Religion is a man-made system of rules with no reason or context, built through manipulation and fear.
You mean like Christianity? Considering the Bible was written by man, and many of the laws within that text are designed to manipulate man into doing what God says, or else they will spend eternity burning in hell. It seems like Christianity is built on a foundation of manipulation and built upwards by fear, if you want my honest opinion. There is nothing better than to make the most weak-minded people in this world fall in line than to tell them "if you do ___, you'll go to heaven; if you _____ instead of _____, you'll go to hell."
There is no freedom in Christianity, in order to be a Christian you MUST believe in God and that he sent his word down to man in the form of the Bible, and that he sent his only son to earth to die for the sins which HE created himself... not to mention, you MUST believe the word of an incredibly inconsistent book, regardless of whether or not you believe it is true. Otherwise, you will burn for it.
How do you not see that as manipulation and fear? I do not believe the Bible because I find it to be THE most inconsistent book ever written [and I've read a lot of bad, inconsistent books, from
Ethan Frome to every
Harry Potter book]. I have studied physics, biology, chemistry-- I am no expert in those fields, but I have a basic understanding of how it works-- and the Bible refutes so many truths I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry myself into a stupor.
Why? Because if I don't believe something I consider to be a poorly articulated, physically inaccurate portrayal of the universe, I am going to burn in hell.
Isn't that ironic? God gave us all his word, yet he couldn't do so in a way which was crystal clear. Because nothing is crystal clear like saying that slavery is ay-okay, then sending in Moses to free the slaves because slavery is bad, then saying that slavery is ay-okay once again in the New Testament. And that's only one teeny tiny example-- don't you see that? Don't you see how hard it is for someone to believe that?
But no-- no, I MUST believe it, if I want to live a fulfilling life. I am manipulated into believing something I CAN'T believe, for fear that I will spend eternity burning in hell with every other sinner and non-believer.
Christianity is one of the most manipulative religions out there, but then again, you appear to be easily manipulated. I guess I'll let that slide.
I stick around in case anyone has sincere questions, which I then do my best to answer. The majority of the conflict is due to haters looking for it.
Oh, man-- that one was great.
People who disagree with you are now "haters."
Yeah, I've got news for you, bud: I don't hate you. I don't hate your faith. You have a fundamental right to believe whatever it is you want to believe, to whatever extent that you want to believe it. Regardless of whether I consider it to be incredibly flawed, manipulative, and fear inducing.
No-- what separates me from you is that I do not FORCE my beliefs on anyone. You'll notice that my religious beliefs have never once come up in conversation here? Yet I could have easily applied them to the argument. What I and other posters HATE is the fact that you constantly keep inserting your faith into every single argument.
Morality wasn't a central argument in this thread; you made it one. And when people asked you to expand upon it, you brought out God and every Biblical element you could to fuel the fire. Again, no one dislikes you because you are a Christian; we dislike you because you thump the Bible at every chance you get.
But trust me, there is no HATE. Heck, I'm pretty sure you don't HATE me because I'm a homosexual. Of course, your views are ignorant of the issues which exist outside of your Christian worldview, not to mention incredibly intolerant [and I can say this truthfully, because you yourself have claimed to be against tolerance].
I just wish you would put down the Bible for once and tell us all what YOU think, because something tells me your views go much deeper than what the Bible tells you.
So please, show us all the real Moviefan. Show us Moviefan as a man, and not Moviefan as a biblical parrot.