I’d like to say that I’m a complete believer in Christ, but that any reticence and disbelief in “christianity” is completely understandable. I do no regard this particular life that we are all familiar with as the end all leading to a fore and against judgement, but rather that we all are going through one of a number of processes that God the father has mandated . Kicking and screaming I’ve come to accept that a rigorous interpretation of scripture as divinely inspired to a T is fallible and that God speaks to us in many more ways than the bible which primarily recorded his communication with people who were contemporary. I say all this because I find the “fundamentalist” view so elitist and devisive and so contrary to the fundamental view I have of Christ’s message.
Now with regard to Polycarp
I do not want to embarrass him, but in my estimation/understanding he exceeds Mother Theresa as an example of following Christ. I hold him in the highest regard and believe his posts to be divinely inspired (but not perfect) . I make no appologies for my combative style in particular situations, because that is what I have been given, but I’ve also been given Polycarp, who may not realize it, but has been extemely influential in my growth as a human being over the past several years. Thank you Poly. I can not find any fault in the teachings of Polycarp, because he sticks to the simplicity of the gospel message. I love you Poly and realize that I may have disappointed you now and then, but one day I hope to make it down to North Carolina again and actually meet you.
See, the problem is that while I’d say you believe the way you do because you care, you seek, and you think, there are some who would say you’re just no true Scotsman.
Thankyou androsfor accepting what I’m saying at face value. We’ve had a rocky history together and if anyone is/was justified in questioning my integrity it is you. You were the first person I ever “attacked” on this message board but if you can accept this,believe me that I’ve regretted it ever since. Since then I’ve learned that this message board is not frivolous paticularly in GD when I cavalierly advanced the idea that atheism was attached to christianity/caucasianity. You’re response though it hurt was justified.
My credibility on this board is entirely of my own making, and your point is well noted. I try and continue to try to be someone worthy of respect from everyone. Agreed that I have failed in the past, but I continue attempt improvement
I have my own collection of sins, and I struggle with my faults daily. Apparently, I’m doing something right, and it would be false modesty to deny it. But I give the credit to the Lord who brought me out of a loveless, judgmental existence with emotions locked away, through the good graces of a woman whom I do not deserve the overwhelming love and loyalty of, the gentle love of a young man I am proud to consider my son (though no blood relationship obtains), and the friendship of a man who recognized my talents and set himself to reconstruct my ego. God has richly blessed my life, not least in the friendships I have made here. And I point anyone who thinks that I’m something worth emulating to Him – because He is the one who made it all happen; I just came along for the ride, kicking and screaming at first!
Um, as much as I may like Polycarp and respect him, I disagree with many of his positions and definitely don’t consider him to the “the expert on Christianity on the board.” That’s your opinion, but it doesn’t make it true. With all due respect to Poly whom I like.
God and His word can’t be separated, Guinastasia. Not in my view, anyway. He stands by His word and won’t contradict it.
Psalms 12:6-7 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Revelation 22:18-19 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
There’s a few more, but I’ll stop. Seems God takes His word more seriously than some of His acclaimed followers.
With all due respect, His, your definition of Christianity is not the definition of Christianity.
Btw, I’m sure you’ve been told this before, but it’s logically fallcious to support the “truth” of the Bible by quoting the Bible. Essentially, your argument is, “the Bible is true because the Bible says so.” It’s a circular argument. I could prove that my own posts are the word of God just as easily. Check it out:
Everything posted by Diogenes the Cynic is the lLiving Word of God.
Now, if anyone doubts this, all I have to do is link to this thread and point at this post.
How is that any different than what you do with the Bible?
Have you made the acquaintance of Gaudere’s Law yet, Diogenes? (The answer is yes – if you hadn’t up until that point, you just ran headlong into it! )
His, for the Nth time, I am a Christian and I call myself that because I am a follower of Jesus the Christ. I have a great deal of respect for the Bible, and have talked about that at length here and elsewhere, but if I considered the Bible to be the foundation of my faith and what saves me, I’d call myself a Biblian or something. You yourself bring something to your belief system which is not in the Bible – the belief that the Bible is the sole inerrant source of truth regarding God. I stand by the truth of Scripture regarding what my Savior and Lord told us to do, as outlined above. Will you say that you do likewise?
Now that is a great biblical quote! The fact that God specifies a punishment for altering the Bible means that it’s possible to do so. Now, how do you know that the Bible hasn’t already been altered, with divine punishment having been doled out accordingly?
Keep in mind that the Bible is basically saying “Don’t mess with the Bible or you’ll be punished”, not “The Bible can’t be messed with.” Now, since when has the threat of punishment ever stopped a thing from happening (and more than once, to boot)? It only stands to reason that there exists a distinct possibility that the Bible you are familiar with contains additions, deletions, or alterations.
actually Christians are the leading cause of atheism. Who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then deny Him with their lifestyle, and postings, that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelieveable.
Ya know what? Sometimes that is indeed the case. When a Christian acts like a jerk, it reflects on all Christians. When I see that no two CHristians can agree on much of anything, all Christians look bad. When Christians use their holy book to smack people around, and hurt others in the name of their God, all Christians look bad.
But ya know what else? Godlessskeptic is correct more often than not. Really, if you want to knwo how an atheist thinks, ask an atheist. Don’t assume you know.
Uh, Joe, you realize that the" book" actually refers to what we call the Book of Revelations today and not the bible which the author was completely unfamiliar with at least as we know it today.
Sorry about that, it’s just that I’ve argued with so many fundies who insist that every word in the Bible is literally true, and then drag out that same exact quote as part of their “evidence”, that I guess I went into auto-debunk mode there for a minute.
It still seems folly to me to place all one’s belief in something that only has a handful of ancient books to back it up. I can understand reading the Bible as literature, and even gleaning some historical information from it, but for someone to structure their whole way of life on it strikes me as a more than little odd.
Learning is the leading cause of atheism\agnosticism.
Once you learn the comparative histories of religion throughout time, and learn of the paucity of evidence for their multiple contradictory claims, you realize that the exclusivist truth claims made by fundamentalists are quite simply irrational, unprovable, and come from a position of ignorance - ignorance of other’s motives, other’s experiences, and other’s thoughts.
I have experienced the above myself and have read many personal testimonies of other agnostics & atheists that confirm my statement.
Basing your beliefs on a book which was voted into existence does not seem to be a viable source of information. One must keep in mind that the criteria used to decide what books should be cannon in the bible was what was in accordance with Christian teachings at the time.
Christianity has no more proof for it than any other religion in this world, and in some respects a lot less as far as being historically accurate.
However, please keep in mind that atheism is simply a lack of beliefs in any kind of deity. It is not a world view, an outlook, a creed, etc. Atheists don’t commonly agree on anything (except for lack of evidence of a deity) any more than any other group of people do. They may have certain characteristics in common generally speaking, but they do not automaticall hold the same opinions on morality, politics, religion, etc. simply because of their atheism.
