The term 'Christian' means 'little christ' or 'follower of Christ'. 

 You're pointing out the actions of evil people who FALSELY clamed to be followers of Jesus. Falsely because their actions were exactly the opposite of Christianity. If someone claims to be a tree, it doesn't make them a tree. What you describe is NOT my religion, and how dare you insinuate it is?

What did those people believe themselves to be?

Are you serious? I don't give a rip what they claimed to be, they weren't what they claimed because of their actions. If they were actually following Jesus' example, they would not have done what they did, period. Again, if one believes they are a tree, that does not make them a tree. What part of that don't you get? If somebody claims to be non-violent and goes out and commits murders, that doesn't mean people who believe in non-violence are murderers.

Let me apply your logical reasoning skilz to a theoretical debate. A group of people claim to be trees, they go out and commit mass murder, since they claimed to be trees, that means all trees are bad and should be cut down.

So do you go out and actively campaign for reproductive rights for women and for gays to be allowed to have marriage rights ( in spite of the fact that  if you're from the US ~70% of your fellow Christians are against those things) and for the Catholic Church to end its suppression of true and accurate information regarding the truth about the number of pedophile priests that it has?

Apparently you think they're all doing Christianity wrong, so as a Christian, it should be your duty to change their ways.

Or do you just nag atheists and say "That's not my Christianity!" despite the fact that it is the Christianity of ~70% of American Christians?

Actually no.  Most of us agree that religion is irrational even without the violence and anger and terrorism and religious intolerance.  Not to mention you're ignoring the contradictory passages in your own bible.  "Gays are bad."  "Tolerate all."  The bible tells you both, everyone is free to interpret it and pick and chose what passages and things they believe, and in the end you're still either a good person or a dick based on your decisions, but Religion brings people together in their hating of gays or whatever.  

Just becuase YOU're a 'good christian', it doesn't mean christianity is good overall.  

And the majority of the discussion on this thread has been about WHY we debate religion, and we've all given some pretty damn good reasons.  You've yet to give any good reasons why we should just leave religion as is.  

Religion is inconsistent. 

Religion is a powerful political force.

Religion is a blanket protector for those who would abuse it 

Religion can be used for good, but can be used for equal bad. 

Religion influences education and scientific progress. 

Despite all this, religion cannot substantiate ANY of its high claims of a higher power. 

Despite all this, religion cannot justify the ignorance and intolerance it has, nor can it justify its seemingly arbitrary rules.  

so THAT is why we debate, and THAT is why you need to step your game up if you wish to be taken seriously in this thread. 

All of the acts you listed at the start of your response are recognised to be wrong and or illegal and punishable under law. The one exception is suicide because it depends on the context. The fact that you would equate the debate about the existence of god to paedophilia murder or other vile acts comes across as an attempt to take shots at religion and those who believe rather than  contribute to debate. 

In any case all the things you mentioned can be attributed to anyone, religious or not. The common denominator are humans. With or without religion we will maintain the same capacity for violence or compassion, for good or for bad. You appear to have assosciated everything that's wrong with the world and labeled religion as the source. Do you really think that if tommorrow everyone woke up atheist that we would have less or more crime. Answer is likely neither as people choose to do what they do within their own decision process.

Your viewpoint illustrates perfectly what I mentioned earlier and that is that we are driven to influence and ultimately force our way of thinking onto others right or wrong. The only thing that will matter in the end is who has more power. Whatever happens I just hope it doesn't lead to us regressing as a species or worse.

My only question wold be  how do you expect someone who is religious to be open to what you talk about when you demonstrate such disrepect?  After all as someone who appears to have been enlightened should you not rise above such petty insults.

Btw if your intent was to troll then disregard my comment. However if you really do feel that way then there's not much to debate about.

I'm all for Birth Control and for a woman to be able to do what she wants with her body if that's actually what you mean. Abortion is a different discussion entirely and has more to do with the rights of a human baby and balancing that with the rights of the mother. It's a very complex and sensitive topic for both sides, and there are many different levels of support or opposition to that particular topic. I'd like to see a good compromise on the gay marriage issue, I personally advocate for a 'civil union' that gives the same rights as marriage to help eliminate the religious controversy and make such legislation easier to pass.

I think the Catholic Church should certainly deal harshly with and be far more open about the pedophelia issue. I'm not a Catholic (in fact I have a number of major issues with the Catholic church in the past and now). Catholicism quickly became a theistic government run by power-hungry people, and i have a huge problem with that. They're certainly working to change, but they have a long way to go still in my opinion.

I'm not nagging any atheists, I have not once attacked your beliefs, insinuated you're evil, or anything that could  be considered 'nagging' (I've only defended my beliefs), though your actions towards people you don't agree with would certainly fit your 'nagging' definition. I'm not sure where you get the 70% number from, the hard-core 'fundamentalist' crowd you're using as a straw man is significantly smaller in number than that, though very vocal.

Instead of mercilessly attacking religion in its entirity, which only breeds contempt and kills open discourse, why not argue for your ideas in a reasonable way? You'd be more likely to actually change minds or at least help people to compromise with a tactic like that.

In short: You find religion a threat to what you see as progress and are attempting to use words to eradicate its threat, so that we can end up having a golden age of progress and a glorious state of paradise where there are no more wars, all disease has been eradicated, and human beings can live in peace and harmony, with just their own egos, and respect for other egos, around.  The goal: the lyrics of the song "Imagine".

I think a better thing would be for the mods to just lock this thing down, considering how agenda driven it is, and how much of a waste of time individuals arguing have arguing about things.  "Step your game up?".  Do you seriously think individuals who actually have a reasonbly competent game in this area, are going to bother spending their time in a website DEDICATED TO PREDICTIONS AND SALES NUMBER OF VIDEOGAMES?  Heck, I might be reasonably competent in this area, but I don't consider arguing here worth anything.  Why would anyone bother with you, in this area, if you made your mind up?  Others certainly don't have an internal guilt mechanism they need to placate over this issue, like you may be having now.

Anyhow, I have things to do now.  About to get going here because real life calls.  Have fun winning battles on here.  Maybe you can get a cookie as the world burns.  Seems you and your science and technology can't seem to stamp out religious impulses.  But hey, maybe you can go with Scientology and channel religious impulses into made up stuff you know is false.  Or at least get the world to become Trekkies and the annual religious observance is attending a convention dressed up as an alien.  I would suggest you consider pushing Festivus though.  You can replace the Feats of Strength in it, with a competition at playing a videogame.  At least you could find something constructive to do with your time that most people here would be involved with.  And a neat part of Festivus is you can do whatever you want with it.

Unfortunately that happens on both sides of the fence. Ignorance is everywhere, weather it be a Christian or an Atheist. I think that my religion ultimately has hurt itself with numerous examples of ignorant people and immoral actions that hurt the overall message that we are trying to give.

There will never be a perfect group. There will always be the few that end up hurting the whole. With that said, I can't go around trying to correct/fix everyone. I will continue to believe in God as a Christian and will share to others THAT WANT to hear what my beliefs are; the same as I will hear what others believe in.

Agreed. Now to head back over to the gaming section of the site, the magical realm where both Christians and Atheists can find something to agree on. :)