The Marketing Of Christianity

The mind of a believer is a puzzle to me.....I don't prefer anything, I'm an atheist - god doesn't exist. My questions were an attempt to show you that there's no logic in what you say. God can't reach out to individual people, if he did he'd be unjust, discriminatory and be depriving people of their free will. I have no interest in what the bible says, but it's hardly worth saying that we are responsible for ourselves. How could it be otherwise? Cobblers. God doesn't exist, Phat - you can, and do, argue anything you like but you'll never get anywhere with it. No one ever has, have they?

No, but I believe that GOD IF GOD exists expects high standards for us. Tangle claims that God(the one I market, I assume) discriminates and is arbitrary.Comments? Again, Pharaoh. But the story could apply to Whosoever has ears to hear, in the context of how they receive the message and its content. Well, to be honest, I'm only now finding out how the God I create actually behaves. That's why I told Tangle to make his own kool-aid and drink it. Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

You can't know that.We are simply being hypothetical. I am not asking you to believe in the God i market, nor in jars. I am inviting you to hypothetically create your own god. OK, good start. You have created a God Who can't reach out to individual people without violating their free will. Am I correct? If so, how is God supposed to get their attention so as to allow them to suspend their disbelief long enough for it to not count as a violation?? (keep in mind we are obviously talking hypothetical)

And discriminating against those he doesn't reach out to.If the ultimate purpose of this god is to get people into his heaven, and if heaven is the place we're all supposed to want to go to, and if the other place is everlasting fire, then he's giving some a free pass and condemning others - like me - to hell. He can't. That's my point. Ergo he's either non-existant or unjust. I pick non-existant.

Does your God care more about you than about pond scum? Only to the extent of hearing a message but then doing the work needed to accomplish the task. Hearing the warning did not fill any warehouses and store rooms; only doing the work filled them.

I can't know. Darn it...you have just shown me that your whole idea of GOD being unknowable actually makes sense! ahhhhhhh!

Let's try a next step.Suppose we stop worrying about what we can't know and move on to what we can know.If we believe we are charged to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, protect the weak, heal the sick, house the homeless, what can we do to work towards those goals? Those are big things. None of us alone can put aside enough to feed everyone during the seven lean years. We can't fill the store rooms.But if we work as an individual and also as a communion, as a congregation, as the laity, there are things we can do.We can oppose political parties that do not make the Charge paramount.We can oppose a military budget and support a foreign aid budget; forge plows from swords.We can support "Free Rice" or "The World Community Grid" or "Boys & Girls Clubs".We can put shopping carts away.We can kneel down so we talk to kids at their eye level.We can get stuff off the high shelf for folk and hold a door open.We can support Planned Parenthood and Salvation Army and Red Cross and give blood and speak out against injustice.We can listen to the local Imam and try to see through his eyes.We can (well some of us can, they said my hair was too skinny) donate hair to make wigs for those undergoing chemotherapy. Those of us who cannot can knit animal caps for kids with big floppy ears or stripes like a tiger.The point is there are a whole bunch of places where we can place our effort where our small contribution adds up to a large benefit.

How is that not a threat? The goats are cursed into everlasting fire.

That's not a very good marketing strategy, trying to sell us what YOU want.

Im just trying to convince you that you need the product.I'll split my commission with you if we make a deal.

Critics would say that the goats cursed themselves.Don't tell me you are defending the goats now!

But you're trying to convince me to buy a product that YOU need. You're trying to sell me mud-flaps when I don't have a car.

The Goats are all followers of Jesus.

Idiots would say that. Of course I am. How do I know I'm not going to be a goat?

Well, you could try as hard as you can to feed as many as you can and give spare change to alleviate any consciousness pangs. Also stay as far from religion as you can. They breed goats.