I wanted to apologize as a Christian....

[Polaris]

....about my comments years ago stating Christians really did not cherry pick. I used to think that atheists making derogatory comments that many Christians cherry pick as being made up and atheists merely lashing out against Christians. I mean sure, cherry picking 5-10% of the Bible especially about rules from the Old Testament (such as taking a day off of work or not wearing multiple fabrics) was OK but I honestly had no idea that some Christians would cherry pick to the point they don't even believe in any part of the Bible or throw out the 75% of the Bible that scares them.

And if you are wondering (and I don't fool myself, I am pretty confident you don't care about what I have to say), this is the Facebook page that convinced me you guys were right (Not The Kind of Christian). This is someone so insecure in their beliefs that they don't yet know their political/cultural beliefs (like promoting homosexuality) are not compatible with the Bible (the "but Jesus was so kind" type of people). And they are so many more pages it seems of people who have yet to state their views are truly incompatible with the Bible.

Are these cultural Christians who were brought up in a Christian household who are too scared to admit they are actually atheists? 

For example this a passage from the Bible. It's from 1 John. While 1:7 is my favorite verse (my signature), I know the surrounding verses are much less rosy.

"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us."

This is their happy feel-good, BS version they will tell you while omitting all the negative text. If they post this version to you, they are purposefully committing sections of the Bible and are, in essence, lying to you.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

[vorlon13]

In my lifetime Mark 10:11 went from 'damn right!' to optional to positively old fashioned, to freely ignored.

No shit, Princess Margaret (Queen Elizabeth's sister) could not marry her beloved Captain Townsend (decorated war hero, BTW) since he was married and divorced, when they were dating in the early 60s because in those days, Christian marriage was deemed to be indissoluble.

When's the last time (outside of me, here) have any of you heard anyone in public say anything like 'Christian marriage is indissoluble' ??

Anyone getting worked up about Jesus and His silly ideas about how He thinks marriage otta be conducted could very well be institutionalized, and they could very well find themselves being institutionalized by folks claiming vigorously they are, in fact, Christians.


How about that ding dong clerk in Kentucky, on a repeat marriage of her own, having a hissy fit about gay marriage licenses, and she's claiming 'Sincerely held BELIEFS" as her reason to deny.

Sincerely held beliefs?!?!?! Jesus fucking Christ, what kind of sincerely held religious beliefs are there left for her to have after shit canning a Christian marriage of her very own ?

[vorlon13]

Oh, wait a minute.

I'm not supposed to be pissed off about that.  Her intermittent Christian values are a BIG step towards atheism, aren't they ?


Hell, atheism is a less sin than her thinking she knows better than Jesus how marriage otta work, despite what He said.

That ain't merely denying God exists, that is rebellion from God's Holy Word.  Atheists might yet be persuaded, rebelling against God is another thing entirely.

[Aoi Magi]

The current bible itself has been cherry picked, with uncomfortable bits and stories being discarded over time. The myth and characters are themselves cherry-picked from other religions and older myths. So yeh, christians cherry-pick, and so does christianity.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I accept your apology.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Are these cultural Christians who were brought up in a Christian household who are too scared to admit they are actually atheists? 

Nope.  They're just christians who, like the majority of christians, believe something ever so slightly different from what you believe in the periphery of christ.  

For example this a passage from the Bible. It's from 1 John. While 1:7 is my favorite verse (my signature), I know the surrounding verses are much less rosy.

"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us."

This is their happy feel-good, BS version they will tell you while omitting all the negative text. If they post this version to you, they are purposefully committing sections of the Bible and are, in essence, lying to you.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

You're all lying to us, so what does it matter?  Are you really complaining that some other liar hasn't exactly related to me the contents of your preferred lies?  

What's the eta on an apology for that, and no, apologizing to jesus for doing it doesn't count.   

[vorlon13]

and a flip side to scripture cherry picking:

hyper vigilance to one, or a small number of selected strictures, or edicts, or rules, or commandments, or even something not in the Bible at all.

I'd say if the picky Christians were forced to speculate why they do that too, an honest answer would be along the lines of deflecting God's attention from all the scriptural guidance they are ignoring and patting themselves on the back for being really good, at least, in following at least one bit of scripture and hoping by their demonstration God might be hopeful they'd eventually start following some of His other rules.

Someday.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Oh, this twat again?

Dude, give it a rest.

[Brian37]

....about my comments years ago stating Christians really did not cherry pick. I used to think that atheists making derogatory comments that many Christians cherry pick as being made up and atheists merely lashing out against Christians. I mean sure, cherry picking 5-10% of the Bible especially about rules from the Old Testament (such as taking a day off of work or not wearing multiple fabrics) was OK but I honestly had no idea that some Christians would cherry pick to the point they don't even believe in any part of the Bible or throw out the 75% of the Bible that scares them.

And if you are wondering (and I don't fool myself, I am pretty confident you don't care about what I have to say), this is the Facebook page that  convinced me you guys were right (Not The Kind of Christian). This is someone so insecure in their beliefs that they don't yet know their political/cultural beliefs (like promoting homosexuality) are not compatible with the Bible (the "but Jesus was so kind" type of people). And they are so many more pages it seems of people who have yet to state their views are truly incompatible with the Bible.

Are these cultural Christians who were brought up in a Christian household who are too scared to admit they are actually atheists? 

For example this a passage from the Bible. It's from 1 John. While 1:7 is my favorite verse (my signature), I know the surrounding verses are much less rosy.

"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us."

This is their happy feel-good, BS version they will tell you while omitting all the negative text. If they post this version to you, they are purposefully committing sections of the Bible and are, in essence, lying to you.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

You are on your way there. It is quite a bit more that 5-10%. Cherry picking is the only way that any religions get a pass from insiders and outsiders. No consistency and it is more like 98-99% cherry picking. It is same reason why Sunni's and Shiites cant agree. It is the reason that a Tibet Buddhist wont agree with a Chinese Buddhist whom wont agree with a Japanese Shinto Buddhist. 

The bible took over 1000 years to compile and complete, with authors left out, and even after that new version got written like the book of Mormon and New international version. But that is not just Christianity. Every religion as umbrella labels have sub sects that do not agree as to the interpretations of the holy writings. Even Jews in Israel and America have a left and right whom don't agree on how the writings should be interpreted.

This cuts to the core of how absurd it is to claim that you have an "all powerful" and "all loving" being whom claims to have the perfect assembly manual but needs flawed humans and centuries to write it for him. Why would you waste all that time if you can "poof" everything in a blink of an eye? And why would you continue to allow humanity to fight over it when you are all powerful? Maybe there is no god, and the reason people argue over the competing interpretations is that they are sold that by their parents. Maybe the reason they do that is because they don't want to face the reality of being finite. Everyone loves a super hero. And funny how each individual thinks they picked the right super hero and has the correct interpretation of their holy writing.

[Minimalist]

You are far from the worst of the lot, Polecat.