hey traderNik,
Nah, I try not to be judgemental but I will say, according to my belief, that not believing has already been judged not by me but by the Living God. I just like sharing what I believe and am in no way trying to force anything on anybody. You know, just laying it out there for you to think about.
quote from traderNik
The radical theists (such as yourself, as indicated by the text quoted above) say to us 'Can you prove that God does not exist? No? Well then, that's proof that God exists'. Nothing more needs to be said about either the willingness or the ability of people who would make such statements to think rationally.
As far as being "radical" in the sense that I believe there is only one way to keep from spending an eternity separated from God (that being God's plan of salvation) I admit, I'm guilty. Beyond that I would say that you are the one being judgemental. Let's both face it. Neither of us are going to prove a theory either way. It wouldn't be a theory if we could. I'm just trying to figure out, since the advances in science that have been made since Darwin, how anyone could believe his theory anymore.
quote from traderNik
By the way, would you be willing to reveal what username you usually use here? I noticed you registered up a new one to post in this thread. Please remember, lying is un-Christian.
lol, since we're talking about all this proof business, does the fact that I don't have many posts under my username prove that I am posting under a new username? Truth = just signed up on ET last week.
It boils down to this, traderNik. There was a time when I was a non-believer. No man could have changed my way of thinking with a stick of dynamite. Thankfully, someone came along that cared enough about me to share God's plan of salvation. I can tell you it wasn't that person that caused me to change. It was God dealing with my conscience and opening my eyes to how far out what I was believing really was. After all, would you not want to know that what you are basing your beliefs on is right or wrong? All I can do is tell you what caused me to give it some thought and ultimately change the way I believe.
Let's just say YOU are right and I still want to be a believer of the Bible. I will live my life under it's guidance... being kind, being a good husband/father, helping my fellow man, etc... When I die, I'm just DEAD. No Heaven, no Hell. I will have spent my days being a good person according to the Bible, no sweat... no big loss. I'm just dead.
But now let's just say that I'M right and there IS a Heaven and a Hell. Where would you spend your eternity? I sure would hate to be in Hell and have the rest of eternity to think about how I passed up the opportunity to be in Heaven and in the presence of the Almighty God that created this whole universe.
I know, I know I'm sounding like a fanatic Bible thumper but that's what I believe. I mean hey, I'm a Christian. I'm supposed to want to share the Bible and what Jesus has done for me and all mankind. IF we believe in Him
rc [/QUOTE]And that's the problem: almost all traditional approaches to Christianity try to explain atonement, forgiveness and redemption in legalistic terms, seeking to define it in terms of conditions and technicalities. But it's like a blanket that's just too small, and no matter which way you pull it, you'll always expose another problematic part:
If salvation was based on "good works", then it would be possible to "work one's way into heaven", so to speak. (At least if you perceive it in legalistic terms.)
If salvation was based on faith, the result is even more fatal, as the minimum requirement wouldn't even involve being loving, but rely solely upon professing the right beliefs - which makes it even more problematic than the "good works"-approach, ethically speaking.
Calvinism eliminates this by stating that it's God's choice, not Man's, thus making salvation unattainable by any effort of our own. All nice and well, until you acknowledge that there are people who are not saved, in spite of being just as deserving as the ones who receive the Spirit. At that point, this theology starts to go down the drain, as it effectively turns God into a demonic entity, a fickle monster who delights in hearing the screams of the tormented - for he would be capable of saving all and yet chooses not to.
"The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man. But compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin.
1. That there are three Gods.
2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, is nothing.
3. That faith is every thing, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit the faith.
4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use.
5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former can damn them; no virtues of the latter save. Thomas Jefferson
