What Benefits Are Only Available Through God?

On the contrary, he could have the same comfort just by being a positive person with no reference to God at all. The comfort is entirely internal, so it can not be cited as a benefit only available through God. Even if God does exist, He really has nothing to do with that comfort.

That's exactly my point. If we can't know the "actual" source of his comfort, we can't realistically claim that it's "only" available through God.

I think "meaningless" is preferable to a "meaning" imposed by an alien overlord.The "meaning" in a cow's life is to be food for us. Don't you think a cow would prefer to find its own meaning?

Does it occur to the cow that we are "helping" it?

That's your own white-washed version. It isn't what most Christians believe. It isn't what Jesus said.

You can if there's an "or else" attached. And that's exactly what Jesus said: Love your neighbour and you inherit the kingdom. Don't love your neighbour and you go to everlasting torment.

Then you don't understand it. It's exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 25. That's just egregiously stupid. That is not what Jesus said. He said that those who help others will inherit eternal life. No it isn't. It's about the hands. Have you even heard of the Bible? Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love thy neighbor. And He used the parable of the Good Samaritan to explain that even your worst enemy counts as your neighbor. That's exactly it. You can fake loving somebody "in your heart". You can say, "Lord! Lord!" till the cows come home. But it's what you do with your hands that shows real love.

That isn't a "choice" any more than falling into a trap is a choice. The one who set the trap is entirely to blame. Yes, indeed. Let the record so state in bold upper-case letters as if Faith wrote it. Maybe I'll put it in my signature. Instead of just mocking what I say, why don't you make an argument? For us.It made us more like God - but you and Faith think that's a bad thing.

That doesn't change the fact that Jesus commanded people to love their neighbors. Who said anything about "justice"? Who even cares about justice? The important thing is helping each other. The motivation is irrelevant. On the contrary, there's no difference at all. The visitor eats the same food and sleeps in the same bed, regardless of your motivation.

But it isn't. If you obey the command to love, you don't have to be commanded not to kill. No. The command to love is a command to do loving actions. It isn't about rewards. The point of Matthew 25 is that God's will is about what you do, not about what you profess. It doesn't matter what your motivation or your attitude is; what matters is your physical actions.

Isaiah was written to the Jews , and by extension, if you like, to Christians. It is not about secular humanists calling evil good; it's about Jews/Christians calling evil good.

That's an empty claim - and a self-serving one. You can always claim that you really, really, really do love but without the actions, there's no reason to think that you do. By their fruits ye shall know them. It doesn't matter to anybody, except maybe a badly warped god. The only thing that matters is the action. That isn't what Jesus said. He didn't mention anything but the actual action. If you're motivated by wanting to "serve Jesus", that is not love.

We already know the answer to that. Jesus would turn water into beer. Really, there's a whole book about this stuff. You should read it sometime.

Where did He say that? Not in Matthew 25. Same thing there. All I see is the action itself, nothing about the motivation. Of course, loving your neighbour usually involves some expense to ourselves. That has nothing to do with love being in the heart. It's all about the hands.

Why can't you just take the Bible for what it says? Why do you have to twist everything to fit your pre-conceived apologetic agenda? How can you expect anybody to believe that Jesus isn't made up when YOU make up most of what you say about Him?It says that Jesus made wine. Period. You don't even know which end of the bat to hold.