Religious broadcaster builds $4M home despite layoffs at his ministry

[hollabackcerb]

Shit like this is why I stopepd going to church, I grew up poor and in a shitty neighborhood and when I found out my Priest drove a Jaguar... I said fuck this, when did god intend for people to make money off prayers.

[Alleya]

Whenever looking at demographic data for religion, it's important to keep social factors in mind. Last time I looked estimates for christians hovered around 65-70% in the US, but you have to keep in mind how many of those people are closet atheists or just don't care about religion period and say they're christian because their parents were, so the % is probably much lower. The same is most likely true in the muslim countries, especially since atheism and apostasy carry jail time/the death sentence in many places.

I think the negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity is real, but will never be reflected in wide statistics.

[Seraph]

I would also wonder if naturally intelligent people are less likely to embrace religion, or if the education process itself (which is more often the road that intelligent people will take) has some sort of anti-religion influence to it.

It's an interesting relation to be sure, but I'm not convinced it's absolute proof showing negative correlation.

[Faris]

Shit like this is why I stopepd going to church, I grew up poor and in a shitty neighborhood and when I found out my Priest drove a Jaguar... I said fuck this, when did god intend for people to make money off prayers.

/echo weak religion.



how about look a little back neosurta, since you're digging, dig in to Andalusia; Dig in to what we, the muslims have reached in previous centuries, when the church have burnt books about science, and burnt people for giving science a chance...

Look in to the dark ages of your time Europe, look where the muslims were at that time. go fucking read something new, stop reading your atheist rubbish for once.

[Dimmauk]

Do those religions still burn people,stone people, or murder people for sinning? Some countries are still proud to do things like that to people.

[Devia]

Why is it so difficult for most people in this thread to distinguish between organized religion and personal faith?

I strongly disapprove of church and church goers, however I do believe that there exists a power greater than myself. I practice "live and let live" in my daily existence. Also, I have an advanced degree, an MA in English Language.

So now I'm very curious, where do I rank on the BG Scale of Scorn?

[Alleya]

Why is it so difficult for most people in this thread to distinguish between organized religion and personal faith?

I strongly disapprove of church and church goers, however I do believe that there exists a power greater than myself. I practice "live and let live" in my daily existence. Also, I have an advanced degree, an MA in English Language.

So now I'm very curious, where do I rank on the BG Scale of Scorn?

Did you even read the thread? lol

We talked about this extensively. And by we I mean the not-quite-as-crazy-as-neo people.

[Neosutra]

Firas just stated that Christianity is weak and Islam is perfection, gays are disease, sex is a sin, and education has no relation to theism, and I am the crazy one for not liking religion?

That hurts Alleya.

[Faris]

waaaaah cry more

gays are disease

and fuck you

[Alleya]

waaaaah cry more


and fuck you

Witness the enlightened, peaceful nature of the devout islamic male. You are truly a credit to your argument, Firas.

[Faris]

That hurts Alleya.

that really made me lol

[Seraph]

Witness the enlightened, peaceful nature of the devout islamic male. You are truly a credit to your argument, Firas.

More of a testament to Neo's trolling skills. Nice burn though. >_>

[zoobernut]

Did you even read the thread? lol

We talked about this extensively. And by we I mean the not-quite-as-crazy-as-neo people.

Yeah that is why I wish we could separate out the Neo/Plow debacle from the thread. No offense to either of you but you lost your damn minds for a while.

The personal faith vs. organized religion debate is very interesting and what really should be the root of the discussion here not the existence or non-existence of god. Sorry Neo but no matter how much you debate it or show that the probability of the existence of god is low you can never disprove or prove the existence of god in a concrete scientific way given our technology right now.

[Neosutra]

Not really trolling, and "fuck you" isnt a valid response the MASSIVE amount of data presented against you over the last 3 pages Firas.

You are just going to ingore the evidence it seems, so enjoy your continued ignorance at believing Islam is "perfection", when statistically muslims are the least educated of any religion lol.

And I dont have to disprove the existance of god zoober, as much as I dont have to disprove the existance of big foot.

[Faris]

Witness the enlightened, peaceful nature of the devout islamic male. You are truly a credit to your argument, Firas.

oh yeah, sorry joking is a sin.

[Dimmauk]

Not really trolling, and "fuck you" isnt a valid response the MASSIVE amount of data presented against you over the last 3 pages Firas.

You are just going to ingore the evidence it seems, so enjoy your continued ignorance at believing Islam is "perfection", when statistically muslims are the least educated of any religion lol.

And I dont have to disprove the existance of god zoober, as much as I dont have to disprove the existance of big foot.

Muslims also make terrible pilots too. AMIRITE?

[Neosutra]

They can fly just fine, it is the landing they have trouble with.

[zoobernut]

Well Neo just sitting back and reading the exchange between you and Plow, and yes I read every post in the thread, it certainly seemed like there was some confusion and mixing between the debate over the existence of god and the debate over the usefulness of organized religions.

If that was not your intention then the thoughts and ideas were not typed out very clearly. Which might have contributed to the shit storm in the middle of the thread.

Like I said before and was discussed in this thread by others there is a huge difference between believing in god and being spiritual and subscribing to an organized religion.

[Neosutra]

Well Neo just sitting back and reading the exchange between you and Plow, and yes I read every post in the thread, it certainly seemed like there was some confusion and mixing between the debate over the existence of god and the debate over the usefulness of organized religions.

If that was not your intention then the thoughts and ideas were not typed out very clearly. Which might have contributed to the shit storm in the middle of the thread.

Like I said before and was discussed in this thread by others there is a huge difference between believing in god and being spiritual and subscribing to an organized religion.

Oh I agree. I would say that most people (except Firas) would agree that organized religion is a bad thing. The core of the debate between me and Plow was semantics on exactly what argument he or I was using, and our disagreement on wether the "god of the gaps" was any more or less worthy than the popularity argument or pascal's wager. It basically just comes down to what you consider to be an unreasonable assumption.

Firas however is a bit easier of a target, as he actually holds onto the claim of validity for a specific god and specific religious text, which are rather easily debunked. That and he flat out ignored the education level studies and labels all western countries as "inherently evil induced by the weak christian dogma".

[zoobernut]

Oh I agree. I would say that most people (except Firas) would agree that organized religion is a bad thing. The core of the debate between me and Plow was semantics on exactly what argument he or I was using, and our disagreement on wether the "god of the gaps" was any more or less worthy than the popularity argument or pascal's wager. It basically just comes down to what you consider to be an unreasonable assumption.

Firas however is a bit easier of a target, as he actually holds onto the claim of validity for a specific god and specific religious text, which are rather easily debunked. That and he flat out ignored the education level studies and labels all western countries as "inherently evil induced by the weak christian dogma".

I don't want to get into a semantics argument but I do not believe that organized religion is a bad thing inherently. I do believe that organized religion is a bad thing when in the hands of bad people who use it as a tool to achieve their agenda. The thing that history has taught us however is that this happens quite frequently. I do believe in a perfect utopian society that many organized religions could co-exist peacefully and be fine however in the reality of the world they do not work and are flawed. While the difference between your statement and mine is subtle there is a slight difference.