Atheist-Christian Debates

6: "Brownies and sponge cakes"

This became a little too massive for even the "I don't need religion" section.

"You say that my life is empty without religion, but what have you filled it with? See...that is my problem with religion- I dont want sponge cake, I want a dense brownie!"

Your `dense brownie' may appear solid, but your shallowness is a direct result of its inadequacy. It's like saying, "Religion is unimportant. Let's talk about the things that really matter. Can you believe I bought this for twenty bucks at Best Buy?"

Let's take a look at my `sponge cake':

• I am prepared for the afterlife. Whether I am wrong or right, it is more preparation for it than merely saying `oh well, I guess what happens, happens.'
• When I am lonely, I have someone I can talk to, even if nobody else will. I have Jesus and God.
• My life has meaning and purpose. I am here to serve God.
• I am motivated to forgive people because Jesus forgave me.
• I am motivated to live by the spirit of the law, not just the letter.
• I am motivated to do good to other people without expecting payment or reward.
• I am motivated to help the poor and needy, even if they're dirty, unlikeable bums.
• I have a reason not to commit suicide. This is important because I have depression.
• I have a reason to stand up for what I believe, even if it means my death.
• I am motivated to care about people, even if they disrespect me.
• We believe that the wealth of this world is transitory, so we should seek heavenly wealth instead.
• I'm willing to fight nonviolently for my beliefs, for Jesus, for the truth.
• God ethics.
• "I am created to serve God, that is my purpose." "To live is Christ, and to die is gain(Phillipians 1:21)."
• Matthew 22:15-22.
• Love thy neighbor, love thine enemy, be a good samaritan, give to the poor, "He who would be great in the kingdom of heaven must be a servant to all."
• "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..." "Let love be genuine..." "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
• No worries about the future. "When Jesus returns from heaven, we will be ressurrected, made into the glory of Christ, and all the evil of the world will be wiped out."
• No one is worthless, not even serial killers. God forgives all sinners who call on Jesus' name, including myself, chief of sinners. But you show the change Christ has made in your life by putting a stop to your evil.
• "Man has no greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends."
• We deal with spiritual issues by accepting them.
• There are no situation ethics because God sees all. We strive to be right in God's eyes, not human beings' eyes. Human beings tell us it's okay to fight wars because it's defending liberty and religious freedom. I myself believe in passive non - resistance.

• Not prepared for the afterlife. `Oh well, I guess what happens, happens.'
• "Loneliness means you're a loser who has no friends. You may try various ways to boost your ego and make yourself feel better, but that's what it boils down to."
• "Life is pointless" or "Life is about not dying."
• "Don't get mad, get even."
• "Just as long as you don't break the law, you're a good person."
• "I want to see some kind of reward for my hard work, either financial, material, or sexual."
• "The government's welfare system can take care of them. Those smelly bums should get cleaned up and get a real job instead of sagging down our nation's economy."
• "I'd probably be doing the world a favor."
• "This life is all there is, so it has to be used carefully." In other words, "Please, sir, don't kill me. I believe whatever you tell me. Just don't kill me!...Please?...Pretty please with sugar on top?"
• "I can see why you don't have any friends!"
• "He who dies with the most toys, wins!"
• "The only thing I'm willing to fight for is my life. That is instinctive - I know it is there. I haven't been tested in other ways, so I don't know what else. Probably not much."
• Situational ethics.
• "Fun is what keeps me from dying there (in bed). Fun isn't automatic or natural for me. I have cultivated it as a coping mechanism for the realization that life is meaningless until we give it meaning, or at least make it sufficiently interesting, to keep living."
• "I have only one lifetime, and don't at all like the government saying it will take 1/4 of it ( - or all of it, if I don't like the first choice)."
• "Work is a way to make money to buy what I need to stay alive and enjoy it - and to pay those darn taxes. I don't find `meaning' in work (something I must do), though others (for whom I work) might. Some find that satisfying, but I find more outside work (doing what I want to do). I can't say this is the best use of my life - but I'm selfish. If others find their meaning in do - good stuff, that is their decision."
• "Learn the happy act. If you try, you will become the part. You may then see how many others are doing the same, and understand them."
• "What worries me is whether some bad world event could destroy the internet, or so fragment what remains, that a lot would disappear. The difficulty of building the HDs and other storage devices might make replacing them and what they contain, impossible in a post-apocalyptic world."
• "Even if Hitler made sure the trains ran on time, I consider him far worse than worthless. History is full of others I would put into the same (sic) catagory- the sort who should have been smothered in the crib."
• "In any burning building, I'd try to rescue people, then animals - even at modest personal risk (but not serious injury or death)."
• "I don't know how else to deal with something that seems so thoroughly unlikely, but so thoroughly important, but through laughter."
• "Law and morality is very situational!"