If God exists, why are the faithful so along demographic liines?

[Solar]

I would appreciate proof of where I have posted ANYWHERE which gender the 144000 are.  If you are going to accuse me of something, please back it up.

I am also at a complete loss as to what this has to do with the topic of this thread.

Just so everyone knows you're not addressing ghosts, I deleted the idiots account and banned him.

[walkstall]

Just so everyone knows you're not addressing ghosts, I deleted the idiots account and banned him.

Good! I have been out most of the day in the sun.   Was thinking my age and the sun was doing a number on me.   

[mdgiles]

So you can't covet your neighbor's possessions?

Are all capitalists going to hell?

I really wish you Leftists would stop confusing Capitalism with what you Socialists believe Capitalism consists of; you've been wrong for a while now, and it's starting to get old. Just because you Socialist greedily covet what ever anyone else has - AND ARE WILLING TO LIE, CHEAT AND STEAL TO OBTAIN IT, you assume that Capitalists are the same. Capitalism is all about voluntarily trading a good you have, for something you desire. Since we are well past the barter stage, usually that means cash. For some reason Socialists believe that the simple fact that you exist, entitles you to the fruits of everyone else's labor.

So what about the good natured child in India who was raised under a Hindu family his whole life?

Have there ever been any Christian missionaries to India? If the salvation of Christianity has been offered to Indians, and they have rejected it; why do you believe they should profit by it. Christ said: Matthew 19:14  "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven". If there parents have done so, then I would guess they have doomed their souls.

[MFA]

Have there ever been any Christian missionaries to India? If the salvation of Christianity has been offered to Indians, and they have rejected it; why do you believe they should profit by it. Christ said: Matthew 19:14  "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven". If there parents have done so, then I would guess they have doomed their souls.

Missionaries to India began with someone called Thomas.  There is even evidence that the Christian message has influenced Hinduism.

Christians have existed in India for centuries--for longer than Christians have existed in North America.

[Trip]

So you can't covet your neighbor's possessions?

Are all capitalists going to hell?

So what about the good natured child in India who was raised under a Hindu family his whole life?

Talk about a perversion,  capitalists, those going out and earning what they have by the free choices of others, are suddenly coveting others possessions?  And what of the Socialists, Marxists, and Communists, that don't just covet, but take.

And if you're going to bring up Hinduism, why don't you actually bring something up of that faith, rather than just the grossly generalized stereotype of "good natured".

[Solar]

Talk about a perversion,  capitalists, those going out and earning what they have by the free choices of others, are suddenly coveting others possessions?  And what of the Socialists, Marxists, and Communists, that don't just covet, but take.

And if you're going to bring up Hinduism, why don't you actually bring something up of that faith, rather than just the grossly generalized stereotype of "good natured".

This guy and Shenanigans come from the same forum, a once great forum, all that's left is kids and commies now.
I had to boot this idiot, he was not interested in discussion in the least, just poking the hornets nest and running away for months at a time.

[Troubleshooter]

Let's look at coveting for real. Coveting is thinking "How can I cheat to get that ____ for myself?"

If you buy the object, you aren't coveting it.

If you buy one just like it, you aren't coveting it.

If you want the item bad, but can't buy it, you are coveting it.

If there is only one of them, it belongs to your neighbor, and he won't sell, and you still want it, you are coveting it.

If it is something you can't possibly have without disobeying God (such as someone else's wife), you are coveting.

Capitalism is coveting only when someone wants to cheat someone else to get it.

Socialism and egalitarianism are government coveting what everyone has.

There is a BIG difference between someone giving something to someone else, and government taking it to give it to someone else.

Liberals covet our religious rights. They want to take them away so they can sin without penalty.

Taxation over 10% is coveting.

Many liberals covet the money we give to our churches.

[Sci Fi Fan]

SFF, the basis of your thread is flawed, you completely discount the hundreds of thousands of global missionaries who are doing exactly what you claim they are not in your OP.

Do people who never hear about Christ go to hell when they die?

If they do, your God is very cruel.

If they do not, when why send missionaries?  You're actually damning people by doing so.

Either way, there are two possibilities here:

1. Missionaries are effective, and people's eternal fates are apparently determined by the actions of others, so societies with greater access to missionaries have an unfair advantage over, say, bushmen in remote regions of Africa.
2. Missionaries are useless or even harmful (when it comes to saving people's souls).

[kopema]

Do people who never hear about Christ go to hell when they die?  If they do, your God is very cruel.

Wait.  My God does what?  To whom?

The ever-popular "Invisible Spaghetti Straw Man In The Sky" argument -- from the people who all scream until they're blue in the face that THEY are the only "rational" human beings.

[Sci Fi Fan]

I really wish you Leftists would stop confusing Capitalism with what you Socialists believe Capitalism consists of; you've been wrong for a while now, and it's starting to get old. Just because you Socialist greedily covet what ever anyone else has - AND ARE WILLING TO LIE, CHEAT AND STEAL TO OBTAIN IT, you assume that Capitalists are the same. Capitalism is all about voluntarily trading a good you have, for something you desire. Since we are well past the barter stage, usually that means cash. For some reason Socialists believe that the simple fact that you exist, entitles you to the fruits of everyone else's labor.

Read the Bible again.  I have no problem with a regulated capitalist society - the bible does, given that it makes it a crime even to think about having someone else's stuff (note: no qualification that you must want to steal it).  And it extends towards employees as well, since it forbids wanting a relationship with the other's wife (unless if you accept that the Bible quite clearly isn't as socially progressive as you would wish).

That's the other scary part of the 10 comandments, aside from its bronze age mentality (notice how it's clearly written exclusively for an agricultural society) and its lack of any endorsement of universal suffrage or emancipation - it criminalizes thought crimes.  God suggests that it is a crime to even think about wanting other's stuff.  There's a reason why nobody, not even the most rabid fundies, actually follows the book to the letter.

Have there ever been any Christian missionaries to India? If the salvation of Christianity has been offered to Indians,

Interesting.  So what happened to the Indians that lived and died before Christianity spread?

Did they go to hell?
Did they get a pass and were judged on their merits instead of their faith?

If the former, how is that fair?
If the latter, why send missionaries at all?  Ignorance really is bliss in this case; you're actually damning plenty to eternal fire if you try to convert them.

Notice how irrational the entire structure and model proposed by the Bible is?  Whether it's justifying its "murder infants" passages or its unscientific nonsense, or dealing with logical paradoxes such as the above, apologists frequently must resort to convoluted mental gymnastics to get it all to work.  Occam's razor tells us that we should dismiss its validity because the universe can be better explained without it.  Your emotions tell you that you should try to bend probability and parsimony to try to get it to fit with the evidence that constantly contradicts your faith's predictions.

[kopema]

I really wish you Leftists would stop confusing Capitalism with what you Socialists believe Capitalism consists of

It's not fair to expect any more of neo-hippies.  Everyone bases his world view on what he knows.  Normal people tend to rely on logic, reason, common sense and reality -- but liberals build their whole lives around assiduously avoiding all of those things.

Do you think it's a coincidence that liberals all believe every business manager behaves precisely like an unemployable, shiftless narcissistic jackass who's looking for a free lunch?  Of course not; it's just the only mental image they can conjure because all they know is what THEY would do if somebody were fool enough to give them a major corporation to run.

[Sci Fi Fan]

It's not fair to expect any more of neo-hippies.  Everyone bases his world view on what he knows.  Normal people tend to rely on logic, reason, common sense and reality -- but liberals build their whole lives around assiduously avoiding all of those things.

Do you think it's a coincidence that liberals all believe every business manager behaves precisely like an unemployable, shiftless narcissistic jackass who's looking for a free lunch?  Of course not; it's just the only mental image they can conjure because all they know is what THEY would do if somebody were fool enough to give them a major corporation to run.

There you go again not understanding what the fuck anyone is talking about; I'm referring to capitalism's incompatibility with the bible, not with my own moral codes (which obviously have no connection with something I do not believe in).  I don't think you understand that the 10th commandment does not forbid stealing others' property (and wives) but rather merely the thought of wanting it.  It's one of the earliest examples of a thought crime; a dangerous method used by plenty of totalitarian regimes to control the way you think.

[kopema]

There you go again not understanding what the fuck anyone is talking about; I'm referring to capitalism's incompatibility with the bible, not with my own moral codes (which obviously have no connection with something I do not believe in).  I don't think you understand that the 10th commandment does not forbid stealing others' property (and wives) but rather merely the thought of wanting it.  It's one of the earliest examples of a thought crime; a dangerous method used by plenty of totalitarian regimes to control the way you think.

OK, can anybody chime in a guess as to what the retard's babbling about now?

Is he trying to say that people who work for a living are evil for making things and offering to exchange them for fair value, or that the Bible is "totalitarian" for condemning the spiteful greed of totalitarians in a different Commandment from the one that condemns the actual acts of theft carried out at their demand?

Or maybe both... or something?

[Sci Fi Fan]

Is he trying to say that people who work for a living are evil

No.  Read and reread the thread, read and reread my post, and continue to do so until you get it through to you that this is what the Bible is saying, and that I am taking the contrary stance and ridiculing it.  Do you understand the concept of an argument from absurdity?

for making things and offering to exchange them for fair value,

According to the Bible, yes.  According to me, no.

or that the Bible is "totalitarian" for condemning the spiteful greed of totalitarians in a different Commandment from the one that condemns the actual acts of theft carried out at their demand?

Now you're getting there!  The 10th amendment is one of the earlier examples of a regulation of thought, with God forbidding the coveting of your neighbor's things or relationships (despite allegedly being the one to give us the natural adaptive emotions of jealousy and ambition).  Notice that he doesn't only forbid stealing your neighbor's possessions, as he already had in a previous commandment, but condemns even the act of wanting it.  So if you're running a business and want your customers' money or your competition's attention, you are sinning, even if you pursue these desires through ethical and legal channels.  According to the Bible. 

Now, why does God in the Old Testament condone slavery, condone genocide, condone painful executions for arbitrary crimes of "not being a virgin when you marry (if you're female)" and "working on sundays", and yet we give him a pass because he was lucid enough to tell us not to steal?  Where's the promotion of social equality, of freedom of conscience, of religious toleration?  Oh, right, those were secular ideals that would not gain momentum for thousands of years, while this is evidently a book written by bronze age men.

And yet interestingly enough nobody has successfully addressed the OP's question.  You have to undergo a whole series of mental gymnastics to explain why what is supposed to be divine revelation is so easily reduced to sociology.

[MFA]

Now you're getting there!  The 10th amendment is one of the earlier examples of a regulation of thought, with God forbidding the coveting of your neighbor's things or relationships (despite allegedly being the one to give us the natural adaptive emotions of jealousy and ambition).  Notice that he doesn't only forbid stealing your neighbor's possessions, as he already had in a previous commandment, but condemns even the act of wanting it.  So if you're running a business and want your customers' money or your competition's attention, you are sinning, even if you pursue these desires through ethical and legal channels.  According to the Bible.

No, according to your rubber definition of the word "covet."