1. People suffer because they are seperated from God, because of the first sin. The whole point of life now is to get back to God.
This is a part of Sam Harris's book, "Letter to a Christian Nation," this passage adds a nice poetic touch to christian beliefs (a lot of books are in English similar to your version of the bible, as is this one. I just point that out because many are reluctant to read anything but the bible. )
"Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture, and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind is not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern the lives of six billion human beings. The same statistics also suggest this girl's parents believe - as you believe - that an all-powerful and all-loving God is watching over them and their family. Are they right to believe this? Is it good that they believe this?
No.
The entirety of atheism is contained in this response. Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; is is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-alchemist." We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. An atheist is simply a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87 percent of the population) claiming to "never doubt the existence of God" should be obliged to present evidence for his existence - and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. An atheist is a person who believes that the murder of a single little girl - even once in a million years - casts doubt upon the idea of a benevolent God.
Examples of God's failure to protect humanity are everywhere to be seen. The city of New Orleans, for instance, was recently destroyed by a hurricane. More than a thousand people died; tens of thousands lost all their earthly possessions; and nearly 4 million were displaced. It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Hurricane Katrina struck shared your belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God [based on the logic that 87% of the population "never doubted the existence of god"]. But what was God doing while Karina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who prayed throughout their lives [though I would argue this makes them silly people]. Do you have the courage to admit the obvious? These poor people died talking to an imaginary friend."
"I for one never told you you were going to hell. The fact that 70+% of people in prison are religious means nothing. Based on your example it just fits the overall % of the population the US. Same number of people are bad regardless of their beliefs. BTW, athiest are no where near 30% of the US population. If that were true then how the hell did GWBush get re-elected."
http://www.holysmoke.org/icr-pri.htm
Atheists make up around 10% of the population in the US - but make up .2% of prison populations. It does mean something - it means that religious people have less morals than non religious people, and at the very least, it disproves a common belief that atheists are without morality. There are many statistics as these - religious people in countries vs literacy rate.. etc, they don't prove points, but disprove baseless claims that religious people make against heathens. I have read claims that atheists are also uneducated - and over 90% of the National Academy of Sciences are atheists. I am only disproving claims despite the potential of these statistics to prove things.
I never said anything like "30%." But as you have pointed out - this means the government isn't controlled by immoral heathens - you'd be surprised at the number of the people who think that. And the reason that GWBush was re-elected is precisely because of people who believe in god. Here is something I've written about it.
Iraqi Civilians- 60000 Deaths
American Soldiers - 3000 Deaths
Iraqi Soldiers - Unknown
1 President who is commanded by god to kill. - Priceless.
'I'm driven with a mission from God,'
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
WTB less Chrazies imo.
I came up with a good line a few weeks ago- "Immorality does not equal Immortality"
We all know popular vote doesn't really affect presidential elections, (lol) but if it did, (lol) the 50,456,002 people who voted for President Bush during the 2000 election each killed 0.00118915486 of an iraqi civilian.
Guess what? Working on Sunday (even for your whole life) isn't as bad as that.
WTB new commandments.. CARVE MORE LETTERS IN MORE STONES PLZ!
