@Andy93: Why does he need to scare people into believing though? Just how insecure is he? I mean, it's even his own creation, you'd think he would've made it a bit better if he didn't like the flaws it has... Or just delete the project and start over. Although, being all powerful and what not I guess he can't really make mistakes.

And lets be honest, with everything that is always happening around the world, all the blood, the terrorism, all the bad things, i'm sure that god does have lots of more important things to care and worry about tan who's sleeping, marrying who.
I'll explain why i can't believe all this religious stuff.
I can't because for me god shouldn't be this scary, dominant thing:
Or you do as i want and say or you're damned.
For me, whatever is up there watching us is love, and is absurd to think that he would condemn us to hell exactly for that thing, loving someone, no matter if that someone is of the same sex.

@andy:
I just want to understand.
why?
Why a relationship with people of the same sex is so wrong?
Love, love in any way, shape or form just can't be wrong, seriously.

1. Women don't have less ribs than men...

2. How do you explain people who are born intersex?

3. Love is not defined by what the creator intended but by what the two people involved in the loving relationship feel.

Ultimately, if you create an entity that functions in a certain way, and punish that entity for functioning in that way, you are acting malevolently. If you punish a bird for flying, a cat for chasing prey, a dog for barking... well these are all functions that these entities do naturally, and cannot help doing. Creating humans with free will means that entities will act in any possible direction. Therefore, it is both extremely irresponsible and malevolent for god to treat his subjects in such a manner. Again, this conflicts with the idea that God is benevolent.

Furthermore, many animals naturally engage in homosexual behaviour. Here's a noncomprehensive list of mammals and birds with such behaviours recorded:

Bison
Brown bear
Brown rat
Cavy
Caribou
Cat (domestic)
Cattle (domestic)
Chimpanzee
Common dolphin
Common marmoset
Dog
Elephant
Canko
Fox
Giraffe
Goat
Horse (domestic)
Koala
Lion
Orca
Panda
Barn owl
Chicken
Common gull
Emu
House sparrow
Kestrel
King penguin
Mallard
Ostrich
Raven
Rock dove
Seagull
Swan

In addition, many animals such as fish, amphibians and reptiles have unusually sexed breeding behaviour that indicates that believing that heterosexuality is the only "natural" sexuality shows a very immature understanding of reproductive biology.

As stated before it's likely that homosexual behaviour exists as a form of population control and allows these individuals to help rear children in large social communities without being burdened by their own children.

@ daigonite. Its interesting what you say here: "Ultimately, if you create an entity that functions in a certain way, and punish that entity for functioning in that way, you are acting malevolently".
What I've been trying to say here is that, God did not created nun of us this way. Again, he created a male and a female, man and woman, one for the other. He did not made 2 men or 2 women and put them together, but instead he gave to the male a female partner and so onn. He created the woman because in all the creation, there was not a partner for the recently formed man and so, God said it was not good for the man to be alone. Again, I enfasize in this point, he gave him a woman, not another man or an animal.
Therefore, your analogy is incorrect, and love is a divine atribute transmited from God to men. but it is not possible, and will never be possible, for a man to love another man or a woman loving another woman, and we're speaking here about a sentimental relationship. That is not love, for love is perfect; Instead, those are anti natural atractions.
And, absolutely nobody is born intersex, all of this is related to the sinful nature of men.

@simba: again, that was your choice. You're  closing the doors to a loving God? OK, I've said in repeated times that he's a gentleman. He isn't gonna force you to let him in, but your choice has a consequence as mine does

I believe you misunderstand, andy - intersex is not the same thing as transgender; people who are born intersex are born with a hormonal development issue that causes their genitals to not develop properly and develop between the sexes. Please research sexual development in the fetus before embarrassing yourself further. You are dead wrong.

Furthermore, there are anomalies chromosomally that produce more than two "perfect" sexes - there are XYY and XXY (both considered biological male). Biological male = having at least one Y chromosome.

Indeed, it's hard to argue at all that the system is perfect. It's quite hodge podge which is to be expected from an evolved organism.

I don't understand how love can be divine when it is clearly caused by sex hormones. Unless you think that testosterone and estrogen are magical.

You continue to assert truth when there is no evidence behind your claims.

Also, a god that punishes people for being skeptical of his existence when he provides no evidence to believe so is hardly a gentleman. That is a man who is insecure and jealous, not gentleman. If he really wants me to come to the conclusion of his existence, he should allow those to figure it out for themselves. Conversion should not be necessary.

But for some reason his followers must target people while they're young. Why is this? Is it possibly because young children are more naive and easier to manipulate? Hardly gentlemanly if you ask me. Rather, this indicates underhandedness. You describe a dirty, cheating, malevolent, aggressive, jealous and bitter god. Why should I believe he is benevolent? You just say he's benevolent because the bible says so but I'm not convinced.

@Daigonite: To be fair, God himself also states that he is a jealous god, in the ten commandments if I remember correctly. I guess we can give him a bit of credit for at least admitting that.
Having said that, he's still not by any Means a gentleman.

I apologize, Andy; my presentation tends to be cold and unwelcoming, but this has more to do with my mechanical nature. I try to be as formal as possible to compensate for my poor ability to convey myself in other contexts.

God punishes skeptics who do not believe in him for not permitting them to be rewarded in heaven. In many interpretations, this results in eternal damnation. How is that not punishment for being skeptical?

I don't really care whether or not you have had a revelation about God; I need to have my own revelation so to speak in order to drop my skepticism. Many things in my life have suggested that god does not exist, at least as you have described. My main question is this - why would a god as you have described create me? Why would a god who punishes those for homosexual relations, those who want to change their gender, and other unusual problems if he hates them? Why would he create me, someone who has suffered tremendously because of my flawed mind? If I am perfect in god's eyes then he has a bizarre interpretation of "perfect".

I am not convinced that these have anything to do with free will, just as your blindness has nothing to do with your free will. We did not decide to be born in the bodies or minds that we were born in.

What you describe when you say "god has revealed himself many times to man" is something called anecdote. Anecdote, which means "I experienced it myself!" does not appeal to me, since I have no way to differentiate anecdote from pure horse shit pulled out of their ass.

Are you suggesting that God does not want to show himself to me because of my temperment? So childish for a benevolent god. If he wants me to believe in him he should provide objective evidence of his existence, or even appear before me. Until then I have no reason to believe in a god, especially if science and philosophy are both more useful and provide more happiness for humanity as a whole.

Your analogy with a judge is poor. First off, judges can be extremely biased, as can be seen with sentences of white men in comparison to black men, so courts are hardly an accurate judgement of morals. Second, laws are tangible and man made, but the word of God is not. We only have scriptures to rely on, which again fall into anecdotal, man-made evidence. Finally, a god that sends his son to be punished instead of the criminal is not a benevolent god but a horrible father who deserves to be shunned by society. You are letting a horrible person go free and punishing a completely innocent person. What if that horrible person commits another crime?

Are you comparing God to something manmade? Hmm, what does that suggest?

Of course, none of this addresses the fact that morality is extremely subjective and changes from person to person. But opening a bible takes those hard questions out of your hands and takes away your ability to think for yourself. Perhaps the Bible, in its ancient nature, does not have the answers for the problems that face the modern world, as they are far more complex than the bible lets on. If you are unable to approach these problems as the problems that they are, then you have next to no utility towards actually solving them.  Even if you continue to pray, it will be useless in actually solving these problems. Prayer did not cure people of polio, science did.  Prayer did not revolutionize our society, philosophy did.

Embrace the power that you have as an individual.

p.s. good job dodging the intersex argument completely. lol!

Alex, I don't think anything in genesis actually suggests bestiality. You're kind of arguing a moot point.

You could, but that doesn't really make it logical. To be fair, andy isn't exactly the shining example of logic himself though. His reasoning is literally "X book says Y is true, therefore Y is true." Without testing any consistency issues with reality.

Shutting off reality just makes you unable to be utilized

Hi.
I think what alex wanted to say is that you can interpret the sentence about animals and humans in different way, just like how andy interprets the bible in his own way, correct me if I am wrong.
Greetings Moritz.