(October 21, 2013 at 3:03 pm)Doubting Thomas Wrote: Being good because of fear of hell is the bottom line of Christianity anyway
Actually no because you are saved purely through Gods grace and not through your own good works. But you will "feel in the mood" to do good works once you receive Gods grace due to the fact that you feel appreciate toward God for his gift.
Quote:, and since Christians tend to believe that atheists aren't moral because they aren't afraid of Hell
The video gives a different depiction to the traditional fire and brimstone you'll notice. The danger is that your sinful nature will eternally separate you from God.
Quote:, then doesn't that insinuate that the only reason Christians are moral is because they believe in and are afraid of Hell?
Again no because it has nothing to do with them being "good" even if they tried to be Saintly they would likely just end up full of self pride which in itself is a sin. Your saved from by being freed from sin and that is done through grace if you want to accept it. If you're not interested then you're not forced to because you have complete freedom of will. Again if God was lounging around in a physical form in Earth we wouldn't be genuinely interested in him but trying to placate him to save our own necks, so it would just be ourselves we would be interested in. It would be something closer to this a faked adoration out of fear.
Quote: Isn't that one of Christians' main arguments they always try to use against us, that if we atheists really didn't believe in God and Hell, that we should be running around murdering and stealing?
Well no because even as an atheist would still feel a great amount of guilt by breaking God Moral Law. Of course murder and theft are in the ten commandments we can assume they're part of the Law. People do murder and steal have become separated from God to a great degree through sin so they can do what they do and unless they sincerely repent their ways and accept God grace they will end up in hell. The Bible describes the state as eternal so really something to avoid, but avoiding it is relatively easy because it will be done for you through Christ.
Quote:No, if God were to show himself to the world's population and explain in no uncertain terms what it is he wants us humans to do, then I think it would be fairly easy for everyone to follow & worship him and make it to Heaven
We would only be doing it out of a kind of terror though not out of love. Yourself particularly you wouldn't appreciate it at all.
Quote:instead of this haphazard collection of thousands of different religions throughout history, and the three major religions of the world having thousands of denominations all thinking they have the one true path to Heaven while the others are all doing it wrong.
Only one religion offers salvation through Gods grace everything else you have to save yourself by own good works and by "impressing God" as though we could do that. This can lead to the polarity of pride (you're doing well) or despair (you're doing badly) a good video here on that.
I don't really mind the other religions tbh I'm open minded toward the "different paths to God" concept or God spoke to different peoples during different periods of history.
Come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant.