ur going to hell lol... i hate it when people force their religious views on others and especially when people start critise each others religions.
God does not force you? You go to hell if someone chooses to deny the holy spirit. An unforgivable sin. If that's not forcing, then I don't know what is. It's like do it my way or suffer. Is it some kind of nasty surprise your God has for non believers? SUPRISE you're going to hell. I fooled you into thinking you had a choice.
People are not really FORCED into religion. Children at a very early age, are basically scared into religion. Have you ever seen pictures of hell. If i were a child still, I would for sure believe it! I'd be scarred.
I was wondering... if there was a god, but you didn't believe in god until you were in your deathbed (you know, the ol' deathbed repentence thing), what would happen? I know, completely random.. but any thoughts out there?
depends on how you lived your life. If you killed, murdered, raped ect. somebody then your damn no matter what but if you lived a good "christian" life you just end up in the first cicle of hell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy#First_Circle_.28Limbo.29
I think that that is one of those eternal questions that have no real answer, unless you experience it and come back to life. I guess one could argue you weren't a Christian because you weren't baptised etc.
The concept of freewill in Christianity is that we as the creation of God has been given reasoning abilities and to be able to make choices, including accepting or rejecting God. If we reject His son Jesus, we then reject the only source of foregiveness and we die in our sins. We can receive Jesus as our Saviour and therefore have forgiveness from our sins. This is the freewill for all. We do not have freewill in deciding what is and what is not sin as God decides that. It is like playing basketball. The rules are defined. The freewill is whether we want to play or not. We do not have the freewill to change the rules.
In the Christian context, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we receive the forgiveness of our sins. The acceptence process includes repenting for our past sins. The issue of whether it is a deathbed confession is not relevant. It is also important to note that it is not just about repenting to any god but repentance towards the God who sent His only begotten son Jesus to die for our sins as the Bible clearly states that "Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one goes to the Father except through Him".
I think the many problems we have today associated with religion is for that very reason. Man is unfortunately pursuing religion which in my opinion are man made rules dress in religious clothes. If you read the New Testatment in the Bible, the main source of problems for Jesus was the religious establishment. In fact it was the religious establishment that finally sent Him to the cross. If you read the teachings of Jesus He was constantly addressing spiritual things but the religious establishment was throwing religious stuff at Him. For example, they asked Him "should we pay taxes to the Roman establishment" His reply was "render onto Ceaser what belongs to Ceaser and render to God what belongs to God". Man's religion is about a set of rules but Jesus taught about how to establish a relationship with God. There is an eternal question that we all have to address whether one would like to debate it as a philosophy or as a religious question - the issue of life after death.
If you choose to quote Richard Dawkins then you also need to know that the Bible does not describe a Chistian child or tries to define it. Hence this is purely Richard Dawkin's personal definition and has nothing to do with Christianity. There is a Chistian quote (note from the Bible) but conveys the meaning i.e. God does not have grand chidren. This means that if your parents are Christians it does not mean that you are a Christian. Every Christian have to at some point in their life make a decision on whether they want to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. The parents cannot do that on their behalf. They do it at an age where they can make their own decision. The practice in the Catholic Church of baptising babies is not in the Bible and are man made rules. The whole concept of repentance in the Bible is freewill and by denition cannot be forced upon. If you think about it, for a God who is all powerful but have to force people to accept Him is not much of a God. God does not need anyone to defend Him as He is more than capable of bringing to pass His plans. Therefore please do not bring a Muslim child into the same context as Christianity as it is an insult to the Chrsitian God.
It is my understanding that many "free thinkers" start off as atheist but finds that their position as untenable and shift to a position of being an agnostic. An atheist by defintion is one who does not believe in the existence of a divine being i.e. God. The problem with this approach is that by using the same measure of proof is that they cannot prove the non existence of God. I would be very interested or have yet to see some kind of emphirical evidence regarding the non existence of God bearing in mind the same standard should apply for someone asking for proof for the existence of God. Therefore for the "enlightened" atheist, please answer the following 4 questions as all philosophy has attempted to address through the course of history ; 1) The question of origin, i.e. where do we come from 2) The question of morality i.e. the issue of good vs. evil 3) The meaning of life i.e. does life have meaning or we just exist 4) The question of destiny i.e. life after death
next time, multiquote, like i did. and as for your argument, it makes no sense. you say god wants us to think for ourselves, and we can choose to accept or reject god if we reject jesus, we reject forgiveness and we go to hell. fucking bullshit. what the fuck is up with the god forgives all shit? doesn't fit in the definition of all to me. and one thing i need to make sure of. what the fuck makes you people so sure that god really said the shit he says? huh? did you meet god? did you fucking conference call him? or are you taking this shit from a fictitious book that could potentially be someone else's shitting? if i'm angry, it's cause i'm sick of this oh you don't believe in god/jesus, you go to hell. my ass is here to get kissed.
This forum I understand is for posters to present their views and the basis for their views. If you don't agree, then present your views and the basis of your views as all debates are structured. What you are presenting is someone who just rants and swears with no interllectual substance in your response. It is a sign of emotional outburst of a child rather than as a mature adult. I think you should go back to school to learn how to debate and not how to fear 4 letter words. I am surprised that no moderators has commented on the amount of foul language being used.
its good to be a free thinker that way you can see things beyond what people tell you and what to believe
uh this forum isn't structured like christian schools so fuck jesus and his followers, yes send me to hell i don't give a fuck. and no i'm not gonna cut my wrist. If your looking for a forum structured like that i'm afraid you'll have to go elsewhere as basis for arguments and your "intellectual" responses are not welcomed here okie, k bai.
Pretty sure you need to be a christian in the first place to think that it is a sin by not going to church. So if you don't believe in going to church then in your mind, you won't be sinning because that concept does not even apply.
Well, if God gave us free will as Christianity teaches I wouldn't think it's a sin to simply exercise it.
Gosh you phrase it like a Zen Koan. Was thinking ever free ? Lets follow the train of thought for a while and see where it takes us ? Cheers !
i do believe in god. but i dun believe god in any specific religion. for me...religion is jz a teaching of positive. but religions starts to create story on their own god and start arguing and end up war-ing. no religion but believe there is god = free thinker oso huh?
