₦airaland Forum

felixomor:
U started by saying the bible did not condemn slavery and I showed u both from NT and OT, but now u have change course and started quoting pieces os scripture out of context. Well, that aside knowing well u were wrong on ur first claim.

If u r equating what the catholics did to Christianity, sorry.

Please how many universities did Islam establish?
And besides please if u want to remain on slave trade, go and google and see who beats the islamic transarabic slave trade?
And wait u r now giving credit to islam (a religion)? I thought u said we should do away with all?

And then u say Christianity shouldnt get credit for education, who then should get the credit? Atheists? Mscheww
But the same christianity should be blamed for slave trade.

And sorry there are many religious countries that are prosperous. Sorry religion is not the problem.
Poor leadership is the problem coupled with the blame-blame attitude u r showing right now.

And while u say "God is irrelevant", u r lonely, because majority dont agree with u.
Moreover u r not the first to say it. People said it centuries ago and centuries later we are still praising God.

How can a verse giving instructions on how to buy and sell your daughter into slavery possibly be out of context
I am by no means praising Islam, i am pointing out that contributions made by people who happened to be muslim should not be attributed to their religion

I can blame Christianity for the slave trade because it endorses it in their scriptures, if God wanted to condemn slavery he would have made it clear as day, why would he leave it to interpretation. He had no problem condemning adultery, blasphemy directly why couldn't he do the same with slavery
Poor leadership helped by religious people sitting in pews being fed opium listening to a pastor or imam paid by a politician to say don't worry God will take care of all our problems all is well just keep on praying and gives us tithes
Look, God is on the ropes the most advanced countries are abandoning religion in droves
Atheism makes us focus on the here and now we are not hoping for some mystic eternal life thing, or divine intervention
Ask yourself one thing, why are majority of the leading scientists and physicists non-religious, God is not even a subject of discussion in their circles.
God does truly exist, only in the minds of people and he is important to many, that does not change the fact that he is irrelevant in explaining our origins

Ranchhoddas:
Human ethics? Human standards? Why would you measure the Divine using your own standards of morality? Have you ever considered that divine standards might just be different?

Well, that is the point i would expect them to be different but i do not see them in any religious writing, they all fit right in line with the morality of that time.
For example, in ancient Middle-East it was considered normal to enslave out-groups, wage unprovoked wars to gain land wiping out entire tribes of people and we see how the Old Testament has no problem with that. New testament comes around and there is heavy influence from Greek philosophers and their schools of thought, and you see how the Bible changes its tone to fit with the times.
If there is a form of divinity anywhere i do not see any evidence of it in any religious creed

felixomor:
Open lies.

Christianity teaches to love your neighbour as yourself. Period. That commandment covers everything.
Besides the old testament says
Exodus 21:16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

The missionaries brought u education. Built the first schools, thats how education came.
There is no evidence they openly endorsed slavery, sorry.
Slavemasters whom ur ancestors willignly kidnapped and sold their kinsmen to were not the missionaries.
And just listen to urself by saying ur education is due to latest innovators.
So in ur mind, a building can exist without its foundations, right?
And sorry christians were even the pioneers of good education worldwide.
Harvard, Yale and other best universities were built by Christians and their mottos founded on christian ideas.

Please go and read some history before coming up with threads like these.

You clearly have not read your Bible
''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. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son........ (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

People who happened to be Christians made contributions does not mean that Christianity should be given the praise, would you give credit to Islam for the golden years when they were the leading mathematicians and astronomers while Europe was a backwater
You forget how many scientists and astronomers like Galileo were persecuted by Christians for disputing the claims made in the Bible.
Yes, my current education is due to the latest contributions, people prior to that came from people with all kinds of religious background, people that happened to be Christians does not mean Christianity should get the praise
The fact is the biggest contributions today are being made by non-believers, religion is holding Africa back
Europeans are abandoning religion, the poorest states in the US are in the bible belt
Religion is a stumbling block to progress, in the 21st century with all our advancements it has served its course, God is now irrelevant to explanations of our origin

Ranchhoddas:
How does one measure superiority of writing?

You would measure it taking into account well though out statements using reason to explore the human condition. In addition to that we also take into account the ethics espoused by the writing ,the depth and range they go into. Biblical authors could not find it within themselves to condemn enslavement of people or propose a system of government. Plato's works were written over 4 centuries before the new testament yet it is still superior in these aspects to anything produced by any religion. We can learn all sorts of things from different sources, no one book can be given a special claim to divinity, in fact no book

felixomor:
If u are not a hypocrite? How did Christianity enslave your ancestors and why are you using the education and civilization brought by the christian missionaries today?
Where will u have been without the education they brought u? Maybe killing twins and sacrificing human heads and worshipping animals.

Sometimes, u people just write for writing sake. Sorry to say
Mscheww,

There is not a word of condemnation in the Bible against slavery, it is even openly endorsed and encouraged. The last thing on the mind of missionaries was spreading education and civilization they were here solely to convert people. I am not using the education brought to me by Christian missionaries, if i was i would be a creationist and believe in Adam or Eve or a young earth. The education and civilization i have access to is due to the latest advancements by scientists and innovators not missionaries, we would had access to them regardless of missionaries. They had no problem with the practice of killing twins for over a 100 years, one example of a good woman does not change that.

Muafrika2:
This is just a handful of people and this is a culture established ages ago. If we go on like this, we'll end up like the US where praying in schools is forbidden.

Praying in schools in the US is not forbidden, the schools just can't impose a time for prayer or call all students for school prayers. If a group of students gets together to pray they can do so if they want

Why not, a country's national anthem should represent everyone in that country not just the religious

Are we all born as atheists before we are labelled at birth and told we are Christian, Muslim or Hindu. Over 95% of all people in any given religion were born into it through their parents and therefore indoctrinated from birth to have those beliefs. Religious people can easily see the shortcomings in their respective religions but they fail to see the ones in their own religion.

From birth we are taught to suppress our critical thinking skills, privilege faith over reason and accept whatever our cultures have imposed on us. It is not easy to break free from this indoctrination, a Christian African is a sad site; spreading the same ideology that enslaved his ancestors. An ideology that the people who brought these ideas here are largely abandoning and today they are the biggest mockers of this belief system.

It is high time we abandon religion, so we can progress scientifically and technologically. Think of how ridiculous it is for someone to dismiss Evolution which is backed by over 150 years of research, latest technology, genome sequencing and empirical data simply because of religious beliefs. Africa is awash with religious fundamentalists, superstition, disregard for science, charlatan preachers it is like a plague on our continent. If we could drop these outdated ideas we can make a great step forward to catching up with the rest of the world.

This is a sad state of affairs

Ranchhoddas:
How do you know it isn't divine? Would you recognize divinity in words if you happened upon it?

There are superior writings by Plato and co both preceding the first Hebrew texts and after the New Testament scriptures. Divine to me, would mean coming from God and should be superior to anything men can come up with, i do not see that with the Bible or any holy book. The bible has good philosophical quotes but i see no indication that it is God's word or that it has an ultimate truth especially that it seems in line with what would have been written in those eras.

The white man brought Christianity to Africa, used it as a tool very effectively in enslaving a whole race of people. He called our culture, traditions, creed rubbish and demonic, encouraged us to discard it. This religion he imposed on he has now largely abandoned and they look at us with bemusement that we still believe in these fables. We need to wake up and realize we have been conned, all Africans should abandon these Abraham faiths, they are foreign impositions. Religion is the enemy of progress the Western world is not waiting for us to drop our superstitions they are leaving us behind at break neck speed. It is only through science we can progress, we who see through this farce of religion need to speak out more.

I am waiting for when devout religious belief is classed as a mental illness. He has been praying, fasting and waiting on God, yet he feels the need to ask our advice. Seems like cognitive dissonance, he knows God won't answer him that is why he is asking for advice. Now let's say it works out well for him, he will still go ahead and thank the God that never gave him an answer nor will ever.

The bible has some great philosophical verses in it, the problem is when people proclaim it is a divine word

How can she go to a place that does not exist, how do you know there is a heaven when no one has gone and come back to tell you

I prayed to God a few years ago to give me critical thinking skills, it seems my prayers have been answered i am now an atheist and have deduced that God exists only in the minds of men

The writers of the Bible believed in the literal Genesis story and what came with it i.e. 6 day creation, light before sun or stars were created, Adam first man, 6000 year old earth. Now that the scientists have found out that this story is pure fiction and could not possibly be true, the church has now decided to reinterpret the scriptures to keep the fable going. Adam and Eve are now methaphorical according to the Catholic Church, the 6 days are now Billions of years, the story is now symbolic, how convenient.

Religious people are indoctrinated from birth, we are force fed these beliefs as children. ''Believe in me and you will have everlasting life'', has a very powerful psychological impact of the people that are taught this as fact while they are still children. It pains because this one of the reasons holding Africa back, believing in fairy tales halts progress

God didn't exist when the universe came about, he had not been created then. Man had not come about to create him in their mind so there was no God or heaven

Religion survives because of people's fear of the unknown. The myth of witches and wizards is pushed by religious folk to keep the flock fearful and prayerful. I remember when i was a Xtian and had sleep paralysis on a fairly regular basis, it felt so real like someone had grabbed by hand and o could not move an inch. I was absolutely convinced that i was having spiritual attacks, went and had a pastor pray for me. No i look back on how foolish i was when i learned about sleep paralysis, religion has a powerful on the mind. The brain is a master simulator, can make you see what you believe is there but is not really there

Homo-sapiens or modern day human species are the outcome of nearly 4 billion years of Darwinian selection. Modern day humans came about over 200,000 years ago in Africa, go back about 8 million years and we have a common ancestor with chimpanzees. Humans are not created, the debate is over and has been in any reputable scientific circle .We are evolved species and will probably go extinct eventually just like 99.9% of all species that have existed. We have no reason whatsoever to invoke God to explain our origins

You mean 40 years

Christians will defend anything once its in the Bible whether it is slavery, genocide, racism. Jesus never intended his message for any other group than the Jews, he was a loyal devotee of the in-group mentality and hostility for outer groups like every other religious Jew at the time. In this passage he openly states the woman is inferior to Israeli people. It was Apostle Paul who invented the idea of spreading the message to the Gentiles.