Hi ! I would like to tell to you a conversation about religion with my grand-parents.
Context : 05/may/2013 I said to them that I'm an Agnostic Christian and I explained why I'm hesitate between Atheism and Christianity.

1.I said to them that there are contradictions about the official history in the Bible about "Augustus" and my grand-father said something like this (French : Ce n'est pas un problème. Translation : This is not a problem). He said to me that this is not a problem , how we can be sure to be right if there are a problem like that ?

2.After we spoke about some political subjects and I explained why I believe that these things are against God. He said that this is not against God because God let the choice to have better. His argument was these verses [Matthew 25:14-30] (King James Version) :

14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

When I heared his argument I thought something of this kind (French : C'est quoi le rapport ? Translation : What is the link ?).

3.We spoke about the afterlife and I explained that we have no reason to be sure about the existence of Heaven and Hell and They said to me a thing of this kind : (French : Il y a peut-être la réincarnation. Translation : There are maybe the reincarnation).

Conclusion : They are maybe not sure about the Christianity because they don't follow a classic path in spirituality.
What to do ?

I am not sure what you are asking or what your three points are about, but I do know what the parable of the talents are about:

The short easy to understand version of the story of the talents is that God is the Master. In the story the master does not give each of His servants the same gifts or the same responsibilities. You can take this to mean we do not all have the same talents meaning abilities or gifts, or the same charge over money meaning we are not all responsible for to give the same amount, but it also means God will not judge us all according to an absolute immovable standard. Why? Because God did not give us all the same understanding of Him. He did not give all of us equal shares of wisdom and knowledge, therefore like the servants in the parable we are not all judged to the same standard. Our only responsibility is to what He has given to us. Meaning if He has given us a 'twelfth' level intellect on matters concerning scripture and the bible, then that is what we are responsible for, but at the same time if we only have a third level knowledge of the same subject then God will not judge us according to the standard He used to judge the twelfth level guy.

As the story repeats 3 different times. We are only responsible to what we have been given. If God gives us X for understanding then He expects you to be faithful to only X. If God gives you X,Y,Z for understanding then you can not be faithful to only 'X' or 'X,Y' or 'X,Z' or any other combination that strikes your fancy. You must be faithful to everything you have been given and if you are you will be given more. If you are not what you have will be taken from you, and given to someone else who has proven himself faithful.

I doubt you ever had such a conversation with your grandparents unless you probable were taken extensive notes...most likely you read this argument somewhere and now trying to make everyone believe it was your own experience.

Toeth the OPeth,

Goeth fucketh thyselfeth.

I'm not quite sure how that translates into 17th century French, but I'm sure you understand the meaning.

Your pointeth is losteth....

C'est la vie.

Both, apparently.

1. You weigh up the probabilities in your head. If the problem is irreconcilable and that is enough to convince you then you're belief is unfounded.

2. People choose what to do with what they're given. Without love, there is no freedom. Without freedom, there is no love.

3. You are correct. It is not a subject that you can have experience of, but one that you can rationalise.

(May 6, 2013 at 2:59 am)fr0d0 Wrote: 1. You weigh up the probabilities in your head. If the problem is irreconcilable and that is enough to convince you then you're belief is unfounded.

2. People choose what to do with what they're given. Without love, there is no freedom. Without freedom, there is no love.

3. You are correct. It is not a subject that you can have experience of, but one that you can rationalise.

To be honestly I try to understand how we can believe in a holy book with contradictions (second possibility these are not contradictions because I don't know use the correlation).

(May 6, 2013 at 10:12 am)viocjit Wrote: To be honestly I try to understand how we can believe in a holy book with contradictions (second possibility these are not contradictions because I don't know use the correlation).

Very wise! :)

@fr0d0 Why this is very wise ?

That you keep your mind open.