So Why Is The Gospel Still An Offense?

[HansMustermann]

If you were spiritually alive you would not think this way! Jesus is the giver of life and in him there is no darkness!! Tell me have you ever really tried to see him right yourself?

If you were spiritually alive you would not think this way! The Invisible Pink Unicorn is the giver of life and in her there is no darkness!! Tell me have you ever really tried to see her right yourself?

 

[Wildy]

For all we know, He could really look like a dish of spaghetti with meatballs. Or it could be a woman, and it could be that not God but the angel gave Mary a little more than just the news. Etc.

Or a dinosaur.

But if God looks like a dish of spaghetti with meatballs that means that the FSM is the one true God.

 

[TraneWreck]

Or a dinosaur.

Your faith has been rewarded:

http://raptorjesusstory.ytmnd.com/

 

[Ladewig]

If you were spiritually alive you would not think this way! Jesus is the giver of life and in him there is no darkness!! Tell me have you ever really tried to see him right yourself?

Of all the possible responses to the accusation that a person is engaging in cult-like behavior, I cannot think of a worse response than this one.

 

[Akhenaten]

If you were spiritually alive you would not think this way! Jesus is the giver of life and in him there is no darkness!! Tell me have you ever really tried to see him right yourself?

You johnny-come-latelies didn't even come up with that stuff yourselves. You pinched it off someone much older and wiser.

How manifold it is, what thou hast made!
They are hidden from the face of man.
O sole god, like whom there is no other!

Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,
Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,
Whatever is on earth, going upon its feet,
And what is on high, flying with its wings.

The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,
Thou settest every man in his place,
Thou suppliest their necessities;
Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.
Their tongues are separate in speech,
And their natures as well;
Their skins are distinguished,
As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.

Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,
Thou bringest forth as thou desirest
To maintain the people of Egypt
According as thou madest them for thyself,

The lord of all of them, wearying himself with them,
The lord of every land, rising for them,
The Aten of the day, great of majesty​

Great Hymn to the Aten - Akhenaten, c. 1330 BCE​

ETA: KK may know the above as Psalm 104, an obvious although very inferior copy of the original.

 

[arthwollipot]

140. I know that I hung, on a wind-rocked tree, nine whole nights,
with a spear wounded, and to Odin offered, myself to myself; on that
tree, of which no one knows from what root it springs.

141. Bread no one gave me, nor a horn of drink, downward I peered,
to runes applied myself, wailing learnt them, then fell down thence.

142. Potent songs nine from the famed son I learned of Bolthorn,
Bestla's sire, and a draught obtained of the precious mead, drawn from
Odhraerir.

143. Then I began to bear fruit, and to know many things, to grow
and well thrive: word by word I sought out words, fact by fact I
sought out facts.

Odin's Rune-Song, Elder Eddas: 24

 

[kurious_kathy]

QUOTE=kurious_kathy; I do not believe you need to see them physically to know they are here.


This may be the case for you KK, but as Skeptics we require evidence.

Without evidence of a things existence being true then it may as well not exist.

If something does not exist then to believe in it is "magical thinking", which is tantamount to lying to yourself.

KK, if you can provide evidence for the physical existence of satan, then you would be one step closer to achieving your goal.

(personally, i dont like your chances.)

Okay well what about suicides? Do you really think people do that on their own without help? I believe suicide itself is very strong evidence of we human beings have a very real enemy who wants to not only kill us but rip us off of a good eternity.

I just talked to someone today who told me 2 weeks ago he had a friend he grew up with in town that committed suicide after he started believing in Satan. He went as far to join some stupid satanic cult and before you knew it he was dead. How do you explain that?

 

[kurious_kathy]

Of all the possible responses to the accusation that a person is engaging in cult-like behavior, I cannot think of a worse response than this one.

Okay here's a link to what our non denominational church believes and I see only the truth in it, why can't you?
http://www.calvarychapel.com/what_we_believe.cfm

 

[joobz]

Okay well what about suicides? Do you really think people do that on their own without help?

yes. mental illness is real.
and some people who are terminally ill and in pain have a rational reason.

I believe suicide itself is very strong evidence of we human beings have a very real enemy who wants to not only kill us but rip us off of a good eternity.

what eternity?

I just talked to someone today who told me 2 weeks ago he had a friend he grew up with in town that committed suicide after he started believing in Satan. He went as far to join some stupid satanic cult and before you knew it he was dead. How do you explain that?

you were lied to.

 

[kurious_kathy]

So you're just going to ignore what I wrote about Ecclesiastes 3:11? You've taken that passage and perverted it's meaning beyond recognition. The passage itself says you don't know a damn thing.

Okay lets back up and see what you are saying, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says , He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I was not quoting from scripture when I made my statement but I included a part of eccl. in my statement, what's wrong with that? One thing everyone yells about here is when I just refer to scriptures to answer a question or make a comment.

 

[Ladewig]

Okay here's a link to what our non denominational church believes and I see only the truth in it, why can't you?
http://www.calvarychapel.com/what_we_believe.cfm

I cannot see the truth in Christianity for the following reasons:

- I see no evidence of God. All that I witness can be explained without resorting to supernatural explanations.
- I see no evidence of the devil. Some people commit suicide to avoid painful, crippling deaths from terminal illness. Other people commit suicide because of untreated or poorly treated mental illness coupled with intense despair.
- I see no evidence of immortal souls.
- Christianity is based on a book, which when interpreted literally, is filled with contradictions, absurdities, and claims that counter all available evidence (e.g. a world-wide flood).
- The assertions of the Founder can easily be shown to be false: Luke 17:6, Mark 9:1.


If this Christianity works for you then go ahead and have fun with it. I have no desire and most assuredly have no right to tell you to do otherwise. What I do wish for is that you stop preaching at me and at the other posters on this board. You are harming your cause much more than you are helping it. You are reminding many posters here why they are happy that they left the church.

 

[kurious_kathy]

yes. mental illness is real.
and some people who are terminally ill and in pain have a rational reason.


what eternity?


you were lied to.

Oh please people use mental illness for an excuse all the time. People are in a spiritual battle which has something to do with our mental challenges. Tell me do they have a happy pill for someone who is suicidal yet? If this person had God he would have had hope for his problems knowing eventually everything would be fine instead of freaking out and pulling the trigger.

And no I was certainly not lied to. We live in the mountains and there is a lot of people involved in the occult doing stupid rituals and stuff. How can you even think I was lied to about something so horrible? There is so much wierd stuff going on out there everyone better be on their guard.

 

[kurious_kathy]

I cannot see the truth in Christianity for the following reasons:

- I see no evidence of God. All that I witness can be explained without resorting to supernatural explanations.
- I see no evidence of the devil. Some people commit suicide to avoid painful, crippling deaths from terminal illness. Other people commit suicide because of untreated or poorly treated mental illness coupled with intense despair.
- I see no evidence of immortal souls.
- Christianity is based on a book, which when interpreted literally, is filled with contradictions, absurdities, and claims that counter all available evidence (e.g. a world-wide flood).
- The assertions of the Founder can easily be shown to be false: Luke 17:6, Mark 9:1.


If this Christianity works for you then go ahead and have fun with it. I have no desire and most assuredly have no right to tell you to do otherwise. What I do wish for is that you stop preaching at me and at the other posters on this board. You are harming your cause much more than you are helping it. You are reminding many posters here why they are happy that they left the church.

Can a person really just leave and choose to forget God? One day we will all surely have to deal with him and I would hope there are some here on jref that may have ears to hear.

Why would anyone choose hell over heaven? That is something I just cannot BELIEVE! Jesus offers you forgiveness but you just turn a deaf ear and say no?

 

[Ladewig]

Can a person really just leave and choose to forget God? One day we will all surely have to deal with him and I would hope there are some here on jref that may have ears to hear.

Why would anyone choose hell over heaven? That is something I just cannot BELIEVE! Jesus offers you forgiveness but you just turn a deaf ear and say no?

There are people in the 21st century living their lives based on Bronze Age stories and myths. That is something I just cannot BELIEVE! Kathy, rationality offers you the ability to see things as they are, but you turn a deaf ear to it.

This thread is filled with people explaining why Christian doctrine is too absurd to follow and you act as if you understood not one jot, not one tittle. Can't you spend your time more productively? Carry the message to prisoners, or people in hospitals, or homeless people. Some of them may actually want what you are trying to sell.

 

[Doubt]

And no I was certainly not lied to. We live in the mountains and there is a lot of people involved in the occult doing stupid rituals and stuff. How can you even think I was lied to about something so horrible? There is so much wierd stuff going on out there everyone better be on their guard.

Sounds like quite a bit of lying going on.

Satanism is very, very rare. People believing there is a lot of satanism going on and making up BS stories about it is quite common.

The very idea does not make sense on it's face. First, you have to believe there is a god. Then you have to believe that this other just about omnipotent jerk exists and that you have something to gain by following his non-existent teachings. You also have to accept the argument that god is not responsible for Satan despite being omnipotent.

And then, if you can rationalize all of the above garbage, you are left with a 'religion' that just says do the opposite of Christianity. Altogether a pointless exercise. Doing the opposite of one contradictory set of ideas found in the bible leads to an even worse set of contradictory BS.

About the only "satanists" I know of in the western world are a bunch of contradictory BS artists out to shock people and not much else. Usually teenagers out to upset their parents.

Kathy, if you really think there are genuinely people in your area worshiping Satan, provide some evidence.

 

[Doubt]

Can a person really just leave and choose to forget God?

Yes! Except for the constant cultural reminders. God simply becomes like any other fictional character.

One day we will all surely have to deal with him and I would hope there are some here on jref that may have ears to hear.

We have ears to hear and eyes to see. You have no evidence. Believing really, really hard is not evidence.

Why would anyone choose hell over heaven? That is something I just cannot BELIEVE! Jesus offers you forgiveness but you just turn a deaf ear and say no?

No such choice exists. And you are the one failing to deal with what non-belief means. You have no business claiming anyone here is deaf.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

Oh please people use mental illness for an excuse all the time. People are in a spiritual battle which has something to do with our mental challenges. Tell me do they have a happy pill for someone who is suicidal yet? If this person had God he would have had hope for his problems knowing eventually everything would be fine instead of freaking out and pulling the trigger.

And no I was certainly not lied to. We live in the mountains and there is a lot of people involved in the occult doing stupid rituals and stuff. How can you even think I was lied to about something so horrible? There is so much wierd stuff going on out there everyone better be on their guard.

How dare you?

How DARE you?

If you are an indication of your religion's enlightenment then I am glad that I am in the dark. Your sick, twisted insistence that mental illness is an "excuse" is making me so angry right now, I'm having to hold back quite a lot. You DARE pronounce that people who go through mental illness are able to be fixed by believing in god? You DARE insist that if some people had not had faith then they would be alive today?

You make me sick to my stomach. Before I thought you were an amusing aside where I could test out some arguments and generally have a fun time debating someone, (or at least, trying to) but you...you're a vile human being.

If heaven is full of people like you I'm glad I won't be there.

 

[Edges]

Why would anyone choose hell over heaven? That is something I just cannot BELIEVE!

Good, because that's not what people are arguing. How, pray tell, can one choose something they don't believe in over something else they don't believe in?

That would be like you telling me to I have choose between having breakfast with the Monster From Under the Bed or Santa Claus. Plus, the only way that I could ever have breakfast with Santa Claus would be that I had to accept every story about him as being true and let his joy of gift-giving guide my life. You might say that if I don't accept Santa Claus's message, I will have breakfast with the Monster From Under the Bed. Being flippant, I might say that, given such a choice, I would actually prefer to dine with the Monster From Under the Bed because I think he would have a more interesting life story than Santa Claus, plus I'm sure Santa would bring a bunch of elves along and who needs that kind of aggravation.

However, despite having thought that out into a strange kind of detail, I don't expect to have breakfast with either character because I don't believe they exist. If you were to then assert that they both exist beyond any doubt, it would take more than your saying "Well, I believe they exist and I have felt their influence in my life" for me to be convinced.

Unless you finally accept this point, you'll continue to argue in circles against a position that is not actually espoused by anyone you are debating.

 

[Achán hiNidráne]

Can a person really just leave and choose to forget God?

I didn't "forget" God. I just realized that no such creature existed. That's all.

One day we will all surely have to deal with him and I would hope there are some here on jref that may have ears to hear.

And the fact that I no longer believe in God despite your fire-and-brimstone threats of eternal torture should tell you just how grossly inadequate I find your... ahem... "arguments" in favor of Christianity.

Why would anyone choose hell over heaven?

Because like God, hell does not exist. No, nor does heaven for that matter.

Deal with it.

That is something I just cannot BELIEVE!

What you "believe" is irrelevant. Only the facts matter.

Jesus offers you forgiveness but you just turn a deaf ear and say no?

Forgiveness for WHAT? Because some mythical woman, who supposedly didn't understand the difference between "good" and "evil" to begin with, was persuaded to eat a piece of fruit by a talking snake? Sorry, I don't think we're guilty for what happens in ancient Mesopotamian fairy tales.

Jesus can't offer anyone--not you, nor me--jack squat. The chances are, he didn't exist. And even if there was an itinerant rabbi named Yoshua ben Yosef, then he's 2000 years past the capability to do anything but rot. He's dead. He's dust. Just like you, me, and everyone how is, was, and is yet to be born will eventually become.

Again, deal with it.

 

[arthwollipot]

Tell me do they have a happy pill for someone who is suicidal yet?

Yes. There are plenty of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs available to those who have a medical requirement for them. I personally know several people who might no longer be with us if it weren't for good psychiatric care and antidepressant drugs.