Jesus names as evil those who think his Father would break heavenly law and have him sacrificed.

Sometimes it doesn't matter what we believe, does it? If I didn't believe in gravity, would I no longer be affected by it?

Thinking is good, indeed.

You point to something that is true and real, gravity, and comparing it to what atheists see as something supernatural.

Apples and oranges.


Thinking is good, indeed.

Is this enough garbage rock throwing or shall we do another couple of rounds.

Regards
DL

You made this post my time September 25 shortly after 10pm.

That's almost to the minute my father died twenty years ago.

I like Spanish guitar. I'm listening to it now.

I've always loved derailments, ever since watching "The Bridge on the River Kwai".

Though not an expert at doing so, I seek to look at reality and learn rather than seek to define words and then base my opinion upon such definitions.

You are welcome to your own definitions of faith.

No, it's really not. Have you ever heard of the phrase "ignorance of the law is not exemption from the law?"

If it is a fact, it is a fact whether you believe it or not. I cannot prove it is a fact, that I will admit, but that doesn't change the nature of a "fact."

Just as a break from garbage rock throwing ( ) a few more words of Wliiam Blake....

I feel that a man may be happy in this world. And I know that this world is a world of imagination and vision. I see everything I paint in this world, but everybody does not see alike. To the eyes of a miser a gold coin is far more beautiful than the sun. and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions than a vine filled with grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way.

Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. As man is, so he sees.

So beware the eyes of a miser!

Thanks all.

Regards
DL

Ah, yes and those two terms have been confusing and frustrating all of us for ages!

Now don't you see how my automobile metaphor makes the idea easily comprehensible to a much larger audience?

Tisk tisk Someone_Else....you do realize it to be Witchery to always reinforce suggestion that others do not have a final say in their own matter?

....but tit for tat.....those who continue to enable the notion of "helpless suppression" will (during their physical visit) continue to find themselves under another's suppression in one way or the other.

I *do* understand the error you believe to be there, and I used to raise this kind of objection to Christianity all the time myself. In fact, I am pretty sure that here at TFS I had this type of argument with a few of the Christians over the years



Does God *force* you to be dependent on Him? If so, in what way is he forcing you? He never forced me to do anything.

This is quite contrary to the Christian doctrine, in which a Christian is told to always be ready to give a reason for the hope they have within them. The word for defense used in that text (from one of Peter's letters), is apologia, and basically means being able to give a logical/philosophical/legal-style defense of their position.

At the least, this requires that knowledge be added to faith... ergo, faith is not switching your brain off by any means.



I guess you do not get around the forums much, but I doubt that too many people here would tell you that I have switched my brain off or am a mindless muppet of Christian faith. I am probably one of the least popular people here I suspect (at least, with the small number of people that even bother with religious and philosophical discussions here anyway ), but I am not sure they would say I do not know anything.



I agree. That is a large part of the reason, in fact, why I spurned left wing politics years ago - people had faith in an ideal they never bothered to study. Political Correctness is the same - a bastion of pseudo-intellectual muppets. Evolution theory is the same - a myth for those who like their magic to be uncaused. Catholicism and other forms of religion are the same - tradition replaces thought. Islam is also the same although it demands that people switch off both mind and conscience (in fact, anyone who studied Islam would either be a raving sociopath like Muhammad afterwards, or, they would repudiate that filth in the manner I repudiate it). Pretty much any other ideology, in fact, creates people with a faith devoid of facts. Why? Because you can believe in it and know basically nothing - or, in the case of evolution, you can believe it and repudiate knowledge, distort fact, lie or accept the lies of others etc etc etc.

If done right, Christianity basically *forces* you to think (in order to give an apologetic defense of your belief). Of course, this is no guarantee that we will be right, but learning and critically thinking about what you learn, is not a bad thing.

Jesus needa to come trim my lawn and have his wife make me tacos.

Does it need to be Jesus.......and how much do you pay per hour?

Bob and weave.

Regards
DL