Matthew Le God

Geopolitics is heavily influenced by religion!

Not merely 'my own views'! You'll find it hard to find many Chrisitans, Jews or Muslims that don't think god created everything! The holy books of all three state god created everything!

Why do you think I've said all prayer is harmful? Do you think god created everything? Do you think he created the virus? For what 'good' reason would he create a universe where such viruses exist? The Bible outlines god as a mass murderer... so at least creating a deadly virus fits his profile!

Lets combine the two...!

Is your god tolerant? If you think he is... why is he a mass murderer in the Bible? He wipes out huge numbers of people in the flood and many other examples throughout the horrific book.

Hard to see how someone with a rational upbringing from birth would suddenly switch to believing things with no evidence. Which of the thousands of man made gods are you saying they will follow? If they reduce the level of evidence they are willing to accept for one god, the same low level of evidence applies to all the other man made gods.

If god created everything... he created the virus. Praying to such an evil god seems odd, he doesn't deserve praise.

Time

That would be unlikely to happen as they'd have had an upbringing with a rational, evidence based grounding.

Parents have done just that and had such a strong belief prayer works that they only prayed and didn't seek medical help. Their children died as a result! Belied in prayer impacts actions, actions killed those children!

I didn't miss the point, you have. I am part of society, society doesn't benefit from having gullible members whose actions impact others.

It is that kind of thinking that majority views show the path to truth that leads to things like people thinking the universe is geocentric.

No, because the actions of adults have wider ramifications in general than the actions of children. Possibly yes

We have learned... - Turkish can't provide evidence of anti-antisemitism - Turkish thinks people who believe in flying horses are not gullible - Turkish doesn't know the difference between facts and beliefs - Turkish doesn't understand that false hope/comfort isn't healthy to both yourself and society in the long run Oh... and he doesn't answer questions

It does because you'd use the occasions prayer appeared to work to reinforce your belief that prayer works. When prayer has been shown to work the same, or slightly less than chance.

If you believe that god would do that for you because you prayed then it shows a level of gullibility that you would likely take into other aspects of your life and that would impact other people in society.

Say what?

If you believe that god would alter the weather for you because you prayed then it shows a level of gullibility that you would likely take into other aspects of your life and that would impact other people in society.

I didn't say it did. But I don't think it is unreasonable to think a religious adult who believes the Bible is the word of God is going to have the book impact a wider range of their actions than a 4 year old who believes the tooth fairy gives them money for a tooth.

Name something you could pray for that has no impact on anyone else?

That post doesn't say I did say that. But it is true to the extent that the indoctrination churches do impact on the actions of people who go to church. Actions impact wider society.

The tooth fairy impacting on the actions of a child, is very different to the religious beliefs impacting on the actions of an adult. People make all kinds of actions based on religious belief that impact on those in their families and wider society. Parents circumcising their children for religious reasons really is child abuse, all children are born atheist so they shouldn't have body parts removed without consent for religious reasons.

See post #922

1) Do you agree beliefs impact on actions? 2) Do you agree actions impact on other people? If people believe prayer works then that impacts their actions and their actions or lack of action impacts society as a whole. There have been cases where people have been so brainwashed to believe praying for the sick to recover works... that parents prayed for their children to recover rather than take them to hospital and those children died.

They are harmless on their own as long as they aren't followed up with church, home or school indoctrination and brainwashing. Spring equinox (Easter) and Winter solstice (Christmas) presents to children pre-date Christianity.