10 questions that every intelligent Christian must answer

cexcells85 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - straight people die of AIDS everyday ;) not just gays its a world wide epeidemic AIDS it doesnt discriminate

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @JesusIsOnTheThrone Unfortunately for you, blathering fallacy is not logic, son. FAIL.

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @AndSingForeverToYou, It would make no sense for Josephus to believe Jesus was the Messiah, and yet remain a religious Jew. Therefore it was probably Cornelius Tacitus, who like Lucian, considered Jesus to be a rabble rouser and troublemaker, and certainly just a man. There are at least 2-dozen known historians from that time and region and we find not a single mention of Jesus in ANY of their writings. And there are NO references to ANY of his miracles outside of the Bible.

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @Beastt17 My favorite "if man he may be called" Josephus howler is so ridiculous: he suddenly mentions a figure who is a god then . . . just . . . drops further interest in him? I frankly doubt the JtheB references as well.

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @JesusIsOnTheThrone, You're suggesting that nature would automatically have compassion for a 3-year old drowning victim. Were that the case or were God to exist and have control over such things, there should be no 3-year old drowning victims. But there are. And there's no indication that nature operates on other than cold, calculable principles. That's why 3-year olds often die. And that's perfectly logical and rational. I sure dont know everything, but try to ask me a question I can't answer.

mydearjulietetf04 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - in order for you to enter His kingdom you must repent from your sins and receive Jesus Christ.. Repentance means you must turn around from your sins.. How could a gay repent from his/her sins if he keeps on being a bisexual.. and God is angry with the wicked everyday.. well..if a gay stops being gay and receive Jesus.. that is the time he can enter the Kingdom..

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @Beastt17 What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @mydearjulietetf04 Not according to Mk nor Jn. You reject the NT texts?! I will pray for you!

AndSingForeverToYou Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - Yeah, I think I lost the thread of it all. I think it's good for me to have this debate, because it means I can research things for myself and see where it ends up pointing me. I think even if the whole Jesus thing ended up being debunked for me, I'd still believe in some form of a God.

AndSingForeverToYou Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - {cont.} Because to me it makes sense. You know an all-powerful creator who caused the Big Bang and created evolution and everything else. Even if it isn't the God of Christianity. However, until I know more, I will remain a Christian.

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @DoctorX101, That's SO true! And is it just a coincidence that this "golden paragraph" only emerges AFTER Bishop Eusebius translated the work? Is it just an odd circumstance that he was working under the direction of Emperor Constantine who already planned to make Christianity the official language for Rome and all he controlled? Is it perhaps a bit suspicious that the original documents came up missing? It seems like an awful lot of improbable events, all surrounding one unique writing.

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @AndSingForeverToYou IF "all-powerful creator" he can only be EVIL, INCOMPETENT, and/or IRRELEVANT. Not something for Gentlemen to regard.

AndSingForeverToYou Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - You know. It's interesting, since Jesus was a devout Jew Himself.

AndSingForeverToYou Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - Okay...stop giving Christians a bad name...

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @AndSingForeverToYou, I think it's great that you want to objectively assess things for yourself. That's what I did after 33-years as a theist and I was pretty sure that an objective view (where I wasn't making excuses for god), would lead me right back to religion. But things in my life were terribly wrong and it just didn't fit with a benevolent supreme entity. I sat on the fence for about a year but nothing added up under God-belief and it all made perfect sense from an atheistic view.

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @AndSingForeverToYou We do not know that. We only know how Paul characterizes his brother and his group--the "Pillars of Jerusalem"--but Paul does not agree with them. Also, even if accurate, followers depart from founding figures.

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @AndSingForeverToYou, Yeah, that is interesting. But when you examine it, Jesus (in the story), does a bit of fence-sitting where he doesn't want to try to change the belief in the O.T., yet while saying the law must be upheld, actually preached against it. Jesus apparently started as a Jew, but his religious beliefs changed. By the time he claimed he was God (for those that interpret that he did), he as in direct violation of Jewish religious law. That's what got him in trouble.

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @Beastt17 Oddly enough, I do not think writers at the time saw it as dishonest. Certainly Mk, Lk, Mt, and Jn had zero problem creating stories and altering them as well. The idea of sacred and unchanged texts is foreign to the biblical texts--the Chronicler rewrites the Deuteronomistic History--various Pentateuchal authors try to rewrite the other. Transmission was not accurate either.

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @DoctorX101, Paul's writings are interesting. In Romans 1:3, he says Jesus was born of he seed of David. That would mean Paul thought Joseph was his biological father. In Galatians 4:4, he says Jesus was "born of a woman" with no reference to Mary's supposed virginity. Of course the virginity arose from the fact that the authors of "Luke" and "Matthew" couldn't read Hebrew (the disciples could). The word parthanos (in Greek), was used for the Hebrew word "alma" - "young woman", not "virgin".

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @DoctorX101, It's also interesting to note that Marcion was one of Paul's most devout followers. Marcion actually wrote the first proposed Bible canon and included only the Gospel of Luke and 10-letters from Paul. He was obsessed with Paul. And yet when he read the OT and proposed NT together, he began to preach of 2-gods; the Evil God of Creation (Jewish God), and the Benevolent God of Jesus, sent to protect mankind from the Evil Jewish God.

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @Beastt17 I am not convinced the Isaiah passage drove the Mary with the Cherry tradition: I think Mt, in particular, simply looked for a passage. Mt likes to make everything a prophecy. Virgin births were common and MAY have driven the Twin Brother--Thomas--traditions. Mk and Jn has no Mary with the Cherry--Mk has "brothers and sisters." You are correct, such is foreign to the earliest extant traditions.

Beastt17 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @DoctorX101, I agree! I think the writers of the biblical gospels fully believed in the divinity of Jesus. No doubt they were all Christian and were attempting to document what they had heard only as Christian oral tradition. But they weren't from the same regions and thusly, heard different accounts. Luke, Matthew and John all thought "Mark" was written by "Mark" and so relied on it heavily. They each fleshed in the details differently, using oral tradition, other scriptures and the "Q".

Djurbeloved Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - what is in your heart is your treassure and what you talk about also... lets check what we have inside... did you forgive,... are you happy... do you love... what did you share in life with others... can you give your car or clothes if you know about someone who needs???

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @Beastt17 Welcome to the confusion of Gnosticism. In their strange way, they were literalists--when not drinking the bong water. They noted the two creation myths, that YHWH was evil in behavior and ran with it.

DoctorX101 Says:

Nov 25, 2009 - @Djurbeloved Do not drink the bong water, son.