A Religious Beliefs Survey

[amanda34]

1. I'm a proud Muslim Smiley

2. He is the Infinitely Holy, He is the the Infinitely Good, He is the Infinitely Just

3. Yes, God draws us closer to himself through his revelation on a daily basis and by speaking to our hearts.

4. No, I believe that Jesus was the Messiah but was human. He was a Prophet from God who came to fulfill his mission, but was stopped short. He will return and establish his rightful kingdom on the Earth.

5. I guess I answered that in 4

6. I believe that they were actual events. Probably some changes and additions were added to them however.

7. Yes, The simple fact is that Hell is separation from God. If you choose to not believe or follow God then you get what you want.

8. No, there is simply too much textual criticism that shows how the words of the Bible are changed

9. Yes, They believe that anyone who doesn't accept Christ as God is doomed to hell, it's pretty simple lol

10. Yes, as a Muslim, the Quran clearly states in Surah 2:62,"Those who believe in the Quran, and those who believe in the Jewish scripture, and the Christians and Sabians; all those who believe in God and The Last Day, and who work righteousness, they shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."

[columbus]

I'm confused:confused:

I don't see a survey anywhere. Are these your answers to a survey? Is this an invitation to express our religious beliefs?

It would be nice to have a Muslim member, I have quite a few questions.

Tom

[diana]

survey: ▸ noun: short descriptive summary (of events)

So amanda...what's your point?

d

[reddhedd]

...her link takes one to a website describing an organization dedicated to promoting missionary style work. Looks like mainly among muslim and hindu people...but I like their slogan:"People for the Hard Places" .

Folks could seriously have a lot of fun with that one!

[MattShizzle]

Seems like she's a Christian trying to convert Muslims. Trying to do that in a mideastern country could easily be fatal.

[Jobar]

Amanda, if you're a part of the Interserve missionary agency, then you've certainly picked a "hard place" to witness; many of us here are lifelong atheists, and firmly convinced that organized religions are more often forces of evil, not good.

You're welcome to try to convince us otherwise; but let me give you a warning which I have given other believers over the years, when they came to us a-preachin':
I have told this to other Christians- I want to give you fair and plain warning. Your faith is at risk here.

Oh, you may scoff at me when I say this, maybe even get angry and self-righteous. But if you remain here, and actually listen to us instead of only trying to preach to us, you may, suddenly or slowly, find your faith, which you think to be solid rock, shattering beneath your feet like rotten ice.

We are worshipers of truth here. Note I don't capitalize it and call it Truth; that would imply that I consider it to be something established and absolute, unchangeable and unquestionable. No. The truth we seek is always open to new questions! We worship an admittedly approximate, but constantly improving, vision. We welcome new questions fully as much as we revere new answers.

We consider the Bible- the Truth you may consider unquestionable- to be, at the very best, a version of truth grown stale, and petrified, and proven largely untruthful long long ago. We can demonstrate it- with vast numbers of things undreamt of in your theology. Bones. Telescopes. Photographs. Medicines. Computers! Philosophies and ideas so far beyond the tiny tinkertoy universe described by your holy book, that even the wisest on the Earth from that time could not understand, which even elementary school students of today can explain.

If you would keep your faith, and continue to believe your world is flat, and less than ten thousand years old- flee. Now. We will not pursue you.

But if you come here and ask, we'll try to teach you of these truths we are sure of, and we will also tell you of the things we are *not* sure of. We'll try to correct your mistakes, as gently as we (in our individual, harried, and humanly fallible ways) are able.

We'll try to tell you the truth.

[Rie]

GO Jobar!

[columbus]

Seems like she's a Christian trying to convert Muslims. Trying to do that in a mideastern country could easily be fatal.
Looks to me like somebody put Amanda back on her meds on Friday.

Tom

[diana]

with vast numbers of things undreamt of in your theologyBeautiful.

d

[Rie]

And 'nor shall they grieve'.... so lovely a thought.

[MrFungus420]

Amanda...

Do you realize that a survey is asking people to answer questions, not a list of disjointed, nonsensical statements?

[Ray Moscow]

1. I'm a proud Muslim Smiley

2. He is the Infinitely Holy, He is the the Infinitely Good, He is the Infinitely Just

3. Yes, God draws us closer to himself through his revelation on a daily basis and by speaking to our hearts.

4. No, I believe that Jesus was the Messiah but was human. He was a Prophet from God who came to fulfill his mission, but was stopped short. He will return and establish his rightful kingdom on the Earth.

5. I guess I answered that in 4

6. I believe that they were actual events. Probably some changes and additions were added to them however.

7. Yes, The simple fact is that Hell is separation from God. If you choose to not believe or follow God then you get what you want.

8. No, there is simply too much textual criticism that shows how the words of the Bible are changed

9. Yes, They believe that anyone who doesn't accept Christ as God is doomed to hell, it's pretty simple lol

10. Yes, as a Muslim, the Quran clearly states in Surah 2:62,"Those who believe in the Quran, and those who believe in the Jewish scripture, and the Christians and Sabians; all those who believe in God and The Last Day, and who work righteousness, they shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."

Since the Quran is a rather clumsy ripoff of the Bible, your point No. 8 pretty much invalidates Islam as well as Christianity.

Furthermore, early variants of Quran quotes -- for instance, those from the Dome on the Rock -- don't agree with the present-day Quran. This shows that the Quran has been tampered with considerably over the centuries, just like the Bible from whence it comes.

[BioBeing]

I guess those are her answers to a survey... I'd like to see the questions too though!

[Jobar]

I lost count of how many times I used that 'warning to the faithful' back in the II days; but normally only for the *polite* believers. I figured that the unpleasant ones didn't deserve it, and wouldn't have done them any good anyway.

I should say that I'm under no illusion that our arguments, potent as they are, will do a lot of good to convince most theists that their beliefs are in error. It's well known you can't reason someone out of a belief that they weren't reasoned into; and I don't think I've ever known a theist whose beliefs did not have a very large emotional component.

Still, if we present the rational arguments against theism as calmly and clearly as possible, some few believers will listen. I do wish there were more of those who would come here to the Secular Cafe; AFAIK we mostly seem to get the ones like Parture, who are basically deaf to logic. :( Or the ones like Politesse, whose beliefs are so deistic or pantheistic that the only real argument we can use is Occam's Razor, and the simple pointlessness of believing in a god who never interacts with us humans.

Amanda. If you want to get any sort of respect or positive attention here, you need to respond to the people who address you and your posts. Otherwise we'll just write you off as one of those who never listen. If you want to preach to the atheists, whatever your message is, you also have to listen to us, and respond, when we preach back.

[diana]

Amanda...

Do you realize that a survey is asking people to answer questions, not a list of disjointed, nonsensical statements?Not necessarily. That's why I posted this bit: survey: ▸ noun: short descriptive summary (of events)

I'm willing to give amanda the benefit of the doubt here and believe she is going for a short descriptive summary....for purposes yet to be revealed.

d

[diana]

It's well known you can't reason someone out of a belief that they weren't reasoned into^^this

There are still those, however, who sincerely believe their supernatural beliefs are rational, and thus will survive scrutiny. If you are one of those, you are one of the people we are here for.

If you want to preach to the atheists, whatever your message is, you also have to listen to us, and respond, when we preach back.In civilized circles, this is known as a "discussion." ;)

d

[trendkill]

Some people who post on forums don't really seem to get the hang of it. I'm guessing this is one of those people. Either that or it's a bot.

Edit: Checked "her" posting history. Very strange (http://secularcafe.org/showthread.php?t=8778). I do believe that this is a bot.