Because what He did was pretty praiseworthy, don't you think? If you watch an artist painting a landscape, you would probably compliment him upon his skills? If he gave you the painting, you would probably tell all of your visitors who admired it what a great guy the artist was. And next time you met him, you would thank him again for his generous gesture, no? Well, just imagine that someone gave you everything which you owned, plus everything which you would ever need to live a comfortable, happy and fulfilled life. How highly would you praise Him?
Originally posted by stuart_2: What if you were born in a war zone or some African dictatorship and all your family had just starved to death or been executed?
Originally posted by stuart_2: What if you were born in a war zone or some African dictatorship and all your family had just starved to death or been executed?
Happy and fulfilled life?
But that wasn't the question
Perhaps, you'd be good enough to humour him? Given it's his first day and everything.
Hello stuart_2
--------------- "The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be" D Adams
Well me personally, without organised religion, like pretty much most people, i assume, i would probably have either never heard of god, or if i had, whatever i might have heard would have been vague. Ive always hated the idea of having to believe in god and having to follow his rules otherwise you go to hell. I happen to believe in god but im certainly not scared of him. And anyway organised religion is manmade. Its faulty, and in most cases largely stupid.
An angel walks into town carrying a burning torch in one hand and a pale of water in the other. A woman rushes out to meet him: "servant of God what are you going to do ?" "With this torch i will burn down the mansions of heaven. With this pale of water I will douse the fires of hell.Then we will find out who really loves God....."
Heselbine - I think you sum up the situation quite well..... except that God would mind a lot...it's just that he/she wouldn't coerce anyone to go to heaven who doesn't want to.
Originally posted by greenbelt: Heselbine - I think you sum up the situation quite well..... except that God would mind a lot...it's just that he/she wouldn't coerce anyone to go to heaven who doesn't want to.
Threatening people with eternal damnation is pretty close to coercion in my book.
Threatening people with eternal damnation is pretty close to coercion in my book.
Heselbine - yes, this is the traditional incentive used by the church but if you look at the bible there is a clear development from "angry punishing God" through to "forgiving God who offers salvation to everyone". This reflects the gradual development in human consciousness and greater knowledge of God over time.
Heselbine - yes, this is the traditional incentive used by the church but if you look at the bible there is a clear development from "angry punishing God" through to "forgiving God who offers salvation to everyone". This reflects the gradual development in human consciousness and greater knowledge of God over time.
Do you or do you not believe that non-believers are eternally damned?
Threatening people with eternal damnation is pretty close to coercion in my book.
Heselbine - yes, this is the traditional incentive used by the church but if you look at the bible there is a clear development from "angry punishing God" through to "forgiving God who offers salvation to everyone". This reflects the gradual development in human consciousness and greater knowledge of God over time.
but this so called forgiving god of the NT didn't stop the traditional methods being employed.
I've never really asked this question of you before, but when you were a Christian, erm; how did you become a Christian - YOUR testimony?
No, I'm not willing to share that. My feeling is that it will be exploited by those wishing to prove a point, i.e. that "I was never a real christian anyway" and frankly I'm not prepared to get into that sort of discussion.
