Jonabob87 said:
Give me an example of "religion" teaching the rejection of knowledge.
You might be thinking of schools, which are required by law not to propagandize their classes. (Although, there was the Scopes Trial conflicting whether or not to teach evolution in place of creationism) However, pastors and the like are very likely to teach falsehoods to children as part of their career. I've attended a Catholic mass or two, and confirmation. Some of the things they teach the community are utterly wrong. Not necessarily morally, but factually. Mainly that evolution isn't true, homosexuality is a sin, and premarital sex destroys relationships.
The Bible says nothing of the sort, read this: http://www.tektonics.org/af/earthshape.html
Also, many people saw through the idea of a Flat Earth as told in the Bible. It described the planet as a coin-like shape surrounded by a dome of water (presumably the explanation for the sky being blue), but "Flat-Earthers" were those who interpreted the Bible in its most literal form (people I consider to be quite ignorant). The same audience that suggests that the Earth is less than 10 thousand years old, as I've outlined before. While not necessarily said as fact by the Bible, many people accepted it as fact. It wasn't until the 15th century people were presented with undeniable proof they were wrong.
No you're thinking of sleep paralysis, and it was more commonly associated with succubi, or demons rather than Satan. I can see the mix up because sleep paralysis can be classed with night terrors but no.
I'm not thinking of sleep paralysis. I know that both sleep paralysis and shortness of breath were attributed to succubi and incubi, but Satan was said to be haunting those who were having nightmares.
Demons entering through your mouth comes from Celtic Druidic traditions and stuck with people as a habit long after the Celts (my race) were converted. It thereafter become "God bless you".
And it stuck, didn't it? Christian beliefs didn't
all originate from the Bible. Anyone who thinks a book written thousands of years ago by undereducated peons could have the answers to everything (I got a little condescending there, I know. I apologize).
Well disease is often spread by air so it's not that far off. In any case like I say I've never heard of it so I doubt it was a big thing.
Yeah, I'm not saying they were naive to believe it. I would. Before they discovered microorganisms, miasma was the closest to right they could have been. I also don't blame them for believing the earth is flat, since it certainly appears so. But even after it was proven to be untrue, it was taught by some very devout extremists (Like today, there is an idiotic idea called the Hovind Theory [even though a theory is an idea supported by tests and evidence, whereas this guy just made some random shit up based on the Bible] that claims that the dome of water was a dome of ice, and it melted causing the Great Flood, and killing the dinosaurs. Ironically, that man is in jail for tax fraud).
We can agree that it is a perfect explanation for the diversity of life as opposed to the existance of it. I'm 100% down with that.
That's all Darwin was trying to prove. The reason there are so many different forms of life is due to evolution. How it originated, we haven't got a clue.
Really really, it's new to me. I'm not one to speculate on the age of the earth though, suffice to say I think it's a lot older than 6-7 thousand years.
Haha yeah, especially since we can carbon date the skeletons of species that still exist back to millions of years ago.
It's a difficult concept though, around where I live there's like an epidemic of mediums and seances and psychics. All that jazz, and a lot of people I know and trust (who aren't christian) come back with some mental stories. People knowing things there's seriously no way of knowing etc.
Saying that, smoke and mirrors can do amazing things.
Yeah, and one of the most powerful mental weapons is placebo. If you tell somebody a pill is going to make them feel light-headed, they'll feel light-headed, even if the tablet was nothing but a calcium supplement.
There are no vampires in the book of the Genesis, you're just being ridiculous now. I've heard people claim the blood of Abel crying out for justice as a link to Vampirism but again that's just ridiculous.
Actually, there are. The only thing is, vampires were heretics that drank the blood of animals they killed, as it's Jewish tradition to drain blood from animals before eating them.
?Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off." Leviticus 17:10-14
The more commonly-known vampires are (I believe) from Haiti, known as demonic repossessions of corpses who wander around hurting others, essentially a zombie. I'm not talking about Hollywood "I vant to suck your blood" Dracula 2000 kind of vampires
I didn't wiggle I said Jesus came in part to free the slaves...
I've got a lot of problems with the story of Jesus...
#1:Why would God bother making his son, if he was just going to kill him to make himself learn a lesson?
#2:If you have the ability to resurrect yourself, then dying for the sake of being a martyr is stupid. You're not a martyr if you're just going to resurrect yourself.
#3:If God prohibits adultery, then why did he impregnate a married woman to conceive his son?
#4:If Jesus was so proud that he was willing to die at the cross than admit he isn't the son of God, wouldn't that make his bill of evil an equal to that of Lucifer's before he fell from Heaven? Simply being too headstrong?
#5:If he truly was the son of God and had all of his power, why did he only pick up 12 Apostles throughout his journey?
#6:(and this is more of a Christianity thing than a Christ thing)When people hold a crucifix to their mouth and pray, isn't that essentially the same thing as idol worship (one of the main focuses when warring with other religions, it seems)?
And I'd like some clarification on what you mean by "his slaves." I'm not sure if you mean his personal slaves or all slaves to other men.
Also, if slavery wasn't still okay in the eyes of God, why did Christian missionaries enslave, convert, and sell native Africans?
Side Note: This whole debate is text-based, so conversational nuances might be misinterpreted. If it seems like I'm being a jerk, I'm not trying to.