Hey FrGamble!

Quote: FrGamble

No I am not, are you defending the burning of all your SciFi books?

Just pointing out that you make
a big deal out of some Xtian
group burning books, yet shrug
off your own church burning
witches. Like it was a totally
normal thing to do.

Quote:

Simply not true and a ridiculous statement to make.

'It is perplexing that no evidence of the Israelites’ 40 year passage has been found. William Dever, a University of Arizona archaeologist, flatly calls Moses a mythical figure. Some scholars even insist the story was a political fabrication, invented to unite the disparate tribes living in Canaan through a falsified heroic past.'

Don't know the actual history?
Just make it up, that's how the
Bible was written.

Quote: SOOPOO

Yowza! So I want to get this straight. You are admitting in the Bible there are "fictional accounts"! I know Ace asked already, but how is one supposed to figure out which are "historical" and which are "fictional accounts'???????

Exactly! Mere mortals are supposed to know which accounts are fact and which are fiction -- how are we to presume to know the mind of God?

Quote: SOOPOO

Yowza! So I want to get this straight. You are admitting in the Bible there are "fictional accounts"! I know Ace asked already, but how is one supposed to figure out which are "historical" and which are "fictional accounts'???????

The same way you would determine anything if it is written as "historical" or "fiction". Look at how it is written, its purpose, its genre, etc. This is pretty clear if you read them and study them. You don't read all the sections of the newspaper the same way, right? It is based on if this is news report, opinion piece, commentary, story, or comics.

Quote: FrGamble

Do you at least see why the Church calls what Jesus did for us the greatest of all sacrifices? ?

You or anybody has yet to tell
us what the 'sacrifice' was! All
you do is talk around it, like
you do here. Xtians love to say,
why can't you just accept there
was a sacrifice and move on.

Your entire religion is based
on this one point, the sacrifice.
Yet none of you can explain,
without double talk and non-
sensical reasoning, what the
sacrifice was. You think it
might be this or that, but
you can't really name it.

I think it is you who can't accept it and move on. Do you see at least now that Jesus knowledge was limited in His humanity? I think one of your biggest arguments was that Jesus already knew that He would not really die.

Quote: FrGamble

I think one of your biggest arguments was that Jesus already knew that He would not really die.

He might not have known it with
the full knowledge that god
supposedly had, but he would have
known it was part of the plan.
And he completely trusted and
had faith in the plan.

It's like the soldier using a grenade
launcher in combat. He may not
know exactly how it works, but he
has complete trust that it does
work and will work when he needs
it to.

Xtians want us to believe Jesus
walked around for 3 years 'fully
aware' he was divine, man and god.
Then he took stupid pills on the way
to the cross and died just fully
man. Sorry, you don't get to do that.

Quote: FrGamble

The same way you would determine anything if it is written as "historical" or "fiction". Look at how it is written, its purpose, its genre, etc. This is pretty clear if you read them and study them. You don't read all the sections of the newspaper the same way, right? It is based on if this is news report, opinion piece, commentary, story, or comics.

LOL!!!!! The Bible DOES read as a comic book! From start to finish! No one not indoctrinated into Christianity would read it as anything other than pure FICTION!

Quote: SOOPOO

LOL!!!!! The Bible DOES read as a comic book! From start to finish! No one not indoctrinated into Christianity would read it as anything other than pure FICTION!

I became an atheist after reading the bible.

It is more convincing to hear charismatic speakers talk about the bible. There is a reason they don't tell people "go home and read the book after church".

I am too lazy to look up the stat right now, but the vast majority of American Christians have never read the bible cover to cover (and a large portion have never read any segments of it). And, that stat carries to many other religions (particularly Islam) as well. If people actually read what they claim to believe it is not held long.

I have since then read the Koran and it is also absurd. The bible is more readable (as far as entertainment value, it is written more poetically, if read as a mythology book).

If I did not grow up taught Christianity is right, I would have never been drawn to the book as the ultimate truth. It would have read like any myth book from a historic society.

But, yeah the point is , I think more people should read the bible (and koran), there will be less believers...
Of course the problem in the developing world, is many devout believers are illiterate and can be easily manipulated by their elders or religious leaders since they only have their words to go on....

Quote: SOOPOO

LOL!!!!! The Bible DOES read as a comic book! From start to finish! No one not indoctrinated into Christianity would read it as anything other than pure FICTION!

This is absolutely true. I had never
read the NT before I joined the
Xtian group. When I had read it
a few times, I assumed a lot of
the stories were just stories. When
I started asking questions, I was
told everything actually happened.

I was incredulous and the more I
asked about it, the more the others
avoided me. They believed it all
because they grew up in the religion
and had never questioned a word of
it. I must accept it also and keep my
doubts to myself.

The same happened to my ex priest
friend. 3 years into the priesthood
he started to have doubts and asking
questions. He says now they were
very unhappy with him and would have
gotten rid of him if he hadn't quit.
Fairytale stories hate the light of day.

Quote: Evenbob

He might not have known it with
the full knowledge that god
supposedly had, but he would have
known it was part of the plan.
And he completely trusted and
had faith in the plan.

See you do understand.

Quote:

It's like the soldier using a grenade
launcher in combat. He may not
know exactly how it works, but he
has complete trust that it does
work and will work when he needs
it to.

That is a weird example. I would say it is more like a soldier who is told to take that hill by himself knowing in the process he will die but it will give the rest of the troops a way to get out alive. If you would call that a sacrifice, which I know you do, then so was Christ's obedient trust in the will of His Heavenly Father.