The Holy Trinity
April 22nd, 2017 at 10:01:41 PM permalink | |
Evenbob Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 146 Posts: 25010 |
How is it more important than learning how to preserve food or grow crops or make tools. Morality is just another facet of survival if we hope to live in societies and get along. Just something else religion wants to take credit for when it's obvious no credit is deserved. ]
That's why Jefferson Davis used the Bible to defend slavery during the Civil War, because it was NOT anti slavery. Your questions are right up there with: What's my favorite color? Will I be happy in an inter racial marriage? Should I have 3 kids or 4? Should I quit my job and find a better one? What should my major be in college? My aunt died, where is she now? Your questions and these questions don't have answers that aren't opinions. There is no universal right answer to any of them. I say there is no god, but I can't prove it. Will I live forever, I sincerely doubt it given that nobody does. Does my life have meaning? Who knows, it changes all the time. What is love? I love my dog, I love Dijon mustard, I love Netflix, I love hash browns, on and on. What is beauty? Gee, nobody has an opinion on that, it's a real stumper. See? If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose. |
April 22nd, 2017 at 10:37:11 PM permalink | |
FrGamble Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 67 Posts: 7596 |
Just ask yourself which would you rather take away. Would you like to live in a society that grows crops and is immoral or a society that hunts and gathers but is moral? What you don't seem to be getting is that it is precisely our morality that separates us and makes us so amazing. Give monkeys opposoble thumbs and they might be able to grow crops but if you were not the strongest you would be lucky to get any of those crops or it could just be stolen from you.
You show all the time how the Bible can be misread, the fact is that the anti-slavery movement was a Christian movement based on the Bible.
Your questions are right up there with: What's my favorite color? Will I be happy in an inter racial marriage? Should I have 3 kids or 4? Should I quit my job and find a better one? What should my major be in college? My aunt died, where is she now? See? I do see that none of the questions I mentioned are the ones you mentioned above. They are however questions that science can't answer or even ask so I am glad that you have at least changed your mind about that. “It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” ( |
April 22nd, 2017 at 11:55:03 PM permalink | |
Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
Constantine the Great made Christianity his sole religion, from his early 50's until his death at 65. But while he was in his 30's his father and Diocletian had a terrible persecution of the Christians. Christianity survived the mass persecution, so you can't give Constantine all the credit with saving the religion. |
April 24th, 2017 at 6:58:09 AM permalink | |
Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 | Well, of course: http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/the-evidence-for-the-history-of-jesus/ Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
April 24th, 2017 at 7:03:34 AM permalink | |
Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 |
The rest of the credit goes to Theodosius I. He defeated the last major pagan power block inside the Roman Empire at the Battle of the Frigidus River. You could also give some credit to the earlier Caliphates that conquered Persia, and installed Islam as a religion in the Sassanid Empire. Otherwise a major power would have had the chance to carry on a pagan tradition for centuries. Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
April 24th, 2017 at 11:15:06 AM permalink | |
Evenbob Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 146 Posts: 25010 |
They must not have been trying very hard. We got rid of millions of buffalo in just a few years with some concentrated effort. We give too much credit to how things were done millennia ago. What they call 'mass persecution' now was obviously hit or miss lazy persecution then. If it was concentrated and intense, there would be no Christians now. They survived, so of course their story will blow all the details out of proportion. Like the Jews leaving Egypt in the exodus, experts are now saying most of it didn't even happen. If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose. |
April 24th, 2017 at 12:44:39 PM permalink | |
FrGamble Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 67 Posts: 7596 | Wow, you sound like a Holocaust denier. "It must not have been so bad or intense after all Jews have survived." Is there is nothing you wont stoop to in order to hold onto to your mistaken views?!? “It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” ( |
April 24th, 2017 at 2:03:08 PM permalink | |
Evenbob Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 146 Posts: 25010 |
I'm not in the least a Holocaust denier, don't be absurd. My point is well taken, though. If it had been the goal to wipe out all Christians, and they had taken it on with gusto and determination, they would have have come much closer to their goal. "Anti-Christian policies in the Roman Empire occurred intermittently over a period of over two centuries.. (it) was carried out by the state and also by local authorities on a sporadic, ad hoc basis, often at the whims of local communities. Starting in 250, empire-wide persecution took place.. The edict was in force for eighteen months, during which time some Christians were killed while others apostatised to escape execution." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Christian_policies_in_the_Roman_Empire The key words here being intermittent, sporadic, ad hoc, and whim of a community. Some were killed, others weren't. This hardly sounds like the pedal to metal 'wipe out every Christian' wave of genocide that we are led to believe happened. "For most of the first three hundred years of Christian history, Christians were able to live in peace, practice their professions, and rise to positions of responsibility. Only for approximately ten out of the first three hundred years of the church's history were Christians executed due to orders from a Roman emperor." http://www.religionfacts.com/persecution-early-church If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose. |
April 24th, 2017 at 2:46:04 PM permalink | |
FrGamble Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 67 Posts: 7596 | From your second link I like this quote of Tertullian: 'The second-century theologian Tertullian had converted to Christianity based in part on his wonder at Christians' faithfulness in the face of martyrdom and it clearly had a similar effect on others as well. It was Tertullian who famously declared, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Indeed, persecution seemed to have a dramatic effect on Christianity's numbers, but not in the direction intended by the persecutors." I think a full reading of both articles show that Christians were persecuted in varying degrees of intensity throughout their early years. Yet in the midst of all this persecution the faith continued to grow until it eventually toppled the pagan empire that for so long had fought against it. What you don't seem to get is that the more gusto as you call it the evil men use to persecute the Church the more it grows. From the crucifixion to today this bears out. There have been more recent Christians martyrs in the last century than at any other time outside of the first three centuries. Try as you like to destroy the Church, Christ has already promised the "gates of hell will not prevail against it." From both exterior and interior threats and destruction the Church continues to thrive in ways no one can explain besides turning to its supernatural foundation. “It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” ( |
April 24th, 2017 at 3:21:22 PM permalink | |
Evenbob Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 146 Posts: 25010 |
To my original point, most of the time it was peaceful, nothing was going on at all. The picture Christians love to paint is, they were hunted and on the run for hundreds of years. A total myth, like most of the religion.
Huh? It survived because it was mostly left alone. Nobody was actively doing anything against it, except sporadically. Nobody perceived it as a real threat to anything, so nobody cared for long stretches of time. Nothing supernatural or mystical about it. Those were totally different times. People lived in isolation, there was no mass media, no newspapers, no communication except slow word of mouth. People were much more concerned with their short daily lives and where their next meal was coming from, than about some pipsqueak religion that was here and there. If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose. |