Is man inherently good or inherently evil?

Rrhain writes:Did I or did I not just get finished saying that...(fill in blank)

Rrhain writes:(*blink!*)

Rrhain writes:What do you think god is doing as he "judgeth according to every man's work"? ...What else can it possibly mean?

Of course, which God are we talking about?

Rrhain writes:Sorry, but that's my question to you.
You didn't really think the god that truly exists was the Christian one, did you?

Charles Knight writes:I think being a christian is morally wrong.

NIVMatt 20:1-15 writes: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'"'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. "He said to them,'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' "The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'

It would be the same if you, Crashfrog, were working as a senior desk clerk at a large Hotel. After years of experience, you made a decent wage of $16.00 an hour. This wage was acceptable for you--you considered it a fair wage. One day, the Hotel hires two new clerks with no experience. The Hotel decides to pay them $16.00 an hour.
What is your beef?

Suppose you and your black friend go to the store. You see a sign that says "bananas, $1 a bunch for white people, $10 a bunch for black people."

Rrhain writes:Wishing makes it so?

are you serious?

Rrhain writes:This Jesus character is nothing more than a warmed-over version of a whole host of other saviors including Mithras, Osiris, and Dionysus. Since there is absolutely no record of Jesus existing outside of the religious works that have a vested interest in claiming that he did, on what basis can we truly make that claim?

University of Pennsylvania criminologist Byron Johnson examined forty religion-delinquency studies, including his own. His conclusion: "Most delinquent acts were committed by juveniles who had low levels of religious commitment. Those juveniles whose religiosity levels were in the middle to high levels committed very few delinquent acts." Even when controlling for other factors, such as socioeconomic level, neighborhood, and peer influences, kids who went to church rarely were delinquent.

A half dozen national surveys also reveal that faith is linked to volunteerism. In one Gallup survey, charitable and social service volunteering was reported by 28 percent of those who rated religion "not very important" in their lives and by 50 percent of those who rated it "very important."

People who think godliness unrelated to goodliness might also want to consider: Who most often adopts children? Who sponsors the nation's food pantries and soup kitchens? Who first took medicine into the Third World and opened hospitals? Who sheltered orphans? Who spread literacy and established schools and universities? And who led movements to abolish the slave trade, end apartheid, and establish civil rights?Let no one be smug. Cruelty and compassion, mischief and morality, are exhibited by people of all faiths and none. Many are good without God and many believers go to sleep each night behind bars. Yet the accumulating evidence indicates that faith often tethers self-interest and nurtures character. Godliness and goodliness are more than typographically linked.Published in Sightings, from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School, 2001.

Rrhain writes: The religious are more likely to commit crimes and do evil than the atheist.

You can get will through lots of places, but faith is not the only nor the best source.

ramoss writes:What objective evidence do you have that it is anything other than a myth?