But you do read the Bible right?

"But what if you're wrong? What kind of a world would you have built? How much real happiness will you have experienced? And when your life is over, what will you have missed?"

This is the old Pascal arguement, which has no merit, when you consider that a christion who believes in some fanciful afterlife is much more likely to take this life for granted if they believe that after they die they will be in some state of eternal bliss. . .

When their (the christians) life is over, what they will have missed is that we are all in this world together, christian and non-christian, but they prefer to cling to some notion that they are somehow better than everyone else. This belief as delusional as it is, is one of the greatest causes of war on the planet. It is not only present in christianity, but in Islam and many other faiths, all of which seem to be doing their best to destroy the planet.

Besides that, it is mendacious in that it assumes that just because a group of people are not christians, that they would be incapable of building a decent world . . . . if we look at the world the christians have built so far, we can clearly see that they are no better at constructing it, more likely worse. John Lenon seems to have well understood the scourge of these kind of religions when he wrote the song "Imagine" . . . .

Hey, guys, I want to thank everyone for keeping this thread relatively sane and glad no one caused the board to go up in flames. :) But even so, I think it would be best if we let this thread come to a close. Because you guys have done such a good job, I won't lock the thread or anything (yet). Please feel free to continue your discussions to yourselves or in more applicable forums, but I'd just like to have this thread end on a pleasant note. ;)

Thanks, guys! Interesting discussions all around.

EDIT- sorry Mike, didnt read your post. Shutting up now

A man Mike;)

:beer:

Jesus was 3 days dead after being crusified and in that time he went and preached in hell to ppl who knew nothing of Him. 1Peter 3.18-19

18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison

what?! Have we broken a rule mtmckinley, err i didn't read them. lol. It was a good discussion. Let me just say that the Bible pridicts a time when religion will be abolished. And mankind will have to worship a man instead. So R-Tillery if the Bible is true your dreams will come true. lol, we are gods aren't we? hahaha have a good life m8t.

No, no rule was broken, persay. But these topics have a tendancy to spiral out of control if left to their own devices. I commend everyone involved for not letting that happen! But I just wanted it to end on a happy note, with no hurt feelings, no matter what people's intentions.

Good job, all. I hope we can all continue to thrive on this board with no blow ups. :)