The slickest con ever perpetrated on mankind

So, what? You are happy to agree that religion is a con, but you just don't think it's very slick? Would you settle for second slickest con? No.The 93% figure includes agnostics. It certainly does not discriminate between "militant" atheists and otherwise. Check it out.You should know this; you've posted this link yourself. No argument here.Personally, I would say that none of the various Christian sects is truly legitimate, since none of them is true. Certainly though, some are better or worse than others and those groups who are in the business of stripping the gullible of their cash are the lowest of the low. Except there's the tricky bit. Jesus ain't around to speak for himself and the accounts of his life are written by... humans other than Christ. That leaves you officially fucked.Mutate and SurviveEdited by Granny Magda, : No reason given.Edited by Granny Magda, : No reason given.

I know. I was just pulling your leg.For the record I do not believe that the majority of priests and preachers are con artists per se. I understand that most act out of a sincere belief.I do think that there is some overlap though. Many of the same failures of critical thinking that are employed by con artists are also common in religion. I would agree that those who promulgate junk science for profit are pretty disgusting as well, although I think we may differ over what we regard as junk... I think that if you really made a concerted effort you could go for at least 4th place.Arguing abut how "slick" the con is is probably futile. What really matters is whether it is a con or not. I would put deliberate religious charlatans roughly on a par with fraudulent scum like Edwards. He is a pretty major douche.By the way, I neither know nor care about John Edwards' politics. He is a douche because he deliberately cons vulnerable people out of their cash. It has nothing to do with whether he's a liberal or not. You really need to learn not to blame the liberal bogeyman for everything you dislike. It makes you come across as kind of insane.Maybe you could start by trying to go 24 hours without using the word "liberal". I notice that you don't provide an answer to that one. If we shouldn't listen listen to humans who are not Christ, how can we listen to the NT authors? Of course if you were to provide a chapter and verse, it might be clearer what you were talking about. Or not.Mutate and Survive

It's more that, as far as I can judge, none of the various religions has ever provided the kind of evidence for their key claims - the existence of God, the existence of a soul or an afterlife, etc. - that would allow one to regard any of them as being legitimate.Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and the various Christian sects provide no more evidence for their peculiar ideas than any other faith, which is to say, slim to none. To regard any sect as legitimate on such thin evidence would be illogical.Mutate and Survive

If it were real? Well, it would be evidence that something very odd was going on. It would certainly give me pause for thought.Your problem is in demonstrating that the phenomoenon is real. Nothing that I have seen has convinced me of that. I have seen various claims of miracles made by many different faiths. None of them come with compelling enough evidence to convince me that anything magical has happened. They all seem to be based on hysteria, exageration, misunderstanding and general credulity.Tell you what, if you think that you have compelling evidence of miracles, take it to a new thread and we can discuss it there. It doesn't seem to be on topic here.Mutate and Survive

Oh, lots of reasons. Mostly because the specific "scientific frauds" that you're thinking of only exist in your fevered imagination. But if you have a specific "con" in mind, do pull up a thread. I could do with a giggle. If I blamed creationists for everything that irritated me, then this would be an appropriate response. As it is, it's just more evidence of how crazy you've gotten.No. It's not as bad. It's much, much worse. Your obsession with liberals is beyond a political philosophy and is bordering upon becoming a symptom of psychosis. This thread for example has nothing to do with liberals. It was started by a politcal conservative, but still, you jump right in there whining about liberals as though this had any relevance whatsoever. It's pathetic and it only serves to make you look like a crank.

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2 Timothy 3, 16, 17 - All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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Right. So the source of your confusion is that the Bible does not in fact say what you claimed it said. Okay. Glad to help.Mutate and Survive