Bandwagon Atheists and religions

[Savageee]

I'd say there is more proof to say God doesn't exist then say he does. All that "near death" experience stuff is most likely just your imagination. When you are near death your brain acts differently and the chemicals are all out of whack and people see whatever they want to see, subconciously usually. This explains alot since everyone see's there "god", and nobody eles's.. I seen a show on the Discovery Channel about the science behind near death experiences so it has to be right!

[ÆNIMA]

This isn't a post about the existence of God, it's about religion basically.

If there is a God, it's simple...he's omnipotent, right? That means he knows each and everyone of our stories. He knows our thoughts, and what has come and gone in our life. So of course he's going to know about these heathens you speak of. He's going to understand that they've never heard of the Plan of Salvation or Jesus Christ. It is said that he is a Just God, so those people will not be punished for something they didn't know about. He knows our stories, and we'll be judged according to our actions in the situation we were at that period of time.

And that's not to say that these "heathens" will not get a chance after the 2nd coming, during the millenium. At the 2nd coming, everyone will confess that Jesus is the Christ, whether you or they accept them as your own personal saviour is when it really counts. Then after that, you have 1000 years to learn more about everything...we need not worry about those "heathens" although it is noble to reach them.

Does anyone have any idea as to where everybody except the mid-easterners came from? Because they're not directly mentioned in the bible...

[TelC@t]

I have thoroughly studied Dogbert guide to religion, and in conclusion I have deicided that I am going to create a new religion.

Here is how I am going to do it:

1) I give out empty promises that:

I) they will go to heaven when they die and become God and Goddess and will be happy ever after.

II) Whoever doesn't believe in my religion will go straight to hell and suffer for eternality.

2) every one who believes in my religion will pay me only 50% of what average Christian/Muslim/Buddist donates.

3) Memebers to my religion will provide emotional and reinforcement to each other. They will be told that they are not alone and my imaginery God is always there for them. If they prey hard enough HE will listen, but of course if things didn't turn out to be what they wanted, it's obvious that they didn't try hard enough

4) Tell them that they are special because they believe my religion


Anyone with me on this one?

[ÆNIMA]

Blasphemy towards God is a major sin in most religions which y ou don't believe in...so mock away.

[TelC@t]

Oh I am so scared :eek:

But wait ! I would be punished by ... which God? More specifically I would go to ... which hell?

[bloodzombie]

Originally posted by Vitron2
Ok, nm, It is very hard to argue anything productivly on a BB. (Oh, and yes I would have liked to taken it to the scientific point of view because that is an area that I greatly enjoy)


Vitron

So you're bailing without answering my question? that sucks

[arrogance]

Originally posted by bloodzombie
Think of all the people who have died without ever even meeting a christian... and all of them, straight to hell.

god's an evil bastard, isn't he?

If you're trying to look at it from a Christian point of view, is he an evil bastard for letting them die or is he a gracious god for allowing others to escape from that same punishment which we're all deserving of?

Christianity teaches that we're screwed from the start. We're born into a world that those who came before us have corrupted and turned evil. We're born with sick twisted instincts that most of us will never speak of yet we all know are there. We can constrol the extent to which they take control, but simply because they exist, we're deserving of the consequences of those "sins".

So again, if we're considering what's FAIR according to the laws Christians believe God layed out, we should all be left to suffer those consequences.

I can't claim to support or agreewith and certainly not explain all the things Christians try to push onto this world, and I certainly don't agree with their methods sometimes. Christianity has this tendancy to shoot itself in the foot. Why? Because they forget they're no better than anyone else.

I decided a very long time ago that everything I see in this world and experience in my own consciousness is far to complex to be one gigantic evolutionary accident. No theory of gasses and big bangs and cosmic particles can take you far enough back to explain where the gasses and cosmic particles come from. It always ends up in the same place. I've done alot of studying and alot of thinking about it since that time and settled with a "religion" that I think is on the right track. Christianity has made colossal mistakes in it's past, but the core of our pal Jesus in my mind distinguishes it from every other religion I've come across. You can claim it was all a gigantic fairy tale, but historical evidence paints a very clear picture that some crazy stuff was going on at that point in time. As such I study what I can, try to grasp what I can, accept that some things I can't, and take the rest on faith.

FLAME ME PLEASE.

[geekbot]

Wow, well said arrogance.

Bz, on your question about people who have never been exposed to Christianity:

In reading your question, I think there is a feeling that people who haven't had a chance to hear about salvation are "left out" and are treated unfairly.

First of all, I don't believe that those people are left out of God's plan. God is powerful to save. If he can save you or I, then why wouldn't he be able to save someone else on the other side of the world? Not all people are saved the same way or experience God in the same way.

If you believe what the Bible says in Romans that: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) and that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), then all are guilty and deserve death. It is not unfair for those who have never heard to go to hell because that is what is "fair" for everyone. The fact that some are saved is what is "unfair". They received a grace that is only given to some people. Salvation cannot be viewed both as a gift and as a right. No one deserves salvation (that's why it is such a precious gift).

This point is made in the first part of arro's post.

[HeavenSent]

Originally posted by ÆNIMA
Does anyone have any idea as to where everybody except the mid-easterners came from? Because they're not directly mentioned in the bible...

Isn't Israel in the Middle East?


Oh you mean everyone else. ...They're all in the Bible... Genesis 10.

[HeavenSent]

Originally posted by Savageee
I'd say there is more proof to say God doesn't exist then say he does. All that "near death" experience stuff is most likely just your imagination. When you are near death your brain acts differently and the chemicals are all out of whack and people see whatever they want to see, subconciously usually. This explains alot since everyone see's there "god", and nobody eles's.. I seen a show on the Discovery Channel about the science behind near death experiences so it has to be right!

I had a great-uncle that had a NDE. He was dead for 8 minutes. He claimed that he met Jesus and was told it wasn't his time yet, that he had to go back. When he came to.. he was a completely different person. Before the experience, he was your average non-practicing, status-quo Catholic. After the experience, he became a Protestant Sunday Bible school teacher.

He was a steel worker and within a couple weeks after his NDE, he had a terrible accident at work... Or at least in the site of his co-workers it looked like he was going to get smashed by one of the very long and heavy steal beams falling down upon him. My uncle said that just at that moment the beam was about to crush him, he looked up and saw an angel grab the beam to prevent the full weight of the beam from crushing him. His co-workers quickly came to his rescue to remove the beam. By their surprise, he was untouched. They insisted that he go to the hospital and get checked out, but my uncle insisted on finishing the day's work and stayed for the rest of his shift.

After the NDE and the events that followed, his friends and relatives cringed at his constant reference to Jesus and rejected him thinking he was wacked.

[bloodzombie]

Some of you speak of death as being the alternative to salvation, and if that's the case, I can sort of understand the idea of god giving out salvation in a somewhat random fashion since none of us deserve it anyway, but that vitron guy was talking about eternal pain and punishment as being the alternative, that I don't buy unless he was going to give everyone an equal chance to avoid it.

Sure, I'm trying to analyze the thought process of god in human terms, but that's the mind he gave me and we're in his image and likeness, right? If he loved us all, he'd let us all into heaven except for the people who go against his wishes and cause pain to others.

The idea that the only way into heaven is to accept him, and jesus and the whole bit drives me crazy. I just don't think that's how god is. If god wanted me to do something, like go to church every sunday (which, if I was god, I would get rid of, that's pointless), he'd come to my house and tell me about it.

[ÆNIMA]

Heaven, it was food for thought for those who don't know, sheesh.


BZ, how can the finite understand the infinite? You can't, so just dwell on what we're given to dwell on. According to most theologies, that would be: Faith, repentance, the atonement. Anything more is not necessary.

[Bioture]

Life Is Just A Dream On The Way To Death.

[geekbot]

Originally posted by bloodzombie
Some of you speak of death as being the alternative to salvation

Death = hell. It's sort of used as a euphemism for hell sometimes. According to the Bible, if there wasn't any sin, there wouldn't be pain, death, or hell. The alternative to death (hell) is 1) not sinning at all in the first place or 2) salvation (Christ suffered death (hell) so that we don't have to).

Since the penalty for sin is death, in the Old Testament, the Jews sacrificed lambs and the death of the lamb (a costly sacrifice) paid for their sins. We no longer do that because Jesus was a sinless sacrifice. He was the most costly sacrifice- God himself experiencing death and hell as a man so we wouldn't have to. He is the ONLY way to heaven because he is the only sinless man who ever lived or ever will live.

[DoTheFandango]

Religion sucks ass