Original Sin?

Quote: stinkingliberal

I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but I'd venture to say that Nareed wasn't actually complimenting you.

It wasn't not a compliment (yes, I typed that right).

Quote: FrGamble

You rarely say anything so close to understanding Christianity, congratulations.

I did mean this as a legit compliment to Evenbob, but I think I will take it back now.

Quote: Nareed

It wasn't not a compliment (yes, I typed that right).

But it was a compliment that was not really a compliment, wasn't it?

Help! The arcane nuances of theological debate are making my head explode!

Quote: Evenbob

But you do understand it rightly, you're one
of the few who will get to heaven, then. You
must be very proud, thinking of all those
Xtions who were suckers and never had a
chance. To heck with them, right?

Way too complicated for a simple guy
like me. At least atheism is easy to
understand, and we don't have to go
to meetings to be told by other atheists
that we aren't doing it correctly.

It is amazing how people respond to the simplest thing by saying it's complicated. It's as simple as a loving mom or dad hugging their five year old child, not hard or complex at all. This is also an example of an area of open questioning by Christians. There is great disagreement on whether evenbobs heart is hard by his own doing does God do the hardening.

Quote: pew

It is amazing how people respond to the simplest thing by saying it's complicated. It's as simple as a loving mom or dad hugging their five year old child, not hard or complex at all. This is also an example of an area of open questioning by Christians. There is great disagreement on whether evenbobs heart is hard by his own doing does God do the hardening.

That's the trouble with the myth of an omnipotent and omniscient god. If I am in general a rotten person and/or if one day I pick up a gun and kill fifteen people for fun, isn't that God's fault? He created me. He made me this way. He knew what I was going to do. He could have stopped me. But he didn't.

I've never heard a satisfactory explanation of this from a believer. The best I get is a lame excuse about us really having free will. But in a god-created deterministic universe controlled by an all-powerful and all-knowing entity, free will is, and MUST be, an illusion.

I think the Greeks had a more believable mythology. Their gods were petty, spiteful, used humanity for their amusement, and usually had no idea how things were going to turn out. MUCH more in keeping with how things actually work in the world IMHO.

Quote: stinkingliberal

That's the trouble with the myth of an omnipotent and omniscient god. If I am in general a rotten person and/or if one day I pick up a gun and kill fifteen people for fun, isn't that God's fault? He created me. He made me this way. He knew what I was going to do. He could have stopped me. But he didn't.

I've never heard a satisfactory explanation of this from a believer. The best I get is a lame excuse about us really having free will. But in a god-created deterministic universe controlled by an all-powerful and all-knowing entity, free will is, and MUST be, an illusion.

I think the Greeks had a more believable mythology. Their gods were petty, spiteful, used humanity for their amusement, and usually had no idea how things were going to turn out. MUCH more in keeping with how things actually work in the world IMHO.

There is much disagreement on this issue which speaks to your statement about the difference between science being in a state of flux and theology being fixed and ridged.

I've never heard a satisfactory mechanism for the process of evolution.

Or the spontaneous generation of life from non living chemicals.

Quote: stinkingliberal

That's the trouble with the myth of an omnipotent and omniscient god.

The trouble with the omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent god who is powerless to do anything for anyone at any time.

See, stating the problem correctly makes it self-explanatory.

Quote: pew

It is amazing how people respond to the simplest thing by saying it's complicated. It's as simple as a loving mom or dad hugging their five year old child, not hard or complex at all..

What on earth are you talking about. Just
more mumbo jumbo to hide from the
reality that you have no idea how your own
religion works. I remember this, from dealing
with Xtions up close, I always knew more than
they did about their own religion. No wonder
there are 25,000+ branches of Xtionity, nobody
can figure out what's going on.