(May 1, 2025 at 9:47 pm)Angrboda Wrote: Are you a Seventh-day Adventist?

(May 1, 2025 at 9:53 pm)Alan V Wrote:  

It seems to me that a God would have some over-arching plan, instead of it being an arbitrary death for some trivial reason.  Did Jesus simply annoy the Roman authorities with his teachings when he should have known better?  That makes no sense within the over-arching concept of an all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly-good deity.  God should have had a better plan unless such a death was required for some purpose.

(April 28, 2025 at 2:30 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:

(January 16, 2025 at 5:29 pm)Ravenshire Wrote: Some willful ignorance, a bit of wishful thinking, and a metric shit ton of fear of death.

The average person doesn't go around thinking of death, much less fearing it, until its right at their doorsteps. And if they fear anything about it, it is the process and manner of dying rather than the state of being dead itself that worries people.

The most that Christianity offers is an explanation for why death occurs, but it does not do anything to prevent it or make it more palatable. After all, the most significant symbol in Christianity is that of a dead man hung on a cross—not exactly the most marketable imagery.

(April 28, 2025 at 8:50 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:

(April 28, 2025 at 8:21 pm)Angrboda Wrote: If there is no afterlife, there is no point to Christianity.  I wouldn't say it is the only or maion thing, but without it, few people would bother to believe.

Sure, but you're still going to die. The afterlife doesn't resolve anybody's fear of death.

(April 30, 2025 at 5:32 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:

(April 30, 2025 at 3:54 pm)Angrboda Wrote: Immunity?  Perhaps not, but that seems an unreasonable bar to expect.  Does the promise of heaven and eternal bliss provide some insulation against thoughts of mortality.  I think that's hard to deny.

I can see that being the case in islamist sects, where the act of dying for your faith is what guarantees eternal bliss. But in Christianity there is no such guarantee. And hell is seen as a very possible outcome, even amongst the faithful. If thoughts of heaven help ease the fear of death, thoughts of hell certainly aggravate it.

(May 1, 2025 at 10:11 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: There's a lot that can be said here. I think a point that often gets overlooked is that Jesus doesn't solely play the role of sacrifice, he also plays the role of a living example. By that I mean he takes on human flesh to prove to us that it is possible for us to live a sinless life. Because it's one thing for an all powerful God to mandate perfection from up in the clouds, and another to put that power aside and physically show us how it's done. To me that's a more interesting subject than the cross.

(May 1, 2025 at 10:00 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:

(May 1, 2025 at 9:47 pm)Angrboda Wrote: Are you a Seventh-day Adventist?

Yes, I think I've mentioned it in other threads

(May 1, 2025 at 10:33 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: And yet that avatar of your god, Jesus, exhibited clear doubt in the Garden of Gethsemane. Granted that doubt may not be a sin -- though to many Christians it is -- by your reasoning it is implied that doubt ought to be welcomed, as that is what your god himself displayed in his earthly incarnation.

(May 1, 2025 at 10:52 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:

(May 1, 2025 at 10:33 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: And yet that avatar of your god, Jesus, exhibited clear doubt in the Garden of Gethsemane. Granted that doubt may not be a sin -- though to many Christians it is -- by your reasoning it is implied that doubt ought to be welcomed, as that is what your god himself displayed in his earthly incarnation.

Well, yeah. That is what it means to be human, to experience fear, doubt, pain, hunger, and so forth. The example is less about whether such feelings are welcomed and more about how to respond in the face of them.