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Hi everyone.
I was a little hesitant in signing up to these forums - after all, I am a self described atheist. A "God hating communist loving" one, I suppose, according to one of your polls... I was hurt by that, I will admit. I was especially hesitant to sign up, not because of our naturally contradicting ideals and values, but because of the 'feel' around here. The 'feel' of narrow-mindedness and a seeming lack of acceptance that there ARE other ideas out there that may have some merit.
Take this for example:
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. A common saying, but one of my favourite ones. There are always two sides to an argument.
I'm here because I want to learn about your society. I believe to have a true vision on life, you have to look at it from all perspectives. I'm very passionate about open debate & discussion as I believe that is the only way to become a well rounded human being.
Just as you may believe that my 'religion' is faulty as it is based on hypotheses, observation and experimentation (science), I reciprocate. I do not accept the bible as evidence. I believe that to fully understand the bible, you have to view it objectively: as a historical document, written by humans 2000 years ago. The primary reason I do not accept the bible as evidence is because it is written by humans. And then, over the course of 2000 years, translated from language to language, as human language evolved. Having learnt Japanese for some period of time, I know full well that written language, literature and poetry, lose much of their original lustre and meaning when translated or transliterated. Undoubtedly the bible has lost something in the 2000 years of its existence with its translations from Ancient Greek and Hebrew to Old English and then to English as we know it today.
I hope to learn much from my stay here.
I was a little hesitant in signing up to these forums - after all, I am a self described atheist. A "God hating communist loving" one, I suppose, according to one of your polls... I was hurt by that, I will admit. I was especially hesitant to sign up, not because of our naturally contradicting ideals and values, but because of the 'feel' around here. The 'feel' of narrow-mindedness and a seeming lack of acceptance that there ARE other ideas out there that may have some merit.
Take this for example:
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. A common saying, but one of my favourite ones. There are always two sides to an argument.
I'm here because I want to learn about your society. I believe to have a true vision on life, you have to look at it from all perspectives. I'm very passionate about open debate & discussion as I believe that is the only way to become a well rounded human being.
Just as you may believe that my 'religion' is faulty as it is based on hypotheses, observation and experimentation (science), I reciprocate. I do not accept the bible as evidence. I believe that to fully understand the bible, you have to view it objectively: as a historical document, written by humans 2000 years ago. The primary reason I do not accept the bible as evidence is because it is written by humans. And then, over the course of 2000 years, translated from language to language, as human language evolved. Having learnt Japanese for some period of time, I know full well that written language, literature and poetry, lose much of their original lustre and meaning when translated or transliterated. Undoubtedly the bible has lost something in the 2000 years of its existence with its translations from Ancient Greek and Hebrew to Old English and then to English as we know it today.
I hope to learn much from my stay here.
Jesus!
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