The Jesus Freaks Will Hate This

[FatAndFaithless]

So..God is being intentionally unclear or outright deceitful...and we're supposed to thank him for that?

No
God deals in simplicity.

Matthew 18:3
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The lower (humble) you are, the greater you are in Gods eyes.

Matthew 23:12
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Highly educated people tend to be arrogant, you know, thinking they can explain the beginning of the universe and things of that nature.

If you drop a needle, the best way to find it is to get on your knees and look for it, you find God the same way.

It's that simple...

I don't think I quite follow. God is being intentionally unclear in his words for what purpose? Why not simply state clearly how long it took to perform various tasks, instead of having the 1000 years/1 day conversion factor (even that depends on the type of Christian one asks).

He wants us to be 'like children' instead of investigating shit for ourselves? Why exactly should we abase ourselves?

[robvalue]

If he's so inept that this is his chosen method of communication, I'm not interested. I couldn't possibly think of a worse way.

[JesusHChrist]

If he's so inept that this is his chosen method of communication, I'm not interested. I couldn't possibly think of a worse way.

No, but it is the only way to go about it if your God doesn't actually exist.

[Silver]

If you drop a needle, the best way to find it is to get on your knees and look for it, you find God the same way.

That would be an illogical analogy, for needles can be proven to exist whereas god caannot.

[Harbs18]

So..God is being intentionally unclear or outright deceitful...and we're supposed to thank him for that?

No
God deals in simplicity.

Matthew 18:3
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The lower (humble) you are, the greater you are in Gods eyes.

Matthew 23:12
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Highly educated people tend to be arrogant, you know, thinking they can explain the beginning of the universe and things of that nature.

If you drop a needle, the best way to find it is to get on your knees and look for it, you find God the same way.

It's that simple...

But isn't that what Christians do, explaining away everything with a simple, "God did it" or "He has a plan"? How are we the arrogant ones when we challenge the ones who claim to have all the answers? And needles aren't invisible beings demanding absolute obedience at the expense of knowledge; if a needle falls, it is shiny and you'll find it, or your foot will.

[The Reality Salesman01]

@Huggy

Highly educated people more in tune with the awareness of their ignorance. That being said, they get frustrated easily when less educated pretend to know things that they just don't know. You say that highly educated people tend to be arrogant, and that may be your experience. It certainly is not mine. Perhaps that is just your perception? It seems possible that maybe you feel this way because your ideas are often criticized by highly educated people, and when this offends you, its easier to mistake their criticism for arrogance? Highly educated people tend to be more aware of when they are limited by their own ignorance. I can't say that lesser educated people demonstrate the same quality in their behavior. This sounds like the perfect formula for someone to get their feelings hurt...

[Huggy Bear]

If you choose not to believe, that's your choice. It's not for the unbeliever it's only for those willing to make that "leap of faith".

If you had evidence you would present it. If you actually knew something you could point to that evidence. Instead, all believers have is the empty platitude of "faith". If faith worked, believers would apply the same process and arrive at the same conclusions. And yet they never do.

Unfortunately, faith is just "pretending to know what you don't know". So, translated, your sentence becomes:

"It's not for the unbeliever it's only for those willing to make that leap of pretending to know what you don't know."

Hilarious.

No
Faith is synonymous with trust, the words are interchangeable. To place trust in something is a conscious decision, and Betrayal of that trust is always a factor.

Faith is not "pretending to know what you don't know", faith is NOT knowing yet still believing/trusting, Faith and Knowledge are mutually exclusive.

So you stating faith is "pretending to know what you don't know", is like stating "trusting someone is pretending to know someone you don't know"

Either you trust (have faith) someone, or you don't it's that simple

[The Reality Salesman01]

If you drop a needle, the best way to find it is to get on your knees and look for it, you find God the same way.

That would be an illogical analogy, for needles can be proven to exist whereas god caannot.

Not to mention, magnets would be a way smarter approach...

[vorlon13]

God won't condemn any believer for going the extra mile in comporting to strictures banning mixed fabrics, eating shrimp, mixing meat and dairy and all the rest.

That is certain.

God's tolerance for SLACKERS on the other hand, I wouldn't want to see too many christers pressing their luck on that.

Heck, it's supposed to be EASY to go for all the minutia once one asks, seeks, knows and believes. I can't believe we are having so many scripture cherry pickers defending the practice, it raise doubt as to their sincerity.

I can understand the reluctance to drink poison and handle serpents, but I can't understand why any Christer of any stripe would wear cotton/polyester, especially when there are perfectly nice acceptable clothes available.

And if one were to start comporting themselves more and more fully and then noted the increase in exaltedness or blessings, or whatever, then they might want to go further into Levitican Law and really make God happy.

[The Reality Salesman01]

I think its more like dropping a needle in a stack of needles and being told that there's a leprachaun attached to one of them.