Fluminator wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:12 pm
One thing I've recently discovered is how quickly the New Atheist movement died out. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennet were heralded as the people who would shape culture and destroy religion, and now you basically hear nothing about them and even most modern atheists view them as completely shallow jerks.
But I think the most interesting part of them is they claimed removing religion would allow for a golden age of logic. But that didn't happen! I always rolled my eyes a little at religious arguments that "if you remove religion the framework of society crumbles" but we're kind of watching it in real time as our society is actively collapsing, and I wonder if the lack of religion is contributing to this.
Jamie's pfp and signature are a prime example of your concluding paragraph. It implies that he believes what Hamas is doing is good, and what Israel is doing is evil. What are Hamas and Israel doing?
Hamas is a terrorist organization which has forcefully overtaken Gaza and is now invading its neighbors, killing parents in full view of their children, murdering without cause, torturing and kidnapping, and overall pillaging, looting, etc. They also have a history of launching thousands upon thousands of missiles into Israeli cities, killing innocent civilians. They also hide themselves among their own people's neighborhoods, hospitals, etc., showing a disregard not only for Israeli lives, but for Palestinian lives as well. Speaking of hospitals, Hamas recently launched a missile which hit a hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people.
Israel is a nation whose people have inhabited the land for thousands of years, and is being invaded by Hamas. They have launched air attacks and missiles at Hamas targets, targeting Hamas militants and trying to avoid unnecessary Palestinian deaths. Israel is deploying ground forces to Gaza to launch a retaliatory strike to ensure that the aforementioned acts of Hamas are never done again.
Jamie is not alone in his views regarding this conflict. Many high level politicians, happening to be the ones who renounce the Christian faith as evil, support Hamas, as well as many students in high level universities. These students happen to be the same ones who renounce Christianity as evil.
The same people that would support Hamas, happening to be those who say that Christians are murderous and dangerous, would also support a phenomenon that has tolled over 60 million deaths since its widespread use in America. This phenomenon is the purposeful ending of a human life (what is generally considered murder) for the purpose of "convenience" for a soon to be mother. Whether that is a life at the moment of the killing is irrelevant; it would have become a life, and it has been ended. However, the scientific study put into the matter thus far shows that Babies in the womb can feel pain, have a heartbeat, and begin to develop a brain very early on.
The same people that support abortion, happening to be the same people who claim Christianity is restrictive, also claim that a child, years before they are trusted by society to drink alcohol, vote, have a job, drive, own a gun, or do really anything else, should be allowed to make a decision on a whim, without consultation from doctors or parents, that would surgically and genetically alter their life forever, often for the worse. They are lied to and told it is reversible, but when the process is attempted to be reversed, the child ends up a mangled version of their previous selves.
The same people that support transgenderism for children, happening to be the same people who claim that Christianity is anti-progress, would also claim that police forces should be defunded and law abiding citizens disarmed. Where it has been tested, this has led to both minor crimes like theft and major ones like murder shooting upwards off the charts. These people would also support rioting and looting as a part of protesting.
Let's take a look at this Christianity that is so dangerous, restrictive, anti-progress, and evil, shall we?
Christians founded America, and gave us the Bill of Rights.
Christians ended slavery.
Christians invented hospitals.
Christians led civil rights movements.
Christians opposed tyranny in 1930s Germany, at the cost of life and limb.
Christians opposed tyranny in the USSR, at the cost of life and limb.
Christians opposed tyranny in the Roman Empire, at the cost of life and limb.
Christians opposed tyranny in [insert any nation at any time in history], at the cost of life and limb.
Christians support the poor.
Christians aid the sick.
Christians defend those who are undefended.
Christians go around the Earth to share love and supply people with water, food, and other basic necessities, for no material benefit to themselves.
Christians invent cures for illnesses.
Christians take those cures to the people who need them.
Christians love sacrificially.
Christians love unconditionally.
Christians have been responsible for all the prosperity of the western world as we know it.
Christians have, for thousands of years, been the only voice in favor of rights for women.
Christians have, for thousands of years, been the only voice in favor of equal rights regardless of class.
Christians have, for thousands of years, been the only voice in favor of equal rights for all nationalities and races.
These are all things unique to Christians. Why do we do them? Because we are told to. Because the Bible, our ultimate moral guide, tells us to. No other religion, or lack thereof, has had even a fraction of the impact in any of the aforementioned areas of societal and personal well being. Christians are hated universally, by all classes, people groups, and religions. And yet, we love them all back. Certainly, there are many who do not do these things, there are many who are hypocrites. But these are pretenders of the faith, people who claim Christianity but do not follow the Bible. To truly have the benefits of Christianity, one must follow the Bible as a moral guide.
To lose Christianity is to lose all of that. You may say it is a slippery slope, but it has been proven before, and it is being proven now. When people stop acting morally under the standards of the Bible, we get the state of society as it is now: evil.