(May 20, 2015 at 2:42 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: But it boggles my mind...he waited up until Noah to hit the 'reset' button when he knew humans were fallen and sinful and condemned.  Why not hit the reset button after Adam and Eve and simply not put the Tree of Knowledge anywhere in the garden?

Because he's a shitty programmer who throws a hissy fit and blames his code after a unit test fails when it's actually his fault?

Still waiting on a proper answer to my question, Randy...

(May 20, 2015 at 9:39 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Why can't the Holy God interact with a fallen race?  Presumably he did that all the time in the old Testament.  Unless of course all the prophets who had direct communication with and verification of God were not part of the fallen race.

He can, did, and does. But Poca envisions a Santa Claus for grown-ups when he writes:

Quote:- no more religions. Only one, and it wouldn't be a religion, as it wouldn't require any faith, nor any preaching, nor any assembling in the temple - god is everywhere, and talks directly to anyone who requests or requires it.
- no more thought control imposed by the religions - it's no longer a "what would jesus do?", but a "hey, jesus, what do you advise I do?"

The gulf between God and us is greater than he realizes.

(May 15, 2015 at 6:46 pm)Randy Carson Wrote:

(May 15, 2015 at 5:37 pm)Alex K Wrote: Why would anyone want to be catholic?

Because it is true. 

Prove it (and no sophistic drivel about the value of faith and the emptiness of empiricism or whatever crap your kooky theologians and creepy clerics are floating these days) 

(May 20, 2015 at 9:42 am)Faith No More Wrote: If Adam and Eve disobeyed him, they didn't really fear him, now did they?

Why should they BEFORE they had knowledge of good and evil? Once that knowledge was acquired, they KNEW they had done wrong.

The gulf is great enough that your version of God has failed to convince the vast majority of people on earth, it seems.

(May 20, 2015 at 9:44 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Why wouldn't he create us with the knowledge of good and evil?  And if men were never meant to have the knowledge of good and evil...why not just get rid of A&E and start over, instead of going through all the trouble of condemning every single person that's ever going to live and setting up the laborious process of sacrificing himself to himself to provide an out from his own rules?

Because being omniscient, he knew the best plan to follow.

So, even if it doesn't make any logical sense to us and we can easily think of ways to improve his methods or 'plan', you just say "God knows best" and expect that to be an actual answer to our objections?

(May 20, 2015 at 3:49 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: So, even if it doesn't make any logical sense to us and we can easily think of ways to improve his methods or 'plan', you just say "God knows best" and expect that to be an actual answer to our objections?

'Mysterious ways' is the only answer Christians have.  That they find it compelling is astounding.

(May 20, 2015 at 9:47 am)Faith No More Wrote: You have to justify why the world is so shitty somehow.

I think I posted this previously, but here it is again in response to your question:

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.


26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

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(May 20, 2015 at 9:56 am)Stimbo Wrote: @Randy:

Hide tags work like this...

Code:

[hide]
Hideous and erroneous quote wall
[/hide]

You have to type them in manually; we don't have niceties, such as a button or anything.

I have been using things such as {quote}, but I don't know how to {indent} {/indent}. Where [ ] would replace { }. of course.

What specifically is the purpose of the hide tags? Are they simply an alternative to manually deleting portions of a post which I do not want to copy?