Quite the contrary. My faith is stronger than ever, because I have been pushed into examining the evidences for my faith ever more strongly because of things written in this forum.
Set aside the ideas of belief and faith for a moment. Rather, look at only the evidences for the various religions including Atheism. The monotheistic view is strongest. The reason that it is strongest is, the Bible cannot exist according to probability, yet it does exist, in great numbers, in multitudes of translations. You can determining the odds of its existence by examining the way it came into existence along with the things that make it up, along with the traditions of the Hebrew people that it is truth. None of any of the other religions - not even atheism - can match the religion of the Bible in this way.
Whatever assumption(s) you are talking about above, let's continue making them. Why would I suggest this? Because the more there is an assumption, the more there has to be faith to believe in it. And the only way God accepts us is through faith. Let's hope any Atheists will suddenly make the jump to faith in God - for Whom there is way more evidence than no God - taking the strength of their faith with them.
What? The bible can't exist according to probability? That entire statement is wrong. I don't understand how you could love and worship a book that is full of horrors, violence, death, and servitude. The entire bible as we know it today was changed up by the Romans, so it was not written by God as some people believe.
The contents of the Bible, the history of how it was written, its unity, the theme of salvation for mankind, the traditions of the Hebrews/Israel/the Jews regarding it, the way it depicts mankind, the science in it, the wisdom in it, the love in it, and the way that this all is brought together is way beyond probability regarding that such a book like this could exist.
Such things as "horrors, violence, death, and servitude" are found throughout the world today. They are depicted in many books, in movies, and throughout life. What sheltered life are you living in?
The late rabbi, Uri Harel, of Phoenix, Arizona, did many great studies on the Old Testament in its ancient Hebrew. The Old Testament canon is essentially the same as it has always been. One of the things that Rabbi Harel found is that there are only 12 small "spots" in the Old Testament where we are unclear as to the actual text. These 12 places change nothing regarding the meaning of the Old Testament.
The Romans did us a blessing by setting the New Testament in stone, so to speak. By directing the study and comparison of both O.T. and N.T., especially at the council of Nicea, they were able to do something that the Church wasn't willing. They were able to get rid of a whole lot of N.T. writings that at the time were contrary to the good sense of the O.T., and contradicted the pure message of the N.T. as well.
Perhaps the Romans went too far. Perhaps their scholars should have included a few books in the N.T. that they left out. However, those books wouldn't have added anything to the message, anyway.
The whole Bible was written, and exists, so that people can be saved. As usual, people don't want to be saved, but would rather go on groping throughout their lives, until it is gone, and only on their deathbeds do they start to recognize that they are lost, if then.
Religions are spread primarily through family aka brainwashing, unlike science which changes over time as we learn and develop more, religion stays the same, which is why the bible contains so many horrors and atrocities commanded by God, such as raping women and killing priests for drinking wine(Fit to govern people with fear at a time when most were uneducated).
When science gets to the point that we understand more than just a smattering of what exists, we will easily see God in it. The problem lies in the fact that, just like now, the scientists will try to cover up the knowledge of God Whom they are finding more and more in science right now. This is being done today, in the fact that scientists often are unwilling to even allow for the existence of God, though more and more they see through their investigation, the technology of God built right into the universe. Rather, they cover Him up as much as they can.
Since the horrors and atrocities of life are happening all the time right now, if God happens to use some of it to get it to stop, He is righteous in doing it this way. Would you rather that Hitler had won WWII? We needed to fight fire with fire. God could up and destroy us for our wickedness and because of His righteousness. But He would rather save as many of us as He can.
If it weren't for God's laws written in our hearts and consciences, we ALL would be off committing worse crimes than God would ever think of. Thank God He is stopping the crimes, even though many of us don't recognize that it is He that is stopping them.
Also, a popular argument for theists is that since we know the difference between right and wrong, then God must exist right? Nope, that's wrong also. The concepts of "Right" and "Wrong" are inborn, biological. Mammals have it and so do we, it's simply a way to prevent species from killing each other off, and form bonds of trust in social settings.
Sometimes science fiction writers include real science in their fiction stories. Sometimes science fiction readers believe completely fictitious stories as truth. To a rather ignorant person who happens to be looking on from the outside, it can be very difficult to determine what is truth.
So far, all of the science info that we have, that seems to disprove the existence of God, or that seems to disprove the truth of the Bible, can be shown to disprove the science itself, showing that such science is, or might be, fiction.
Other than that, there is a lot of propaganda hollering by a bunch of people who don't know anything at all, or who are out to deceive others for the sake of money.
Ok, so I've read everything you typed there. I'm done. Everything you have typed is 100% Bullcrap. I don't mean to act "mean", but I'm sorry sir, you seem extremely, extremely delusional, or idk...Let's pick apart what you said..shall we? Everything in blue is what you said, which doesn't make any sense, and everything in black beneath it is my response:
1)
Since the horrors and atrocities of life are happening all the time right now, if God happens to use some of it to get it to stop, He is righteous in doing it this way. Would you rather that Hitler had won WWII? We needed to fight fire with fire. God could up and destroy us for our wickedness and because of His righteousness. But He would rather save as many of us as He can. --- That is entirely wrong, do you really think God would come up and "destroy us for our wickedness". Do you know just how many Jews Adolf Hitler killed? Between five and six million Jews were killed by Hitler. I'm sure they were praying their asses off to get saved by "God", but he never came. Oh and since then, other major genocides have occurred such as the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide, in which hundreds of thousand have been slaughtered. So exactly how is this what you said, making any sense, "God could up and destroy us for our wickedness and because of His righteousness. But He would rather save as many of us as He can" ?? Your "God" has done nothing, absolutely nothing to help with any of the millions of people dying since just the 20th century from wars, famine, starvation, give them freedom from communism(China). Oh well, there they go. That's how your "god" works, or a better explanation, he doesn't exist. In fact, I remember reading a quote from a former priest who said he gave up on Christianity after having visited Rwanda during the genocide, and seeing the thousands up thousands of dead people slaughtered in cold blood, and no "God" there to save them..
2)
If it weren't for God's laws written in our hearts and consciences, we ALL would be off committing worse crimes than God would ever think of. Thank God He is stopping the crimes, even though many of us don't recognize that it is He that is stopping them.--- As I've said earlier, God himself in the Old Testament has given his "people" some of the cruelest rules found in the "holy books" which promote the killing of innocent people, the raping of women, and so on, all commanded by your god, you can verify this yourself if you have a bible with you:
http:// [url]http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/ot_list.html/[/.url] Also, a lot of those who are religious seem to believe that it's this "God" who's giving us the ability to know "right" from "wrong". That's entirely untrue, as humans(mammals) are inborn with the ability to differentiate between acts of cruelty and love in the species, this is to ensure survival or the species, unlike what is found in reptiles or insects.
3)
The Romans did us a blessing by setting the New Testament in stone, so to speak. By directing the study and comparison of both O.T. and N.T., especially at the council of Nicea, they were able to do something that the Church wasn't willing. They were able to get rid of a whole lot of N.T. writings that at the time were contrary to the good sense of the O.T., and contradicted the pure message of the N.T. as well.---This is also Wrong. The bible has been changed not by just the romans, but by the corrupt catholic church as well, along by monarchs of England. Those are dozens, if not hundreds of times that the bible has been edited and have things put it and taken out by humans, not by some god.
So there you go BADecker, I'm sorry but after I've actually taken the time to read what you post, I can see that 100% of the things you've said make no sense. You seem like you are believing entirely with Blind Faith. It's sad really, but then again, it's your choice.