A question directed chiefly at the few atheists amongst us here on AB...

[sandyRoe]

What fault is it in the human character that has led us, in all races, all times, and all places, to 'invent' Gods?

[Ankou]

sandy, i'm more offended that you only deigned to copy and paste the creed without using your own words to convey a message of theological profundity.

[sandyRoe]

What can I say except: mia culpa, mia maxima culpa. Or, do as I say rather than what I do.

[andy-hughes]

sandyRoe - have you really posted your OWN answer as the Best Answer?

I always dislike the Christian attitude of superiority to atheism - I know something you don;t and i feel sorry for you ... and here it is in practise!

[cupid04]

They are God's words and they have stood the test of time for millions of
faithful worshipers.

[mccfluff]

how do you know they are gods words?

[cupid04]

I feel sorry for you Andy Hughes, christians have something special and all
you can do is ridicule. Men always ridicule what they dont understand. But God
loves you just the same and you only have to ask him into your life and you will not be disappointed. ''For God so loved the world so much that he gave us
his only son, so that anyone who believes in him may have eternal life.'' For
God did not send his son in the world to judge, but to be its saviour.

[andy-hughes]

cupid04 - you only serve to add evidence to my viewpoint, and I do not need your sympathy. If you choose to believe in a God, that is your choice, and i do not castigate you for it - only your attitude that you have something I 'need' and that somehow elevates your status above mine.

You have a faith, I have an absence of faith. I would never try and say that you are wrong - but as a Christian it seems you must adopt that patience reseved for the hard of thinking, and I find it offensive.

[sandyRoe]

Andy-Hughes, I assure you I, as a Christian, don't feel superior to anyone. In fact, I often feel there's something enviable about the benighted life of the atheist.

[andy-hughes]

Fair enough sandy - sadly from my personal experience, you are in a minority. the more fervent the faith, the higher the superiority.

[emmie]

cupid if that's the case, he didn't do a particularly good job, mankind is in as much trouble as ever, and that is largely due to the masses being led into believing in deities that have no basis in fact.

[Davethedog]

Cupid those are the words of man. Not only that they don't impress anyone.

"christians have something special and all you can do is ridicule" I don't know
about christians in general but you have an infalted sense of self importance.

What do christians have thats special? I ask you this what has God ever done for you that he hasn't done for me? And before you say something about we are all gods children or some such - He has never done anything for me.

[sandyRoe]

EM10, think for a moment how much worse things might be without God's goodness.

[Anlyn]

"cupid04 - you only serve to add evidence to my viewpoint, and I do not need your sympathy. If you choose to believe in a God, that is your choice, and i do not castigate you for it - only your attitude that you have something I 'need' and that somehow elevates your status above mine.

You have a faith, I have an absence of faith. I would never try and say that you are wrong - but as a Christian it seems you must adopt that patience reseved for the hard of thinking, and I find it offensive. "

Andy, I've logged back in just to say...brilliant.

[cupid04]

Where in my posting did I say I was superior to you. If I made you feel that
way, that wasn't my intention. I believe God loves us all the same.

[mccfluff]

how do you know they are gods words?

[ludwig]

benighted — adj
1. lacking cultural, moral, or intellectual enlightenment; ignorant

No feeling of superiority there, just of greater enlightenment. It's a subtle difference.

[mccfluff]

anybody, am genuinely curious?

[emmie]

sandyr we had the crusades which were wars based on religious differences, the inquisition, Popes who masqueraded as soldiers, pious clerics who had mistresses, and the masses following their doctrine to the letter, overpopulation due to a religious belief, telling you it's a sin to use methods of contraception, Catholic versus Protestant, Muslim against Christian, Jew, please tell me that this enviable list is wrong. Heretics burnt at the stake, i can see that if Jesus or God existed they would have been horrified at the mess that mankind has made, through the interpretation of the holy books, as perhaps would Mohammed and other deities.
I don't bow my head or knee to anyone, nor see the eating of certain foods as wrong, nor dress in anything other than what i am comfortable in. I cannot believe that any God would demand so much from his followers. Jesus was supposed to have preached simple truths, well mankind has turned that into wars and death on a grand scale. And may one day cause Armageddon, not that i will know anything about that.

[andy-hughes]

Cupid - quote from your post -

"I feel sorry for you Andy Hughes, christians have something special and all
you can do is ridicule. Men always ridicule what they dont understand."

As I have said, I neither need or invite your sympathy, and it smacks of a superior attitude that you feel I need it simply because i do not share your belief system.

I do not in any way ridicule you or your faith, and again I take offence at your assumption that I do, based it seems on some perceived hostility by those who do not share your viewpoint.

"Men always ridicule what they don't understand." - again a sweeping gneralisation, and one from which I am personally exempt. I attend Mass every Sunday - I perfectly understamd what Christian faith is, where it comes from, and what it means to those who embrace it - including my wife of twenty-five years.

i am capable of understanding a concept without embracing it personally - it's a bypodcut of having adult intelligence, so before you decry and pity me for not sharing your faith, consider that I understand it, but do not feel it - and again, I do not require your sympathy or your patronage.

[pa___ul3]

fluff, that's something I've always wondered, why they believe so strongly that these words are definitely, 100%, from an almighty being and nothing at all was lost in translation.
I don't understand why, when reading the bible, it's quoted in such an antiquated version of English, as if to give it more credibility, when I'm pretty certain god isn't supposed to have given his orders in English.