RE: Why I'm Still a Christian
March 5, 2015 at 10:58 pm
(This post was last modified: March 5, 2015 at 11:16 pm by Lek.)
(March 5, 2015 at 10:36 pm)The Reality Salesman Wrote:(March 5, 2015 at 9:49 pm)Lek Wrote: You guys talk about how the world is a cesspool, but then talk about how great your lives are as atheists. It never ceases to amaze me. You speak as if it's us christians who are not experiencing the fullness of life here because of our belief in God. Yes, I think that God can make a world like this, then accompany us on our journey here, and then take us home to him. We can have peace in this world.Oh Lek, if I point out flaws in the world that pertain to our conversation about a God while on an AtheistForum, it would be very uncouth of you to imply that my ability to observe those things is a sign of my overall general outlook. I do love life, and I do live a fulfilling one. But that doesn't mean that I am unable to point out the flaws in this world if pressed to do so by a person who believes its reasonable to conclude that it was divinely created. Your response to my criticism did not address my point. Instead, you redirected my criticism in an attempt to make me appear as a negative nancy. I think you know perfectly well that my criticism was not a description of my everyday outlook, it was directly in response to your previous question and it was perfectly suited. Would you like to apologize and go for a re-do?
My answer to your question was "yes" as shown in bold print above. God doesn't have to make everything here perfectly comfortable to show his love for us. He can make a difficult world, bring us through our lives here and then give us eternity with him. If God meant the world to be this way to teach us to rely on him, it is not flawed, rather it's the way God meant it to be.
(March 5, 2015 at 10:15 pm)Jenny A Wrote: Sorry, but there is no difference between "god works in mysterious ways," and "he is the creator and only he knows why." It's the same thought in different words.
Okay, I won't argue semantics.
Quote:If so, I'd expect Christians to have lower blood pressure, fewer heart attacks, and less mental illness. But it isn't so. And while you seem like a nice enough guy Lek, your comments about life don't suggest a comforted man.
What do they suggest to you?
Quote:Even Jesus didn't do that. He lived poor, but he lived off of others. If everyone had done that or given everything away, it would be a very poor world in which no one had invented medications, let alone had them to give away.
Yes, Jesus did live poor and he did live off the contributions of others because he didn't charge for his services. Most pastors of churches today work for pay. Jesus preached the good news and healed the sick free of charge. He didn't say that we should all live that way, but he did say that we should not be lovers of things of the world. He never preached that we should not have professions or earn money, but that we should not overvalue our possessions.
Quote:Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life. Jesus preached the former and had no sense of the later.
No he didn't. He taught us to love and care for each other. Teaching someone how to provide for themselves would be a caring way to provide assistance. Do you really think when he said to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, he just meant to continually give them stuff and never help them to help themselves. You interpret scripture more literally than any christian fundamentalist.
