Poll for Christians: Are the End Times imminent?

[Chad32]

Reason, compassion, empathy and evidence. People should follow that standard because it conforms to the real world in which we live, and the people therein; their wellbeing is paramount.

Follow up questions: if you're claiming biblical morality, why don't you obey your god's instructions with regards to, say, slavery? And if you're saying you follow god's morality, were there actual reasons why he chose X things as good, and Y things as bad, that apply to the real world? Or is it all just a grab bag of the guy's opinions? If it's the latter, what use is morality at all? If it's the former, should not those real world reasons become apparent to anyone else as well, if your god is always correct?

Where did you get your reason from? Where did you get your compassion from? Where did you get your empathy from? Where do you get your evidence from? No animal displays these characteristics.

Not everyone agrees to your standards. Why should we accept your standards as truth?

Biblical morality states that: "there is no one rightous no not one." This is the truth of morality. You're not moral, I'm not moral, mother Teresa isn't moral. That has been and always will be the truth. No one can live up to what Biblical morality expects of us because "all of us like sheep have gone astray." We have all broken the law. We have all done wrong. We have all sinned. There have been times that we haven't been reasonable, compassionate, empathetic, and with evidence. So what happens then? What happens to a person who can't even live up to their own standards?

What's ironic is that we, who can't even live up to our own standards, want to hold God to those standards as if we have some kind of moral superiority to Him.

God created everything as good. We rebelled against Him and as a result there is bad. God didn't choose this or that to be good or bad, we make it that way then blame Him for the wrong we have created or ask Him to save us from the consequences (which He has done in the Christ).

I don't recall God telling me to get slaves but rather to be a servant to others.

You don't know much about humans or animals then. We are all capable of showing empathy. None of us are perfect, but the one and only source of morality is from people who raise and interact with us on a regular basis. Maybe someone told you about what's in that book, and convinced you to follow some good parts that are in that book. The book didn't give you our morality, though. No deity gave you your morality. If you grew up in India, you may claim that Vishnu gave you your morality. You'd be wrong, not because you grew up worshiping the wrong god, but because all morality comes from other people. It is flawed, but it's the best we have. That's why it's always good to educate yourself about other viewpoints.

You shouldn't take any one person's viewpoint at face value. You should explore, and make decisions for yourself.