One more thing If I may: When I read that story it reminded me that I could've watched a story on the history channel and the people could've been a non-believer as well. The trouble with this stuff is for every nutty Christian there is a nutty Muslim or secular person. What gets me about these kind of threads is that it is very popular to trash Christians and their beliefs while we totally ignore the secular and Muslim crazy people of the world. They get a free pass time and time again? This is what is happening in our world today.
i guess it isnt the case with everyone, but many people feel like they are betraying their family if they do not believe. of course i do not know your story, this is a generalization that applies to many of my friends, maybe not you. i dont mean to presume to know your story. i dunno, do you think so? is it your religion that makes you a good dude? i suspect a nice fellow is a nice fellow, whether he has god to guide him or he doesnt. my guess is that sourdough would be sourdough, the world's most sincere person, even if he didnt happen to be religious. when i say i think sometimes values and and religion are intertwined, i mean like the way people think of america, the land of the free, the country founded on christian values, god and country, that kind of thing. i think you could remove god from that equation and things stay just the same. i think sometimes people feel like to not be christian is being disloyal to your family or your country or your heritage, and that keeps them religious.
While technically you can go out and do horrible things like that, as long as you ask for forgiveness then all is good. However, someone who is truly saved will not want to do those things and will do their best to avoid purposely sinning. Sure the person will slip up and sin, since no one is able to live free of sin (except Jesus), but truly saved people will do their best to live a life as free from sin as possible. Jesus said it best The Apostle Paul says the same thing in his letter to the Romans
No problem, I guess you could be right about some, I don't know? First of all I don't really think religion is the proper word because I don't belong to any religious organization. I haven't gone to church in a long time and one reason is that both of my children are special needs kids and are young. Tyler has Autism and has behavior issues, he's hard to control sometimes. Not everyone understands just because you are a Christian doesn't mean you are religious but I realize its all ones perspective as well. My answer to this statement is yes and no meaning to an extent. If I wasn't a Christian, in my case my values wouldn't be exactly the same. I believe it makes a difference in people's lives if they think the creator is looking over your shoulder not only that but knowing the creator makes one want to do the proper thing always. I would probably still be a nice fellow but I don't know if you could then trust me with your wife and possessions for instance. There is no doubt that I would be a friendly person and would help one out in a time of need. I would disagree for many reasons. First of all the world is ever changing and never remains the same. This country is quite different than it was in the seventies for example. If you take god out of the equation then the Christan values are gone. They are there as a reminder to people what the law is and also that there is a higher power. If the reminder of what the law is not there to remind someone they may go and brake some of those laws but I do realize that some break them regardless. Keep in mind that no two humans are the same and that is where we enter a Grey area. Maybe yes but also no. This is where we run into a stumbling block of talking about being born again. There is no way you could understand something like that until you experience it yourself. Like I've said above people are different, in some cases you might be right and in others you are wrong. The one thing that I note from this discussion is that there is no way to generalize people.
Personally, I think it is Freedom of Religion that is a good thing about our culture. I really am not concerned about someone else's beliefs, but I am concerned when they try to make their beliefs mine.
Secular people can't even get close to the concept of publishing widely-believed journalistic stories suggesting monster possession from a Parker Bros board game. If they did they would be locked up in a padded cell somewhere. I've yet to see a story on CNN.com giving credence to an old man who lives on the corner and thinks that the termites in his house are spies for the Chinese government. You can find comparably insane concepts on pretty much every web site devoted to Evangelical Christianity. Muslims suck. Nuff said. If you want to see things that make Muslims look bad just pick up the newspaper. Anyway, if we start discussions on why Islam is evil, I think 99% of the people here would agree. What's the fun in that? We discuss mostly the Christians here because America is a predominately Christian country. The Christian influence in our society effects most of us on a daily basis. What cracks me up the most is how many Evangelical Christians somehow feel persecuted in America.
Ridiculing Christianity only serves to solidify it...the Bible plainly states that Christians will be ridiculed for their faith. Faith has always had it's noisy enemies...and the worst are those who hide behind an alleged faith. You base your claims against evangelicals on bits and pieces of info that have little or nothing to do with most evangelicals...or their way of thinking. Christianity isn't a religion based on rules and so forth...it's based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Nothing more...nothing less. The relationship with Jesus Christ makes the Christian want to do the right thing...although we all fall short. To be a Christian is...by definition...to be Christ-like. That is what Christians should STRIVE to do. Human nature is what causes sin in our lives...sin is seperation from God...and Jesus Christ is the bridge that spans the gap caused by sin. It's really simple. Someone mentioned taking God out of the equation in an earlier post...it's already happened. God was taken out of the equation in the early 60's, and this country is less for it...IMHO. I find it interesting that groups are constantly attacking the court system for having the Ten Commandments or other Christian symbols in the courtrooms of America. The Ten Commandments are exactly what our justice system is founded upon...it's what our forefathers had in mind. We've long since abondaned those principles...sad.
well, if the bible says it must be true. i agree, anyone who has faith has no business questioning somebody else's faith. by having faith you are effectively admitting you do not care about reason when formulating beliefs. and without reason, you are just spewing random nonsense, no better or worse than any other random nonsense. i think if you looked into the opinions of our founding fathers you would find alot more doubt and alot less christianity than you suspect. in fact, i think if thomas jefferson or john adams were alive today, they would be unelectable because they are not religious enough. "As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] ... it is declared ... that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever product an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.... "The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation" - John Adams
Sorry amigo, but I have 18 years of experience going to two different Baptists churches for 4 times a week without fail. We never missed church at all growing up. Any time the doors were open, we were there. All of my opinions are from direct, first-hand knowledge of the topic. I heard many incredibly crazy ideas from otherwise rational people. It was not an isolated thing. For example:They used to sell a book in my Church, that went through every toy on the market and told you why it was really a tool of Satan and a conspiracy by Satanist business owner. It was called "Turmoil in the Toybox". this was sold at a table right when you walk into Church. Read the sample: funny stuff. http://www.amazon.com/Turmoil-Toy-Box-I-Phillips/dp/0914984047/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-3148060-8336410?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184642692&sr=8-1 Thanks to that piece of dung book, I couldn't watch He-Man anymore, and I could swear I saw my mom checking out my GI Joes with a suspicious eye. But Ronnie Reagan was all about GI Joes, so they were spared from hand of the Evangelist. Ah the painful memories!
