Ask a Theist!

[kingschosen]

Quote:hey KC, I'm theist and catholic but i don't share
some of your point of view,

No, that’s perfectly understandable.

Quote:i don't think that we are elected or not-elected
since the very beginning or that God just send to hell the ones that don't
believe in him just because of that. I believe that anyone can reach the
paradise (my view of heaven) if he lives in a right way during is time on the
earth, no matter his religion or non-religion. God is God, he is all-powerful
and the only thinks he wants for us is to be happy on this life and in the next,
so if you life doing the good you will be rewarded and if you don't you will be
punished, no matter what your believes are.

This is salvation by works as well as a deistic take on
God. You may want to reconsider Catholicism
and look into Deism. Anyway, I
completely disagree with this. I believe
salvation is only because of and through Christ. No amount of good will ever grant you
salvation because humanity is totally depraved.


I think the issue here is how you view the Bible and how
I view it. I believe the Bible is an infallible
inspiration of God – meaning, the message that is presented is 100%
correct. So, this means that because of
what the Bible says about salvation, salvation can only come through Christ.

[Magoo]

(12-04-2012 03:00 PM)kingschosen Wrote:  I believe the Bible is an infallible
inspiration of God – meaning, the message that is presented is 100%
correct.

You said on the first post that you DONT take the bible as 100% literal...
You joking here?

Anyways I have no more questions, you were probably getting sick of me anyway lol

[kingschosen]

(12-04-2012 03:27 PM)Magoo Wrote:  

(12-04-2012 03:00 PM)kingschosen Wrote:  I believe the Bible is an infallible
inspiration of God – meaning, the message that is presented is 100%
correct.

You said on the first post that you DONT take the bible as 100% literal...
You joking here?

Anyways I have no more questions, you were probably getting sick of me anyway lol

Exactly.

Remember there is a difference between being literally inerrant and infallible in its inspiration.

I believe the Bible is inspired by God; thus, the message presented in the Bible (however that is presented) is infallible. This belief have no bearing on being literally inerrant (science).

[kenroos]

hmm interesting this deistic philosophy and actually i think that it describes me in mostly all the aspects, but I'm also believe in Jesus and the fact that god can help us when we helps ourselves.

another issue i would like to share with you is about the apocrypha NT, the non-canonical text about the life of Christ, what do you think about them.

thank you

[Unreal]

KC.

If this has been asked before, please link me.
I have to know your thought on this. All the atrocities in the bible.. what is your opinion on it? Is it justified?

[Stevil]

(13-04-2012 08:42 AM)kenroos Wrote:  ...and the fact that god can help us when we helps ourselves.

Are we able to distinguish the difference between occasions that god helped us and those occasions when it was all of our own doing (without god's help)?

[kenroos]

Quote: Are we able to distinguish the difference between occasions that god
helped us and those occasions when it was all of our own doing (without
god's help)?

No, again is a matter of faith, but also is a universal truth that if u work hard for want u want (help yourself), all around u will help u also (god helps u).

[frankiej]

Can God give me Friday's euro millions lottery numbers?... preferably before Friday.

[whateverist]

Congratulations on your agnosticism .. or did you give that up to become Christian. If you accept that the bible is not entirely literal, I guess that makes you still somewhat agnostic. (Good to know you still pay attention to whether and to what degree you know anything.)

I read the first page and the most recent couple but sorry, I don't want to read the rest. If you're still taking questions here are a couple for you:

1) What do you think of Thomas Jefferson's attempt to pare the bible down to just the words and actions attributed to Jesus? Do you agree that Jesus is the central character in the bible and that what he says takes precedence?

2) What do you think are the core beliefs which define a Christian? For example, I think someone who understands "heaven" as a state of being -that can apply here and now- can still reasonably call himself a Christian. What do you think? In other words, is belief in a literal afterlife a key component of Christian beliefs?

3) Did God give rise to the universe or was it the other way around?

If God came first, how did he know Himself? Without anything which was not-God, of what exactly would he have been aware? Could God have had language before there was a universe? If so, which came first: the nouns or the things they refer to?

If the universe -energy and stuff in whatever form- came first and God somehow coalesced from or in relation to it, then shouldn't we just thank the universe itself for giving us God? That would make the universe the true 'father' and, like Jesus, God too could have said the words "the father and I are one". In fact, when we make stuff, can't we too meaningfully say those words? Our designs are an expression of the universe, by way of God, by way of me perhaps.

[Stevil]

(16-04-2012 08:01 AM)kenroos Wrote:  

Quote: Are we able to distinguish the difference between occasions that god
helped us and those occasions when it was all of our own doing (without
god's help)?

No, again is a matter of faith, but also is a universal truth that if u work hard for want u want (help yourself), all around u will help u also (god helps u).

So if it is unknowable, unobservable, unmeasurable, doesn't that make it irrelevant?
If the universe behaves in exactly the same way as if there isn't a god, then the god must be irrelevant.
We cannot know what it is, what it looks like, what it wants, what it wants from us (assuming we are of some importance to it). If we can't know anything about it, not even to observe any consequences it has on our own material existence then we ought to simply live our lives as if it doesn't exist. Would this be an accurate assessment?