baker

They don't think he's an evil god. They don't feel addressed by your criticism. Actually, I have found Christians believe precisely that. For example,...

What use is that? That way, you usually get an abstract, theoretical, bookish version of a religion that nobody lives and nobody actually wants to liv...

Socioeconomic status. Happiness. In order to be happy and to succeed in this world, it appears that a person must be willing to engage in and engage i...

There is an explanation with the help of which it all makes sense: Jehovah is a _demigod_. Not the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The threat of eternal damnation is Christianity's only selling point. If someone who claims to have the "Truth about God" (in this case, a Christian) ...

/.../

*sigh* So who decides who is a real Christian? You?

Hellish boredom.

"I should start this big project, which will take at least 5 years to complete, and it is the possibility that I could die tomorrow that motivates me ...

IOW, set ourselves up as the judges over other people's religious identity.

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5ed652c0e724eaf4cb9f1d17/master/pass/Osnos-Protests.jpg

Then how do you know it's an interpretation? Transcendental dread. Probably the original aim of hellish doctrines.

And if we ask, "Who is a true Christian?", we shall be accused of a No True Scottsman fallacy? And for this, you shall burn! :fire::fire: :fire:

Jews should associate with Nazis? Blacks should make friends with KKK members? Women should pursue intimate relationships with misogynists?

Now that's a "generic attack". The issue at hand is how to deal with those people who actually do believe in eternal damnation, or for whom we have re...

Acting in line with them makes one a loser.

No, you can't possibly know that, for empirical reasons, because you haven't investigated every theist that has ever lived. The only way you could kno...

If you get to pick what to think about Christianity, Christians get to pick and choose what they think about evolution. Nah. Because: I suspect such i...

You don't actually know that. You have simply ruled out the possibility of God being what would usually be called "evil".

People should be punished for not believing someone who claims to have the solution??? Someone comes along, claiming to have the solution to all our p...

Or perhaps question _our_ ideas of virtue?

Whose beliefs are based on what? Feel-good love-dovey gut feelings.

On the other hand, if we subscribe to the Theory of Evolution, we must subscribe to Social Darwinism. And fire-and-brimstone religion is Social Darwin...

That's too bad. Maybe you could help. Many of us have quite traumatic experiences with Abrahamic religions. Recovering from religious abuse is still a...

"You formed me in the womb" says the Psalmist. Besides, it follows from God being omnimax that nothing happens without his will. Ha! Now you're gettin...

You and them have two foundational beliefs that are incompatible: You believe that the world can and should be changed for the better. The Abrahamic m...

Given that we want some kind of democracy and that they make up a considerable portion of the human population, what choices do we have?

But your birth is imposed on you, by God. God, supposedly in his infinite wisdom and goodness, made you inherently sinful and deserving of eternal suf...

When your face is printed on the money, you can do what you want. But until such a time, you just might have to find a way to get along with others, r...

Nah, we'll make silk out of his cocoon.

The manner in which you're conducting this discussion is part of the discussion.

One still needs to earn a living, ensure one's place in the world, fight the struggle for survival, for status, for respect. So those things that "bot...

The issue isn't even about qualia. It's about interpersonal verifiability among epistemic peers within a specialized field of knowledge. For example, ...

Just read over these two suttas: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.075.than.html https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/...

The Early Buddhist doctrine of anatta is about what is fit to be regarded as self and what is not fit to be regarded as self. Things that are subject ...

You don't say!

Just to note: Overcoming sensual desire (which includes the desire for sex) is very important in Dharmic religions. It's a matter of manly pride, it's...

What does "God" stand for, metaphorically?

How come noone wonders what happened to those women afterwards? By Hindu standards, they would not be eligible for marriage anymore, and their only ch...

This is your projection, entirely of your doing. I'm not going to defend things you merely imagine I said. Jesus. This is why I hate spirituality. The...

If you yourself don't taste a mango, you'll never have the first-hand knowledge that the epistemic community of mango tasters have.

The standard list is the one with twelve items. I brought up dependent co-arising because you kept talking about consciousness and how after enlighten...

Of course. But they are not just social memberships, they are epistemic memberships, being a member of an epistemic community. In order to know what m...

Do provide some reference for this, because I've never seen anything like that anywhere outside of Buddhism. Normally, religions/philosophies/ideologi...

Obviously, "Yes, massa" is the only appropriate reply to being patronized. "Massa" is black slave speak for "master".

Given that my neighbor replied "You don't know what's good!", it's clear that he didn't operate on the above principle. We can usually see from the ot...

You said: Now assuming you meant something with those words and that they aren't just a routine phrasing, how do _you_ know who is who, namely, who is...

I'm talking about how people usually talk: they usually present their own opinion of a matter of objective fact, even when it is an opinion. They exte...

What an OP. I suppose there are people who genuinely believe that people need to be taught about the advantages of being wealthy.

Please see the added example with Tom and Dick.