(August 31, 2010 at 7:57 pm)Bull Poopie Wrote: But these are the more extreme cases. Coming back down to the boring ordinary world, I think religion has a tendency to encourage hypocrisy. This is in part because of the nature of religion, but also of course, because of human nature. Human beings lie to themselves, propping up their own image, patting themselves on the back and so on (even many animals do this in their own social setting). Religion only amplifies this natural tendency. Looking back on Jesus' tirades against the Pharisees (according to the gospel accounts) should it be any surprise that Christians today inherited the same traits? This isn't because Christians have failed to live up to Jesus' standards, but rather it is part and parcel of the belief in absolute truth.
Shorter version: If someone NEEDS religion to be nice, your doing it wrong.
Yes religion can cause people to do hurtful things and even cause nice people to become violent but that's people who are religious. Christians are not suppose to be religious we're to live in a relationship with Christ, Christ condemned the religious of His day when He challenged the Pharisees and Sadducees. This doesn't mean that christians will always act in a nice way toward others we are human after all and this is why we have accepted Christ as our savior, we know that we can not live a life that would allow us to be part of God's kingdom. We understand that we have to allow Christ to stand in our place so that we will not be judged for our miserable lives (compared to the righteous God). I know people who are not christians or religious and are very nice people and I know people who are christians or religious and are not so nice. So being nice is not a matter of religion, being a christian should mean that you are allowing Christ to make a difference(positive change) in your life that is noticable to others.
No marrying a nonchristian is not a sin it is not a wise decision many problems will crop up in such a marriage. I'm not sure where you got the idea that believers are not to associate with nonbelievers, if that were true how would we be able to wittness to others. What believers should not be doing is joining in the life style of nonbelievers we are not to put temptation to the test. I'm not saying that all nonbelievers are living bad lives just that some do live a life style that christians should not be interested in.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
