As understood by whom? You?
Do you know how many people have the same idea but see God’s purpose very differently from you? What makes you right and them wrong?
Jesus told you pretty clearly to be humble.
God’s purpose is laid out in the Bible.
Which God?
The only God. The one, true God: the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and
invisible.
And one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God
of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father,
through Whom all things were made: Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was
incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man: Who for us, too, was crucified under
Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried: the third day He rose according to the Scriptures, ascended into
heaven, and is seated on the right hand of the Father: He shall come again with glory to judge the living
and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end.
And the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son: Who
together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified: Who spoke by the prophets.
Amen.
Oh! it’s all so clear to me now! what a fool I’ve been! :rolleyes:
So you are telling us that you are an atheist about every religion but yours?
But we are at least as reliably informed that
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱلله
There is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God.
What makes you right?
Again, why should we do that? How do we know the Bible is true?
Fucking time limits!!!
As for “God’s purpose being laid out in the Bible”, well, there’s more than one version, dude. You said you’re a Baptist. As a Catholic*, I don’t take the Bible literally, nor do we believe in sola fide, or sola scriptura.
*Well, non-practicing. But I still generally see myself as Catholic.
I vote No on that. Fortunately, more and more people are nowadays too.
Mmmkay.
I’m just going to go back to the beginning, and take issue with the misinterpretation of the poll itself.
There is precisely a four percent difference amongst a SEGMENT of Democrats in an informal poll, who somehow (we aren’t privy to the exact questions asked) didn’t find Churches to be a positive force in America.
Declaring that this translates to the notion that the Democratic party “has even more rigidly embraced the dogma of secular liberalism, and is becoming much less religious and Christian,” requires a lot more than just misunderstanding the poll results. It requires rewriting them entirely.
The wall between church and state needs to be transparent, so that you can see atheists throwing bags of reason over it!
Does your pastor know you use that kind of language?
See this kind of hypocrisy and “Sunday Christian” are why people think your religious beliefs are nonsense. You want to control everybody else without even controlling yourself. You point the finger at everyone else, looking down on them while feeling morally superior. Do you even know what the bible says about swearing? Do you care or do you just get to pick and choose what parts of the bible also apply to you?
James 1:26 - If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
I am so completely sick of the hypocrisy of so-called christians.
58% of Republicans say that colleges and universities are bad for America. This is from the same survey that OP cites. It strikes me as more interesting that than the statistic OP quotes. Note that the partisan divide on this question is much larger than on the churches question.
Out of curiosity, what about Americans who are devout adherents to Judaism? Islam?
But I’m even more curious about the fact that 58% of Republicans (just “Republicans and those who lean Republican” — not “right-wing Republicans”) think colleges are bad.
Do you agree Bruiser1036 ? Are schools bad for America?
I don’t see any mention of education here. Is the one true God also opposed to schools?
Maybe it has nothing to do with religion. I think it’s bad for the country that lots of preachers tell their congregations how to vote, and yet don’t have to pay taxes on billions of dollars worth of real estate and income, and I would feel the same way about any secular organization that did the same.
Would those be the same evangelicals that voted for Trump by a margin of 81 to 16? And the ones who currently share with neo-Nazis the distinction of being one of the strongest demographic of his base? All of which has to be one of the great ironies of our times, since Trump himself is about as devoutly religious as my dog. Actually my dog’s friendliness towards others and his general outlook of minding his own business and letting others be reflects a far more Christian attitude.
The US is only 241 years old. You’re not off to a great start by inflating that to “over 300”.
To complement my previous post on secular reasons, I just want to note that Christians are not the best authorities on rationality.
When so many so-called Christians act like holier-than-thou hypocrites, to the point of voting a crass, misogynistic, bigoted bully into the highest office in the land so long as they think he’ll appoint judges who’ll protect their right to cast the first stone at the “sin” they think they see all around them, well, what do you expect? What ever happened to humility, to charity, to compassion? If you want people to see you as a force for good, maybe spend less time judging them and more time actually trying to do some good.
Seriously? You think we should abolish our military and criminal justice system, love our enemies, and forgive criminals? That’s about the only morality from Jesus that wasn’t already in the Hebrew Bible. Jesus also said to obey every law of Moses, which means killing women who can’t prove they are virgins on their wedding night, killing rape victims within city limits, killing people for mowing their lawn or washing their car on the Sabbath, and other absurdities that make Sharia Law look liberal.