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Author | Topic: Importance of Original Sin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1466 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
The fact that lots of people believe something doesn’t make it true. Lots of people have believed lots of very silly things. Lots of people don't just believe lots of silly things these days. That idea in itself is a silly thing people believe though. It's really a stupidly ignorant belief that is held by more and more people all because of some stupidly ignorant propaganda. The history of Christianity shows a very high level of intellectual and social thought that makes today's political and social thought look idiotic. The fact that there are historically such great minds and souls in support of Christ really ought to dissuade you from dismissing them as just a bunch of silly people and take seriously that they have something important to say to you.
There is a question to answer about why so many people believe such things. There is no such question from the point of view of those who do hold these beliefs, or who appreciate what Christianity has done for the world, it's only in the mind of people who have no clue to any of it.
And if we examine that question using the most reliable investigative techniques available to us there are answers to be found. Unfortunately such techniques are utterly incompetent to answer the questions you are asking.
But the answers so far achieved point to psychology, culture, history and other such very human factors. There is nothing to suggest actual god-given purpose beyond the popularity of the idea that there is one (with no real agreement on what that purpose would actually be, even amongst believers). Which is the only kind of answer your techniques could give you and it is ridiculously inadequate to the task, as if you asked a fish to judge an elephant.
So the difference between me and Phat is not that I am a robotic automaton who cannot experience love unless my Geiger counter tells me to. It’s that I am happy to claim love, find purpose and subjective m I don't agree with Phat about much and I would never call an unbeliever an automaton (though I doubt Phat did either), and of course unbelievers experience all the things you mention and think they are happy with that too. I don't question any of that. I also know unbelievers have a conscience and a moral sense because those are God-given faculties. We're all made in the image of God. But salvation and knowledge of God are something else, something we lost at the Fall that can only be reclaimed by believing in Christ. You are a very high and noble creature with an immortal soul and you can't find that out with your investigative techniques.
Psa 8:4-6 writes: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands... But fallen man has become like a beast and thinks he is a beast. Toss him such pearls and he tramples them underfoot
Psalm 49:20 writes: Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
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Straggler Member Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
quote: 1) I am talking about all who seek/claim divine purpose. Not necessarily just Christians. 2) That not questioning bit is where you are going wrong.
quote: What techniques or methods of discovery do you suggest instead?
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined:
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Faith writes:
Yes, the millions of Muslims are a compelling reason to believe that there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet. Not even the fact that millions of others have thought so and many even written extensively about it.And our geese will blot out the sun.
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1466 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
Except that Ilsam is patently evil and idiotic. That's the difference.
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1466 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
talking about all who seek/claim divine purpose. Not necessarily just Christians. You were answering me and I was only talking about Christianity.
2) That not questioning bit is where you are going wrong. I'm not going wrong at all, you are. Believers know the answer so have no reason to question.
What techniques or methods of discovery do you suggest instead? There aren't any. Believing is what Jesus tells us to do. If you want a technique of investigation instead, forget it, there aren't any.
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ringo Member (Idle past 434 days) Posts: 20940 From: frozen wasteland Joined: |
Faith writes:
Your claim, in Message 1152, was that millions of believers is a reason to believe that God exists. How do you tell the evil and idiotic millions from the reasonable millions? Except that Ilsam is patently evil and idiotic. That's the difference.And our geese will blot out the sun.
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Straggler Member Posts: 10333 From: London England Joined: |
So millions of believers is justification itself for belief and don’t ask questions just believe is the investigative technique at play. But only as long as we’re talking about Christianity because none of the other religions with millions of followers are worth considering.
I see. Thanks for the objective and impartial analysis and advice.
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Aussie Member Posts: 275 From: FL USA Joined: |
Hi Phat!
I would argue that at least some Christians are more qualified to comment on what Jesus means for us today rather than throwing him away and keeping a 2000-year-old message in a book with which to defend your point. Except multiple thousands of wildly varying groups shouting over each other telling us what Jesus really said invalidates your entire point. None of you have proved to have any better idea than any of the rest of us. Look at the nonsense here on our own pages...ICANT and creation can't even decide on the number of Adam and Eve creatures wandering through the first pages of the Bible. You guys act beyond absurd.
One does not do a plain literal reading of a 2000-year-old "message and apply it to modern society in a modern context. One does not! Because we know better, so much better than 4,000 year old superstitious scribes! We actually know better! So do all of you. That's why you all wriggle and writhe out of the true, original meaning of Scripture in a variety of bizarre "Interpretations" in a crazy attempt to align their primitive morality to the modern human.
... what Jesus means for us today rather than throwing him away and keeping a 2000-year-old message in a book with which to defend your point. I understand what you want to say here, but it is also absurd. The only, only, ONLY way you know anything about your "living, moving, and coming" Saviour, is because he is talked about in that 2000 year old book you would reject in place of His PERSON. Very circular belief. "...heck is a small price to pay for the truth"
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
Phat writes: To me, the message is not something written down thousands of years ago. It is also largely irrelevant what ancient folks did or didn't do. If Jesus is relevant at all, He is relevant in a current living sense. Hi Phat. That is ok but it will only take you so far and for that matter can, and will, lead you down the wrong paths. To understand Jesus' message in the NT it is important to have a fairly reasonable sense of the culture and the political environment of the time. Much of what Jesus was talking about was very political and if we want to know how to apply that message to the 21st century we have to understand it in Jesus' 1st century Jewish environment. That is the trouble with a lot of Christianity theology today. It is taking texts written in a very different time and in a very different culture and trying to force them into a 21st century world. Square pegs and round holes. There's a hymn I like that has this line in it that reads like this; "So complex so simple, so clear so mysterious". The Christianity message of loving your neighbour and the message in my signature is simple and clear. Christian theology is complex and mysterious. He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1466 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
By their doctrines.
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1466 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
I agree with you that the culture of the times is important for understanding what Jesus meant, or any other part of the Bible for that matter, but I disagree strenuously that
Much of what Jesus was talking about was very political No. Jesus said nothing political. Zip.
That is the trouble with a lot of Christianity theology today. It is taking texts written in a very different time and in a very different culture and trying to force them into a 21st century world. Square pegs and round holes. That is complete poppycock. Standard evangelical preaching, as well as Reformed preaching which is more my part of the Church, is generally very well grounded in the culture and historical context of the time of Christ, and in in fact all the different time periods covered in the Bible throughout the Old Testament as well, and nobody tries to force anything on them. That information is used to bring out the meaning of the texts. I don't know where you get such silly ideas about traditional Christianity. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
Faith writes: Well, you are wrong. Obviously you will disagree, but much of your end times theology isn't eschatological at all. Jesus spoke against the revolutionaries telling them that if they kept that up Jerusalem, and more specifically the Temple, would be destroyed as happened in 70AD. You assign a ridiculous literal interpretation to something that obviously is meant as hyperbole. No. Jesus said nothing political. Zip.He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1466 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
Huh?
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GDR Member Posts: 6202 From: Sidney, BC, Canada Joined: Member Rating: 2.1 |
Faith writes: Well, that's pretty conclusive and explains a lot. Huh?He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1466 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
Translation of "huh" = I can't answer you if you aren't specific about what Jesus said and why you think it means what you said.
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