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Ask a Christian

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MarieMattenson24
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Ask a Christian

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So I am a Christian. I want to post a topic here so we can have an open and honest discussion about the religion. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a big fan of parts of the church. I think the church really needs to improve on how they love those with mental illness. I also think the church needs to improve on how it reaches out and loves the LGBTQ community. Now let's be clear, I believe every word of the Bible and everything it says however as Christians we are not called to be judge and jury. That is Gods job and Gods job ALONE! A christian's job is to show the love of Christ and we can't effectively do that if we are holding our picket signs and yelling at people, telling them why they are wrong. Some Christians would argue that we shouldn't sugar coat the truth and being 100% honest is the only way to go. But what is honesty? They seem to focus on only the half of truth that says that God is just. Yes he is just but they tend to forget that he is also loving too.

So there's my church rant. Feel free to ask any questions you want. I am not an expert by any means but I do know some stuff. Please be respectful though. There will be questions that I genuinely won't know the answer to but I will try to answer them the best I can. Also please no questions like, "are all gay people going to hell?" I don't know. That is up to God. Basically please try to leave politics out of this. I think there is a time and place for politics and religion but here is not one of them. Thanks! :-D
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johnson1010
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Re: Ask a Christian

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Hello and welcome to the site!

I appreciate your desire for discussion on religion!

A look through the posts on this site should let you know that religion is one of the topics we dig into quite often around here. What you are likely to get in response to this open invitation may be challenging. Just remember that ideas and people are not identical, and if your beliefs are contested that is not an attack on you.

I look forward to hearing more!

Feel free to reciprocate here!

http://www.booktalk.org/ask-an-atheist-t25648.html
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro

Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?

Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?

Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
MarieMattenson24
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Re: Ask a Christian

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johnson1010 wrote:Hello and welcome to the site!

I appreciate your desire for discussion on religion!

A look through the posts on this site should let you know that religion is one of the topics we dig into quite often around here. What you are likely to get in response to this open invitation may be challenging. Just remember that ideas and people are not identical, and if your beliefs are contested that is not an attack on you.

I look forward to hearing more!

Feel free to reciprocate here!

http://www.booktalk.org/ask-an-atheist-t25648.html
I have pretty thick skin. :-) I know what I am getting myself into by posting this and I tend to not take things personally especially things online.
youkrst

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Re: Ask a Christian

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when i go to hell will i be able to get marshmallows to toast properly :hmm:

assuming there is a hell and i'm going there of course :-D

i figured i must be going there (to hell) because i have blasphemed the holy spirit more times than i can remember :-D

and i suppose my question pre-supposes that you believe in the orthodox literalist doctrine concerning a lake of fire and an un-forgivable sin :)
MarieMattenson24
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youkrst wrote:when i go to hell will i be able to get marshmallows to toast properly :hmm:

assuming there is a hell and i'm going there of course :-D

i figured i must be going there (to hell) because i have blasphemed the holy spirit more times than i can remember :-D

and i suppose my question pre-supposes that you believe in the orthodox literalist doctrine concerning a lake of fire and an un-forgivable sin :)
Actually I'm not sure what hell is or what it looks or feels like. I hope to never find out. I know a lot of people think of it as a lake of fire but I wonder if it is an empty void. I almost find an empty void to be more terrifying than a lake of fire. It would be like you become part of this nothingness. You have no purpose, no feeling. All you know is that you lived and died for nothing. And that knowledge that you are nothing and you mean nothing haunts what is left of your consciousness and echoes among the silence of the other souls that have been sucked into the void with you. It's just my theory on hell but I could be wrong.
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Re: Ask a Christian

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Here's a quote from Sam Harris:
We have Sathya Sai Baba’s miracle stories attested to by thousands and thousands of living eye witnesses, and they don’t even merit an hour on the Discovery Channel. But you place a few miracle stories in ancient books, and half the people on this Earth think it a legitimate project to organize their lives around them. Does anyone else see a problem with that?
So why do you find the Bible so convincing? There are plenty of people who strongly believe the claims of other religions (or other non-religious claims), but you don't give them a moment's thought to find out if there is anything to them. Why don't you lose sleep wondering whether the people who gladly die for Islam have the right story? If you were born in a Muslim country, you'd be a Muslim.

Why is the most perfect book of all time written just as you'd expect if it was written by men who lived in the Middle East at that particular time? Doesn't that give you pause in taking it literally, and as a guide for all of human life?
MarieMattenson24
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Re: Ask a Christian

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Dexter wrote:Here's a quote from Sam Harris:
We have Sathya Sai Baba’s miracle stories attested to by thousands and thousands of living eye witnesses, and they don’t even merit an hour on the Discovery Channel. But you place a few miracle stories in ancient books, and half the people on this Earth think it a legitimate project to organize their lives around them. Does anyone else see a problem with that?
So why do you find the Bible so convincing? There are plenty of people who strongly believe the claims of other religions (or other non-religious claims), but you don't give them a moment's thought to find out if there is anything to them. Why don't you lose sleep wondering whether the people who gladly die for Islam have the right story? If you were born in a Muslim country, you'd be a Muslim.

Why is the most perfect book of all time written just as you'd expect if it was written by men who lived in the Middle East at that particular time? Doesn't that give you pause in taking it literally, and as a guide for all of human life?
Oooo! Good question! Well there are a couple reasons.

1) there is historical proof of Jesus claiming to be the messiah.

2) I have doubted. I have questioned and I keep coming back to the fact that there is no other religion (except Judaism) that portrays a loving God. In Christianity a deity gave his life for his people that rebelled. A diety gave up his dvine status and became one of us only to die and then to raise from the dead! And way back when this was all happening people died for it. They were persecuted.

3) The people of Islam, there are two sides to the coin. Yes some are truly dying for their faith because they believe it and the others are blowing up themselves. The extremists of Islam use their god and Koran as an exscuse to kill and murder. And I suppose you are wondering "well don't Christians also do that?" Well if you read the Bible we aren't supposed to so can you call the people who do that Christian? I have heard conflicting stories about the Koran. Some have said that it promotes violence and some have said that it promotes peace. I think there are some passages in there that could promote violence and some that promote peace. I think the Muslims who are generally peaceful look to the verses that promote peace and the extremists look to the ones that promote violence. Now the same could technically be said about the Bible if you look at the old testament however 1)we live in a fallen world 2) there is a time for everything and when the time came for war God told the Israelites not to take anything for themselves rather to sacrifice it to him. Yes this did include women and children but if you look at this from a Christian perspective God gave us life so he has every right to take it away if he so chooses by whatever means he deems fit.

4) Complexity and science. I look at the complexity of science and every time I get this moment of awe because of the vast complexity. I can only conclude that an intelligent being could have designed that.

5) Also I have had experiences where I have been attacked by demons and Jesus saved me. Also I have had an experience where I was prompted to pray about a specific topic and I found out later while I was praying these guys were out doing ministry related to that topic. It was so cool how God did that!

So does that answer your question?
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Re: Ask a Christian

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MarieMattenson24 wrote:
1) there is historical proof of Jesus claiming to be the messiah.

2) I have doubted. I have questioned and I keep coming back to the fact that there is no other religion (except Judaism) that portrays a loving God. In Christianity a deity gave his life for his people that rebelled. A diety gave up his dvine status and became one of us only to die and then to raise from the dead! And way back when this was all happening people died for it. They were persecuted.
Thanks for your response.

Proof of "claiming to be the messiah" is not much, I am willing to concede that.

The fact that people died for their beliefs is pretty good evidence that they had strongly held beliefs. There are countless examples throughout history in which you would not even begin to consider that as evidence for truth.
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Re: Ask a Christian

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Image
Preaching the word isn't the only way to give people Christianity. The above method has been proven to be very successful.
MarieMattenson24
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Re: Ask a Christian

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DB Roy wrote:Image
Preaching the word isn't the only way to give people Christianity. The above method has been proven to be very successful.
Slavery? Um...actually if I have my facts right the main religion back then was Catholicism. Catholicism is not Christianity. It is a hodgepodge of other deities and gods from other ancient religions disguised as saints. During the crusades the Catholics were persecuting Christians. So that is a common misconception.
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