LOL, he's batting 1000 on his statement that all shall die in their appointed time. Is dying one of your highest aspirations? Why would anyone create a god that tells them they have to die? Much less spend eternity in a place where God has chosen to withdraw his presence, aka "hell" if they chose to reject him...
LOL, he's batting 1000 on his statement that all shall die in their appointed time. Is dying one of your highest aspirations? Why would anyone create a god that tells them they have to die? Much less spend eternity in a place where God has chosen to withdraw his presence, aka "hell" if they chose to reject him...
You don’t have to “believe” in hell ( or God), to go to hell. If you turn away from God, you’re choosing your path. Read C.S. Lewis, “ Mere Christianity”. He was an atheist & writes beautifully about God. It’s not preachy, it’s thought based brilliance. He writes like he’s talking to a friend, patient & clear.
Dying is not an aspiration, it is an inevitability!! And it's a great motivation for people to create a god that in many cases offers a respite, especially an eternal one, from it. Not to mention a threat of 'hell' if they don't conduct themselves in a socially acceptable fashion.
LOL, I'll take the bait. Lets go back in prehistoric times and imagine BEFORE religion was invented in your "its all made up" scenario. Who would bother to invent it? Not the alphas, they just kill whoever gets in their way and death doesn't scare them. The betas perhaps? Sure, they'd try it because maybe it gives some leverage over the alphas. So beta tells alpha the reason the volcano just went off is because alpha did something against "god" that is actually just something that makes beta mad. Alpha thinks "yeah, it sure did! I better stop!" Then beta tells alpha "If you also don't stop doing this other thing, its going to go off again and "god" will kill you for it this time!" Time passes and alpha does this other thing. The volcano is silent. Alpha immediately goes and kills beta for being a liar who played him. And that's the end of the new made up out of thin air religion.... From the perspective of evolution, its impossible. The benefit is quite temporal and making it up results in being selected out of the gene pool.
Hell is only for people that don’t accept Jesus into their hearts . It’s that simple. Jesus died on the cross so we didn’t HAVE to “ conduct in socially acceptable fashion”. It’s not
“good deed” related at all. Jesus was perfect, we are not, but we can try. And that’s where Grace comes in. That’s the beautiful thing about my GOD. 😇💕
Didn't say anything about 'good deeds', but since you mentioned it, all deeds have unintended consequences. While this is not a reason to forgo good intentions, will 'your GOD' judge you by intentions or results? But it doesn't matter because the church has invented the magic of eternal life through His Gracious forgiveness. Seems like a pretty sketchy motivation for 'we can try.'
If there is no life after this one, why does it matter? In fact why would anyone in their right mind spend one second of the limited time you have here talking about things that don't exist with those who think they do? Talk about insane.
It matters precisely because there is no life (as we know it) after this one; and I wish a continuation of this evolving life for as long as possible through our children and our children's children. Your faith in an afterlife in human form (if I understand correctly) miraculously rendered "divine" leads logically to a desire for "end times" ASAP, a horror show we have been on the verge of staging since 1945, the fragile continued avoidance of which is our greatest accomplishment and gives me hope, so far.
For the priesthood to (deliberately) put Revelations at the end of the New Testament is to take Christianity back to the horrors of the vengeful god of the Old Testament, replacing Christlike aspirations for humanity with the unChristlike coercive specter of terror. I see the prophesies as either metaphorical (i.e., not literal) or, if literal, the ravings of mad men who are already in a personal hell and wish for others to join them there.
There is much in the Bible and in all religions that is vitally important to human culture, and there is much that is factually false, but metaphorically true. Many of the larger historical facts are provable to a degree by scientific means and many are not amenable to proof, particularly at the individual level, like Plato's authorship as mentioned in another thread here. Religious faith requires Truth, a Platonic ideal, while science is simply a method of relentless inquiry (that will not allow Final Answers short of disproving its own usefulness) which true Faith does not allow. The best science is always inconclusive but ironically the technology derived from it is nevertheless the source of our "God-given" dominion over the earth.
Insanity is a subjective qualium and flinging it carelessly about in accusation can have a boomerang effect.
LOL, if this is what qualifies as knowledge, logic and pragmatism in your mind, all I can do is chuckle. The afterlife is not in human form according to the Bible you claim to know so well. And most people do not long for the "end times" which in the context of the portions of Revelations you are referring to, are actually *not* the end times at all, but rather a seven year period of unprecedented transition and upheaval. As for science and "true Faith" being somehow being mutually exclusive, how can that logically be when according to you, it is a merely a method of inquiry? Faith actually requires inquiry and study, which if you knew the Bible as well as you claim, you would already know. Its a very, very basic principle. Look I'm not trying to convert you or brow beat you, but you really should at least know what you're talking about when you claim to know what you're talking about...
LOL, he's batting 1000 on his statement that all shall die in their appointed time. Is dying one of your highest aspirations? Why would anyone create a god that tells them they have to die? Much less spend eternity in a place where God has chosen to withdraw his presence, aka "hell" if they chose to reject him...
You don’t have to “believe” in hell ( or God), to go to hell. If you turn away from God, you’re choosing your path. Read C.S. Lewis, “ Mere Christianity”. He was an atheist & writes beautifully about God. It’s not preachy, it’s thought based brilliance. He writes like he’s talking to a friend, patient & clear.
Dying is not an aspiration, it is an inevitability!! And it's a great motivation for people to create a god that in many cases offers a respite, especially an eternal one, from it. Not to mention a threat of 'hell' if they don't conduct themselves in a socially acceptable fashion.
LOL, I'll take the bait. Lets go back in prehistoric times and imagine BEFORE religion was invented in your "its all made up" scenario. Who would bother to invent it? Not the alphas, they just kill whoever gets in their way and death doesn't scare them. The betas perhaps? Sure, they'd try it because maybe it gives some leverage over the alphas. So beta tells alpha the reason the volcano just went off is because alpha did something against "god" that is actually just something that makes beta mad. Alpha thinks "yeah, it sure did! I better stop!" Then beta tells alpha "If you also don't stop doing this other thing, its going to go off again and "god" will kill you for it this time!" Time passes and alpha does this other thing. The volcano is silent. Alpha immediately goes and kills beta for being a liar who played him. And that's the end of the new made up out of thin air religion.... From the perspective of evolution, its impossible. The benefit is quite temporal and making it up results in being selected out of the gene pool.
Hell is only for people that don’t accept Jesus into their hearts . It’s that simple. Jesus died on the cross so we didn’t HAVE to “ conduct in socially acceptable fashion”. It’s not
“good deed” related at all. Jesus was perfect, we are not, but we can try. And that’s where Grace comes in. That’s the beautiful thing about my GOD. 😇💕
Didn't say anything about 'good deeds', but since you mentioned it, all deeds have unintended consequences. While this is not a reason to forgo good intentions, will 'your GOD' judge you by intentions or results? But it doesn't matter because the church has invented the magic of eternal life through His Gracious forgiveness. Seems like a pretty sketchy motivation for 'we can try.'
If there is no life after this one, why does it matter? In fact why would anyone in their right mind spend one second of the limited time you have here talking about things that don't exist with those who think they do? Talk about insane.
It matters precisely because there is no life (as we know it) after this one; and I wish a continuation of this evolving life for as long as possible through our children and our children's children. Your faith in an afterlife in human form (if I understand correctly) miraculously rendered "divine" leads logically to a desire for "end times" ASAP, a horror show we have been on the verge of staging since 1945, the fragile continued avoidance of which is our greatest accomplishment and gives me hope, so far.
For the priesthood to (deliberately) put Revelations at the end of the New Testament is to take Christianity back to the horrors of the vengeful god of the Old Testament, replacing Christlike aspirations for humanity with the unChristlike coercive specter of terror. I see the prophesies as either metaphorical (i.e., not literal) or, if literal, the ravings of mad men who are already in a personal hell and wish for others to join them there.
There is much in the Bible and in all religions that is vitally important to human culture, and there is much that is factually false, but metaphorically true. Many of the larger historical facts are provable to a degree by scientific means and many are not amenable to proof, particularly at the individual level, like Plato's authorship as mentioned in another thread here. Religious faith requires Truth, a Platonic ideal, while science is simply a method of relentless inquiry (that will not allow Final Answers short of disproving its own usefulness) which true Faith does not allow. The best science is always inconclusive but ironically the technology derived from it is nevertheless the source of our "God-given" dominion over the earth.
Insanity is a subjective qualium and flinging it carelessly about in accusation can have a boomerang effect.
LOL, if this is what qualifies as knowledge, logic and pragmatism in your mind, all I can do is chuckle. The afterlife is not in human form according to the Bible you claim to know so well. And most people do not long for the "end times" which in the context of the portions of Revelations you are referring to, are actually *not* the end times at all, but rather a seven year period of unprecedented transition and upheaval. As for science and "true Faith" being somehow being mutually exclusive, how can that logically be when according to you, it is a merely a method of inquiry? Faith actually requires inquiry and study, which if you knew the Bible as well as you claim, you would already know. Its a very, very basic principle. Look I'm not trying to convert you or brow beat you, but you really should at least know what you're talking about when you claim to know what you're talking about...