Religions are fairy tales for adults. Should we encourage them to grow up?

Another thread by someone who wants to interfere in the freedoms of others. Bunch of fascists.

I see the Inquisition as the murder arm of the pagan Roman Church, and my own Church its primary victims, the true Church, Protestants all the way back to the early Church. Those who confuse Romanism with Christianity have no sense of history or true religion at all. But I wouldn't expect you to have any sense anyway.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

The Bible itself identifies Gnosticism as heresy, not any church denomination.I am not going to watch any of your You Tube offerings without knowing who they represent and what they are about.Your arguments are the ones advocating harm to others.

No "cult," just true Bible believers who early on -- 7th century at least but they claim to go back to earlier limes than that -- recognized the antichrist direction of the Roman Church and stayed separate from it, nevertheless being hunted down and murdered by the RCC from time to time. Waldensians and other dissident groups got persecuted by the RCC, the Waldensians living in the high valleys of the Alps for centuries, sending out their own missionaries, regarded the RCC as the antichrist system. When the Protestant Reformation got underway the Reformers recognized the earlier persecuted groups as Bible believers like themselves, proto-Protestants.Some claim that Gnosticism already existed as a heresy of Judaism before Christianity, but in any case it's always been regarded AS a heresy. Some Bible texts that are considered to be condemnations of the gnostics:BIBLE VERSES ABOUT GNOSTICISMhttp://www.bibletools.org/...ow/RTD/cgg/ID/66/Gnosticism.htm

Historical Christianity is based on the Bible. Deviations from the Bible are the evidence of heresies. Some curruptions of the Bible do exist but the vast majority of the extant mss and parts of mss show consistency, no evidence of some conspiracy of "Christians" to alter the text. By that ridiculous standard there could never be any possible trustworthy history. So if Gnosticism had prevailed we couldn't trust their history either.Sorry, Gnosticism is a heresy, it contradicts and violates Biblical revelation.I thought it was the Islamic invasion that was the occasion of the burning of the library at Alexandria. Google turns up discussion of four "possible" occasions of burning, only one of them at all Christian: A couple of Roman Emperors, a Coptic patriarch and the Islamic invasion. Merely "possible" occasions. In other words it isn't known for sure.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

You are evading kbertsche's point. You said any literal reading of scripture causes evils to grow, and he showed you a scripture where that isn't the case. Now you are changing the subject and making up a completely different complaint.By the way, a Christian who was sent to a concentration camp for hiding Jews did obey the command to love her enemy. It was hard for her to do but after the war Corrie Ten Boom shook the hand of the Nazi who had persecuted her sister to death in the camp. She resisted the command at first. He had come up to her after a speech she had given to tell her he had converted to Christ. Her sister had already loved her enemy while in the camp, always being self-deprecating and kind to her persecutors.Among other things it's a recognition that we're all human and were circumstances reversed any of us could be the persecutor, and knowing that the Nazis would suffer in Hell we hope for their repentance and salvation. That's loving your enemy.I know of another situation. A pastor in Romania who was brought in to the authorities for interrogation which involved being beaten. His laboriously collected library of Christian books was confiscated. After he was released the interrogator told him he'd actually looked forward to seeing him because he was always loving toward him.To love your enemy is hard for us in the flesh, it takes the special help of God to be able to do it. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Of course America started out with Christian laws, laws based on the Bible. Gradually paganization has replaced them. You don't want Christian laws imposed on you, but I guess it's okay with you if your laws are imposed on Christians, and your beliefs taught in public schools no matter who objects to them. Right?

By specifically excluding "religion" you fail to recognize that religion is just one of the worldviews that law can be based on, and that you yourself advocate a worldview that others disagree with, though it doesn't bother you at all to impose yours on the rest of us.Though Vishnu could not be celebrated by a Christian society, you should also recognize that the recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage, and their ruling back in 1973 in favor of abortion, seriously violate Christian teachings though they are forced on us, this latest ruling in a way that actually criminalizes us for opposing gay marriage. But as the conversation has gone here on this subject it is very clear that nobody is bothered at all about this tyrannical imposition. Though it would bother you immensely if the Ten Commandments were made the law of the land, as they used to be. So America has now reverted to paganism, paganism is imposed on Christians as well as everbody else, doesn't bother anyone here at all.As for what Christian law mandates, there have been different versions of it in different societies, but freedom of religion is not excluded, only any practices that seek to overthrow the governing worldview. There is no problem with religions that practice a peaceable worship of Vishnu or Allah or any other "god."

Good grief, Christianity doesn't expect people not to be sinners, on the contrary. Even believers are sinners, even the saved are sinners. Certainly we expect an entire society of unbelievers to be sinners, nobody is going to forbid people from being sinners.Elevating a pagan god over the God of the Bible isn't going to happen in a Christian society, but that's different from allowing people of different religions to worship as they please in their own private spheres.

Refusing to recognize gay marriage is now a crime.

Chrjstian businesses asked to perform a service for a gay wedding were already being treated as criminal for refusing to do so before the SCOTUS decision; that can only increase. Now, if the authorities were inclined to, they could arrest a pastor for preaching from the parts of the Bible that affirm marriage as for one man and one woman and that homosexuality is a sin. For that matter, they could come knock on my door and inquire what my opinion of gay marriage is, and if I say it's a violation of God's law they could arrest me. That they haven't yet done so and may not for some time is really kind of irrelevant when the law says they could. And there is every reason to believe that there are plenty of gay activists who are gearing up for just this sort of campaign.

You are playing word games. "Recognize" in this context means to treat it as valid, which Bible believing Christians will not do.Oh this should start soon I would think, next few months even. A single instance of challenging a Christian business enough for you? But I'd only bet on five years. Do they have basements in Las Vegas? I thought there was too much danger of flash flooding for that.

I might prefer jail to your basement.

"Challenging a Christian business" just means asking for service for a gay wedding which of course the business will refuse, whether you think they should or not.Yes I believe all that I said could very well happen in the near future.No, I don't feel like betting again, I already have a bet in with you and don't even remember what it's about.If you want to hide Christians, though, you need to build a space behind fake walls as some of the Dutch did for the Jews in WWII. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Evidence please. I've shown evidence of five or six gay attacks on businesses already, there is none on your side. But lies like yours are very likely to be fuel for the anti-Christian actions I am expecting.