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Author | Topic: What is Christianity? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
That depends on what you mean by "knowing" God. Do you have to know that His name is Jehovah? Do you have to know that He has a son named Jesus? Does a person have to know God in order to love God? Is it possible to "know" Shakespeare five hundred years after he died? By his works ye shall know him.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
No.
Is not the real evidence within ones own soul and heart and not based on historical, archeological, or psychological facts?
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Rocky.C. writes:
I find it amusing that you (seem to) claim that you understand who and what God is, and His purpose in creating Man.
... I find it amusing that an individual who is less than a century old has the audacity to tell us what happened billions of years ago?Also, it is not possible for someone (or anyone) to explain what it means to be a Christian when they do not understand who and what God is, or His purpose in creating Man.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Rocky.C. writes:
Are you aware that Muslims can read? Why do different religions and even different denominations have such different "understanding" of God?
Anyone who possess the ability to read should be capable of understanding who God is and His purpose in creating man.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
I seem to recall iano saying that the best place to learn "the gospel" is in Romans.
Strictly speaking, (even for a literalist) the teachings of christ are limited to the Gospels.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
NoNukes writes:
If being a real Christian became illegal, the authorities would go to the Christian churches to arrest Christians. It seems unlikely that they would go after anybody who turned the other cheek or helped the poor.
One of my aunts likes to ask, "If being a real Christian became illegal, could you even get yourself arrested". Her impression was that we ought to be able to recognize at least some aspect of Jesus teachings in your life.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
How could they do that?
IF the authorities actually had the ability to spot a real Christian they may ignore the churches... Phat writes:
No matter how rabidly "evil" an authoritarian government was, its interest would still be in having the citizenry "get along". It's ridiculous to suggest that they would want to stop anybody form being Christ-like.
They may well go after the atheist who turned the other cheek or helped the poor.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
NoNukes writes:
No, I got your point. I was just pointing out that your aunt, bless her soul, was wrong.
But the point of my aunt's rather impractical hypothetical is that simply identifying Church attendees is not the correct way to define true Christians. So either you missed my point or I didn't tell the story correctly. NoNukes writes:
And the point of the story is wrong. No government would arrest people for showing some aspect of Jesus' teaching in their lives. They'd arrest people who are members of a Christian organization.
Ridiculous or not, the arrest of people for being Christ-like is exactly the point of the story.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Jon writes:
That's a nice conspiracy theory but I don't think it matches reality. Do you have any examples of authoritarian governments that encourage people to "scuffle amongst themselves"?
Because sometimes when the people are too busy scuffling amongst themselves they can be trusted not to notice the large dick raping them in the bank.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
Then it's important that we are alive today. He can be alive "in Spirit" without actually existing. Tom Joad could be said to be alive "in Spirit".
In my opinion, it is important to believe that Jesus is alive--today--in Spirit and Body. Where is His body, one may ask...We are the Body of Christ and He is the Head of this Body. Phat writes:
How is Jesus more alive than Shakespeare?
Jesus is alive and Shakespeare is dead, though his writings are basically preserved forever as a legacy and "creation" of Shakespeares. Phat writes:
You can know anybody by his works. Jesus said so.
ringo writes:
Know whom? Jesus or the particular member of His Body? By his works ye shall know him.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Rocky.C. writes:
I think it quite clearly is, both in the sense of a character in the story and in the sense of a person of importance. Not a "person" literally, but a personage definitely.
The Holy Spirit is not a personage.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
I agree. God is a product of somebody else's imagination. You just borrowed the hook, line and sinker.
God is NOT a product of my imagination
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
As I suggested, the concept was originated by "somebody else". I don't think the tendency to believe in gods is inherent in humans. Somebody makes up a god and convinces others to believe in it.
I never understood why you rejected the concept.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
NoNukes writes:
You said in Message 191:
What you are describing is not the point of the story, so it is you and not the story that is wrong.quote:But it's the ONLY way. You can't identify everybody who gives a dollar to a panhandler as a Christian. NoNukes writes:
No. My position is that you can't identify a hare by the patterns on its shell.
Your position is exactly the same as rebutting the point of an Aesop's fable by insisting that tortoises and hares cannot actually talk and that they would never actually race each other.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Phat writes:
If you hadn't known about the mythos, would you have thought of it by yourself? Do you think it's just coincidence that you happen to live in a Christian culture and you happen to believe in the Christian God? I'd be impressed if God was communing with you and telling you his prophet was Mohammed.
IIRC, nobody convinced me to believe. It was that one day I was changed.
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