Julie...What on earth makes you think people who don't subscribe to organized Christian religion (or any other religion) have no moral values?
John...Such thinking is why many people turn away from organized religion.
What thinking is that? Tammy Faye and Jimmy Baker espoused it. Prosperity Christianity. Believe and God will give your all you need. The Vending Machine God. Stick in a prayer and out pops all your needs. It tends to yield Christians that are lazy in putting their faith into action.
I never mentioned anything about "organized religion", you can be a Christian without belonging to a church or a certain denomination! A person can read the bible at home and believe on their own. Maybe you need to consider the difference!
http://www.theexaminer.org/volume8/number1/organize.htm John, there is a difference in asking God for worldly goods and asking God to give you strength to fight a illness or to comfort someone that is hurting! God will give a person what they need, not what they want. It may not even be what the person "thinks" they need. God gave man "free will", it's not an orchestrated script that we are living out. Man makes his own decisions, good or bad, lives his life as he sees fit, good or bad.
Julie... giving nonbelievers a hard time because they choose to not honor stories about gardens, snakes, arcs, fire and brimstone, rods, pillars of salt, etc. etc., allegories though they may be, is not right either. We have morals and values and all those other good things you believe you have special rights to, but we choose to follow them not because they were handed down from heaven (or hell) by gods, but because they make good sense, are simply 'right', give appropriate results when carried out properly and because people are generally good to begin with...
I state my opinion and beliefs about what is happening in the USA and you (being from Canada) think I'm giving you a hard time! If you don't want to believe in God, that is your choice, but, don't try to pretend that most or our original laws were not based on the very principles of the bible (read the 10 commandments)! The bible was written long before the United States and Canada was ever even known about. The bible speaks of how a person is to live their life, including laws that both of our countries enforce! The morals and good values that you talk about, have been taught to the younger generations throughout the years, that's how these values came about!
they just get corrupted as they grow up by others who are greedy, power hungry, blood thirsty, etc., many (if not most) of whom consider themselves to be Christian (or pick another name).
They call themselves Christians (or pick another name), but that doesn't mean they are Christians. Ever heard of a wolf in sheep's clothing? Ever seen a Republican jump over to the Democrats side or vise versa? Ever heard about false prophets? Do you not believe there are non believers that do these exact same things?
Julie...God is a man-made concept! Children were taught the fairy stories long ago to 'reach' them where they live (in fantasy filled childhood), but why do adults persist in carrying on with the stories as adults - you no longer believe in Santa, why go on believing in the other stories? Makes no sense to me!
Please show me the proof, so that I can quite wasting my time believing in fairy tales! I've got a bible that tells me otherwise, what have you got that proves he is a man made concept? Just you stating it?
John...The problem with thinking that God is the ultimate vending machine is that reality differs dramatically from wishful thinking. Horrible things happen all the time to very good people. Is that God's doing? Really?? Is your God that small and mean spirited?
We should NEVER equate lack of faith in God with lack of decency. Many, many people without a belief in God try to make the world a far better world. And WAY too many people with faith are content to do NOTHING. We all know it's true. Some people (with or without faith) reach out and help their fellow men. And far too many people (with or without faith) could not be bothered, even if it is their family. As Douglass Adams put it, some people are just Vogons:
Again I will point out to people that when a general statement is made, don't try to make it
all inclusive. Yes, Horrible things happen to good and bad people!
"Is it God's doing?"... no!
"Is your God that small and mean spirited?" He is everyone's God, whether they believe in him or not, not just my God! As stated above, God gave man free will to live his life as he sees fit. The choices that someone makes can't be blamed on him! ex. You could live your life perfectly, then out of nowhere, someone else decides to drink and drive and hits you head on, making you dependent on others for the rest of your life. Was it your fault? No, but, yes, more so, than it was God's fault! If you had left 10 minutes later or earlier, you wouldn't have been there at the exact time the accident happened! That was your decision, not God's! My boss was in an accident around the 15 of December, 12 broken ribs, broken wrist, punctured lung. He laid on the ground in 20 degree temps. for almost 3 hours before anyone found him, toes and fingers frost bit. Did he get mad and blame God? No... he posted on FB that his work for God must not be done yet, or the Lord would have taken him home!
There are good and bad traits in each and every person on this earth. Christians don't claim to be perfect, for we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But, as a Christian, we are to try to live our lives following the teachings of the bible to the best of our abilities! I will never claim to be the perfect Christian, so don't try to point out the faults of Christians, if your not willing to be judged yourself! Some of you seem to think, that to claim ourself as a Christian we must be perfect, without flaw!
Go back to my first post, did I not state, that when someone mentions God or the bible, people will jump on and start trying to make them feel like a second rate citizen? Thank you for proving my point! My point was when you take away the material that teaches people good moral values, to be honest, to be kind to other people...etc., and the parents are to busy in this hectic world, where else are they going to learn it? If they are not taught these values growing up, what kind of people do you think they are going to become?