Hey Nick...That was a compliment...You just took it the wrong way...Ok perhaps I could have worded it better but it's the way I test the believers and their lack of an eye for detail! Christmas...Have you been tricked into a Pagan celebration? December 25 has several Pagan routes. Mithra was allegedly born December 25. Mithra was the GOD Constantine believed in. Paganism has always been interlaced with Christianity because of Constantine. The whole Constantine story is rubbish. He most likely made it up to get Roman soldiers who were Christian on side. And there is evidence to show this... 1. The crosses on the shields of Constantine's army are depicted in the Vatican... OOps they got it wrong. 2. Just outside the Colosseum, Constantine erected an arch of Constantine to himself... No crosses on shields or Christian icons anywhere only Pagan symbols. 3. Eusebias' was a Christian and a Bishop and yet in his first account of the battle at the Milvian Bridge he doesn't mention Constantine's visions or the crosses on the sheilds story. - Very strange indeed. 4. The first time the vision and the crosses on shields story was told by Constantine was some 13 years later at a banquet and is documented by Eusebius his Christian historian. Constantine blended Mithra and Christianity for political purposes.. Aint accurate historical study wonderful... But what life events did the Egyptian GOD Horus have similar to Jesus. http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5d.htm The links between Paganism, Egypt, and Christianity are amazing! Enjoy choking on your turkeys as you digest some historical information,,,lmao 32 chews now for each bit you didn't know...lol

Op2.

When are you going to tell us about all the bastards that various Popes sired over the generations?

You could start with Innocent* VIII (1484-92) and go forward or back.

*Now there's a great name for a Cassocked (male fowl)man.

Not now soon, youv'e missed the point. All the rhetoric has always been that God does not have to prove his existence, we must believe he exists and then we have found God. What a load of crap. You can't prove It exists whereas I CAN prove he doesn't exist. Give me a moment to prepare my answer................ GOD DOES NOT EXIST! There I just proved it.
NNS I'm not sure of your level of education, your IQ or even your EQ, and I'm not going there but, surely by now you must have worked all this out. When I am challenged by anyone I am discussing this topic with, sometimes they stop me and ask, 'OK if we don't believe in God who do we believe in? The answer is one of the most beautiful and enlightening; and the answer is: YOURSELF. You believe in yourself! You are the most important, relevant person in your life. You don't have to pray to some third party, you pray to yourself and you will have all the requisites you need right there inside you, and you will succeed.

Issy...I wouldn't go that far back for alleged evil men who have been in the popeydom...

Your snowy headed German Pope was allegedly as bad as they get...Didn't he retire early because he would have been arrested if he stepped outside of Rome for his organisation's covering up child abuse..

Isn't he living in the Holy City and simply can't move outside because of his alleged covering up of crimes against children?

You do know what has been alleged against him don't you? The organisation that he lead goes right back to the evil inquisitions!

Study for yourself...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-pope-benedict-knew-about-abuse-in-the-catholic-church

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2010/03/the_great_catholic_coverup.html
Interestingly, despite the known horrors of the inquisitions...(the affected women finally being apologised to by Pope John Paul in 29 May 1995)...the Catholic Church didn't actually do much other than change it's name.

The inquistions started in 1231 (Medieval Inquisition) under Pope Gregory IX....The Roman Inquisition was named the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition in 1588, by Pope Sixtus V.

In 1908 this offices name was changed to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office which was further changed to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1965.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions on that seemingly minimalist decision to just change it's name!

The last Pope, Joey Ratzinger...Pope Benedict XVI, was made a prefect of the office in 1981 and continued in the office until becoming Pope.

Oh yes...This man should have been arrested and put before the courts but of course he is protected by the organisation.

How he was ever made Pope beggars belief.

But I don't want to just pick on the Catholics as all the religions have it 100% wrong and all of them have covered up crimes against children.

Covering up crimes against children...you can't get any more anti-Christ than that now can you?

Your a Catholic...So you tell me why would the Catholics just change the name of the organisation that led the inquisitions rather than totally dissolve it and create a new organisation?

Are you brave enough to study your own religion properly?

//Oh Toni you are back to being Tweedle Dumb again//

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

//anyone can do the citation needed rubbish...Did you think it made you sound intellectual?//

No, I request citations because you constantly offer up bald assertions with zero supporting evidence. Apparently, nobody has ever told you about Hitchens' Razor: "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence". Haven't you read 'God is not Great' yet? Jesus, what sort of self-respecting anti-Christian hasn't read 'God is not Great'?

Compared to you, being able to recite my seven times table would be sufficient to make me sound intellectual.

////Fire & brimstone preaching is very old fashioned and not commonly practised these days.// [citation needed]//

Sorry, probably should have gone into more detail. I've attended mass (or whatever name they give it) with the following denominations: Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Uniting, Pentecostal, Non-Denominational. No fire & brimstone from any of those guys. Yeah, sure, maybe some American televangelists go in for that sort of thing, and maybe some of the weird minority denominations like the Exclusive Brethren. But the Catholics, Anglicans and Uniting collectively make up about 80% of Australia's Christian population, and none of those guys go in for the fire & brimstone style of preaching, nor do they teach literalism.

Don't you have better things to do than attack glaringly obvious strawmen?

//Do they teach the flood as fact?//

No.

//And you think they have dropped satan, hell and the hellfires as part of the lessons?//

Pretty much. They'll still acknowledge the concepts of Hell and Satan, but only if pressed, and they really don't like talking about them. They just try to sweep that stuff under the rug quietly and talk about Jesus. Frankly I suspect a lot of priests a bit embarrassed about the whole notion, because theologically, it's pretty dodgy.

//Some churches think that God enters through their hands when they pray//

Some prove their faith by letting rattlesnakes bite them. Idiots will idiot. As you've been going to some lengths to demonstrate.

Postscript:

Even if they do entertain the notion of Hell, I'd be interested to find out just how many people think it is full of fire. It's such a 13th-century view. I suspect people since then have been influenced by stuff like classical mythology (in which Hades is largely flame-free) and Dante's Inferno, which only has flames in three of the circles - and the 9th circle, wherein dwell Satan and the worst sinners (traitors), is frozen rather fiery.