I personally believe that if you are good you can get into heaven, and God didn't create evil, he let us grow in our way. Whether someone became evil or sinful is their own fault.

The obvious answer is usually the right one.

God doesn't exist. Religion is a big scam. It is a scam that has been used for control, power, and wealth for thousands of years of human life. It is no different than politics, and at many times it WAS politics.

The only damnable sin of being in another religion is knowingly denying jesus in their heart. If they were never exposed to jesus, then it is unknowing and forgivable in purgatory. His entire bit is free will. No personal opinions = no free will. Plus, the devil brought in sin in the first place. Not god. I'll copy a big metaphor I used yesterday. :"Think about it this way. You invite some people to a party. You want people to come that are nice to you, but they were all persuaded to hurt you in some way. All can be forgiven if they confess and apologize, but if they just show up at the party and expect to come in, you'll be a little hesitant, right? But, you'll allow some in, just because what they did they didn't know they were doing, or it was small stuff. But if someone raped your mother and punched you in the face, you wouldn't let them in, right? The same for someone who goes out of their way to tell everyone that they aren't going, but still show up. It's not that he is holding a grudge, but would the people still try to do these horrible things in heaven? It's acceptable for venial (less significant) sins because they won't be too bad." Do you understand now?

tbh, I don't think there's anything one man can do to actually deserve an ETERNITY of torture and pain in hell

denying God warrants an infinite punishment because it's an infinite crime.

then why would he only reveal himself to the jews? He basically just condemned everyone else

He's revealed himself to everyone

he has not revealed himself to me.

Is that why all accounts of him are written by jews?

the accounts have been seen by people around the world

apparently I didn't get the memo then, since when was his glorious so well known by everyone

first you have understand that everyone deserves to go to hell because everyone sins.

the only way anyone can get into heaven is if their sins are covered by Jesus' sacrifice. and in order for this to happen, they have to accept the sacrifice and repent. theres no other way for sins to be forgiven, so people of other faiths will go to hell unless they change

God offers eternal life to everyone equally, all we have to do is ask for it from Jesus, since He's the one who made it available to us. No one is good, we're all sinners, so without Jesus' grace and generosity, we would all go to hell. God didn't create evil, evil is merely the absence of goodness, we we opted for when we turned away from God. He didn't give us free will because He wanted us to turn away from Him, but rather so that we could love Him of by our own choice. To love Him is to choose eternal life in heaven, to reject Him is to reject heaven, plain and simple. As for the last part of your inquiry, that falls under the category of "Why did God create life?" and we are not mentally or spiritually equipped to understand that reasoning.

Those raised without access to the Gospel are not victims of God, but victims of humans who have deprived them of the Word by dividing the world into what it is today. God knew this would happen and so He commanded us to share the Good News with as many people as possible so that they can be saved. It's distressing that they have been corrupted but all we can do is witness to them and pray that God works in their hearts as He did in ours.

If, however, they've had access to the Good News and still reject it in favor of what they believe in, then we can still try to save them but it ultimately comes down to their own choice, and we will again pray for them, but if they reject Jesus then they are lost.

Dictatorship in a nutshell.

By your standards.

By common sense.

Common sense? The majority of the world is Christian. The majority of the world understands the difference between being a dictator and being God. You and your views are in the minority.

The "majority" doesn't even follow gods idea's word by word. The "majority" does not believe in the delusional idea that everyone goes to hell except christians, the "majority" doesn't even read the bible.

It's common sense to say that god the way you describe it is a dictatorship because that is exactly how all dictators to this day reigned.

Who are you to say that the majority doesn't do those things? Sure maybe not everybody obeys God to the letter, but we know that the world is mostly Christian, so we can therefore determine that most of the world reads the Bible. All versions of the Bible confirm that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, which means the majority does believe that nonbelievers perish.

I wouldn't say all versions, I don't believe the Mormons believe that, although I can't be for sure.

But there is one reason why all versions may claim that...they all came from one original source. It isn't like different people around the world were inspired to write the same text and publish it.

Over time through translations, and ignorance, the Bible has changed to fit the intelligence of the people and their language. This is why there are different versions. It is still the same book.

The majority of Christians believe what their TV, radio and priest tells them, because many if not most "Christians" don't read the Bible or even go to Church on a regular basis. And even then, they are likely only Christian to begin with because they were raised that way. Had they grew up in India or the Middle East, they would have been raised as Hindu or Muslim.

Well Mormons are as wacky as Catholics, and anyway their Bible includes a third Testament which the rest of Christianity doesn't acknowledge. I was referring to the two-Testament Bible.

And yes, the Bible originated in one part of the world and then spread to the rest of it. That's pretty common knowledge. And if you think listening to priests and TV and radio counts as common knowledge, then why use those people, who are clearly uneducated even in their own faith, to define your own beliefs? You just said our faith is a dictatorship as defined by common sense. If you think common sense translates to people not bothering to read a book and just listening mindlessly to other people, then why would you want to be a part of the "common sense"?

"And if you think listening to priests and TV and radio counts as common knowledge, then why use those people, who are clearly uneducated even in their own faith, to define your own beliefs?"

Because million listen to these people, and they claim to be experts. But the sheeple (mostly religious folk) blindly follow and believe what they say just as they blindly believe in what a book tells them to.

You can read a book all day that claims to spout facts. However, unless it is verified by separate sources and people, blindly following in its words exempts you from the use of common sense.
Believing what some guy says on TV about the Bible and faith is no different than reading The Bible itself.

Well considering the Bible had about 40 authors who all witnessed the work of God and/or Jesus firsthand, I'd say it's as credible as any other book.

How exactly does that prove anything? Have you never heard of a collaboration? That just proves that 40 people wanted to create a inspirational text...or they wanted to create a book that could be used as a means of control, or they wanted it to be the biggest joke of them all.

Hey you're the one that said it had to be verified by separate sources.

The Bible is one source from thousands of years time. There is nothing to confirm the miracles or supernatural aspects of the Bible from non biblical sources. What a coincidence...

Actually in exudus, when Moses was to ld to stand and stretch his hand over the waters of the red sea, a large storm blew in and a great wind blue all night as Moses stood there.
This is an environmental phenomenon known as wind displacement. It is possible when a strong wind blows on a shallow body of water, it can actually push the waters apart and leave land that is walk-able.
About 3000 years ago, using geographical methods, a strip of land was shallow enough to be subjected to this phenomenon.

If that were true, it is hardly supernatural, but scientific. It would not be considered a miracle.
Unless of course you attribute science to miracle, which I do not.

Maybe , and maybe not, there is other such evidence of this, such as Egyptian chariots remains and other such items that date back to that time, but you will most likely look at that as nothing more that circumstantial.
I can't force my beliefs down your throat, i will simply present my evidence and thoughts, and hope for the best.

you would be surprised how supernatural and science interlock.

I tend to look at the simplest of laws and events of the Universe and see them as miracles. I don't know if its wistful thinking or what, but it has served me well so far.

If the story is even remotely true, and I don't believe there is any considerable evidence that it is, I think the most likely scenario is what one would expect at that time of little knowledge.

They were fleeing Egypt, happened upon this phenomenon, used it to their advantage and immediately saw it as a sign of God, considering they never seen such things before and that it was a rare occurrence. Overtime they attributed the phenomenon to Moses and exaggerated the events.

Sort of like the children's game telephone.

**bluslenderman rolled a random image posted in comment #213 at Just thought you guys should know ** look buddy i'm a Catholic and were still allowed to do stuff just be in the state of grace when you die okay.

You worship false idols and attribute divinity to priests. I'm not saying you'll go to hell for it, I'm just saying, that's wacky to me.

There is statistical evidence that 80% of churchgoers do not read the bible which is an overwhelming majority:
blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/09/lifeway-research-e d-stetzer-most-churchgoers-do-not-read-bible-daily.html


Aside from that your argument is an Argumentum ad populum, just because the majority beliefs so doesn't mean it's true. During WW2 nazism was accepted amongs the vast majority of Germans and thousands of people among other countries, or during ancient times everyone believed that the world was flat. So your claim that god is not like a dictatorship is a poor argument. Not to forget that most people only belief because they happened to be raised by christian parents. Not through logic and reasoning.

are you me? Because we have the exact same thoughts.

^Zlamous

Lol.
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lol yep pretty much.