My teacher was male and delighted in caning me and any other pupil that had the cheek to ask questions he couldn't answer. It only stopped when one lad had to be taken to hospital to have a badly swollen hand treated. His parents complained to the head, the teacher wasn't sacked just his caning privileges removed. And no I'm not whining about being caned, when I was caned for smoking or fighting I deserved it.
I'll start to believe in God when the power of prayer, often claimed to be have cured cancer, blindness, patent male baldness and other such maladies, manages to re-grow an amputees leg. Until then, it remains to me nothing but a myth used by a few to manipulate the many. Christianity's bedrock is the bible. A work of fiction cobbled together from other 'religions' and paganism that pre-date the alleged birth of Jesus by thousands of years. The emperor Constantine got some of his politicos to adopt and promote this work of fiction back in the 4th century purely to manage the potential clash between the established pagan society with the rapidly emerging Christians. The bible is in fact the result of a merger of convenience, instigated by a Roman emperor with some political nous. Nothing more. Those that say they don't believe, but don't object to others believing, are misguided. Think of all the bad things that have been done in the name of that book and that religion (other religions too) by its supporters. Would you be so accepting of a rapist or murderer just so long as his work doesn't affect you or yours? I doubt it. Religion and the religious have murdered untold millions and continue to do so today. We should never be so nonchalant as to just let them get on with it. Religion is heinous at its core and has no place in a modern, civilised world. ps. Someone kindly drop me a pm when they hear of that amputee's limb miraculously growing back as a result of prayer!
So you have the nous to see the motive behind manipulating a faith to achieve a political end in establishing the Faith but then in not one single instance after that faith was established......right.
He (Constantine) didn't just manipulate a faith. He completely re-hashed it out of all kinds of weird and wonderful ingredients. Many of which pre-dated Christianity by thousands of years. Now then, about the amputees. Illnesses can and do suddenly seem to just vanish, making a fool of doctors and other healers predictions. An oft used explanation is 'the power of prayer'. Do people that lose limbs not pray? Does the same god only work his magic on all things except amputations? Divine intervention my left elbow!
Without realising it, my points about that teacher sum up how religion was forced on the uneducated masses through the ages. Believe or we will beat, torture or eventually kill you.
I don't doubt it. There is an inherent hypocrisy with how organised Religions have acted over the years. I do believe that religious teaching is improving but it doesn't take much to make **** of it all.
It doesn't need googling, nor am I asking you too. Funny how you can argue one part of my post without feeling the need to tell me to go google my own response though. You should be ashamed of yourself for continuing to perpetuate such dangerous rubbish without the wit to answer your critics on a valid point. Trot on and don't return until you can justify why your god hates amputees so much that he refuses to heal any of them.
This typifies what has been said about religion perfectly. You don't need factual evidence to believe. Just take my word for it! Brilliant - no wonder you are a dying breed.