reason I became a Christian and not a muslim or what have you is simple. God showed me who He is, and what His nature is like. I knew before I became a Christian, because of what God had taught me, that God is a triune being. Three persons, One God. I knew this about His nature before I ever correlated it to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God showed me that He is indeed the God of the Christian bible, and when I finally read it, everything I knew about Gods true nature was contained within those pages.

So, as you can see, not every Christian fits into these convenient little molds atheists like to trot out. I am a highly rational and logical person , who has reasoned these things out to a much deeper level than any of you would be willing to give me credit for, mostly because of this derogetory label you have in your mind, of an unthinking unsentient idiot who believes in pretty lies and convenient truths. It is a common prejudice and one Christians do not deserve. I don't particularly like the way that Christianity is practiced in this country either but is it some big revelation that human beings do stupid, ignorant and hypocritical things? Do you think atheism has cornered the market on rational behavior? Find me a stupid Christian, ill find you a stupid atheist. Quid pro quo. It's videos like these that divide us, and stifle rational discourse, not encourage it. Nothing born of intolerance will lead to understanding.

I get people wanting to upvote the message, but this video, as a video, is garbage...

I am a christian, raised in a jewish neighborhood. so that's one false assumption in this video.

sure, christianity was the first religion i was brainwashed in learned about, but then, i went to a catholic school, so i'd be surprised if it wasn't.

I'm not "to lazy or unintelligent to think for myself," and as such don't think all foreigners are "weird" and "going to hell." thanks for not jumping to conclusions about a whole demographic, guy.

and last of all, of COURSE the bible says christianity is true. what kind of holy book would it be if it itself said that it was lying?

does anyone really take this video as anything besides outright racism? seriously, when did videosift go from being open-mined about religion and atheism alike to just being outright anti-religion?

I find myself in the position of defending a video that doesn't really deserve much attention.

I don't believe he is claiming that every Christian and Muslim fits all of those rules. I suspect he means that those are the 9 likeliest causes to believe in them, with a couple of pointlessly insulting additions. It may be that you fit into none of those categories. If so, I expect you're both ( Dignant_Pink and shinyblurry ) honest enough to admit that the vastly overwhelming majority of adherents do fit into at least some of those categories.

The main point to be gleaned from this video, I would submit, is that a person's selection of a particular religion above all others is in fact generally made for them by their surroundings, before they themselves are able to reason critically.

Really videosift? Top 15?

>> ^shinyblurry:

How is it that atheists seem to believe they can just go around and treat someone like garbage and talk down to them like children because they think they're right about something..why is this socially acceptable?


How is it that when I have conversations with Christians on youtube or any other open forum, once they find out I'm not religious, they talk down to me and tell me I'm going to "burn/rot in hell"? Call me a "sinner"? A "blasphemer"? They hope I "get cancer and die"? How is this socially acceptable?

I also have another question for you. How exactly did God "show himself" to you? You never really explained that one.

>> ^Duckman33:
>> ^shinyblurry:
How is it that atheists seem to believe they can just go around and treat someone like garbage and talk down to them like children because they think they're right about something..why is this socially acceptable?

How is it that when I have conversations with Christians on youtube or any other open forum, once they find out I'm not religious, they talk down to me and tell me I'm going to "burn/rot in hell"? Call me a "sinner"? A "blasphemer"? They hope I "get cancer and die"? How is this socially acceptable?
I also have another question for you. How exactly did God "show himself" to you? You never really explained that one.


Christians are commanded to love thy neighbor as thyself. We are told the measure we use to judge will be measured back to us. When we observe that a law is being broken, we are justified in pointing this out to our brother, to correct the error of his way, in hopes he will turn from his sin. Now when you preach the gospel, you have to be aware that you will be judged by unbelievers by the same standards that you are proclaiming as truth, and hypocripsy will only denigrate Christs reputation. As a Christian, I admit that I am not perfect, which isn't really that difficult considering some of the more interesting choices I've made in life. Yet, if I strive to follow the standard set for me, which is perfection, my words will be justified and I will be an effective witness. This is the meaning of the measure we use being measured back to us.

So someone following Christs word should never tell you that you're going to burn and rot. That is utterly despicable. If you preach the gospel you are called to treat it with respect and care, because it is the Word of God. If you follow the word it comes naturally. No one who is following Christ in reality would say that to you. Christ promises that He is there to serve as our advocate before the Father, and obtaining forgiveness for our many sins through faith in Him.

Well, the way I knew it was God was..when I was a child God was with me. I just didn't notice it. The way that I was learning, seeing, experiencing..God was always there with me. He was an integral part of who I was, a secret friend who shared in my joys and sorrows. Later on in life I started to lose this connection. Life started to lose its electricity, it's spark, because our relationship was not as it should be. This is because I had begun to sin. I started shoplifting when I was 7 or 8 years old and I didn't stop for a long time. Now this may be looked upon as harmless in some way..I didn't ever really steal more than candy bars. But the law is the law. God was still there with me, supporting me, but because I was sinning it caused spiritual seperation from God.

This happened for a long time, gradually, until it was like living life alone. I had always been a loner..just akward socially, but this was different. The light went out of my life. There was no flow, at all. It had all stopped. I was only dimly aware of this transition at the time. It took me many years to piece together what happened. I had no idea God really existed. I was vaguely aware that He did; ie I was afraid of Him, but I also prayed a couple times and He answered my prayers. Then one day, suddenly, He showed me He was there. He showed me how His presence, His essence underlay all things. He showed me how He was working in reality. This isn't to say I comprehended it. It's just that I know what it feels like to be around Him a little bit and see what He does.

Note at this time I was not a Christian, I did not become a Christian until later on. He had showed me the nature of the Holy Trinity before I knew much about it, so it fit with what I already knew about God. The words of the bible spoke to what I knew about God, about His unconditional love for all of His children. So yeah, that's how I got to know God. It probably sounds strange but you know what they say. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I'm proof of that much.

I think I am both Christian and Muslim. At least, that's what my doctor told me. What should I do?

I was going to post this yesterday but then the sift was down so it's probably too late, but I had it saved so here it goes:

I don't think people should go out of their way to take offence to these kinds of videos. It's propaganda, and it would be interesting to some, but there is nothing new or particularly insightful here. If you don't fit the description of the video, you can probably safely move along. However, it describes many people.

>> ^shinyblurry:

Isn't there something inherently stupid about telling someone they're wrong about their beliefs because "no one knows"? Well then, how would you know dummy?

Some things are unknowable. People claiming the opposite are either liars or simply mistaken. Acknowledging (knowing) that this statement is true does not cause a contradiction.

>> ^shinyblurry:

I am a highly rational and logical person...

I don't mean to pick on this (at least not in a mean way), but if this is true you must have considered the massive amount of psychological delusions that humans make on a regular basis. People believe they have been visited by aliens. Even in the modern age many people in various countries believe they are following Gods on earth and believe they've witnessed miracles conducted by those man-gods. People (even presently) believe in witches, demonic possession, voodoo, astrology, homeopathy, dowsing, bigfoot, ghosts, etc, etc, etc.

Violent crime victims have been utterly surprised and ashamed when DNA evidence proved that their sworn and BELIEVED eyewitness accounts were misremembered and that people they were POSITIVE perpetrated the crimes against them indeed did not. Some people believe God tells them directly to kill others. Or that they themselves are the Messiah.

And generally speaking, the human mind has evolved to find patterns in noise: to interpret coincidence as cause and effect.

Given all of this, what is more likely: that all of these claims and beliefs are true? Or that just the ones we agree with are true? Or that perhaps few or none of these claims are true and they reveal the fragile nature of the human mind.

If we can accept the latter explanation, that we are limited machines with limited resources processing vast information in real time under great stress over decades of experiences... perhaps when we find ourselves seeing, remembering, or believing something unsupported by physical evidence, perhaps we should logically consider that we *should not* believe it.

Back to lurking...