It’s statements like that, that make me wish a great tidal wave or earthquake would open-up and swallow one of these little Bible-belt towns where I would wager opinions like that are not terribly uncommon. Yes, some innocent good Christian types and those of other (or non) faiths would suffer as well, but, you know… it would be a small price to pay for God to express his disatisfaction with these people putting words in his mouth and attributing their intolerance and ignorant opinions to Him.
Of course, as an atheist and a humanist, I could never in good conscience wish that sort of tragedy on anyone, regardless of their faith or lack thereof.
I think it is a pretty fundamental tenet of Christianity that the path to eternal life is through belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Whether you get hell or oblivion or something in between if you don’t believe may be somewhat up for grabs, but Jesus was pretty darn clear on the believing part and so is every major Christian denomination.
And for the Muslims is something else, and for the Jews it’s something else, and for the Hindus and Buddhists it’s something else. A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.
My favorite analogy on religion is this:
Several old men were sitting around a stove arguing religion. They finally stopped and asked the shopkeeper which was the best way to believe in God.
The shopkeeper said, "When you take your cotton to be ginned, you can go several ways. You can take the train, you can take the river downstream, or you can take the path through the west side of the woods. But when you arrive, the gin man doesn’t ask how you got there.
Could you provide cites that show the Roman Catholic Church, an Eastern Orthodox church (your choice), and, to pick an abritrary mainstream protestent group, the United Church of Christ believe that belief in Jesus is strictly necessary for salvation? E.g., that all those who don’t or didn’t believe in Jesus are destined to Hell?
If every major Christian denomination is “pretty darn clear” on the believing part, it should be easy enough…
Many would agree with your interpretation of that passage, but not all. It’s important to remember Jesus didn’t speak English and didn’t dictate the King James Bible directly to St. Luke. Most versions of the Bible translate the word in question here “apistos,” as “unbeliever,” but another translation (used in the RSV) is “unfaithful.” It can refer to either a lack of faith or a lack of faithfulness. Jesus’ parable is somewhat deeper than just a black and white apportioning of what will happpen to the believers and what will happen to unbelievers; it’s talking about those who faithfully use what is accorded to them in this world and those who unfaithfully squander it.
I wonder what Florida did to piss him off, with four hurricanes and a tropical storm this summer. Surely it wasn’t that brouhaha back in November 2000…that would have been quite a delayed reaction, no?
Well, for Baptists it’s more like “Those who have the best cotton were naturally smart enough to take the train.”
And for Catholics it’s more like “I’ll buy your cotton, but don’t bother to bring it unless you come down the river.”
That God only cares about the good works and intentions of people may be your personal belief, but it is not the creed set down by the vast majority of Christian denominations. (Or Jewish or Muslim.)
Somehow I don’t think your choice of them is entirely arbitrary, though.
I’ll be away for a few days, but I’ll check back in if this thread is still around on Monday.
This thread tells me all I need to know about how evil religion is. WHY in the 21st fucking century do so many people still base their whole fucking lives around religion and petty squabbles over whose centuries-old selection of myths and half-remembered folk tales is better?
Aid Groups for Tsunami Victims
A few Christian-based aid-groups are listed there as well…probably to go to the affected sites and damn (or pull a Nelson Muntz) all the heathens in person… :rolleyes:
I can quote the bible too. How it’s interpretated is a whole nuther ball of wax.
At the same time, you can bet that Lutheran Social Services and the Catholic Charities will be giving aid to victims, as they have done so all over the world for years. I just want to show “the other side,” that there are Christians who are motivated by a desire to do What Jesus Would Do. It’s true that they could do that without faith, but perhaps the faith motivates them to do more.
As Yeticus Rex posted, there are many Christian charities on the list of those offering aid to the tsunami victims. And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that when I to church on Sunday the victims will be mentioned during the Prayers of the People. They may very well have a fund drive in place too. Not all Christians are complete ass wipes like the woman mentioned in the OP.
But people like that woman in the OP make me wonder if the fundamentalists have a point when they dispute evolution. Some people really are no different from pond scum. (Except for the fact that pond scum can’t talk and spread its viciousness around…)
