christian school project

[purplepurpose]

Under the threat of torture, guy was basically blackmailed in to becoming Gods servant.

Under his own mind and preexisting fears torturing him he did all of that. I hope you don't believe for one second that this guy wasn't already on this path before having his accident.

That's why this whole thread is moot from where I am standing. It deals with the god image from the bible already being established as truth. So, don't serve that, since this is exactly what this school expects from it's student. Confirmation bias.

Rather try and educate lighthouse that things are more complicated than that. That, if you don't believe in god's existence, at least not in the sense it is scripted in the big three, the question if god is love is on the same lines as asking if Wishnu, Zeus or Harry Potter is love. The first and most important question is the existence of this specific divine being. As long as this isn't established everything else is just the usual onedimensional talk over some aspect of an imaginary being.

I hope your right and NDEs are just sophisticated hallucinations. Being dead would be better then tortured nonstop, even if its temporary.

[Mister Agenda]

Hi there.

Why wouldn't God just be his old loving self and find a peaceful solution? He's God the all powerful. He could just show himself to the "deceivers" and let them sample his ever so awesome love and say, "If you want my love for eternity, then follow me."

God wants us to chase him. God wants us to seek him. God gives his children power. God talks to his children. God shows himself to us time and time again. Yet the enemy deceives us and twists who God is from adding thoughts to our mind that we ourselves would never think. chances are God has reached out to you many times and you just ignore it.

Yet people who believe in God show no sign of special blessing, power, favor, or knowledge. If countries with the highest percentage of Christians had anything special going for them, that could possibly be the beginning of something you could make an argument for God's favor out of; but some of the most benighted and impoverished countries in the world are largely Christian. These are the countries where the population is at least 90% Christian:

Anguilla, Armenia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde, Colombia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Croatia, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Haiti, Lesotho, Malta, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Namibia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Pitcairn Islands, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Vatican City, and Zambia.

Just sayin'.

[Mister Agenda]

Mother Theresa died in doubt, not sure anyone could chase him harder than she did. So it's her fault, not his for not showing himself to her clearly?

You are literally judging millions, MILLIONS! of people you do not know, saying they have not sought God. You don't know them, you don't know how hard anyone else has tried to find God and failed. Yet you are ready to dismiss it all as their fault with no evidence at all, because your mind cannot think outside the box your particular cult has trapped it in.

You are too frightened of eternal punishment to even entertain the notion that many seekers do not find him because he isn't there. Your mind is dark and closed. Light would probably scare the tar out of you.

Not to mention the 4 billion or so with a slightly or completely different God or gods.

[KevinM1]

Hi Mathilda, while I appreciate your preconceived assumptions of how christians are raised you are wrong in this case. I didn't grow up believing in God or in a church. Human brain and the nature of humans are fascinating and I love studying it so I think you're great already.

The content of the post is truth and if you choose not to accept that, that is fine. I'm on an atheist forum site. I know nobody here believes in God and I'm not expecting you to. There is a God and ignoring him isn't going to make him go away. How can you disprove his existence if you never looked for him? Nothing is impossible in the science world so why is this? Nobody dedicates their lives to the tooth fairy or santa.

I love how in one sentence you tell Mathilda to stop having preconceived notions about Christians, and then in the very next paragraph you express your preconceived notions about atheists.

First of all, get one thing straight: atheism isn't about disproving god's existence.  Atheism is simply a lack of belief.  We find the so-called 'evidence' for god's existence to be severely wanting, and as such cannot believe in something that isn't proven to exist.  You are an atheist to all other gods aside from the one you believe in.  We simply go one god further.

A lot of us were theists once.  A lot of us could tell you stories about how often and desperately we prayed for salvation, or for some sign that we're not alone.  I, personally, grew up in a non-practicing Catholic household.  Belief in god and Jesus was simply assumed to be true, but even as a kid it never sat right with me.  I went through the motions and tried really, really hard to believe, but I just couldn't.  There was no evidence, and prayers never worked.  I finally admitted to myself that I never actually believed a little over 15 years ago, and I've never felt more free and honest with myself.

So, yeah, most of us here looked for god.  We looked for years.  And forgive me if I don't kindly withstand yet another round of theists telling me that I or my friends are liars, that we didn't actually search for god, or that we did it wrong and should start again.  For all the tools in the wannabe apologist's toolbox, I find that one among the most distasteful.

You also clearly don't understand science.  No, not everything is possible.  The universe works according to basic mechanics, many of them regarding motion.  There cannot be a perpetual motion machine, for instance, due to the existence of friction.

Your god is an invention of man.  I mean, shit, the bible wasn't considered the official word of god until the 4th century AD, when it was voted on.  Your giggle fests and euphoria?  I'm betting a sign of mental illness/a mental break due to your past drug use, mixed in with the typical church tricks (I'm guessing people packed in like sardines, frantic dancing to high tempo music, no AC, etc.) to induce a delirious effect.  The Holy Rollers in the Appalachians do the same thing, they just add snake venom to the mix, often with hilarious results.

Sorry, kid, you traded one form of addiction for another.  Which is exactly what the entire 'born again' movement preys on.

[Mister Agenda]

his sacrifice was a completion of a covenant not suffering eternally for us. the covenant was a son of man for the son of god. I don't believe this stuff because i was raised this way or because a preacher or sunday school teacher told me. I believe it because I was empty and couldn't find anything to fill that part of me. Drugs, sex, alcohol, men.... nothing filled the hole. I told God that if he showed himself and his love to me and filled the emptiness I would follow him. He poured peace, love, security and calmness over me and I felt his presence. I immediately felt whole and filled with his love. I felt uncontrollable laughter and joy instead of depression and anxiety. Thank you for your preconceived idea that every christian is brought up sheltered and born in a privileged home knowing nothing else. usually those kids don't create a personal relationship with God and become atheists or agnostic.

It's not a preconception to note that the vast majority of Christians were raised to be Christians or at least in a culture where Christianity is the majority religion, it's just a fact. No one said there weren't exceptions. Or that every Christian is brought up in a privileged home knowing nothing else. Do you know what a 'straw man' is?

[KevinM1]

God wants us to chase him. God wants us to seek him. God gives his children power. God talks to his children. God shows himself to us time and time again. Yet the enemy deceives us and twists who God is from adding thoughts to our mind that we ourselves would never think. chances are God has reached out to you many times and you just ignore it.

Yet people who believe in God show no sign of special blessing, power, favor, or knowledge. If countries with the highest percentage of Christians had anything special going for them, that could possibly be the beginning of something you could make an argument for God's favor out of; but some of the most benighted and impoverished countries in the world are largely Christian. These are the countries where the population is at least 90% Christian:

Anguilla, Armenia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde, Colombia, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Croatia, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Haiti, Lesotho, Malta, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Namibia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Pitcairn Islands, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Vatican City, and Zambia.

Just sayin'.

I hear Rwanda has a nice hotel....

[Mister Agenda]

Those who chase after him are not left empty handed.

Mother Theresa died in doubt, not sure anyone could chase him harder than she did. So it's her fault, not his for not showing himself to her clearly?

You are literally judging millions, MILLIONS! of people you do not know, saying they have not sought God. You don't know them, you don't know how hard anyone else has tried to find God and failed. Yet you are ready to dismiss it all as their fault with no evidence at all, because your mind cannot think outside the box your particular cult has trapped it in.

You are too frightened of eternal punishment to even entertain the notion that many seekers do not find him because he isn't there. Your mind is dark and closed. Light would probably scare the tar out of you.

I am not afraid of anything not even God. I'm in love with him not afraid of him. I don't live in the dark I live in the light. I live with clarity. I live in joy and happiness. I live in pure love. I do not judge that is not my place. Yet you judge all christians as a cult who are not open minded. I believe In the big bang. I take college courses for physics one of the hard sciences. I used to be kind of a whore who did drugs and got drunk all the time looking for something to fill the hole inside of me. Yet I have never felt more alive. I have never felt more Love. I have never felt more high. more whole. I hope you experience the same from the bottom of my heart.

Not to be unkind, but it sounds like you've found a new addiction. If you find that you need 'more God' to get the same feeling as time goes by; it wouldn't hurt to talk to someone about the void you're trying to fill. Almost a billion people manage to not abuse drugs and get drunk all the time without God. Atheists aren't more likely to do drugs and get drunk than any other demographic.

[Mister Agenda]

She hasn't said, but I'm guessing Evangelical, creationist, based on the beliefs she has listed and scripture quoted.

What say you Lighthouse, which Christian sect are you part of?

protestant. technically my denomination is assembly of God but I hate the fact that christians are not unified. I dislike the fact that many of us hate eachother. If you don't know what being assembly of God means, basically we believe The Holy Spirit manifests himself through tongues and uncontrollable laughter. We believe getting drunk or high on the lords presence is also a thing. ( getting so overwhelmed with the feeling of joy and peace that your motor control is disabled and you stumble and can't stop laughing) quite the sight when we get going in worship lol

I used to be Assembly of God (and United Pentecostal Church).

[Minimalist]

According to King David in Psalms, there is no place one can flee from the Spirit of God. Pslam 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

Bullshit.
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/psalms.html

J. Alberto Soggin writes: "While the Hebrew and Christian tradition tended to attribute the greater part of the Psalter to the pen of David, critical Introduction from the end of the last century and the first decades of this has taken the opposite course: in his commentary, B. Duhm argued that it was no longer a question of asking whether there were any psalms from the Maccabaean period, but rather of asking whether there were any earlier than this period, and the authority which his opinion enjoyed is amply demonstrated by the support given to it by R. H. Pfieffer's Introduction and by the indecision of that of A. Lods.

As Finkelstein and others have pointed out there is no indication of any great degree of literacy in 10th century Judah....which seems to have been a piss-poor region of goat/sheep herders with a sprinkling of miserable little villages.

[brewer]

I recently watched a testimony of a russian monk, who 20 years ago fell from eight floor and was given a tour in the hell.

So, after he landed on the ground from eight floor and switching in to "ghost mode" he was met by demons in human shape. Those guys gave him a tour in hell, where people were tortured and regenerated constantly. And after the tour, judge(Some sort of hell king) asked him "Will you serve God? Or you would wish to proceed with your afterlife(he was destined to some sort of helish existance according to the judge). The 20 year old just promised to serve the God, after seeing the hell.

Under the threat of torture, guy was basically blackmailed in to becoming Gods servant. Love is great, isnt it? This russian indeed had gave up 20 years of his life and most likely will sacrifice the rest, but is this love you would like to be subjected to?

He.....................................became..................................Hellboy?????????????????????????????