I believe in absolute and unconditional equality amongst all people. We must not make exceptions for women, gays, Asians, left-handers, no-one. Organizations that seek to curtail the rights of any demographic should be disbanded, ridiculed or lose their tax-exemption status.
I believe that the right of people to live in a manner of their choosing, self-evidently excludes any right to prevent others from living how they choose. A person's faith cannot be used to justify hindering the lives of others. This particularly applies to children, who must be protected from harm, including (and especially) harm caused by their own parents.
I believe children's wide-eyed wonder and inquisitiveness should never be stifled. They should be encouraged to explore, to experiment, to make mistakes, to make a mess, to get it wrong. This endless curiosity should be practiced and celebrated by all people of all ages in all countries.
I believe that we should all be educated in several broad subjects: literature, mathematics, logic, morality, science and the scientific method. Education should be ubiquitous and free for every living soul on the planet.
I believe that young children need to be protected from religious indoctrination disguised as education. Teenagers should be taught about religious history to show how modern religions developed and the effect they have had on the world.
I believe that mankind should never stop pursuing all avenues of exploration and discovery. No ideology or political movement should hinder or discourage asking questions about the world around us. And when new discoveries are made, we should accept them, even if we don't like them. It's not anyone's fault but your own if scientific conclusions are at odds with your unexamined faith.
The most troubling reality about these beliefs is how many are in the Bible. None of them are.
People aren't equal in the Bible, except in that we are all equally worthy of death at Yahweh's hand. Women are repeatedly described as property. Foreigners are to be killed or enslaved. And gays aren't even good enough for slavery.
Education and discovery is discouraged and punished in the Bible. A single mistake, even one made while attempting to appease Yahweh, often leads to instant death.
The biblical books are also objectively wrong on matters such as astronomy, arithmetic, geometry, biology, and, of course, evolution.
I believe that human beings have the power of thought, reason and empathy. I believe that we all have the inate ability to determine right from wrong, without seeking guidance from warmongering goat-herders or self-righteous pedophiles. We are respecting neither ourselves nor each other if we insist that we are unable to think critically nor develop our own morality without divine assistance.
I believe that no religion has ever offered anything unique to matters of morality. They recycle values that were already universally regarded as 'good' and then claim 'ownership' of these ideas. They then make the claim, and it is almost always believed, that without faith a person cannot know right from wrong.
On the contrary, the common values that exist in the world today, are testament to reasoned, discussed, secular philosophy.
I believe that religious institutions are selling a fake product to gullible people. They promote dissatisfaction with this life, so people can look forward to the next. They offer false comfort to those in need, and they claim credit for the efforts of scientists, engineers and doctors, asserting that a saved life is a 'miracle.'
There isn't a monotheistic religion on Earth whose sacred texts don't mandate the eradication of all other faiths. Real, human advancement and self-determination is little more than a pipe dream as long as so many of us cling to bronze-age gods and demons.
So if you remain insistent that your faith is the one true faith, that non-Christians are non-human, that those without faith are without values, or that my use of the word "believe" somehow makes me religious, then I believe...
... that you can bite me.
Atheism is so boring. Where's all the fire and brimstone atheists? Total lack of drama
Xtians are Atheists in a sense. They just believe in one more god than we do.
"The most troubling reality about these beliefs is how many are in the Bible. None of them are."
Psalms 111:2 expressly states "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein."
Sought out implies inquisitiveness, exploration and discovery. There are more scriptures and factual information that refute your comments, if interested.
The fact that you have no education of your own little book of fables is not surprising either. Most theists are completely ignorant of the Bible. I wonder if you've even read it. To claim that anything in the bible is "factual" is about as accurate as someone else claiming Harry Potter is a biography.
In regard to your comments about me -
(1) My life has greatly improved and far better with Jesus Christ as my Lord. I was subjugated and degraded living a life of sin. I agree that some religions indoctrinate; that was never the case for me.
(2) God is righteous in all He does and discussing enslavement, misogyny, infanticide and genocide would take more room than these posts allow.
However, let's take a look at man's record on infanticide (abortion):
"According to the CDC, since 1973, 50 million legal induced abortions have been performed in the United States. Worldwide, over 1,260,000,000 abortions performed." (Wikipedia)
How convenient to forget man committed the first sin, the first murder and more. A righteous God did not execute Cain for his brother's murder although we, as humans, would try Cain under our judicial court system. You aren't implying it is OK for man to punish people but not God?
For a better understanding, read "The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners" by Jonathan Edwards.
(3) I've read the Bible extensively and the wisdom in Proverbs alone proves it is Truth. All kinds of cause and effect situations. If you do this - this will happen, etc. It's reality in a book.
"Stone disobedient children" (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
Men are worth more than women - Leviticus 27:1-7 actually provides dollar comparisons!
Prostitution is punished by burning the woman alive according to Leviticus 21:9
Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT
Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children
(Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT)
If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.
(Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.
Matthew 5:43-48
"(43) Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. (44) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
(45) That ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
(46) For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? (47) And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? (48) Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Acts 10:12-15
"(12) Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. (13) And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. (14) But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. (15) And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common."
I believe in:
* Doing what you will, as long as you harm no-one.
* Scientific method
* Accepting and embracing difference
* Protecting children and vulnerable people from harm/abuse.
* Universal suffrage
* Free speech
* Equality before the law
* Secular government
* Socialised public services
* Progressive taxation
* Evidence-based medicine
* Truth in advertising
If anybody can design a religion which fosters all of the above (without requiring a belief in the supernatural) I'd be happy to join in.....
To my way of thinking there is nothing reasoned about "values". Motivation's source is our biological regulation. Reason is its tool. We like to attribute our better impulses to reason, and blame our animal instincts for the others, but science would say they all have the same source. Accidents of geography and economics produce the ascendant culture, and the humans within that culture then give their "reason" credit, when all that is happening is the momentary phenomenon of empire. The west wasn't the first pocket of privilege, and it won't be the last. The only thing that distinguishes a rationalist is not superior knowledge, but rather the myopia of being in an affluent bubble, where the supremacy of the one instinct of equity over all others seems like a fleeting real possibility. But, like all creatures, we compete with our own (natural selection).
This may come as a surprise to you but "my insistent that my faith is the one true faith" is based on 100% verified self referenced source and is a confirmation of a rational position that challenges your "rational" position. Your position is based on two false premises if accepted will necessitate the abandonment of our entire aggregated knowledge base as humans. All the word gymnastics is just a variation on these two; first false premise is the notion of "something from nothing" and the second false premise is that some among us have convinced ourselves (or duped into it) that we actually have the tools to figure out an "absolute" in a Universe where everything is relative.
""my insistent that my faith is the one true faith" is based on 100% verified self referenced source and is a confirmation of a rational position..."
Which one is it? You can't have it both ways.
The minimum criteria for salvation in Islam is the belief in the Creator and that there is a Judgement Day somewhere down the line. The rest is down to doing good deeds.