Ok.....this is my two cents on about five people's responses.
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The bible describes how the world is built.
Just like the santa claus myth describes how he lives at the north pole.
We can look at the north pole, and notice santa isn't there.
We can look at the world, and notice it isn't built how the bible says it is built.
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All fluff, no substance. Provide examples if you make the claim.
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The catholic church states, that if people live a charitable life, go to church and read the bible etc etc they will be rewarded... according to the bible.
The protestant church states, that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as the savior and messiah of the world, and repent all their known sins to God, all was, and will be forgiven through the blood of Christ from the crucifixl.... according to the bible.
yes both contradict each other... you figure out the rest.
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True, and there are far more points of doctrine that the two disagree on. My question becomes, and I mean this is the general, non-accusatorial sense, what do you say about it? Rather than looking at the statements of Catholics and Protestants, it would be more productive if people actually read the Bible and made their own decisions in the matter rather than having their beliefs spoon fed to them by preachers. I care less what the denominational teachings are and more about what individual people believe.
The use of fear to instill obedience unfortunately has been, and in some cases still is, a practice in use by mainstream religion. However, I do not think it is not required for obedience, and certainly not the best of options. This is somewhat related to the whole people-getting-spoon-fed-beliefs thing. Once people start to shut down their brains, they become very receptive to things that scare them. It works well when people are young and don't know any better (ie. Santa exists); to do it when people are older requires that they submit to the demagogery first.
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The trouble arises when the child reaches the age of reason, usually 7-10 years old, and we pull the rug out from under them, "Hey sorry kid, the whole Santa thing was total bullshit. But that God fellow? Oh yeah, that part is rock solid."
WTF is a kid to think? Mommy and Daddy flat out lied about the whole Santa thing and yet they still expect me to belive in God.
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Yeah.....I know many religious parents who refuse to raise their kids and instill a belief in Santa because they would be lying to their children. I suspect that this issue is something where children should speak to their parents about why they did what they did in raising their kids, and why they believe that God is real. That's what children are supposed to do, right? Pressure their parents into providing answers as to why the world is the way it is?
To those who speak about debunking religion/Christianity/God.....the fundamental problem here is that the majority of humans have no reliable sense that extends into the spirit world. We might be able to attack the Bible and make some claim that it can't stand up against, but all that would prove is that the Bible has an error and that the God described in the Bible is not accurate. It would not prove that there is no God. In general, verifying anything as false is next to impossible because there's always the possibility that we haven't got the total picture. This goes more or less the same with Santa too. While we can go to the north pole and verify that Santa does not exist, it does not rule out that he has an underground operation near the Earth's core where gremlins assemble his presents, and he delivers them by supersonic jet. Of course, since people don't take Santa that seriously, we don't see claims like that.