Jesus

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by watsup1000

"This is why I value Christianity over science. Science is good. It's cool, interesting and brings many positive benefits. It tells us how things work so we can manipulate the world in which we live.

But all that is pointless until one can figure out WHY we exist. That is where Christianity comes in. And "why" is a higher pursuit than "how". "

We exist because we are born. It's not that difficult to figure out. And then we spend our lives trying to become the best person that we can. And when we want answers about the natural world and universe, we turn to science and do the best we can with our puny brain organ.
It's always interesting to me that religionists always have FINAL answers to most queries while science demands continual searching for answers. Therein lies a huge difference, in favor of science.
And Humanism has the answers.

Why are we born? I don't mean "how do we come about". I mean WHY. What is the purpose of our being born?

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by watsup1000

"That's what makes Christianity unique. It's Grace, and no man made religion has that aspect. It's always based on works. But Christianity is not."

Which is absolutely nutso, of course. A logical God, and you would certainly think that an omnipotent God would be logical, would of course make good works the way to get into heaven, rather than the cad who has spent his entire life in sin and degradation and at the very last moment proclaims "God I have sinned" and the door to heaven suddenly opens for him.
Makes no good sense at all. Why would anyone want to spend his or her life doing good works when they matter not to God?

Your post cracks me up. You are like a dog saying it's nutso that his master leaves the house every five out of seven days for 8 hours and it makes no sense. It's because, as a dog, you don't understand the concept of a mortgage, money, etc. You're a dog.

But you are a dog filled with hubris based on arrogan ignorance. You sit in judgement of your master.

And you are right. It makes no sense. No man made religion would be based on such "nonsense". It's because it did not come from man, but from God. As Solomon said, there is a way that seems right to a man but its end is death. We do not have perfect knowledge. Respecting God is the beginning of wisdom. Until you reach that point, all you have is knowledge. That makes you the peer of a computer. It takes someone with wisdom to put that knowledge to use.

[Pio1980]

Originally Posted by Not Insane

Muhammad wrote it. Why would his name be most mentioned in the quran?

The quran DOES mention the story of jesus turning clay birds into real birds. Taht is quoting the "infancy gospel of Thomas", where Jesus is depicted as the billy mumy character in that old Twilight zone episode. Nonsense like that is what made it so important to canonize scripture. All sorts of nonsense was being written at the time.

But Mohammed included it in his book. I'm surprised Joseph Smith didn't include it in HIS book.

The BoM was supposed to be an historical cultural account of the "New World", in which Moses has no relevance. Therefore, no mention.
Otherwise, "Mormonism" is as Christ centered "Christian" as any other Christian sect, due to account of visitations to the New world post-crucifiction. Old world accounts of course wouldn't have any mention of events theoretically unknown to them, same reason as the former.
A good story should be consistent unless the intent is to confuse.

[BigElCat]

Originally Posted by Pio1980

Not quite what I said, there's an inference that Christianity is essential for an ethical meaningful life. There is scant evidence that either is correct, and that belief deterrs criminal behavior.

I have no doubt that you do live an ethical meaningful life.

Many non-believers live by a code of ethics, and that's a good thing.

CS Lewis, a noted Christian theologian, seemed to believe that God might grant a pardon to people that lived a good life even though they didn't accept Christ as their Savior.

I like to think so, because my Dad was extremely ethical and did not believe in Christ or any religion. I used to pray that my Dad could go to Heaven with me, but I came to accept the fact that he probably won't.

CS Lewis apparently believed that Islamist who lived by their dogma would go to heaven even though they had been duped by a false god.

[Chicks]

Originally Posted by BigElCat

duped by a false god.

The sheer arrogance of you Evangelicals is enough to turn anyone off your nutty religion forever! How in the world you believe you are the only ones who know the "truth" is just astonishingly arrogant, ignorant and abusive. Shame on you!

[BigElCat]

Originally Posted by Pio1980

The BoM was supposed to be an historical cultural account of the "New World", in which Moses has no relevance. Therefore, no mention.
Otherwise, "Mormonism" is as Christ centered "Christian" as any other Christian sect, due to account of visitations to the New world post-crucifiction. Old world accounts of course wouldn't have any mention of events theoretically unknown to them, same reason as the former.
A good story should be consistent unless the intent is to confuse.

I've read the Book of Mormon.

IMHO, Jospeh Smith was a con man. There were no tablets made of precision metal.

The Christian Bible has a 'closed canon'. The scriptures clearly state that nothing else can be added to it, until all the prophecies decreed by God are fulfilled. Joseph Smith broke that rule.

[BigElCat]

Originally Posted by Chicks

The sheer arrogance of you Evangelicals is enough to turn anyone off your nutty religion forever! How in the world you believe you are the only ones who know the "truth" is just astonishingly arrogant, ignorant and abusive. Shame on you!

Stating what I believe in is no more arrogant that what you just said.

You KNOW the Bible is not true.

I'm not an Evangelist. I'm a Fatalist. I really don't care who goes to Hell, as long as it's not me.

I'm done for the day. Gotta go to bed.

[watsup1000]

Lots of “witnessing” from Insane. Not impressed. I will answer some later when I have the time.

[donquixote99]

If I could argue effectively against Christianity, I would likely break someone's sense of reality and meaning of life, and I don't know what would happen after that.

I don't have anything pushing me to try to do that, in fact, seems unethical.

Sure will argue against breaking that wall of separation, though. Be very very afraid of religionists wielding the sword of state. They can be absolutist, totalitarian, just as authoritarian as hell. "Kill them all," said the religionist.

You just don't want guys in power who consider the opposition as blasphemers who deserve death....

[Pio1980]

Originally Posted by watsup1000

"That's what makes Christianity unique. It's Grace, and no man made religion has that aspect. It's always based on works. But Christianity is not."

Which is absolutely nutso, of course. A logical God, and you would certainly think that an omnipotent God would be logical, would of course make good works the way to get into heaven, rather than the cad who has spent his entire life in sin and degradation and at the very last moment proclaims "God I have sinned" and the door to heaven suddenly opens for him.
Makes no good sense at all. Why would anyone want to spend his or her life doing good works when they matter not to God?

Last para response;
Simply because it is the right, ethical thing to do, it matters to the doer and those who benefit.