religion (be it Christianity, Islam or Judaism) is immoral

Well, hi, (not 'high')! I will tell you a bit about myself before answering those interesting questions my opponent gave. I am a Christian, grown up in a Christian home and I guess you could say I am religious because the definition of it is... http://www.google.com... ...And that is what I do. But I would consider my belief in God more than a practice of religion. It's a RELATIONSHIP. God created the world, including me, and I chose to allow Jesus into my heart--(meaning to let God be the main part of my life; making decisions and doing every day life using prayer and "What Would Jesus Do")--and this makes it a sealed relationship with The God! Because of His Creations and the sins He paid for, I worship God in prayer and song regularly and this is different from any other religions; Christianity allows you a relationship. For this debate I am defending the CHRISTIANITY one out of the 3 choices given in parentheses [title]. I know little about the other two religions but will answer any questions you give about them to the best of my ability. I did not call the atheist dumb (I hope I didn't)! I'll give you this: at least you admit there IS a God!! Here's a question, what kind of pantheist are you? There are two kinds that the web gave me: 1 (common) and 2 (rare). If you believe in a God/god, do you believe he is omniscient and perfect and all-loving? http://www.google.com... Now to answer your questions. 1. "...I can't be moral without religion (or at least atheists can't)." First off, as an atheist you don't have any sort of 'written in stone rules' which you have to follow. Now, for Christianity, I'm not saying there are rules you ABSOLUTELY have to follow (as I believe we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God), but atheists don't have 'holy books' or 'ten commandments' which help guide them in life. But, again, nobody always obeys the rules, in fact most of us sometimes feel the urge to break the rules on purpose, right? So rules don't make anyone moral, in my opinion. As the atheist I debated said, [I'm paraphrasing], "I would never think of murdering a human being because it is just awful...My fear is jail, not hell" so rules don't keep people from being immoral. Common sense does. That's what atheists use for guidance, that's what keeps some of them from jail, etc. A lot of atheists say they have lived a good life, maybe even close to perfect because of all the "good deeds" and "refraining from doing evil" type of things. This is what most would call 'moral.' So in most religions (like Islam and Mormonism) there are rules you HAVE to follow and, if you don't, you're practically guaranteed to go to Hell or sometimes you are "banned" from your cult. With Christianity, it is not ONLY a religion, it's a relationship with God, and there are rules which we get from the Bible that we would WANT to obey because they are God-written/inspired. I would say that God gave the Bible as a set of rules, praises, and journal entries which we can apply to our lives and use to communicate/know more with/about God. I think there are many ways to define morality, but with Christianity relationship comes first, THEN morality/religion. Atheists may act moral but if they do not know Jesus than their life is worthless (and when they die it all comes down to Heaven or Hell, therefore you must repent and receive God THEN do all your good acts. I hope this clarifies some things for you. 2. "You said that how can one believe in nothing..." I admit I said that in that debate. That was a wacko sentence but I will explain it for you in better words. As you are a pantheist I'd think it's be simple to understand: belief in nothing basically means you believe that nothing created nothing; everything came from nothing. I'm a Christian so I believe God created everything, that everything is Intelligently Designed therefore we are not all by chance...it all ties in with NOT believing in nothing. 3. Evolution, what most atheists believe in, is said to have "mounds of evidence" and "proven countless times"..."by the majority of scientists." So most kids who take science class automatically believe Evolution is true, since, after all, it's in all the textbooks how would it be false? But this ties in with religion, somehow. Society thinks Creationism is tied in with Christianity. Yes, it is a theistic theory, but it has lots of evidence also (and the proof shouldn't be ignored). I think kids should see both sides of the story. They should know that Evolution isn't the only option for the origin of species, just as the Big Bang isn't the only option for the origin of life. The Theory of Evolution is an assumption based on worldly facts, but that doesn't mean it's true, like the textbooks say! It is not "shoving religion down people's throats," as some people say, to have Creationism be known to kids. It is simply showing the other side of the coin to them, making sure they understand there are two options to believe in and that both options require faith and research. Neither theories are perfect because there are facts that fit both, so they contradict each other and nobody can say with COMPLETE CERTAINTY that one of the theories is UTTERLY CORRECT with no flaws. No, I don't think Creationism will be taught in public schools science classes, but I straight out disagree with all the textbooks claiming Evolutionism is fact, because that is not proven, there are contradictions, and the statement is not true. 4. The Bible is the Word of God because God inspired the writings and it is according to what He did, who He is, or His intentions. I believe it is moral because, first, all the proverbs and sayings and simple-to-understand guidelines that help us be (a) a better light [evangelist] to those around us, and (b) to act the way God wants us to act. Second there are the Ten Commandments which, even for non-Christians, are agreeable as most of them are obvious common sense 'rules.' NOTE. This is the definition of 'control freak.' http://www.google.com... Christians are called to spread the good news, share the Gospel, and evangelize about Jesus to everyone and anyone everywhere and everyday, so I guess the web defines us pretty well since we want to win people over to Christ! If it is taken offensively by people receiving or "invitation" to Christ it is fine with me because the bottom line for me is to make people think. Think about where the earth came from, why people believe there is a God, when time and matter actually began, etc. I don't want people to waste their lives trying to be moral because that doesn't do it: we all need to accept Jesus and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord and Creator of all, as earthly acts do not matter as much as the decision between Heaven and Hell. That's all for now folks but I look forward to my opponent's response and sorry for the long round!