: How do I know what? What people are in heaven? I don't know who is or who isn't in heaven. I just know that in order for you to get there you must believe in Jesus as Savior, otherwise you won't go there. God said so himself
I just told you, I want to hear some basis for these arguments, other than "the Bible said so", because as we just discovered, the Bible says a lot of false things as well as a lot of truths. Even "it makes logical sense to me" is an arguemnt i would accept.
: : Live a good life and you will be rewarded after death.
: Nope. It doesn't matter how "good" you are, no person is good enough for heaven. Heaven is where God lives and he is holy, we are sinners. The only way to get into Heaven is to get rid of our sin. Jesus will do that for you free of charge, all you have to do is ask.
Hello? I have the authority of half a dozen or so world religions on this one, are you telling me they're all wrong? If you can quote the Bible, I can quote the Vedas, which tell me that there are 4 ways to reach union with God, and one of them relies on doing good actions, not necessarily on believing in God.
: Your right, God don't care who you are. Athiest or whatever. All he asks is for you to believe. After all, he created you. But then once you believe in him you aren't an athiest anymore
You misunderstand me, I eman that you can reach union with god while still being an atheist.
: I don't understand, how can that Hindu doctrine make sense? Once you reach union with God, as you put it, you are no longer an athiest because now you believe in God, if you are reaching a union with him.
No, you don't have to believe in God as something separate from yourself. We are all part of God, God exists within us, tehrefore, by seeiking the Truth, by following your innermost conscience and desires, by relaly being true to yourself, you recah union with teh Divine. "Find yourself and you have found the Divine", is a statement from a Hindu holy book.
: : I beg top differ, I can't conceive of a God who judghes your beliefs as mroe important then your actions.
: OK. Once you accept Jesus as your savior, everything you have ever done in the past is completely erased and forgotton about by God, no matter what it is. Of course, since that person is now born again they wont be living that lifestyle anymore, what ever it may be.
I've heard the argument before and i don't find it convincing, so it's not likely you'll convince me this time around, but you can keep trying...
: Yes, so if a person spreads a disease to thier spouse, and if they remain faithful from that day on and do not sin sexually they will not infect anyone else. For example, I know that I will never get any STD because I will marry a girl who has the same Christian values I have, so I know she is safe. Then I will not have sex with anyone but her and she will do the same so there will be no chance of getting any kind of sickness for either of us. That is the only way you know for sure you are OK. In our godless schools they tought us that abstinence is the best cure and they were right about that.
Disease does not recoignize marriage, as i saiud before. Sonner or later HIV may mutate into an airborne strain, and then all the "pure" monogamous couples are going to be up the creek without a paddle, unless we all start trying to find a vaccine as soon as possible.
: You agree that love is the greatest thing in the world, and there is no greater love than this: that somebody lay down thier life for thier friends (I believe that that is John 15:13)
How is this relevant?> I agree.
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: : You are evidently not too well acquainted with Africa or Asia. First of all, prostitution is far more common in the west than it is in many African countries; prostitution in Africa is concentrated in a few countries and cities. Second of all, prostitution carries less of a social stigma there; African societies are less sexually repressive, which accounts for the low incidence of rape and sexual abuse. thirdly, you need only ahandfiul of prostitutes to spread teh disease. The reason why Africa has a high incidence of sexually transmitted AIDS is partly due to the fact that birth control and condoms aren't widely used. If the US Congress would get their act together and tstart supporting international efforts to spread birth conrtol, we wouldn't be in this mess.
: I was talking about those towns where almost all the women are hookers and where almost all the men solicit them. A group of churches in the US (mine included) supports a ministry that goes into one of the poorest, most prostitute infested neighborhoods in India or Bangladesh I forget and spreads the word of God to those women and thier children. These poor women think that prostitution is the answer to all thier problems. They are beaten regularly by thier clients.Now so many of them have been saved they even set up thier own church and thier main focus is to tell those other prostitutes how they, too can be set free from thier disgusting lifestyle.
This is ridiculous. The prostitutes don't need Bibles and church groups, tehy need an end to teh capitalist system that holds them in bondage. the problem with prostitution isn't the sex aspect, it's teh money aspect. I don't care how many people you sleep with, as long as you don't satrt paying them for it. The commodification of sex is just another manifestation of the capitalist system, and we can't get rid of it until we get rid of capitalism in favor of a humane socialist system. the only countries that have really succeeded in making prostitution a thing of teh past are the socialist ones.
: : This is ridiculous. Do you drive a car? Then don't come crying to me when you get into a car accident.
: Driving a car has a purpose, to get from one place to another. Having extra marital affairs has no benefits whatsoever, unless you call breaking up a family or contracting a disease good.
First of all, your definition of teh family is strictly restricted to your culture. Different cultures have different conceptions of families- polygyny, polyandry, group marriage, communal childrearing, etc. - and oin many of these extramarital sex is tolerated and deos not lead to the breakup of families. Do not impose your own culture's sexual mores on other cultures. Second of all, sex is always good when it is an expression of love between two people. Within marriage or outside of it. Period. Finally, I could turn taht argument around- driving a car has no purpose other than to spew ozone, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the air, or to allow restless and dissatisfied people to go somewhere else in the futile hope of finding happinness. After all, the Himalayan villagers seem yo live quite happily withoutcars- of course, they also enjoy polygny and polyandry, so maybe taht makes up for it...
: That's all fine and dandy if you believe in evolution, which I dont. (That is another matter entirely, and a ridiculous one at that)
Read about evolution, and you'll proabb;ly come to believe in it- goytta go....
None.
