If atheists get accused of taking verses out of context, how do we know fundamentalists making those accusations aren’t doing the same as well?
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First recollection (What does that mean)
Too much stress causes an increase of Cortisol - then that causes loss of memory.
Yeah aright, but you have nothing to do with hell or any decision concerning anyone ending up there or not. So what are you doing? I know what you're doing, but do you.
Friend, James defined death as seperation of body and spirit. The spirit lives on. Jamesn 2:26 and Isaiah 14:1-11
It’s definitely a joke. It’s only the fragile ego that doesn’t find it a joke because it’s impending doom is always around the corner. Nearly every religion has the threat of hell built into it…how else do you think they keep their followers locked down so effectively?
While I’m not Buddhist, I do consider the eastern religions to be a cut above the Abrahamic ones. Why? Because they go above control and conformity. The Abrahamic religions have obedience at their core.
A true individualist needs no authority over them, for they are their own. Whether you like hearing this or not, you are a conformist, Wrangler.
Wrangler
Well-Known Member
Agreed. Christendom has perverted hell beyond what Scripture says - and means. The word literally comes from the garbage heap that burned outside of Jerusalem. Ghenna is merely a holding place until things are burned, forever destroyed.
Agreed, along with love.
Now we are getting down to the heart of the matter. Having pride in being a true individualist, you balk at the notion of authority over you that you have to obey.
If you were a true individualist, you would not being using a device or the internet since they are benefits you derive from being a member of an advanced society. (The discomfort you feel now is called cognitive dissonance; the conflict between contradictory facts you hold to be true.) A Christian knows they need an authority of them, i.e., our lord. While you assert you have no need, yet you still have authority over you. Doesn't the law apply to you as well as me?
I don’t have to obey anybody. I can commit a crime if I really wanted to, It’s not out of fear that I “obey”, it’s out of my own desire. I choose to not commit a certain crime, it’s not because of what will happen if I do. Besides, some laws and rules are actually meant to be broken. If all humans ever did was simply obey anything and everything, then we wouldn’t be where we’re at today.
I don’t feel any discomfort with contradictory facts because in the end I know nothing. It’s Christians who suffer from cognitive dissonance. I’m still an individualist despite “depending on others”. Why? Because I choose to. If I didn’t want to, I would move to an island.
And believe it or not, no one is ultimately saving you as far as Jesus goes. You are saving you. Even if you say that Jesus saves, you are saving yourself by “allowing Jesus to save you”.
Accepting salvation from something/someone else is still you ultimately saving you.
A 2.5 hour video talking about the cognitive dissonance for Christianity:
Cognitive Dissonance Explains Christianity | Matthew Hartke
Cognitive Dissonance Explains Christianity | Matthew HartkeMatthew Hartke has taken a deep dive into the failed apocalyptic expectations of the early Christi...
www.youtube.com
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James 2:26
26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
(Is that the verse about body and spirit)
ScottA
Well-Known Member
"Accepting" is the wrong word.
The point is rather, that if one "believes", it is evidence that within them they are "of God."
I hate you and people like you, and I'm fine with it because I know why.
ScottA
Well-Known Member
So...you "hate" people who offers help to someone needing directions.
Great. If you want directions--you can ask.
I wasn't talking to you.
Wrangler
Well-Known Member
You know that you know nothing. This means you know something, Mr. Epistemology.
Yes, it’s a paradox. Even Socrates said that wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.
Most people struggle with paradoxes.
ScottA
Well-Known Member
Yes, but only because most would assume that "accept" means "consent to receive (a thing offered)." Which definition does not define the salvation equation, as it assumes that one does not already have the thing "accepted." That's not how it works.
On the contrary, salvation is rather a matter of allowing one to define themselves by revealing just what it is they are made up of; meaning, if they are already "of God" or not. The biblical scriptures described this, as, "the man of sin is revealed", as manifesting in the flesh the things that are otherwise unseen and in the spirit.
In other words, it is as if we are born into this world to publicly empty or pockets to see if we have an entry token to the magic kingdom of eternal life. We either do or we don't. The "good news" however, is that even if we don't have what it takes--it's free for the asking. Thus, if one hears the first hand testimony that exists down throughout all of history from those who gave (and still give) their witness to what they have heard or seen of the truth of God, and believe it enough to see where it will take them, it's enough, and the doors will be opened to us.
It's not a challenge issue, but the doors of the heavens do not open to those who do not believe. In which case it all remains brilliantly out of sight and out of reach. Either way, whether only natural or spiritual, life is a gift. The one is simply and ultimately just smaller than the other.
ScottA
Well-Known Member
Are you not admittedly not sure (agnostic)? Why then do you act as if you know what you are talking about?
I actually happen to know that "accepting" is not what salvation is based on, that it is rather a matter of belief or knowing. And I answered the Original Post question.
So, what, you're just lashing out?
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