Why must everyone think like you or you will have animosity for them? Based on your beefs I'd say you wouldn't have a problem with true Christians. It sounds like you don't like the minority eveangelical ones that make the most noise, but always get out voted.

Because the accompanying discussion is always interesting to follow.

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Interesting. Mind if I ask you what are your religious views, if any??? I'm surprised that I agreed with all of these, but for the reason of I thought this was mostly common sense. I guess a lot of religous people actually act like this. Hopfully I'm in the majority that think like you do, but unfortunatley I doubt that.

Loved this response, mainly because it's almost taking the words out of my mouth. I think we can all agree that the ignorance and stupidity on either side leads to distance and anger from each other. It's people like you that make me enjoy having a friendly debate on somewhat as fragile as someone's religion. Unfortunatley when the ignorant don't agree with you, it turns into idiotic namecalling and pure hate towards the other, which in turn gets thrown right back at them. No matter how religous you are, if you insult somebody, they will most likely insult you back. This spirials into years of religous hate and tumoil that evolves into events that can elevate to mass ethnic cleansing and other muderous acts. 

My thoughts on gays as a Christian: I don't think you are born gay, but you might pick up very early in life who you are physically attracted to. Who are we to say you can just stop being attracted to the same sex? It doesn't work that way. Let them be and treat them with kindess, as they are normal people like everyone else. All this gay hate from Christians is not doing them any good. It just makes the gays stronger and work together more in order to get the rights they want. 

My thoughts on premarital sex: I do think you should save it for marriage, but I don't think it's that big of a deal. I lost it at 19 (still 19) and didn't think twice about it. I don't think they (mainstream Christian media) promote abstinence as a meanings of just following what the bible says. I think that is a small part next to reducing prenancies and STD's, which is good in theory but they go about it wrong sometimes.

My thoughts on pushing religion on others: COULDN'T AGREE MORE. One of my biggest pet peeves as a Christian is how bad it other people make our beliefs sound by forcing them upon others, specifically parents on kids. Everyone needs to do their own research and journey in life to find their own way. 

Who said anything about friendly debate?  I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm pretty aggressive when it comes to wiping out the mess that is religious right. I mean, don't misunderstand, I don't think "All who disagree with me need to be eradicated." I've never thought that and it's the worst kind of mentality you can have, especially as one who considers himself to be an intellectual.  No, people misunderstand.  My hatred for religion isn't about having a different opinion and needing to censor it, it's about science.  It's always been about science and rationality and logic and progression.  I don't beleve that, as an encompassing theory, Religion should be respected unless it can quantify and justify its claims.  Until the religious can find even a shred of evidence supporting the existence of a god and that the events in the bible (or any holy text) happened as stated, it needs to be treated as the mythology it is. 

I don't mind people reading the bible, but I just don't understand the mentality of "This is how it happened becuase a book written thousands of years ago told me so, and the book also informed me it's infallible, therefore it is truth, end of discussion. No, I can't prove it, but I have faith and a billion friends who agree with me, so I must be right."  I know that sounds like a strawman argument, but that's basically what religious arguments boil down to.  The very idea that this stance needs to be respected not for its contributions to science and philosophy, but becuase many of us were raised in a nation where 'freedom of religion' is a thing, and mocking someone for thinking something so absurd is not acceptable.  

As for gays, I don't care if it is a choice, or if it is genetic, or if it can be cured or if it needs to be fixed, I see no issue with it.  If my neighbours are gay, it doesn't impact me in any way whatsoever, so I have no right to push my morals on them regardless.  That should be in effect on a global scale.  My 'morality' comes down to something very simple:  "if your actions are harming someone else, then it is not cool.  Otherwise, have fun, do what makes you happy and don't be ashamed of who you are."  This goes for pretty much everything in life, from what entertainment you enjoy right down to your body.  Your body is really your last bastion of freedom, you should be able to do what you want with it, it's your decision and your choice to balance the risk/reward.   Even if being gay DOES lead to HIV (it doesn't, but for the sake of argument let's say it does), then you need to decide if being with the one you love is worth that risk, and nobody has any right to judge you for it unless you're spraying HIV blood in the ketchup containers at the work cafeteria.  

As for premarital sex, as a man who doesn't believe in religion, I fail to see why you should save sex for some arbitrary signing of a paper.  I just don't see the correlation.  Hell, even when I did think sex was some holy thing that needed to be on a pedestal as some special intimate bond, I didn't see why you'd need to not do something you enjoy (as long as you're doing it safely and responsibly) just so you can wait so OTHERS deem you acceptable to have intercourse.  I just don't see the need for the correlation at all, and it seems so silly.  I won't even get into my thoughts on sex, intimacy, and love in this thread.  

The funny thing, I'm kind of amazed nobody's gone "oh, but you're pushing your beliefs on us" yet.  It's kind of an 'equal and opposite reaction' thing.  I only push back against religion when it pushes on me, my friends, or my ideals.  I maintain that if I could go without hearing about some religiously motivated terrorist attack or battle over teaching intelligent design over evolution or some instance where some woman was stoned to death for not marrying her rapist or some parents who starved their kid to cure him of the devil becuase he didn't want to read his bible, I honestly wouldn't even give two shits.  Let crazy people think crazy things, just keep it far away from me and I'll simply chose not to associate myself with them, but as soon as I see an instance of someone using religion to influence politics or education or violently protest things they have no right to protest based on some outdated unsubstantiated nonsense, I feel the need to fight back.  

I actually grew up in a religious household surrounded by religious people, so I grew up a pretty active christian.  it wasnt till I was 16 that I realized that science and religion could not really mix and I decided to go the path of the intellectual and abandon religion...which was met with scorn and hatred, or plain old judgement.  One person tried to tell me "God has put doubt in your heart so you could come back with greater faith" without realizing how crazy he sounded.  

Anyway, I rant too much.  

You shouldn't do religion, becuase religion is bad.  And if you don, just...stick to other religious people, don't try to get into an argument with people who reject your religion, becuase you will lose.  even if you're arguing with another religion, you always lose because there is no way to 'win' a religious debate, since there is no way to justify one religion over another.  

I'm agnostic primarily because I don't think anything we can observe or measure demonstrates anything about the existance of god ... The entire premise of 'god' is that it existed outside of and created objective reality, which makes the search for answers of its existance within reality kind of meaningless. If the certainty of your belief helps you get through life, regardless of whether you believe in god or in the non-existance of god, than it has served its purpose.

In a way you could see the debate about religion somewhat like an argument between two Goombas in a Super Mario game about the existance of their creator. While, from our perspective, it may seem obvious that they were created by man I'm certain most Goombas might have existential questions like "Why do good Goombas still fall down pits?" Sadly enough, these Goombas also wouldn't be aware that their existance is mostly inconsequential to their creator.

Religion isn't usually the thing that kills people, people kill people. (Classic arguement, but it's true.)

true, but religion gives people one more (pathetic) reason to kill one another.  And let's be honest, a LOT of people have died over which god has the bigger dick. 

" Also the pledge should keep "Under God" because that's how it was written. "

If that is your line of argumentation that is simply patently false. "Under God" was added decades after the pledge was written. It was not until recently it had been in there linger than it had not. It should never have been inserted in my view as the state should never endorse any deity.