DescentBB

callmeslick wrote:

CUDA wrote:

sigma wrote:This dialogue CUDA and Vision reminds me of my conversation with the priest when I was trying to understand the meaning of religion. Atheist always ready and willing to understand the believers, while believers are not able and do not want to understand the other point of view.

Hardly..... you seem to forget that Believers started out as non believers. it's not usually the other way around.

not really, CUDA. I don't know the folks you come in contact with, but most believers I encounter were the children of believers,who in turn were children of believers. I would think that conversion rates are likely close to attrition rates.

There's plenty to be read about church history which would shed light on this. In a really rough, sweeping generalizations: it tends to go in cycles, and there's a significant number of people who leave their parent's Christianity and people who join in despite their parents other beliefs. It does tend to be cyclical, so over many generations and on a global scale you might be right, but in the scope of one or two generations and a given region of the world the number of Christians is generally trending either up or down.

Sergeant Thorne wrote:

sigma wrote:If I'm still alive, then God takes care of me. When, I, a hardened atheist, went to church, praying and lighting a candle. But I no longer believe in the ability of God. God did not cure my mother from cancer. In my opinion, the Creator has only its materialistic goals in relation to people's lives. I think sooner or later, it will be explained in terms of science, for what purpose people need for God.

I don't want to be insensitive to a painful subject, Sigma, but what reason would you have to believe that God would cure your mother of cancer?

I just used all possible means, including an appeal to God for help. I then asked the priest why God took my mother away from me in a fairly young age. He replied that God is wise, and her death was a blessing for her. And I have to agree with him. All good people go too early, because our life is not a paradise for angels.

tunnelcat wrote:Why do people pray for their sick children instead of going to the doctor for help? There are many Christian sects that believe that their prayers to God will be directly answered.These people believe that prayers will give results. Most times though, they do not, yet they still try.

Absolutely. And moreover, religious leaders now routinely use scientific knowledge heretics as proof of God's existence.

That's a twist of fate. A long time ago, the Catholic church called people of science heretics when they questioned the church dogma of the sun revolving around the earth. Now, they're trying to use use "science" to prove the existence of God, or why the earth is not really older than the age put forth in the Biblical Genesis. I mean, dinosaurs on Noah's Ark? Come on, they're not even trying.

Well, for example, Jehovah's Witnesses are very widely used scientific knowledge to engage the modern educated people in their sect. And successfully.