(June 29, 2011 at 9:17 am)Rhythm Wrote: Sigh, you know what, any church that calls itself a christian church is, in fact, a christian church. I'm really starting to get annoyed at the idea that there is some over-arching and consistent christian message and somebody somewhere has it right....but not "those" guys. There is no consistent message in the bible, even the power of the lord himself is shown to be lacking time to time (I anxiously await the next generation of translators ready to "correct a mis-translation" and remove the account). This is the reason that there are so many denominations of christianity, all clinging to different, and many times mutually exclusive statements in the text.
In reading the bible you will learn a great deal about the culture that created the bible. It's worthless as a historical document (and I think it's unfair that believers and non-believers expect it to be), it does not contain any sort of moral authority that we would recognize as legitimate today. There are no insights as to our origins or our future. Reading the bible expecting to learn anything other than the narrative style of the authors, and collective superstitions of the target audience is a fruitless endeavor.
Prove your statements?
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.