"Evolution hasn't been proven. Nobody was there to witness it."
This guy immediately loses all credibility with me.
[QUOTE=kidwithsword;46541867]"Evolution hasn't been proven. Nobody was there to witness it."
This guy immediately loses all credibility with me.[/QUOTE]
Well he's a bible-thumper, what did you expect.
Also, it's amazing how he completely ignored the reverend's explanation for allowing same-sex marriages in their church.
"God created love not to create new generations but to unite people and that's all I have to say in that case."
That's a perfectly [I]logic[/I] explanation, IMHO.
Ok so this guy:
-Doesn't agree with gay marriage
-Believes being gay is a sin
-Believes in creationism
-Doesn't believe in evolution
-Doesn't believe in religious equality
I would call him a stereotypical Christian American southerner but he wasn't really aggressive, confrontational, or insulting(for the most part).
Atleast the video didn't paint him as a maniac. He was [I]decently[/I] respectful, he didn't seem to push people though that could have been editing.
I'd love to see the "Monster is satanic" crazy lady in Scandinavia too, her reactions would be priceless.
Here's the full thing if anyone is interested:
[video=youtube;W-kANR1vJkM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-kANR1vJkM[/video]
[B]"MUSLIM?"[/B]
[QUOTE=Jackald;46542229]Oh also take the above video with a pinch of salt, it was broadcast on some OTT bible bashing news thing.[/QUOTE]
The documentary wasn't very good, but I wouldn't say it painted him in a bad light.
I'm 18, and have never ever in my whole life been at church on sunday.
Oh god the danish reverends broken english
[QUOTE=Noobaxe;46543607]Oh god the danish revenerends broken english[/QUOTE]
revenerends? reveneverevernevereverends
[i]Psh, wow[/i]
It's important to remember that not all American Christians are like that guy (I know you guys on FP love shitting all over anything religious/American.) The church my parents belong to is pretty liberal and has gay members and also does charity work with the other local churches/mosques/synagogues in my area.
He doesn't seem too bad. Sure he has some strange beliefs but he doesn't seem to judge too much and he is trying not to offend anyone. Perhaps it's because he isn't at home, I don't know how he would act like at his home. He also looks like the kind of guy that could eventually abandon religion, after all he had never left the country before. A few more trips like that and he could soon become a different person.
[QUOTE=kaine123;46543845]It's important to remember that not all American Christians are like that guy (I know you guys on FP love shitting all over anything religious/American.) The church my parents belong to is pretty liberal and has gay members and also does charity work with the other local churches/mosques/synagogues in my area.[/QUOTE]
Religious beliefs can differ even between two siblings practicing the same religion together. People can be bashed not by the denomination of religion they have, but by how they practice it. You can have [I]very[/I] devout christians, but that's fine as long as their intentions are secular, i.e. freedom of religion and freedom [I]from[/I] religion.
[QUOTE=Jackald;46542229]Before we go into full athetipping territory:
The bible says a lot of things, contradicts itself in a ton of places and isn't even the complete correct text, it's been mistranslated, altered and doctored throughout history by politicians, kings, scientists, warriors and murderers.
It's very difficult, at the moment, to discern which parts of the bible are real word-of-god and should be followed, and which parts are altered and changed.
You should just believe whichever parts you think are 'right'. To follow the bible 100% to the letter is literally impossible, so people can do whatever they want with its writings.
People apply their own morality and believe in stuff from the bible according to which morals they believe in. If you think murder and rape is great, you can find stuff agreeing with it in the bible. If you think love and harmony of all people is great, you can find stuff agreeing with it in the bible.
tl;dr
Bible's not 100% accurate, so people ignore some parts and agree with others according to their morality. And that's fine.[/QUOTE]
What you're saying here really misrepresents the whole of Christianity, but it is very useful for talking about certain parts of Christianity. When you say that the bible is inconsistent and contradicts itself, you're at once correct and wholly wrong at the same time. Yes, on a literal level the Bible is contradictory. This is particularly true if one takes the fundamentalist perspective, which sees the Bible as prescriptive and direct word of God. I am quite confident however, that this perspective is probably the dimmest one can take in approaching any literary work, but especially works that are supposed to be divinely inspired. Here in America this perspective is everywhere and it tends to lead to the stupidest kinds of religious discussion around, for example the idea that creationism and evolution are contradictory. Here in America there is also this idea that one must start with doctrine and move from there to understand religious practice. This perspective is the exact opposite of the Orthodox church.
An example of what I'm getting at can be seen in Genesis 1 and 2. The very opening of the Bible makes absolutely no sense to the literalist mind. First of all, there are two different creation stories with conflicting narratives. Second of all, we have Adam's rib. The problem here is not so obvious at first, but one has to realize that human beings were never literal in the way they think.
This is best illustrated by looking at the original Hebrew used in telling this story. Initially the word rendered in modern translations as Man, or Adam (as in the proper name) is ha'adam in Hebrew. Ha' is the definite article, aka "the," and adam refers to a collective singular. In Hebrew the second creation story is not talking about a particular woman being made from the literal rib of a particular man. The story is of humanity as a whole being created, and later the figurative rib of humanity is used to create womankind. After the creation of woman the word ha'adam is no longer used, replaced with the word ish which indicates a non-specific male singular. So the story is actually talking about how humanity is created and how woman was created before man was. Further, if we look into how the ancients used the term rib symbolically we get to see what the creation story of Genesis said about how men and women are supposed to relate to each other. There was a vast archaeological find regarding the kingdom of Mitanni; a vast library of stone tablets, some of which were royal messages, was unearthed. The Kings of Mitanni had three modes of written address: to those who were subjects, to equals that were enemies, and to equals that were friends and allies. The last of these were addressed as, "My Rib."
One can look at the gospels and see that all four contradict each other, particularly in the case of John. This only poses a problem if one thinks of the Gospels as histories though. If one rather approaches them from the position that they describe how four different individuals experienced Jesus, the contradictions are relatively unimportant.
Ultimately, a literal approach to the Bible will cause tons of problems, especially coupled with a dogmatic temperament. I think the literal interpretation of the resurrection demonstrates how inept readers of the bible are. The resurrection describes what happened to the Christian community after the physical death of Jesus, and this is supported in the text by regular reminders that the church is the body of Christ. The church is simply a religious community, and what we see is the resurrection of a community scattered and broken after the death of Jesus. This is not a particularly popular interpretation, but it is the one best supported by the text in the Bible.
Your statement is certainly true of many individual Christians and how they see the Bible and what it details, but I think when one describes Christianity itself or its texts this way, they are falling into the same problems that the majority of modern Protestant Christians fall into. It reflects a perspective that is not very useful for understanding any religion or their texts, whether we talk about the Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads, Confucian Analytics, Hebrew Bible, Koran, Buddhist sutras, or even the Christian Bible.
i love the fact that the first person he came across that was religious was a different religion from his own lmfao
He seems like a decent dude. I think his rudeness comes more from the fact that he is so unused to what he is hearing, but generally I think this was a good look into the fundamental differences between the two countries.
he seemed interested in other people's lives and didn't want to go out of his way to shit on anybody, I still think that his 'strand' of christianity is harmful to homosexuals (esp. in the bible belt) although this guy really doesn't seem to see it that way
mixed feelings, but he seems alright enough
It's hard to take him that seriously too, he physically looks like (less balding of course) and has the mannerisms of David Koechner (Champ from Anchorman)
He seems alright. He's a bit of a stereotype christian bigot, but he really seems like he's trying to understand other people (at least when he's not dismissing a logical take on same sex marriage with muh old testament)
Of course it could be that they're literally sending the guy to europe and forcing him to listen to a point of view that isn't from either his biblethumper friends or a fedoratipper, though he gets pretty close to that last one with the file-sharing religion guy.
[QUOTE=Jackald;46546344]I'd love to see a reverse situation.
Send the average Redditor to the deep south of the USA to go talk to people about atheism...[/QUOTE]
He won't make it out alive.
he's seems like he's genuinely interested in other peoples reasoning and beliefs
Usually these documentary videos have a political slant on them but this is the first time I have honestly felt bad for someone like this. They look at him like he's crazy and his claims are absolutely absurd, but he believes them with all of his heart. Not a doubt in his mind.
He seems like a good guy and it's a shame that religion gets in the way of him being a great person.
[editline]22nd November 2014[/editline]
Just watched the video and I really hate his final statement. Someone in the comments said it for me.
Pastor says it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It HAS played out. Scandinavia is a more successful, less violent, less gun wielding set of countries. He can't see the evidence for that, even when it is right in front of him.
It's just a matter of time before religious people's number will dwindle into the nihil.
And rightfully so.
Religion goes against everything that we know about the world, and universe around us.
The painful thing that religious people do not understand, is that atheists aren't saying "I don't believe there is a God" because we just randomly chose that position.
Atheists have not been convinced by religiont because of the lack of evidence in combination with evidence to the contrary.
IF there'll be proof for any religion, then sure I'll convert. I just need proof though, just like I require proof for anything else I have been convinced is true.
Religion is dying, like it should, unless we have proof for anything it claims.
[QUOTE=Sonic Fan;46542154]Here's the full thing if anyone is interested:
[video=youtube;W-kANR1vJkM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-kANR1vJkM[/video][/QUOTE]
What's the absolute last thing he says? something something ... "he's there".
I assume he was after all kinda satisfied with the visit?
[QUOTE=Swebonny;46548455]What's the absolute last thing he says? something something ... "he's there".
I assume he was after all kinda satisfied with the visit?[/QUOTE]
From what i understood was that his point was that even though most people don't believe in god, christianity is still part of the culture.
Holy shit, I live in Douglasville, Georgia.
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