Encouragement and Advice

[pocaracas]

Everyone around here has replied to you, within the presupposition that a god exists...

Let's try the opposite.

Hi Folks,

So as most of you know I have been called 'Agnostic Theist' whatever the heck that means I dont know lol.

Not the best of ways to use the "there is no god" hypothesis, but well...
Try to keep up!

Anyway - I had a friend round to my house tonight and he started arguing with me about christianity and how it is right.

How does he know that?!
How can anyone know that a particular religion is right?
O.o
They all look man-made. They all look like they were formed out of pieces of previous religions, what I like to call the "evolution of religion".
If there is no god, how can any religion be right?

Can someone please refute them. I know that there is no evidence to prove god or gods exist but I am afraid of hell and I am also finding it difficult to stop believing.

Any tips or things to do to keep my mind off it.

Easy. Play a game.

Here are the arguments and questions can someone please pick at them.

1) Do babies and children go to hell?
No because children are not old enough to understand and make their own decisions to be accountable.

Remember our working hypothesis?
There is no god.
If no god exists, what is hell? Yeah, it's made of the same delusional imagination as god and heaven... that is, it doesn't exist.
When babies die, they go to the same place adults go... typically, 6-feet under.... some people prefer cremation.

I'll go with donating all organs that can be used to save someone else and then cremation.

2) Is the New Testament reliable?
Yes because the Old Testament points directly to Jesus and the New Testament.

No.
It does portray some lifestyles of the early 1st century, but it's too biased and the content got skewed as time passed:

3) If God is Omnipotent and Omnipresent he created hell, so therefore how can hell be separation from God if he is everywhere?
Hell is separation from God as God chooses not to be in hell with others.

Remember that god is a figment of mankind's imagination, hence... keep using that most unlimited human resource... anything is possible in there!
Even the illogical!

4) Why did God create hell for eternal torment and torture?
God never mentioned hell as eternal torment and torture – Well not really, many people think dying and having nothing when they die is Torture much like the same way being without God will be torture. God does not tell us a lot about hell.

God doesn't exist.... as such, it never created anything. Not heaven, nor hell... nor purgatory.... nor the Universe.

5) Jesus took the punishment for all our sins – So based upon that to pay our debt should he not be in hell for eternity considering he died a sinner?
No Jesus did not die a sinner at all Jesus was sinless but took the burden of other peoples sin creating a paradox that he could not stay in hell because he himself was a sinner however he could get there because of the sins.

Jesus took the punishment because he became a nuisance to the established powers that be.... remember the tale about him ousting the people going about their business in the temple?
Just imagine some schmuk from nowhere coming to one of those mega-churches and kicking those money grubbing "preachers" out of that "temple"?.... what would be the expected result?

6) As we know the Bible has been edited and re-written many times, do you think God would punish people for not believing when those same people want to believe but cannot because they cannot trust the Bible?
Yes because they should trust the bible irrespective – It’s God’s word and is never wrong.

God doesn't exist, as far as this reply is concerned.
Hence, god cannot punish anyone.
God's word must be man-made... and as we are very well aware, man is fallible.

7) Why would God punish us for eternity in hell for a Finite sin?
It’s not that he wants to punish us, It’s because it’s basically the final straw – God did all he could during our earthly lives after which we will be removed from his presence.

They guys that came up with that particular piece of dreamed up information didn't think people would make that parallel.
They were interested in making people behave, without the need for actual law enforcement... which was scarce, at the time.

8) Did God create evil?
No God created rules in which he deemed were against what his will was, People going against Gods will are evil.

Again, it couldn't create that.
Evil is just the malevolent intent behind a given action.
And a malevolent intent can arise from a multitude of inner workings of the individual... greed, lust...

9) Why did God Punish Job?
Because Job was to act as an example for future generations.

It's a story. You need to set an example out of someone in order to make the whole populace behave... And these people got away with setting an example out of a fictional character! Kudos to them!

10) Why when I started breaking away from God and asked for him to Guide me one last chance did he ignore me?
It’s because for years you have been walking further and further away and you don’t know which way to turn this is of your own making.

God doesn't exist.

11) If an Ancient Tribe has not heard about God where do they go?
They will go to heaven because they have now knowledge.

They go where they want to go... provided they have the means to move around to that particular place that they want to go.

Oh, wait... you mean, where do they go, after dead? The same place those babies go... cemetery, crematory, someone else's body...

12) So what you’re saying is that Christianity should not be preached as people who are ignorant can go to heaven yet those who hear Gods word and reject it will go to heaven?
Yes this is correct, it is because in their heart and mind and soul they will seek God.

Indeed it should not. It has been preached for enough already.
People already got the memo.
Stop the spam!

13) Would it not have been better not to have been born?
No because God gave us free will we then decided to go against it!

Why?! Life is such a wonderful pile of joy, sadness, beauty, ugliness, awesome, boring, sunny and cloudy days...
You need to be alive to experience it all!
Once dead, you're dead. Can't do anything.

14) I don’t like or trust the Apostle Paul, He contradicted a lot of what Jesus and the OT said, Prove it (I got stuck here).

That's because, according to himself, he never witnessed Jesus.... he had "visions".... what we would call a psychotic episode, or hallucinations... He saw what he wanted to see... and that wasn't in full agreement with the original message... or with the message that became written.

15) When God says ‘I AM’ he is meaning ‘Mind your own business’?
No God is saying that is name is the unspeakable name that the taught to Moses.

The scribe ran out of ink...
Or ran out of imagination.
And his master liked the philosophical notion that went with that omission of the rest of the sentence.
(most likely! )

16) Do you believe in the Book of Revelation?
I don’t know.

It's a book. Do you believe in the Return of the King?

17) Do you believe it is in some way scriptural and literal?
I don’t know.

Do you believe the Return of the King is in some way scriptural and literal?

18) If someone decides not to believe in God throughout this life – Although God said he would cast people into the lake of fire for eternity, Do you think at the end he will save everyone?
No because God cannot show his Justice to these people if he saves them anyway?

How many times must I type this: god does not exist. There is no hell, no lake of fire, no eternity.

19) What if people in heaven pray to God to forgive them or to take pity, Surely Jesus said anything they ask for he will give them?
Yes but this does not show Gods love if he allows them forgiveness as he has to be a fair and Just God.

So, exactly how many virgins are expecting me when I die a martyr?

20) What is heaven like?
We worship and praise God forever!

It is whatever you want. Remember that it is a made up place...






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