Does God Exist?

No you can't. No one knows the hour. You may not be present to the next moment. You can guaranty nothing at large but you are guaranteed to experience the effects of your own thinking. No matter how you slice it you cannot turn a bad line into a good one. You can have your faith without trying to put a square peg in a round hole. You cannot repent without changing your mind. Stop beating the dead and decrepit horse and move on to a more enlightening idea. You needn't defend a line that your audience will not except on the evidential face of it and it is a waste of your potential to perhaps get a good point across.

 

The meek shall inherit the land and will enjoy peace and prosperity. Babies do that now.

Says nothing about eternally living.

I wonder what your theology is on the subject which is why I asked you the question.

If heaven is the abode of god with his angels what does it mean that the kingdom of heaven is at hand?

 

nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

 

at hand means in your grasp

 

You can fill pages of this nonsense brother because the way is easy and wide that leads to destruction and your twirly icon of personal calamity.

If you don't want to honestly attend the proceeding then go away because you ain't representen the dignified or holy hood.

 

I don't know the mechanics behind it, but when I am told there will be "wailing and gnashing of teeth", I read this to mean that sentient creatures will be suffering, not that some strange empty automatons will be apeing the actions of suffering beings. How do you interpret the scriptural references to a place of great suffering which will be the abode of those who do not believe?

If I open a math book to a random page, and see "2 + 2 = 4", I would not dismiss it outright because of "context". If I open a random page of Buddhist literature and read "Mental suffering is at root caused by grasping to things which are at base ephemeral", then I do not dismiss this out of context.

I must hold the same standard when I open the bible and read "If your child talks back to you, stone him to death".

Tell me, if your requirement for reading any passage of the bible is to read the entire bible cover to cover, then how do you incorporate the fact that there are many books and passages of the bible which have been lost, omitted, and purposefully discarded by mortal men? Is the entire bible then not "out of context"?

I have read the entire bible cover to cover 4 times in the past 2 years alone. Perhaps we can let go of this point now, as it adds nothing to the discussion; how many times have you read the Qu'ran cover to cover? Never? Then how are you so quick to reject God's final prophet and His final revelation?

Evidence is something which is unambiguous. Again, two very helpful examples for you to ponder any time the topic of evidence comes into play:

1) Imagine you are buying a car. You are interested in a model, and ask the salesman for information about the car. He says "If you want to poke and prod at exact things like the mileage and insurance history, then you have a problem. There is plenty of evidence that this car is a fine choice for you to puchase, it is all around you, I can't help it if you want to ignore and dismiss it." Would you be bamboozled by this used car salesman? If not, why not? Is it because you require a higher standard of evidence for an important issue such as purchasing a car? Then how do you explain the standard of evidence you accept when purchasing your soul and knowledge of all things past, present and future, in one fell swoop?


2) You are in a court room, in a trial, in which you are the defendant in a murder case. Your lawyer stands and says "Your honor, there is no motive, there is no murder weapon, and my defendant didn't even know the victim". He sits down. Now the prosecution rises . . . "Your honor, if you require physical things to poke and prod at, then you have a problem. The evidence is all around us, I can't help it if you want to ignore and dismiss it". The judge and jury suddenly realize that they should convict you, and you are sentenced to death row for murder. What is your argument, your plea, when you call the governer?

Those people are not comporting to the ethical standards of which we speak. Don't be obtuse. Explain to me how people cutting off people's heads today is proof that there are no real ethics which exist, but people commiting genocide, infanticide slavery and rape are paragon examples of a loving creator of the universe and his eternal code of morals?

The bible's standards for slavery are that you are allowed to have slaves but you may not strike them so hard so as to damage their eyes or their teeth.


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Olderwater, I have some exceedingly good news for you!! You see, you believe in the entire story of the bible and jesus on the basis of a few dozen written eyewitness accounts which have been translated many times throughout the ages and undergone who knows what else kind of trickery.

But today, in this very time, in this world, there are literally THOUSANDS of LIVING eyewitnesses who can testify to the AMAZING miracles of Sri Sathay Sri Baba!!!



They say he has healed the sick!! They say he has walked on water!! In fact he HIMSELF says that he is God (and Jesus!!) reincarnate on earth! Oh, blessed day!

You are VERY WELCOME for having been provided such an exceedingly more robust case for a living god on this planet. Please, I breathlessly await your reply in which you renounce your narrow minded view of ancient scripture and join me in lovingly embracing a living god who has performed countless miracles in front of thousands of living eyewitnesses.

I will even personally fund a trip around the world for you and me to go and speak with each and every eyewitness so that we can be quite sure that there is no chicanery afoot here.

Blessed day!!!!!

 

Writer summed it up well in the paragraph below and if you believe ethical standard's are subjective at best, then that doesn't bode well for the standards which are written in The Bible. The example you gave would be contrary to a standard that is written in the bible but that also is a digression from the slavery issue.

My response came on the same page where IMjustfishin posted a bible passage regarding slavery's standards at the top of that page which you even quoted!?!?

 

Psalms 37:29

 

What nature do we inherit or where else do we dwell, ever?

 

The earth and the earth. Where humans live now and also in the future.

 

Thessalonians 2:11-12

 

I ask who of us doesn't inherit these things?

 

sounds quite like an evil plot

 

1St and 2nd Thessalonians 2,11-12



You well know that we kept exhorting and consoling you and bearing witness to each one of you, just as a father does his children, so that you would go on walking worthily of God, who is calling you to his Kingdom and glory.


That is why God lets a deluding influence mislead them so that they may come to believe the lie, in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.

 

The unrighteous

 

I see no one living who has not inherited his place on earth.

Who are these that are the unrighteous?

 

You didn't illumine the subject by saying only that is why.

 

righteous and unrighteous?

sounds like judgemental to me.

 

Do you think everyone should get everlasting life?

 

it is not up to me to judge that, now is it...i do feel people that torture other people and animals should leave though.