Something to Consider (510 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: -0.6 on 14 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by FryBender (View user info) at 2006-02-01 04:18:26 EST
In this post I want to address the following excerpt of the Undisputable Truths post:
According to the friendly Christians that came to my door the other day, I'll go to hell because I don't accept Jesus as my savior, yet a blithering sociopath who believes in Jesus simply out of fear of retribution is granted eternal happiness in Heaven... Maybe Satan left God's side out of confusion
1. Either Jehovas witnesses or Mormons came to your door and spoke with you. I do not know of any mainstream Christian organizations that go door to door. Mainstream Christianity classifies both groups as cults. The biggest difference is that Christians rely strictly on the Bible, where JW and Mormons had latter day prophets. There are other differences in theology that do not need to be covered for the purpose of the post.
2. The backbone of Christian faith is a salvation by grace theology. The question is if you don't accept Jesus as your savior you will go to hell, but if a sociopath does he will be spared. For the purpose of this response, lets replace sociopath with a normal sane person who commits murder or whatever. (Possibly a theologan or someone with formal training would have an idea how a clinically insane or mentally retarded person would be judged)
So some Uberuser gets a bad case of road rage and proceeds to murder the first little old lady they see. After the murder the Uberuser goes to prison for the rest of his life, and during his stay he discoveres Christianity. After shortly studying Christianity the murderous Uberuser decides that he doesn't wish to go to hell so he "believes in Jesus". Yet, according to the Bible the slain little old lady who fed the squirrels every Saturday and never hurt a soul is going straight to hell if she doesn't believe. Seems pretty fucked up, if we leave it at that.
Yes Christianity dictates that if a person wants to go to heaven they must believe in the divinity of Jesus, but thats only a part of it. The murderous Uberuser would first have to have genuine regret of what he did, then would have to seek forgiveness for not only the murder but for every "sin" he ever committed, and believe that the only way he could get forgiven is to accept the sacrifice of Christ. (thats why I cant get into the sociopath scenario, who knows if a sociopath can feel remorse). So just believing in the theology would do him no good, the belief has to accompany genuine remorse and faith.
That brings us to the next part. By killing the innocent lady the murderous Uberuser not only wronged her and her family, but God as well according to Christian theology. If a person is truly sorry for a misdeed they committed do they deserve forgiveness? Jesus taught that if you are wronged 7 times in one day, and the person ask forgiveness 7 times then you must forgive. As human beings we have differing opinions on this, but to a Christian Jesus is God incarnate. So as per Gods commands, he would have to also forgive anyone for wronging Him.
Now lets get to the innocent old lady, who happened to be an unbeliever. She didn't murder anyone but she gets sent to hell? A Christian believes that God is perfect and sinless in every way and hates imperfection and sin. So even though the old lady never committed murder, she has undoubtably broken at least 1 of the ten commandments at least 1 time. Thats the purpose of the ten commandments, to show people that we could never measure up to Gods standard. So the old lady is a sinner, and rejected the Grace of God offered to her in the sacrifice of Jesus. Therefore she dies in sin, yet the repentant Uberuser dies protected by the Grace of God.
The previous is the basic view of Christianity, granted there are alot of other basics that were not covered. I hope that this post adequately explained the salvation through grace theology.
User Reviews
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-02-01 17:29:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
see, this is why I roll with Allah..fuck this good vs bad shit, just kill em all
Submitted by MistressFist (user info) at 2006-02-01 14:15:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Jeebus Christ is my gimp.
Submitted by Foonbo (user info) at 2006-02-01 14:08:17 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
bleh.
Submitted by RamenNoodle (user info) at 2006-02-01 13:41:27 EST (#)
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Submitted by VelvetElvis (user info) at 2006-02-01 06:55:41 (#)
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The biggest farce of Christianity is that the majority relies on a "version" of the bible without ever stopping to consider just what that entails. King James version of the original texts, when placed side by side, has more gaps and additions and outright omissions that it's laughable. Yet for hundreds of years few have questioned its validity.
What are some of the gaps and omissions in the King James version? From my understanding there are still numerous transcripts of the original Greek New Testament. In fact the Bible has stronger manuscript support than any other work of classical history. Early manuscripts of the Bible have been compared to much later manuscripts, and scholars cannot find any alterations of major themes etc.
Submitted by zoobie2000 (user info) at 2006-02-01 10:56:32 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
i'm not reading this tripe
Submitted by VelvetElvis (user info) at 2006-02-01 06:55:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
The biggest farce of Christianity is that the majority relies on a "version" of the bible without ever stopping to consider just what that entails. King James version of the original texts, when placed side by side, has more gaps and additions and outright omissions that it's laughable. Yet for hundreds of years few have questioned its validity.
Submitted by sexualchocolate1984 (user info) at 2006-02-01 06:44:10 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
It's all bollocks! If Darwin was here he would kick your ass! In fact Darwin hated that his evolutionary theory conflicted with his religion, but I bet he would at least rape you!
Submitted by RamenNoodle (user info) at 2006-02-01 05:35:32 EST (#)
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Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2006-02-01 05:16:09 (#)
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Submitted by RamenNoodle (user info) at 2006-02-01 05:07:56 (#)
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Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2006-02-01 04:54:27 (#)
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No offence, but can you answer me one question?
Why do you believe in any of that?
No offence taken
For me its easier to believe in a Creator than it is to believe that the universe and all of its contents is the result of one coincidence after another. So many variables had to be just right for life on this planet, such as distance from the sun, size of our moon etc. Intelligent design cannot be disproven by science, but science could be backed up by Intelligent design.
2nd once I established belief in a Supreme Being I suppose growing up in the US attributed to it, since I was not exposed to Buddhism or whatever. Even still as I grow older I am more confident in my beliefs. I have researched alot of religion, but Christianity makes the most sense to me. Not to mention the fact that my faith has brought peace to my life.
I guess any of what I said could be applied to any belief system, if you want more specific answers I don't mind expanding on what I have already posted.
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Absolutely. In admitting to the fact that your beliefs would probably be different if you were raised to believe in another deity, aren't you admitting that the other religion has just as much legitimacy, and thus you don't really believe in Christianity at all?
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I wasn't raised to believe any diety, my point was if I was raised in another region of the world I wouldnt have had any exposure to Christianity. I am sure there are people who live in circumstances where they are only exposed to one particuliar. However, I personally do believe that Christianity is the only true religion.
For instance in the Old Testament of the Bible, the Jews Torah, there are many prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. Such as where he would be born, how his lineage could be traced back to King David, passages that indicate that he would be beaten and abused. All of the information in the Old Testament has gone unchanged, this was verified by the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. So the prophecies werent changed in retrospect to justify belief in Jesus.
When you get into the New Testament imagine the stir a guy running around claiming to be the Son of God caused. Talk of miracles, resurrection from the dead, etc. He claimed to be the Son of God in front of crowds of religious Jews, who would have been justified in stoning him on the spot. Instead of stoning he converted people. After his death the disciples went into hiding fearing retribution, thinking that they just followed a false messiah, yet these are the same people who later died for their faith. Another thing to consider is when reading the teachings of Jesus, you will notice that there is alot of wisdom in them. In fact if someone aspired to just follow the principles of Christianity, they could do alot of good. So if Jesus wasnt who he claimed to be, what would he be? Crazy? An evil person or spirit? or just a good person
If Jesus was crazy then he would have never been a footnote in history, there were crazy people then just like today
If he was an evil person well his teachings would reflect that
and we cant say he was just a good guy because good people dont run around claiming to be God
Those are just some reasons I can reasonably be a Christian.
Sorry if I leave anything out, any other questions I will answer
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2006-02-01 05:16:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by RamenNoodle (user info) at 2006-02-01 05:07:56 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2006-02-01 04:54:27 (#)
Ranking: 0
No offence, but can you answer me one question?
Why do you believe in any of that?
No offence taken
For me its easier to believe in a Creator than it is to believe that the universe and all of its contents is the result of one coincidence after another. So many variables had to be just right for life on this planet, such as distance from the sun, size of our moon etc. Intelligent design cannot be disproven by science, but science could be backed up by Intelligent design.
2nd once I established belief in a Supreme Being I suppose growing up in the US attributed to it, since I was not exposed to Buddhism or whatever. Even still as I grow older I am more confident in my beliefs. I have researched alot of religion, but Christianity makes the most sense to me. Not to mention the fact that my faith has brought peace to my life.
I guess any of what I said could be applied to any belief system, if you want more specific answers I don't mind expanding on what I have already posted.
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Absolutely. In admitting to the fact that your beliefs would probably be different if you were raised to believe in another deity, aren't you admitting that the other religion has just as much legitimacy, and thus you don't really believe in Christianity at all?
Sorry, I do this to every Christian I meet that is willing to explain their beliefs. The internet is especially good for this because I don't have to deal with their looks of pity.
Submitted by RamenNoodle (user info) at 2006-02-01 05:07:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2006-02-01 04:54:27 (#)
Ranking: 0
No offence, but can you answer me one question?
Why do you believe in any of that?
No offence taken
For me its easier to believe in a Creator than it is to believe that the universe and all of its contents is the result of one coincidence after another. So many variables had to be just right for life on this planet, such as distance from the sun, size of our moon etc. Intelligent design cannot be disproven by science, but science could be backed up by Intelligent design.
2nd once I established belief in a Supreme Being I suppose growing up in the US attributed to it, since I was not exposed to Buddhism or whatever. Even still as I grow older I am more confident in my beliefs. I have researched alot of religion, but Christianity makes the most sense to me. Not to mention the fact that my faith has brought peace to my life.
I guess any of what I said could be applied to any belief system, if you want more specific answers I don't mind expanding on what I have already posted.
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2006-02-01 04:54:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
No offence, but can you answer me one question?
Why do you believe in any of that?
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2006-02-01 04:51:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Well hello! Sorry about the little trick there, it was me all along!
I've been watching you, n'yess? In the Shower, n'yess? Growing into quite the young gentlemen n'aren't we? N'yess...
Submitted by junyer (user info) at 2006-02-01 04:34:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
http://www.dspaudio.com/~jaymz/comic.txt
Submitted by Kidmc (user info) at 2006-02-01 04:25:27 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
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