Peanut Gallery Comments on Great Debate

An image that I've used before: A parakeet fighting with his own image in the mirror.

You don't have to be an atheist/agnostic to be a critical thinker or a humanist. On the contrary, the people on my "side" give me a much rougher ride when they disagree with me. You cherry-pick and sanitize, with no rationale except what is palatable. Genesis 1 is demonstrably wrong about how it happened, so how can you trust its claims about who did it?John 1:1-2 is an obvious metaphor. We don't need "inspiration" to behave properly. The apostle Paul said so. Obviously, proper behaviour is more important than misinformation and/or metaphoric mumbo-jumbo. I'm not going to read ICANT's rubbish if I'm not allowed to respond directly. If you don't want me to respond in this thread, don't make yourself a target. You don't have to seek me. If you're here, you're a target.

Well, specifically YOUR God is fiction. Even you don't believe all of the stories about Him. The only difference between us is that I don't believe the cherry-flavoured ones either.I don't know much about most other gods, so it's possible that one or more of them might be real. Of course it does. It claims there were plants before the sun was created, for example.

I don't separate Genesis 1:1 from the rest of the chapter any more than I separate, "Once upon a time there were three bears," from the rest of that story.

Yes, that's where you go wrong. If you're going to pick and choose the parts you like, you might as well make up the whole thing from scratch. It's easy to get lost if you pick and choose the parts of the map that you like.

There's no reason to think there is.

Then it isn't a reasonable question.

The only reason I ever mention Matthew 25 is because so many so-called "believers" ignore it or twist it. That isn't what it says though. It says "all nations".

No you don't. You calimed in Message 33 that, "That promise will be fulfilled in the following verses of Matthew 25:31-46 when the nations that have helped the descendants of Abraham will be allowed to go into the 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth."That's false. It doesn't say anything about, "the nations that have helped the descendants of Abraham." It says, "all nations." There are no "sheep nations" or "goat nations". People are judged individually.

Nope.

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John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

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We've been through this many times before. What does it mean to believe? If you throw the message away, how can you claim to "believe in" the messenger? Jesus answered that question explicitly (Matthew 25).

It's like you didn't read my post at all. Believing in the message is the only way to "believe in the messenger".

Since people are judge individually, "all nations" refers to the individual people of all nations. It doesn't make any sense to condemn a whole nation - the good along with the bad - and exonerate another whole nation - the bad along with the good. If that were so, there would be no individual salvation. You'd be saved or condemned along with your nation, regardless of your own belief or behaviour.

Matthew 25 says "all nations". That means all people who are living at that time. It can not be divided by arbitrary "countries" as you claim and still be a judgement of individuals. Unscriptural - but still irrelevant. The people who are there will be judged individually, not by the artificial borders that they happen to live inside.

Matthew didn't say anything about Jerusalem and neither did I. His physical lineage is not relative. Jesus considered all men an women as brothers and sisters. Note the story of the Good Samaritan. On the contrary, it is ONLY individuals that are mentioned. Countries don't feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit prisons, etc. (In fact, right-wing Christians tend to assert that those things should ONLY be done by individuals and NOT by governments.)

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1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

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1Thessalonians 4:16-17 talks about the second coming of Jesus. It is not a separate event. And it says nothing about the dead rising - so no, it doesn't agree with your definition of the "rapture". You're the one who is changing what the word says, as I have shown.

Earth. Why would He be limited to one locale? Indeed. Why would he? Which is why it makes no sense to assume Jerusalem. You're funny. I have quoted what the Bible says and I have pointed out where you have twisted it. Sez you. Since Jesus was the Son of man, He was by definition the brother of all other sons of man. But of course that is not how brotherhood works. Brothers are brothers by birth. They can also be nominal brothers, for all intents and purposes the same as biological brothers. But what you can not do is exclude biological brothers. You missed the word "prisons". How many people does the US visit and comfort in prison? It doesn't say that Jesus doesn't touch the earth. It just says that the living meet Him in the air. Touch. That part is entirely made up, 100% fiction, without a germ of truth to it. If you're such a master debater, you should understand that the debater (you) doesn't get to decide who's winning. YOU'RE dishonest, as many people besides me have pointed out. I DO have time to point out your dishonesty and your abuse of the scriptures and I will continue to do so. I couldn't care less if you ever answer one of my posts but you can count on me answering your nonsense. You can run but you can't hide.