What is Tim Duncan's religion?

[all_heart]

Sorry you haven't studied up on your faith to grasp such a simple concept.

I get the whole non-Christian going to thing, BUT that is not for us to decide or judge.

So tell me about the mean people who make it to heaven?

[tmtcsc]

Ok all you atheists. We just got SJAck back for Jefferson ! There's all the proof you need that God exists.

[Blake]

I get the whole non-Christian going to thing, BUT that is not for us to decide or judge.

So tell me about the mean people who make it to heaven?

There's at least one proven thief in heaven.

you claim to know more about the Bible than me, how do you not know this?

[Blake]

In the simplest of reasoning alone, if the Atheist is correct what has the Christian lost? Nothing. If the Christian is right what has the Atheist lost? Everything. Logic alone seems clear to the conclusion unless there is more than simple reasoning involved.

Christians lose time and money to the church if they are wrong.

Political Christians also up the happiness of others that don't want Bible law to be American law.

[underdawg]

Damn shame people 20+ years didn't have that kind of easy access and are now in .

speculate if you wish, but only God knows the hearts and destiny of men

[underdawg]

Christians lose time and money to the church if they are wrong.

Political Christians also up the happiness of others that don't want Bible law to be American law.

I doubt many Christians would ever regret helping others regardless of the outcome.

As far as Christians messing up the happiness of others - there are always exceptions and that could be said of most any groups - religous or not. But, I'd say most Americans are pretty happy that we have our cons ution and bill of rights. Over 75% of the men that signed the declaration of independence were self proclaimed Christians.

As I stated earlier, 7 of the top 10 charities in the US are Christian based. I believe that the good they do outweighs any of the "bad" laws passed by "Christian" politicians.

[Amarelooms]

They were guilty of not having access to the literal Bible translations that we have today.

Fwiw, Christian faith generally accepts that there will be some mean a-holes in heaven (and some nice people in ).

There is no heaven or dummy....lol

[Blake]

speculate if you wish, but only God knows the hearts and destiny of men

So you believe in pre destination.

...which would make God a huge ass hole for creating a person he knows is going to .

[Blake]

I doubt many Christians would ever regret helping others regardless of the outcome.

As far as Christians messing up the happiness of others - there are always exceptions and that could be said of most any groups - religous or not. But, I'd say most Americans are pretty happy that we have our cons ution and bill of rights. Over 75% of the men that signed the declaration of independence were self proclaimed Christians.

As I stated earlier, 7 of the top 10 charities in the US are Christian based. I believe that the good they do outweighs any of the "bad" laws passed by "Christian" politicians.

I'm thinking more specifically of gay marriage issues among other things

[underdawg]

So you believe in pre destination.

...which would make God a huge ass hole for creating a person he knows is going to .

I believe in the pre-destination of Jesus Christ in that the plan was that Christ would atone for man's sins all along.

Man still has free will regardless of God knowing whether a person would choose God or not. God does not force man to choose him as he will not force man to spend eternity with him as well.

[DMC]

Fascinating.

I have done much study on both sides of this argument. It does appear that the more intelligent person will side with atheism rather than religiosity due to their more cerebral reasoning of the topic. To be atheist you need to be able to state reasonable facts illustrating the lack of proof of a God. To be religious you must rely on faith.

Usually, once the discussion reaches the point of disproving God by the lack of any factual evidence it ends. In my opinion it ends there because of the true core of the persons desire. Whether there is a willingness to be accountable to any absoluteness.

I have always taken it a step past the 'God' proof finality.

In the simplest of reasoning alone, if the Atheist is correct what has the Christian lost? Nothing. If the Christian is right what has the Atheist lost? Everything. Logic alone seems clear to the conclusion unless there is more than simple reasoning involved.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Pascal's Wager.

Welcome, I knew you would be here sooner or later.

Belief cannot be held or denied based on the benefits of the belief. It's induced, compelled, not decided upon.

If you can decide to believe something and make it so, you are delusional.

Also, atheist isn't a proper noun, so it's not capitalized. Yes it matters because theists love to capitalize it and say it's a religion.

[all_heart]

There's at least one proven thief in heaven.

you claim to know more about the Bible than me, how do you not know this?

If you know this then you should already know the man became a true Believer in Christ while on the cross next to him.

I don't know the Bible backwards and forwards, but even then I can recognize your weak arguments. Life isn't simple, religion can seem complicated.. I get that, but don't give up and throw what Faith you might have had all away.

[Blue-Lightning]

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Pascal's Wager.

Welcome, I knew you would be here sooner or later.

Belief cannot be held or denied based on the benefits of the belief. It's induced, compelled, not decided upon.

If you can decide to believe something and make it so, you are delusional.

Also, atheist isn't a proper noun, so it's not capitalized. Yes it matters because theists love to capitalize it and say it's a religion.

Waited 'til I was gone so it looked safe to come out again? lol

Let me know when you're ready to reconcile being wrong about:

- You tried to correct me about the definition of "laws of physics." I then posted the actual definition, and it turns out you were wrong and I was right.

- You tried to correct me about time. You used the wrong definition, and I had to correct you again.

- You tried to correct me about electrons. Once again, I'm right, I have at least a hundred scholarly references to back me up if needed, and I corrected you with multiple references.

- I showed you how we know the universe does not have an infinite past (as you say) through Olber's paradox. Before that, you contended it could.

- In a physics / cosmology discussion, you asked me if "love" is infinite. Maybe the wiccans were impressed...

- You showed you didn't know the universal expansion is equally distributed. I had to show you, and you just attacked Wikipedia instead of actually being able to evaluate the position.

- You have repeatedly shown you don't understand the definition of "universe," which indicates you really aren't versed in any reputable multiverse theories.

- You assumed my positions come from the bible, despite the fact I don't see the bible as authoritative.

I have done much study on both sides of this argument. It does appear that the more intelligent person will side with atheism rather than religiosity due to their more cerebral reasoning of the topic. To be atheist you need to be able to state reasonable facts illustrating the lack of proof of a God. To be religious you must rely on faith.

For someone who has "done much study," you don't seem at the front of the line on the subject. Atheism is a belief system, just as all other belief systems except agnosticism. It believes in something which cannot be proven, just as Muslims believe in a god which cannot be proven, just as Christians, and just as reincarnation cannot be proven for those who adopt that belief. Atheism is not science.

And by the way - all reasoning takes place in the cerebral cortex, after information assimilation in the hypothalamus. So you might want to stop using the phrase "more cerebral reasoning" as it makes you sound like a moron.

There is no heaven or dummy....lol

I don't know... my life's pretty heavenly, and I'd imagine the Sudanese would disagree about there not being a .

;-)

BL

[Blake]

There is no heaven or dummy....lol

Reading comprehension failure, dumb

[Blake]

I believe in the pre-destination of Jesus Christ in that the plan was that Christ would atone for man's sins all along.

Man still has free will regardless of God knowing whether a person would choose God or not. God does not force man to choose him as he will not force man to spend eternity with him as well.

We know there will be souls in , therefore God knows there will be souls in .....yet he created these souls any way.

It would be one thing if the end result for non-believers is simply to not exist any more after death.......but Bible God wants to keep the non-believer's soul "alive", burning and tormenting that soul forever.

That's not love. That's sick and twisted.

Bible God is a ed up ass hole.

[Blake]

If you know this then you should already know the man became a true Believer in Christ while on the cross next to him.

So he's suddenly no longer a mean ass hole?

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but in Bible heaven, there will be murderers, thieves, rapists, and child molesters.

I don't know the Bible backwards and forwards, but even then I can recognize your weak arguments. Life isn't simple, religion can seem complicated.. I get that, but don't give up and throw what Faith you might have had all away.

You barely know the Bible at all. My guess is you just go on what you hear from preachers.

Only a fool would invest much time, energy and/or money in something without doing the necessary research on it.

[all_heart]

So he's suddenly no longer a mean ass hole?

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but in Bible heaven, there will be murderers, thieves, rapists, and child molesters.





You barely know the Bible at all. My guess is you just go on what you hear from preachers.

Only a fool would invest much time, energy and/or money in something without doing the necessary research on it.

If so then that means they will have been forgiven, so that's good enough for me.

Only a fool would keep presenting weak arguments.

[all_heart]

We know there will be souls in , therefore God knows there will be souls in .....yet he created these souls any way.

It would be one thing if the end result for non-believers is simply to not exist any more after death.......but Bible God wants to keep the non-believer's soul "alive", burning and tormenting that soul forever.

That's not love. That's sick and twisted.

Bible God is a ed up ass hole.

So does that scare you? Sounds like something the devil would say, you've seen The Devils Advocate? Good movie.

Like I said before.. Life isn't simple, religion can seem complicated.. I get that, but don't give up and throw what Faith you might have had all away.

[Blake]

If so then that means they will have been forgiven, so that's good enough for me.

Only a fool would keep presenting weak arguments.

I'm not arguing anything. I'm simply explaining the crazy logic of your belief system to you.

I think you're nuts for being ok with possibly living next door to a guy like Charles Manson for eternity, but feel free.

[all_heart]

Well that's the problem, you are trying to understand the concept of Faith with logic... you can't - that's why they call it Faith.

I don't believe people live next door to each other in heaven I'm not even sure how the concept of prior life on Earth works out in Heaven, I just hope to recognize my family and friends.

[Blake]

So does that scare you? Sounds like something the devil would say, you've seen The Devils Advocate? Good movie.

Like I said before.. Life isn't simple, religion can seem complicated.. I get that, but don't give up and throw what Faith you might have had all away.

If it were true it would scare me and piss me off at the same time that God is a hypocritical ass hole.

It's not really complicated. God says that if you don't want to be his friend that he will you up.

Great guy.

[Blake]

Well that's the problem, you are trying to understand the concept of Faith with logic... you can't - that's why they call it Faith.

I don't believe people live next door to each other in heaven I'm not even sure how the concept of prior life on Earth works out in Heaven, I just hope to recognize my family and friends.

So you are admitting God is illogical.

Great logic in believing in something illogical.

[all_heart]

So you are admitting God is illogical.

Great logic in believing in something illogical.

Not at all. You never seem to get the point. You really have problems understanding the concept of Faith.

[tmtcsc]

We know there will be souls in , therefore God knows there will be souls in .....yet he created these souls any way.

It would be one thing if the end result for non-believers is simply to not exist any more after death.......but Bible God wants to keep the non-believer's soul "alive", burning and tormenting that soul forever.

That's not love. That's sick and twisted.

Bible God is a ed up ass hole.

Blake, its clear you have a very limited and narrow understanding of Purgatory, Heaven, and what the Bible teaches of the afterlife.

You also don't seem to grasp the idea of man being created with Free Will and being autonomous. We all have the ability to choose our own paths.

In the end, even non-believers will have a chance to save their souls. The apostle Thomas (Doubting Thomas) had an issue with belief and was forgiven.

The apostle Peter denied knowing Jesus 3 times to save his own ass before Christ was crucified. Jesus told him he was going to do it too. Not only was he forgiven, Jesus made Peter the foundation of the Church.

So no, Bible God is not some ass hole that wants to see people burn in . He is a forgiving God.

You should consider taking a class on Christian and Jewish scripture classes. You will understand why God seems to be vindictive and vengeful in one instance but all-forgiving in others. There's a very good reason for it.
It all has to do with the audience.

People are all motivated by different things. Some respond to threats and the fear of being sent to while others are motivated by the rewards of Heaven. The disciples knew this and used stories that would reach their audience accordingly.

It's kind of like politics. Do you think Obama would go to Texas and talk about how he is going to help the auto industry ? No more than he would go to Detroit and talk about immigration and border issues.

[all_heart]

Well said ^, thank you tmtcsc.