GOSH DARN IT I SPENT 30 MINUTES ON A REPLY, I GET LOGGED OUT, AND ITS WIPED OUT.
Thanks for listening. I'll try again!
Wrong. It should not affect free will at all. You could still decide, but your decision would be based on much better information. I can never understand why people describe a God who wants us to be ill-informed.
God wants us to have faith. We accept that idea on faith.
You say ill-informed, I say faith. I think you are speaking from the vantage point of needing evidence to have a relationship with God and Christ. Others who don't have that need are fine with just having faith.
I think there's enough information out there to make a decision. We all want things to be perfect, things to be better, but reality is what it is.
I've gotta keep these answers curt.
Of course not, which is why it is so silly to claim the Bible is completely true. Saying that it is true but nobody agrees what "true" means is meaningless.
It's completely true for what it is, and not what we think it is. And there is much agreement about what the Bible means, people always talk about us Christians (fundies especially) like we think the same...and we do, about a lot of things. If we can't grasp the complete truth, that's on us, and not the Bible. The Bible is what it is, objective reality is what it is, but the variable is how we think, what are motivations and limitations are, etc.
It usually means that although it is direct and plain to me, it is not that way to them. So I try with more info or speaking more clearly. Sure there are people who are intentionally ignoring you, but that isn't what non-believers are doing. All the ones I know are listening intently for evidence of God, but he is not speaking clearly.
OK. Then you, personally, *need* (or would need) to have him speak clearly. Others don't. Or, others think that he has spoken clearly.
I think I've said this before. You want to accept God based on evidence, and not based on faith. But that's a non-starter because God said that we should have faith in things that we can't see. So on God's terms, you can't accept him, because your terms differ from his terms.
You are driven by your needs, which differ from the needs of others. Is the issue the needs of the individual, or God's plan? For whatever reason, the relationship that we have are to have with Christ is fueled by faith in Christ, and not faith in our intellect to sort through the information and build up an evidentiary case. God's plan is what it is. Needs vary from individual to individual. I go with God's plan, and qualify my needs as opposed to using them to judge God's plan.
Well for one thing, He could do it in person instead of relying on an aging, oft-translated, poorly understood book. He used to do that all the time, according to the Old Testament. When did He contract laryngitis?
There's some disagreement about this...it appears that about the time of the Babylonian Captivity he stopped being as active in the OT prophecy biz, but maybe he wanted a buffer between that and Christ. I dunno.
Yes. Hope with expectations. I'm familiar with the concept. You seem to be proud of the fact that you make such decisions based on incomplete or absent evidence. I have a hard time understanding why.
What else is there to be proud about? My intelligence? My health? My tall dark and handsomeness? All those things will pass.
If it's just oblivion Tricky, tell me, what is there to be proud of? Things with a limited shelf life? If so, what *things* ought people to take pride in? I submit that's up to the individual.
If it's eternal life, I think faith is an excellent thing to take pride in. The best thing. All of our other attributes whither.
I used to work with Down's Kids. Several of them knew Christ as well or better than the smartest people around. They didn't need evidence, they probably still don't need evidence. What we need varies from individual to individual. If the Down's Kids are wrong, that doesn't change individual needs, and all things taken pride in will die with us when we die. If they're right, they still won't have evidence. They'll have the faith though.
Unbelievers would never say anything like that. They don't believe there is a God to stop them or a devil to tempt them or a savior to forgive them. They take responsibility for their own actions.
God will hold you to that last sentence...
But according to the bible, God punishes those who were decieved by him or given insufficient information by him. Or as
Omar Khayyam says, "Sued for a debt we never did contract/And cannot answer. Oh the sorry trade."
Yes, sin is like a genetic disease, and only Christ could answer sin. I don't think Omar should call that a sorry trade, but I suspect he also doesn't believe that Jesus has answered sin for all of us.
What, literally true except when its not?
"Literal" and "literary" do not mean the same thing. You know what the word "literal" means. Yes, I realize that you are making a sort of joke, but it would also seem that you think this joke is relevant. If so, its relevance escapes me.
Where in the Bible does it say that the Bible is literally true?
-Elliot
It goes without saying that virtually every Christian I discussed this with totally rejected my notion.
