Then if you are saved, why bother carrying on with the belief system? Will god change his mind?

Will you slip back into non-saved mode?

god has decided you are an ok person because you believe you are saved, so you will get entry to heaven.

Then surely you dont need to try and convince the rest of us of your interpretation of god's will.

What?

Why should you fear God any more or less based on whether you actually know he exists, or whether you are just pretending to know that he exists?

If you fear him any less in the second case it would only be because you don't really believe that he actually exists.

This doesn't even make any sense Spider.

If I didn't continue to worship God and obey his laws, then obviously I wouldn't be saved. True salvation means that your heart has been changed.



Belushi,

I know this statement will probably get flamed, but I post about Christianity in response to negative comments about Christianity. I have to defend the faith.

"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. --John Calvin"

Christians believe out of love, not fear.

Years ago, I met a woman online. Without meeting her or seeing a picture, I fell in love with her through our conversations online and on the phone. In the same way, one can want to know God without knowing if God is real or not. And as you get to know God, you come to love God. Fear never enters into the equation. You cannot fear something you don't know and to know God is to love God.

But what about obeying the master and turning the other cheek, and kicking the dust from you shoes and moving on?

If you're going to claim to have a "master" you should do as the master says.

Where did the master tell you to argue or defend his word?

Can you post that scripture so we can read it for ourselves???

But dont you see that you are causing some of the attacks?

You post in a way that is so black and white, that it raises peoples hackles.

You use strong rhetoric that incenses people to respond and then you feel the need to defend what you perceive to be an attack.

If god really was that worried about my atheist arse and truly cared about me giving him a hard time, and I was worth it, do you not think that he would give me some hard proof?

After all, according to religions of all sorts, god knows everything. So he knows what I think and what buttons to push if he wants to.

You take it too much to heart. Life is too bloody short Spider. If you truly believe (and I think you have given enough proof that you do) then let us non-believers stumble around in the darkness.

You have said that you tried other religions before you decided to give christianity a "try"
How long did you give Islam a try for?


.. and you dont have to defend the faith with such vigour... god (if he/she/it exists) can do that all on his/her/its own.

depends on the Christian... I know many that have no love and plenty of fear.

Read the Gospels. We are to follow in Jesus' footsteps and he spent a lot of time debating and teaching in public. This forum isn't a city, there are people here to agree with me, people who are neutral to me and people who don't like me so much. I'm not in physical danger. Some people have said that got something from my posts. I don't see anything wrong with posting in a forum where some people don't like you.

My posts are no more black and white than anybody else's. Try to deny that to yourself, the evidence is plan throughout the forums.

I didn't try Islam. I don't have time to try every religion, do you? How much time have you given Hinduism? How about Sikhism? How about Zoroastorism? It's a strange question to ask "How long did you give Islam a try for?", very strange.

Again .. its all about you ...

I debate as vociferously as you do (using my own methods) but I dont dislike you.

How could I? all I have is evidence on a board.

You could be a 65 year old Vietnamese transexual war veteran for all I know.

There is nothing wrong with posting in a forum where some dont like you, but its not all black and white

Belushi...Really? Abra posted TO ME. "Where did the master tell you to argue or defend his word? " I was addressing that question. It's not always about me, but that question was. This is what I don't like, when someone is so unreasonable as to ignore the obvious.

Agreed, you dont have time to try every religion.
You said you had tried other religions - Christianity is the last religion you have tried (your current one), what was the one before? (I was guessing at Islam as it is the 2nd largest)

... and why should I give time to any of the other three, when I dont believe in the biggest four?

Mormonism, Kabblah and some New age beliefs. What's the relevance?



Those were rhetorical questions, used to point out the fallacy of your question.

Well, for whatever it's worth, you aren't making the religion look inviting.

On the contrary, you're actually upsetting people who are already Christians.

You keep forgetting Spider. I used to be a Christian at one time. No way, would I align myself with your views. You are far too hardcore for me.

You keep talking about loving God, but you don't exhibit love in your posts. All you exhibit is absolutely authoritarism. Only your views of scripture are to be accepted. All other views are wrong.

That's no even a Christian stance as far as I'm concerned. I don't know any Christians who claim that only they have all the answers.

To me, you're appear to be nothing more than a run-away ego on fire.

No insult intended. I'm just sharing what I truly see before me. You aren't nice to anyone, not even Miguel, and all he wants to do is be nice to people and be accepting of them, just like Jesus taught, but you frown on that as being un-Christian-like.

Have a good evening Spider.

Catholics do. Are you going to argue that Catholics aren't Christians or that they don't claim to "have all the answers" (that's even another strawman, because I have never said that).

Abra,

I offer my interpretation of scripture. I am willing to debate to prove my interpretation. I know that is offensive to many here, but it's not against the rules... I admit that I lose my temper from time to time, I have a bad temper and it's something that I struggle with. But you are notorious for making inflammatory remarks against Christianity, which...sorry, but I get angry. When you say "Christians belong to Christianity because they are too weak to get along without it", that's offensive to me. I'm one of those "Christians" you are talking about. You can't insult a whole group of people without insulting the individuals. If you were to call one black guy an "n-word", would you be surprised if all present were insulted? Do you see my point?

But they didnt point out the fallacy of my question ...

Because you know I havent tried any religion. I have read the bible, the qu'ran, the torah and asked questions of buddhism, but none of them I took to heart.

My question was there to see what path you had taken when examining your faith.

Two of the three you mentioned have abrahamic roots. One is even classed as christian.