(August 29, 2013 at 12:10 am)ronedee Wrote: We have the choice. Do you want eternal life? Yes or No?
That's a false dichotomy, false in your own worldview AND mislabelled 'choice' instead of 'coercion'. Firstly, why would I have to choose to go to Heaven or Hell in the first place? The option to cease to exist is coherent, as is the option to go to an entirely different afterlife.
Secondly, in your own worldview EVERYONE gets eternal life: either in Heaven or in Hell.
Thirdly, being threatened with being eternally on fire if you don't assent to accepting a proposition is coercion incarnate, not a choice. Or are you going to be consistent and say that if a gun were held to your head you 'chose' to do what the gunman told you to do after threatening to shoot you? I doubt it.
Quote:No. Abusive is wrong. God is Good!
You blatantly dodged his question twice: Is the father in question abusive or Christlike for making an analogous situation to God's?
Quote:But, he won't take abuse from us either! Just like I wouldn't take abuse from my children. If I couldn't help them with love and understanding, I would put them out of my house, and life if necessary.
Not buying it buddy. The real equivalent to God in this case would be to torture them in your basement if they didn't comply, or threaten them until they did.
Quote:Well, as i said... wouldn't you want to see what it is He has to offer? I mean, it's free too! Free is Good?
It's free? What was that about the threat of being eternally on fire you were just crapping out a moment ago? Anyway, it isn't free regardless. Because if, as I think, it's false, then I spent untold hours praying, petitioning God, going to church and proselytizing for a falsity. That's an untold amount of time lost, so you're again wrong.
Quote:Is it so bad to say: "I don't know?" Rather than; "There is no God"?
I'm quite confident that the Biblical god doesn't exist, and whose existence cannot be rationally defended (check out my thread titled 'The Problem of Imperfect Revelation' for one sucg reason for the tenability of unbelief).
Quote:Does it hurt so bad to open your mind to that possibility?
No, but when believers of a proposition fail to provide a rational defense of their belief, they should be open to the fact that their belief can quite defensibly be rejected, at least until such time as it can be defended adequately.
Quote:All we need do is ask Him in all sincerity! The answers come.
Baseless and infinitely-elastic tautology...
