re: He is risen

I don't believe in a jesus or christ.

But I did trip 13 grams of shrooms once and let me tell you that there is something there.

Happy Easter.

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Bayou

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SOAB!!! you can't really believe the shite you say.

We Love Jesus Christ!

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So far, 4 people in this thread are going to hell.

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I'll see you there!

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What if I'm a Jew and believe that followers of false prophets should be slaughtered like it says in the Book?

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Thats a bold strategy Cotton. Lets see if it works out for you.

For all that worship Christ, I wish you a blessed day.

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Abadeebada, obviously you are a huge fan of God because He gives you that choice to believe or not. Only a loving God would do that.

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Biggest false choice in human history.

Believer: "God loves you, he gave you free will and with that free will comes the freedom to choose to love him back and accept his gift of eternal salvation."

Nonbeliever: "Well, I was born in Thailand and therefore born into a Buddhist family, went to a Buddhist school and all of my friends are Buddhists, and while Jesus sounds decent enough, I'll have to decline the gift and wish you all the best."

Believer: "Well, then, you can just go to Hell!!"


And there's a perfectly accurate summation of Christianity's free will problem. God loves you, more profoundly than you can ever know, and he's given you the freedom to "choose" to love him back, but if you don't make that choice, you're punished on a scope and scale that would make a thousand, thousand Hitlers reel in disgust.

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I grew up in the church, and I have never thought that morality and faith are synonymous. I was never taught that people that lack faith also lack morality.

From my experience, there is a caricature of Christians that exists in the minds of many non-religious people that simply isn't accurate.

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It's far less a caricature than you think. Sounds like you have or had a decent church/Christian community but I grew up in an environment that likened atheists to demon worshippers (Savannah, GA, Southern Baptist) and that behavior was pervasive there. This was 20+ years ago and I was ultimately ostracized from the community but I'm told the problem is better now. My question would be, what percentage of believers acting in that manner would it take to for you to at least admit it's actually a reality for so many people? And yes, the number may very well constitute a minority but a minority in this case would still represent millions to tens of millions of Christians.

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True Christians don't relish in the thought of anyone burning in hell. That sounds more like the description of Christians that atheists use to demonize them.

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That's a very fair rebuttal, "relish" was a poor word to choose on my part and I know that an overwhelming majority aren't delighted about it. But, they do bring it up quite frequently and it's often coupled with pity and condescension, even if they sometimes can't see that they're acting in a condescending fashion.

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by OleManDixon


Oh is this the part where we mock people for their most dearly held beliefs then act all indignant and smug when some imperfect humans respond with less than Christ-like behavior? I hope it is. I mean I’ve seen it about a billion times but it’s always so fresh!

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No, we are mocking the beliefs, not the believer, with the lone exception being that little twat bag that told me to frick off and have a happy Easter after accusing me, incorrectly, of posting on an alternate account. And for the record, I was playing nice until someone brought up that I was going to Hell.

A belief is not beyond reproach just because it's cherished and dearly held.