Jesus

[watsup1000]

"And I think it is because you seal your own fate. Once you throw him out, you have doomed yourself to a world of unbelief."

Ummmm…..it's not a "doom". It's an exercise in logic. "Belief" is the easiest thing in the world. Absolutely anybody can "believe" absolutely anything, as in the constant conspiracy theories that we hear all across the right wing spectrum.

[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?

[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.

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Non-scriptural. It is of course possible to make up amendments to orthodox christianity, that cause it to make somewhat more sense. But other belief, or lack of belief, may make even more sense.

And as Solomon wrote, twice, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is death.

[BigElCat]

Originally Posted by watsup1000

Or maybe it's all just a huge myth.

Not a myth, perhaps, but a swindle. A con like Pio called it.

Israel, before he earned the name 'Israel' was a man named Jacob. Jacob swindled his brother Esau out of his birthright. God chose Jacob the Swindler to become the patriarch of the tribe of Judah.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_...20to%20receive

I can understand why you don't believe it.

It's all true though.

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by BigElCat

Jesus said they would be cast into Gehenna, a buring pit, where they would weep and gnash their teeth for all eternity.

Some kind of body would be necessary for that. It's going to hurt.

I guess you were converted by a Jehovah's Witness perhaps.

There are two deaths a human can experience according to the Bible; the white death (in which they die to sin) and the final death in which they wait for resurrection. The unsaved are given a body, and thrown into Gehenna.

Not for all eternity. And Gnashing of teeth represents anger.

And no, I'm not Jehovah's witness, I'm "Christian" (An offshoot of the Church of Christ but we are not a capella only).

There are two deaths. The first death is the death of the body. The second is the death of the person in the body. That's why it's called "death". Immortality is the domain of the saved only.

This is a great explaination. I call it the "goldilocks" version. Not too simple and not too verbose. If you want verbose, read Edward Fudge.

https://www.jewishnotgreek.com/

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by Chicks

Moses and the Qur’an

Here’s an interesting trivia question that hardly anyone gets right: What person is mentioned by name the most times in the Qur’an? If you guessed Muhammad you’d be wrong, because he’s referred to by name only four times in the approximately 6,300 verses of Islam’s sacred text. The correct answer is Moses, who is named a remarkable 115 times. More narrative is devoted to him than to any other person, biblical or not. That fact takes many non-Muslims by surprise...

Oh, Moses figures heavily in the Jewish bible, too. So, your response justifies Islam and Judaism. Good job!

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.

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by watsup1000

Lots of “witnessing” from Insane and El, it doesn’t mean a whole lot to an atheist. I don’t have time now, but later on I’ll delve into this a bit more deeply. And citing the Bible means nothing to an atheist either. It is a compilation of HUMAN writings that are steeped in myth and superstition. I am not impressed.
Humanism has the answers.

Yeah. I get that. But I've never met a real atheist face to face. All that claim to be turn out to be agnostic.

But I see it this way. The bible says there are two types of people: Sheep and goats. That is, the saved and those doomed to be the lost at death. They simply die and are gone forever, like a dog or a mouse or an ant.

But I see it as three. There are found sheep, lost sheep and goats. My words are to the lost sheep, as I was when I first heard them. If you are a lost sheep, this stuff will eventually matter. If you are a goat, it never will. But that is between you and God. I'm just the messenger.

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by watsup1000

A more likely scenario is that there were grave robbers. The Jews may have robbed the grave to keep the Christians from using the body as an icon. The Christians may have robbed the grave to keep the Jews from having access. Or maybe it was just common thief grave robbers. For more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_body_hypothesis

Those have been hanging around for a very long time and are ludicrous to anyone that understands the culture of the day. I'll just leave it at that.

[Not Insane]

Originally Posted by watsup1000

"And I think it is because you seal your own fate. Once you throw him out, you have doomed yourself to a world of unbelief."

Ummmm…..it's not a "doom". It's an exercise in logic. "Belief" is the easiest thing in the world. Absolutely anybody can "believe" absolutely anything, as in the constant conspiracy theories that we hear all across the right wing spectrum.

Call it what you will. It's just semantics - in this world - to many people.

And no, true belief is not easy. It's easy until it can cost you.