I posted the following quote, which I love, by Marcus Aurelius.

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"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

****

I had some nice comments from exmo friends, but then my Christian friend came in and said, "Pffft."

Oh boy, then the exmos came out of the woodwork, challenging my Christian friend, I'll call her Sue. Some selected comments (multiple exmos are all called exmo):

Exmo: I really enjoy quotes that tell us to live a good, decent, moral life now. If there is a score keeper and that's not good enough for him, he's the one with the problem.

Exmo: This also encompasses all people. If god cannot love all his children, whether they are buddhist or hindu or christian just on the merits of their goodness, then what kind of god is that? Why would I worship a god that says he loves his children but excludes millions of them simply by virtue of the religion they are taught by their parents?

Sue: He who gives us our very breath gets to decide the rules - not us. How good is good enough by Andy Stanley is a great easy read.

Exmo: And that is man placing a judgement on us....not god. I will wait and let god decide.

Sue: No that's the Word of God. No one comes to me except through my son.

Sue: Jesus Christ is the one and only door.

Exmo: Again, that is your belief, [Sue]...that is not the belief of hindus or muslims or buddhists. You are christian by where you are born. Your christian beliefs teach you that.... other religions believe differently.

Me: [Sue], your "Word of God" comes from the Bible. Most people in the world do not believe in the Bible. Some believe in other holy books and some believe in no holy books. God didn't make it very clear which book you are supposed to believe in. I believe there is room and acceptance for everyone, no matter their beliefs.

Sue: Christianity - 2,2000,000,0000 followers.
Islam - 1,570,000,000 followers.
Hinduism - 828,000,000 followers.
And it goes down from there. More Christian followers than any other.

Me: I also believe that any "Word of God" should be without flaws, being the product of a perfect being. I believe that there is truth to be found in many religious texts and in secular texts. Truth is all around us, and no creed or religion has exclusive right to it. You find truth and error in all places.

Me: [Sue], you are falling for the bandwagon fallacy. And, even using your own numbers, more people in the world are NOT Christian than are.

Exmo: So, because there is a majority, god favors them? What about all the people who have died without a knowledge of your christian god?

If it is only christianity against all the rest, would your numbers hold up?

Sue: I know how to read my numbers [twojedis], I'm a math/stats person. My point - more Christians then any other followers.

Me: That's not what I said. I said there are more people in the world who do NOT believe in the Bible than do, so why would we, all of humanity, take the Bible to be the definitive "Word of God"? Bandwagon fallacy aside.

Emxo: I didn't realize it was a popularity contest. I thought we were trying to live moral lives not just side with the most popular god at the time.

Wise Ass Exmo: Jesus hates your disbelief. It's an affront to the sacrifice he gave you. He is very disappointed in your rejection of of His Sacred Word for the wisdom of men. You trust in the arm of flesh and you run the risk of eternal flame. God loves you so much, he'll burn you forever if you don't appeal to his vanity and pride.

Watch your back, [twojedis]. Don't be frontin, you got to represent. Or god's .44 will make sure all your kids don't grow!

Me: By your reasoning, [Sue], if Muslims or Hindus begin to outnumber Christians, then those religious texts would supersede the Bible in validity.

Me: [Wise Ass Exmo], I'm super lucky that God loves me enough to threaten to burn me if I don't obey an unclear set of rules.

Exmo: The entire world's population is 7 billion. Total christians is 2,200,000,000. Do you see what we are saying [Sue], it is your god against the world, NOT each individual religion because you are stating that only your religion saves, therefore look at all the other billions of people who are not. (I can use Wiki, too).

Wise Ass Exmo: What's unclear, [twojedis]? Kiss god's butt forever or burn forever.

Exmo: So if you are so well read, and so educated, why are you trying to put [twojedis] down for posting something on HER wall that inspired her? What is it about people reading "Live a good life" that offends or threatens you so much?

Sue: Again was pointing out that the Bible is the most ascribed to text - that was all.

Me: So if the Koran becomes the most ascribed to text, we should all switch to that one, until another one takes over?

Exmo: I wish that was all, [Sue], but you went on to preach to her, telling her that only your beliefs save, that only your god is the way.

Exmo: But it's not. . 70 percent of the world does not believe the bible to be the word of God.

Exmo: Where is your proof that the Bible is the most ascribed to text?

Sue: Sorry y'all just don't understand how stats work. I guess we all can't understand math concepts.

Wise Ass Exmo: I know how math works! Whoever has the most numbers wins. I have infinity. I win.

***
After that, Sue ran away, and the exmos continued with a great deal of logic and reason. Pity, rabid fundies are rather fun to play with.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2013 06:18PM by twojedis.

My favorite was the wise ass exmo! ;)

Wink wink.

Nudge nudge.

I'm jealous. I wish I got to play with fundies on Facebook!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2013 06:19PM by Xyandro.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Christ Jesus ever said, "Pffft."

If not, she certainly should have.

Pharisees: What is the greatest law?

Christ Jesus: Pfffft! Fuck I don't know!

Leper: Will you heal me?

Christ Jesus: Pfffft! No. Ew gross.

Judas: I think the Romans are going to crucify you.

Christ Jesus: Pfffft! I'd love to see them try.

I stand corrected!

Thank you, Raptor Jesus.

Sue-"Again was pointing out that the Bible is the most ascribed to text"
Exmo-"But it's not. . 70 percent of the world does not believe the bible to be the word of God."
Sue-"Sorry y'all just don't understand how stats work. I guess we all can't understand math concepts."

Is 70% not a majority anymore? I wish I understood stats and math concepts like your brilliant aquaintance does-she seems real smart!

70% of the world doesn't ascribe to the Bible -- therefore the Bible loses in the numbers game.

<bow>

That's the problem Rebeckah, we understand 70% of people to be most and that's because we don't comprehend stuff like math and stats. Bummer.

I thought it was because I didn't pay attention or actually do the work, but maybe it's just that my brain doesn't work the right way. ;)

Since you are obviously a heathen and you are also bad at math I have to assume if you weren't giving the good lord his proper 10% so he made you fail stats. Sorry, see you in mormon hell!

Maybe she should start teaching math.

Maybe she has bigotry issues and doesn't count people from those other places that don't look like her or her Jesus.

Since she believes Christianity is God's True Religion she doesn't even consider other religions except as a vehicle to claim superiority over them. So the fact that most of the world doesn't ascribe to her religious paradigm doesn't penetrate -- obviously since her particular group of religionists outnumber (supposedly) every other group of religionists then her group wins -- right?

My brain hurts. I shouldn't try to make sense of religious gobbledy-gook.

I love the "popularity contest" comment.

I would have pointed out that if Christianity was the true religion based on the fact that Christianity is the most popular religion, then it must NOT have been the true religion several centuries earlier before Christianity expanded out of Israel and Europe.

By her logic Buddhism or Hinduism must have been the "truest" religion 1,000 years ago. And Paganism must have been the truest religion for most of the world's history.

Christianity is just the latest fad.

BTW. The only reason there are so many Christians right now is because it was a STATE RELIGION that the Roman Empire, and later the Spanish conquistadors, FORCED on indigenous people they conquered.

And most Christians today believe in Christianity BECAUSE they were RAISED to believe it, by their parents (who's ancestors were forced, by the sword, to convert).

Why do people think that just because something is popular, it automatically makes it good and/or right?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2013 07:20PM by Raptor Jesus.

Billions of people can't be wrong!
Except for those other billions of people, who are wrong.

I don't know how you stand it Two Jedi. This kind of arguing always just makes me want to beat my head against the wall.

Today I actually laughed my ass off when she pulled that comment out of her ass that we don't understand math, and then RJ saying he has infinity and wins! Bahahahahaha!

Wise Ass Exmo has my favorite line:

"Wise Ass Exmo: I know how math works! Whoever has the most numbers wins. I have infinity. I win."

Even when they're wrong they think they're right. It's apologist math. Number one means most even if it's less than half. Duh.