Who/What created God?

He may not have had to do alot of convincing. The unproper cooking of Pork can lead to Trichinosis and other diseases, plus id imagine the Pig was generally considered a filthy animal. They can also pass the flu to man, and the pigs were likley housed in close proximity to their owners.

The reasons given in the bible really dont make much sense at all, cloven hooves and cud chewing ability.

I really dont know what to say about the circumcision thing. Even today the pros and cons are not fully understood. It would be interesting to know who first had the idea to chop the tip of their willy off.

If it truly was Gods desire for man to be circumcised why didnt he make us that way to begin with. I imagine it was just some right-of-passage custom started way back when, not much different than piercing ones ears.

 

who convinced americans to be circumcised?

let's face it, religion is sales pitch by men. even if there's a god and he's the christian one, nobody has spontaneously learned christianity without another person teaching it to them. this is why there weren't christians already in the new world when europeans landed here.

 

This should be proof enough that God does not exist.

 

To the contrary. This shows me that there's but one main God, and various religions give Him a different name, have their own names on holy men, disciples, etc.

"Odd" that some non-Christians, atheists, agnostics, whatever, even Christians, can still be somewhat narrow minded.

 

but they all have different ways to salvation -- which do you believe? or is it that there's christianity and then there's all the other religions that got the message wrong?

and let's not ignore that jews and christians are pretty much at odds over the divinity of christ. i guess you can throw muslims in there, too.


but i think you're on the right track here. i think religion is a manifestation of our basic social evolution -- basically, be good to your neighbor and you'll have neighbors, which is better for survival than not having neighbors.

 

The operative word being 'salvation,' salvation being the end result. I'm a spiritualist and believe there's more than one way to salvation, everyone has to find his/her way. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

This more or less validates my point that man created God. You also have to distinguish between monotheism and polytheism when making a statement like that. Not all religions believe in ONE MAIN God.

It's funny that you call me "narrow-minded" when I'm making a logical argument. How "narrow-minded" was the Catholic Church when it condemed Galileo? Turns out he was right after all.

 

For the sake of not getting side tracked, I apologize for stating you're narrow minded.
Anyhow, the main religions are monotheistic. But, they all have their disciples, holy men, etc. that were "subservient" to the main God. e.g. The Muslim god, Allah, has Mohamed(sp), Christianity has Christ and the disciples, Jews had God and Moses. I'm pretty sure Buddhism and Hinduism follow suit.
I don't know the story behind the Catholic Church's condemning Galileo. Even the Roman and Greek gods had one main guy with several speciality gods.

 

well, the two largest religions in the world actually strongly disagree with each other -- hence the turmoil when christianity and islam mix. to islam, christ was just another prophet -- not the son of god. to christians, he was divine. correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't that the most important rule to being christian -- accepting that jesus christ is lord and savior?

hinduism has variations that are polytheistic and some that are monostheistic. buddhism doesn't really get into the supreme being game.

 

They probably wouldn't "disagree" with each other if they'd realize how similar to each other they are. There are socio/economic factors and influences, often combined with religion, that determine people's differences.
The major religions are monotheistic, even if it's a hierarchy of multiple gods, there's a top dog, teacher, someone or something.