How To Get To Heaven When You Die

But we've given many, many reasons why we don't believe as you do. You haven't addressed any of them.

 

Actually I'm convinced that this is an art project account by a current or former member to see how creative TFP can be in response to standard Christian conversation attempts.
Perhaps we need to up our game.

 

As you wish.

Pertaining to what I was saying earlier, if gods are going to get personally involved in recruiting worshipers, I could easily see some of them resorting to the very hard sell:


(okay, I used a similar joke before. By George, this one was just so much damned fun, though!)

 

Because all I see here is mocking and ridicule. If those here wish to have serious discussion, I would very much like that and would be committed to answering questions and giving reasons why I believe as I do. If you really want that, then I will take another look at those who are not mocking and the questions that they have.
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I'm very glad to hear that. God bless.
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The Holy Trinity is God and not Blasphemy. It's clearly laid out in the Bible.
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Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies from the OT. There is no doubt that He is the Messiah.

 

Way to evade the issue, man.

 

He allowed us to sin because He is not controlling. He allowed us freewill. People accuse Him of being controlling, yet when it is pointed out that He has given us freewill they answer with, Why would God allow this? He allowed it because He has given us freewill. He wants us to CHOOSE to love and serve Him of our own freewill, not because we are forced to.

 

For every bit of mocking, most of which has come out of your steadfast refusal to have any kind of actual conversation but instead just repeat the same talking points like some kind of wind up politician, there have been reasonable attempts to explain why your choices wouldn't work for most of us.
You haven't bothered to address any of these points.
I'd say @Levite does the best job of making his point which is why I suspect you so carefully ignore him.
Nobody wants to go up against somebody who is a professional in the field where you are strictly a hobbyist.

 

An angel will fetch you if you do good before you die.

 

What, like a dog?
Is Lassie an angel? I can dig it.

 

If you punish someone for doing the "wrong thing", then you are in fact being controlling. And I'd go much further to say that he is a passive agressive monster. In teaching my kids how to act and behave, I don't leave my guns lying around or let them play in traffic. I work with them personally to help them learn. I don't leave a kid a book and say here you go. If you fuck up then I'll torture your soul for eternity. That would take an evil monster, and I'm not an evil monster. But if a monster like that did exist, I would do my best to destroy it. Because it sounds like it's the ultimate evil in the universe.

 

Bingo!

I enjoyed the thread for about two pages because i knew exactly where it was going. It's like this guy stuck is toe (on purpose as the quote suggests) into a piranha pool and just as slowly as possible giving you all a little bit more to keep you going. This has been the most active thread i've seen in my sporadic 10 years since i've been kicked off because i was (and still am) an asshole. He's made no attempt to really do anything other than quote the bible to stimulate the conversation. and it's wonderful, because no good points are being made to get anyone offended. it's all crazy, no chance this will ever get shut down because it's a cesspool.

But, let's assume for one second he's legit and he's as crazy as the right wing holy conservatives come.....on the bright side, none of you have to worry about...well, revenge for lack of a better word. Pretty sure if this from a crazy as the come left wing holy liberal, you'd all be thinking twice about your responses.

Jut an observation......nothing more. Maybe because it's the first vacation i've had in years, i myself am wondering why this prompted me to reinvolve myself. Nostalgia maybe...It's been too long since i've been hated.

 

The basic problem is that nobody has any objective evidence to support any religious premise. That's why they call it faith. To quote CS Lewis "To the non-believer no proof is possible; to the believer no proof is necessary."

As a for-instance, I can say that my old pal Levite is going straight to hell because his god tells him shellfish are bad and my god is a shellfish, therefore I win (yes I'm back to Jibbers Crabst again).... I can say god is a tapestry and Baraka is his weaver, and while I exaggerate for effect what I say can be just as valid to me as what Levite says is to him, as what Christian says is to him, as what Baraka says is to him. Are we all crazy? Is one of us sane and the rest damned? Who can say?

Yes, it's true some of the posts are mocking (guilty as charged) and perhaps that's not conducive to a civilized debate. I apologize for that. I've spent so much time around religious extremists (especially the kind that kill those who disagree with them) that I tend to react...well... extremely. Basically I think they're all fucking bonkers and I'll eat meat on Friday and pork chops and fornicate my way across the USA if I damn well feel like it.

Personally I am agnostic (not atheist). I can't in good conscience say "There is no god and there cannot be" because I think that's intellectually dishonest and indefensible. You can't know that. But I can say that I don't know the nature of god, and I don't think anyone else does, either. In the interest of full disclosure I was born and raised Roman Catholic.

However, Christian, many have asked pointed questions and attempted to engage in civilized debate or discussion and frankly you have not stepped up. If your purpose was to preach, you are probably in the wrong house. If your purpose was to discuss, then spouting doctrine over and over again like a scratched 78 record won't get you where you want to go.

So stop dodging or stop preaching.

 

Exactly. Nobody has truly objective evidence of any religious premise, including that God even exists. Which is why, if you'll pardon my tooting the Jew horn, I really value the fact that Jews are prohibited from active proselytization. It simply seems far more reasonable to take a passive course in that area, presuming that if people are interested in what your religion does and says, they are perfectly capable of seeking you out on their own. And for those not interested, great. We don't bother them (at least in theory), they (ideally) do not bother us.

I've read back over this thread, and I am actually a little sorry I ended up sounding as negative as I did about Christianity. I have some wonderful friends who are Christian ministers, and some really collegial relationships with a few more ministers and priests. I know a lot of Christians that are just awesome people, with really thoughtful theological attitudes and great religious practice (driving awesomely progressive politics, too). That Christianity has never bothered me for a second, although I certainly have numerous respectful theological differences with it, and I usually enjoy enormously the interfaith dialogue, text study, and cultural sharing I experience with my Christian friends and colleagues.

But man, missionizing just grates on my teeth, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me.

 

Levite's post brings to mind an Oatmeal comic:

How to suck at your religion - The Oatmeal