Church/Religion is the biggest scam and manipulation of ill informed human minds.

It is making me research things I would not have researched otherwise. .. and that is a good thing! Now to the debate. In my last argument I did not do much to support my side of the argument, so that is what I will mainly do in this argument. I will be arguing this point: PROTESTANT CHRISIANITY IS NOT A SCAM. In my last argument I made it relatively clear that the Protestant Christians were not involved in the heinous acts of the Roman Catholic church. I said how Martin Luther, one of the fathers od Protestant Christianity, posted his 95 theses on the door of the church of Rome. In his 95 theses, he directly mentions the selling of indulgences, and how he opposes the idea and thinks it incorrect. 20. Therefore by "full remission of all penalties" the pope means not actually "of all," but only of those imposed by himself. 21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved; 22. Whereas he remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which, according to the canons, they would have had to pay in this life. In saying this, he makes it clear that he opposes the main money making scam of the Roman Catholics. . http://www.iclnet.org... You said in your first argument that the Roman Catholics developed the Council of Trent in order to trick people into joining the church. In saying this, you were correct, however the Council of Trent was simply the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation, which started with Martin Luther's 95 theses. The Protestants had nothing to do with this, because it was an attempt to destroy them, or at least drown them out. Roman Catholicism, Scientology, and Televangelism are all scams, trying to trick and/or guilt trip their congregations into giving money, or, in the case of Scientology, simply hiding the truth of the religion until it is too late to turn back. If you compare the religions, there is really no comparison except for the belief in a god: Roman Catholics sold indulgences to their followers telling them that it gives them sins with no consequences. The Protestants did not do this, and totally opposed it. The Council of Trent tricked and/or forced people into joining Catholicism. The Protestants preached their gospel freely, not forcing it on anyone, but preaching it to everyone (not only during the Protestant Reformation, but continue to do so). Televangelists preach that if you give money to the church, God will bless you. Protestants preached (and preach) that if you live your life trying your best to please God, God will bless you. Protestants do NOT believe that giving to the church is a biblical command, but they believe that the Bible encourages it. Televangelists preach that God will surely bless you with health, wealth, and prosperity if you give money to the church, which is obviously not true given the fact that the only one with those things is the preacher, who gets the money that is "given to the church". Protestants preach even if you do live a godly life and decide to give faithfully to the church you will still suffer hard times. Scientologists preach that the only way to become perfect is through giving all (literally) of your money to the church (once you officially accept this religion, there is no turning back. People have been killed for denouncing Scientology after professing it). Protestants preach that there is no way to be perfect on earth, but with Gods help it is possible to live a godly life. Giving money has NOTHING to do with it. As I am defending Protestantism, I tend to point out all of the positives. It seems necessary, however to point out the negatives as well. Protestants were not, and are not perfect. Nothing is. Back when the Roman Catholics were participating in crusades, killing people (mainly Protestants) and forcing them into their religion, Protestants were also guilty of this. There were few Protestant crusades, FAR less than Catholic crusades, but they were still wrong. Roman Catholic crusades came to an end, however, as did Protestant crusades, and never happened again. I must highlight the fact that the VAST majority of Protestants opposed the Catholic, as well as Protestant crusades. It was only a few fanatic Protestants that participated in them. Now I will address the arguments in your last post. " Even though in today's society the church isn't as much a scammer as they were. But still i think religion in general is a scam. " I agree that some religions are a scam, but I have made a case for Protestants above. "Like i said, not really today, but defiantly back then. And saying that what you beleive in is a scam and centered around a questionable idea or figure, is not great. " I agree that there were religions that were scams back then, but there are also religions that are scams now that I have mentioned. I appreciate the fact that you changed from "there is no god" to "god is a questionable idea or figure". Like I said in my last argument, Some people believe in a god, others don't, however I would not go so far as to say that whether or not you believe in a god decides his existence. "The religion today do not sell indulgences, tax (as much at least), or try to reap money out of the people. But i, think, even to the extent of the church wasting time on such a nonsense pratice, that the religion only is alive today due to manipulated early minds. I think if islam, christianity, or any other religion was created today, our much better educated and smarter society wouldn't fall into that trap. But since our ancestors beleived that belief has unfortunately been passed on w/o question and being buildt upon to the point where relgion is a legitment thing. From what the catholics did to our precious time that the church wastes today, religion is a very big conspiracy that miraculously survives in our time and because of the immature minds of religion creating times. " You are basically saying that the people back then were not smart enough to realize it was a scam, so they accepted it, but what you are failing to see is that the minds of the people back then were no less developed than they are now. We seem to be debating mostly about Christianity and Roman Catholicism, with a little bit of Islam in the middle of it all, so I will concentrate on these. What about Plato? Aristotle? Socretes? Morons. <<(Sorry. Its a quote from "The Princess Bride". Couldn't resist. Disregard "morons". )>> ANYWAY. .. These men had some of the most developed minds in history, and they came way before any of these religions! What I am trying to say is this: people were perfectly able to analyze what they were being taught, but some people were and are just too ignorant to realize that what they were being taught was a scam. In regards to Protestantism in those days, I don't think that people accepted it because they were ignorant, but because it was (and is) a religion that offers hope. I will address this further in my next argument because, once again, I am out of space :)