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Originally Posted by FlamesFanInEdm
Cheese, heres an interesting read.
http://www.infidels.org/secular_web/.../violence.html
Maybe youll dismiss it to in your neverending attempt to portray "religion as the cause of the great sorrow present everywhere in the world today", but I beleive that the Christianity Jesus intended us to practice is most definitely not the root of all violence. Organized religion in the world today most definitely does have its extremists, but like someone said, we shouldnt throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Heres a quote from the above link that I agree with...
"We need to transcend the divisive rhetoric set forth by radical theists and atheists, those who would condemn the entirety of religion or secularism on the basis of the actions of a few in the past, present, or future. We need to acknowledge the common moral ground that most theists and atheists in fact share today, and band together against our common enemies, the small, extremist, insidious elements that exist on both sides of the fence. We may disagree with one another about what is true, and to some extent about what is good, but most of us can, and need to, stand together against bigotry, intolerance, and violence."
Also a question. Im a Mennonite Anabaptist (not the superconservative ones), a denomination marked with a history of nonviolence. I dont know how much you know about them, but you seem to have rejected all religion based on violence and hypocrisy in the past. It may be that you reject it also because it is impossible to prove 100% that God exists and that Jesus was God....but it is also impossible to prove 100% the other way. However, this thread appears to be debating whether or not violence and religion are inextricably linked so Im not gonna worry about that issue for now, why even use violence being linked to the church as an argument against religion because of the relatively few extremists who corrupt religion with lust for power. What do you think about denominations like Mennonites? Violence as others have demonstrated here is just as easily linked to atheism.
http://www.thirdway.com/Menno/FAQ.asp
Violence is all about power, I dont think it has anything to do with true religion.
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First things first...there are Atheists who choose to take a different route than I do. Thats their choice and I commend them for it.
As to the Mennonite question...I live in Kitchener Waterloo, its filled with Mennonites, so yes I know them VERY well. Where your entire post falls apart is when you mention Jesus...there is no proof your Jesus ever lived. Feel free to back track in this post to a couple of great links troutman provided. Would LOVE to see what you have to say after reading all of it.
I reject religion because its false, it teaches lies, it was created by man and is NOT the word of a God or the son of God. Once you get by that youll have a clearer mind...one that is free to explore life without reigns.