(March 25, 2018 at 6:34 pm)Grandizer Wrote:

(March 25, 2018 at 6:32 pm)He lives Wrote: I will answer your question, but I doubt very much that you will like the answer. The earth we live on is a testing area. It is a place of learning and a place to increase our faith. We all volunteered to take the test because of the opportunity of growth it presented to us. In order for the test to be fair and accurate we had to forget our past. The test criteria is about how we live our lives. Will we love each other? Will we help each other? Will we be charitable? Will we be honest? Will we be humble? Will we do the right thing? Are we tolerant of others? We will be judged according to our knowledge or our lack thereof. I believe the Bible is quite clear about these things. I don't dwell on the negative. I say accentuate the positive. There is great satisfaction in doing good.

What religion are you? Mormon?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons.

(March 25, 2018 at 8:48 pm)He lives Wrote:

(March 25, 2018 at 6:34 pm)Grandizer Wrote: What religion are you? Mormon?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons.

In other words, you are the product of a veritable con man. Congratulations, you are doubly gullible.

I love Joe Smith. Scammed up the most easily disproven and thoroughly debunked religion EVER.

(March 25, 2018 at 6:56 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: Increasing ones faith is pretty difficult when the odds of attending the right Christian church (assuming God ain't Muslim or Druid, or Hindu) is like 1 in up to 70,000 or so (assuming there aren't duplicate theologies among the unaffiliated churches and how could there be?  They don't compare notes).

People can increase their faith even if they do not belong to any church:

(New Testament | Matthew 8:5 - 10)

5 ¶ And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

Bold added.

(March 25, 2018 at 6:32 pm)He lives Wrote:

(March 25, 2018 at 3:43 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: Dodged the question troll.  Again.  (Of course.)  Why is the Bible so spectacularly unclear?  Why does your "god" suck so spectacularly at communication?  You believe this creature not only MADE humans, but the entire universe . . . billions upon billions of galaxies.  Yet its supposedly "called to the ministry" mouthpieces can't agree on what the book (either written or inspired by god, depending upon the sect) SAYS.  

A book which, I unfortunately still have memorized.  I called myself xtian for over 40 years, to my great shame.  I have read the entire Bible, it's a big reason I'm now an atheist.

"you have to put forth some effort"  - A book that supposedly is the answer to keeping a "soul" from eternal torture is deliberately obtuse, unclear, and can only be understood if you glean hidden messages from the text through reading, meditation, and prayer. Uh-huh.  Imagine if textbooks and recipes worked like that.  2 + 2 = 17 if you pray about it hard enough.  You believe that the vast majority of humans that have ever lived on this planet are going to fry forever, but that's ok because only the group that pulled the RIGHT meaning out of the magic grimoire are worthy of heaven.  "put forth some effort"  That's unbelievably sick and vicious.  It's tribal and sociopathic magical "we're special and they're not" thinking.

I understand why there are so many interpretations.  The book was written by ignorant bronze-age men who wanted power over others, and wrote down old fables to scare people into compliance.  The bible has been used to support racism, slavery, genocide, rape, and, of course, war.  You can make it say whatever you want it to say.

But, since you think that your oh-so-loving sky daddy will fry you forever if you doubt your magic book for one second, you are absolutely incapable of questioning it, aren't you?  
You are completely incapable of putting any of your beliefs under scrutiny, but you seem to think you are qualified to come here and try to "educate" people.

Any omnipotent and omniscient entity can speak - CLEARLY - for itself, in any place, at any time, to any people anywhere - without the need for a human to speak FOR it.  So Why is the Bible so spectacularly unclear?  Why does your "god" suck so spectacularly at communication?

I will answer your question, but I doubt very much that you will like the answer. The earth we live on is a testing area. It is a place of learning and a place to increase our faith. We all volunteered to take the test because of the opportunity of growth it presented to us. In order for the test to be fair and accurate we had to forget our past. The test criteria is about how we live our lives. Will we love each other? Will we help each other? Will we be charitable? Will we be honest? Will we be humble? Will we do the right thing? Are we tolerant of others? We will be judged according to our knowledge or our lack thereof. I believe the Bible is quite clear about these things. I don't dwell on the negative. I say accentuate the positive. There is great satisfaction in doing good.

Well that's not "biblical" at all.  (LOL)   Now you've gone all Delores Cannon Light-Bringer Deepak Chopra New-Age woo-ey.  
Love, respect, honesty, acceptance . . . absolutely fine.  A lot of atheists will agree with you.  No need for a deity and a book, just decent human behavior.
So, you'll just focus on the parts you like and refuse to take a closer look?  Fine, that's your right, a lot of xtians do that.

How can you sing along to the correct hymns if you're not in church ??

There have been schisms over the issue of singing the correct hymns and their wording. Must be important.

(March 25, 2018 at 8:50 pm)Lutrinae Wrote:

(March 25, 2018 at 8:48 pm)He lives Wrote: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons.

In other words, you are the product of a veritable con man.  Congratulations, you are doubly gullible.

What Joseph Smith did is glorify God and continue to his work.

By changing the wording of the original polygamy revelation to omit the part about all subsequent wives to the first were to be Native American ??

(March 25, 2018 at 8:54 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: I love Joe Smith.  Scammed up the most easily disproven and thoroughly debunked religion EVER.

More evidence for the Book of Mormon comes to light every year.

(March 25, 2018 at 8:54 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: I love Joe Smith.  Scammed up the most easily disproven and thoroughly debunked religion EVER.

I don't know, L. Ron Hubbard gives him a little competition . . .