Why I Am A Christian

[seer]

God is such a great practical joker.

Well he did create you...

[Trout]

This reminds me of the idea that he created the fossils in the ground to trick people into thinking that the earth was old, and created light already in transit from the stars that are billions of light years distant to give astronomers silly ideas like the universe being billions of years old. God is such a great practical joker.

Fooled you

[JimL]

Says the moron who thought you could travel through time by standing on a distant planet and then walking toward Earth and away from Earth. That was CLASSIC!

After all these years Sparko and you still haven't figured out the "Block Universe" and how the above scenario fits in to that? Tsk Tsk!

[JimL]

I'm with you.
Instead of believing God gave a donkey the ability to talk, which is crazy, from now on I'm going to believe random natural processes gave apes the ability to talk.

Great, perhaps there's hope for you yet. Talking donkey's indeed.

[Meh Gerbil]

Great, perhaps there's hope for you yet. Talking donkey's indeed.

You talk, right?
Sorry Jim, just having a bit of fun at your expense.

[Meh Gerbil]

....and created light already in transit from the stars that are billions of light years distant to give astronomers silly ideas like the universe being billions of years old. God is such a great practical joker.

Maybe he created the light from distant stars because he liked it?
It isn't his fault we decided to try and use it as a clock.
I mean, who does that?

[lilpixieofterror]

Are you denying the donkey literally talked?

I don't see what ground that wins you in the world-view wars.
However, I do see where that would actually cost you significant ground.

If we accept that a god exists who created all things (regardless of his methods) then making a stupid donkey talk would be trivial for him. The most shocking claim of Christianity is GOD himself and if you pitch miracle after miracle overboard to try and appear reasonable eventually you get backed up against the idea of God - the idea of which makes all subsequent claims trivial. In all seriousness, a donkey talking is about the least ridiculous claim in the Bible - if you've let them walk you back from that then you're half way out the door already.

Good point to explain so let me work on explaining:

I often observe that atheists like Starlight or JimL get themselves so wrapped up in screaming about a 'ridiculous' passage that they never bothered to try to understand it. In many ways they would give the most Biblical Literalist a run for their money in how wrapped up they get themselves in their own narrow minded view of the Bible or the world in general. I'm sure God can make a donkey talk, but is that the message of the story or is it about Balaam's foolishness? See we need to be careful not to fall into the same trap in trying so hard to defend every story as literally true that we miss the obvious message being conveyed through it. It makes little difference if the donkey was actually talking or if it is a literary device. When we get ourselves wrapped up in trivial issues, we miss the obvious. Of course there is issue of Starlight and JimL being unable to divorce themselves from their world view too, but that is another avenue I wasn't going down yet. Hope this clears things up.

[lilpixieofterror]

This reminds me of the idea that he created the fossils in the ground to trick people into thinking that the earth was old, and created light already in transit from the stars that are billions of light years distant to give astronomers silly ideas like the universe being billions of years old. God is such a great practical joker.

Still think every Christian is a YEC, eh?

[Sparko]

After all these years Sparko and you still haven't figured out the "Block Universe" and how the above scenario fits in to that? Tsk Tsk!

lol. the block universe doesnt work that way. in fact in the block universe there is no future to walk into. maybe the block universe you live in is a LEGO universe.


not to mention you, shadowmaster and I were discussing General and Special relativity. You were confusing the fact that since light takes longer to reach us from a distant point and we would be seeing the past to actually being able to move into the past by moving further away from the earth.

[One Bad Pig]

I'm often kind of scared by how sociopathic a lot of Christians seem to admit to being in their hearts.

Even an atheist like Glen Cook admits (via his fiction) that decent people can have some pretty despicable thoughts.

[Starlight]

Even an atheist like Glen Cook admits (via his fiction) that decent people can have some pretty despicable thoughts.

Um, why should the fictional writings of some guy I've never heard of be considered authoritative or truthful depictions of human nature? I've read a lot of fiction and various different authors have quite different ideas about the world and human nature, and some vastly different predictions about the future of humanity as a result (e.g. utopian vs apocalyptic).

[One Bad Pig]

Um, why should the fictional writings of some guy I've never heard of be considered authoritative or truthful depictions of human nature? I've read a lot of fiction and various different authors have quite different ideas about the world and human nature, and some vastly different predictions about the future of humanity as a result (e.g. utopian vs apocalyptic).

This is called a counter-example. It's not just Christians who admit to having despicable thoughts.

[Starlight]

This is called a counter-example. It's not just Christians who admit to having despicable thoughts.

I'm certain that some of the psychopaths and sociopaths out there happen to be atheists. But that doesn't change the fact that Christians descriptions of their own level of inner-evil tend to often strike me as concerningly bad.

Over the years I've often had the thought that how people view 'human nature' often speaks a lot about them as a person and their own internal psychology. So if a particular liberal has a very positive view of human nature and thinks the world would be a utopia if only we could let everybody be the loving and kind people they are inside without society blocking them from expressing their inner selves properly, that says quite a lot about the inner self of that person. Whereas if someone is obsessed with the totally fallen evil of human nature and just how horribly bad every single thought humans have is, well that says quite a lot about what's going on in that person's head too.

[One Bad Pig]

Over the years I've often had the thought that how people view 'human nature' often speaks a lot about them as a person and their own internal psychology. So if a particular liberal has a very positive view of human nature and thinks the world would be a utopia if only we could let everybody be the loving and kind people they are inside without society blocking them from expressing their inner selves properly, that says quite a lot about the inner self of that person. Whereas if someone is obsessed with the totally fallen evil of human nature and just how horribly bad every single thought humans have is, well that says quite a lot about what's going on in that person's head too.

I'd say that both miss the mark, though the first is probably more dangerous. Every single attempt at utopia has failed. Badly - and usually quickly. There are many people who are loving and kind inside - which is not to say that they can't have bad thoughts ever and anon. There are, however, many who are not - and that is the rock on which idealism founders.

[Sparko]

I'm certain that some of the psychopaths and sociopaths out there happen to be atheists. But that doesn't change the fact that Christians descriptions of their own level of inner-evil tend to often strike me as concerningly bad.

Over the years I've often had the thought that how people view 'human nature' often speaks a lot about them as a person and their own internal psychology. So if a particular liberal has a very positive view of human nature and thinks the world would be a utopia if only we could let everybody be the loving and kind people they are inside without society blocking them from expressing their inner selves properly, that says quite a lot about the inner self of that person. Whereas if someone is obsessed with the totally fallen evil of human nature and just how horribly bad every single thought humans have is, well that says quite a lot about what's going on in that person's head too.

How can you even talk about possible "despicable thoughts" in Christians (or anyone) when you are someone who advocates not only abortion, but infanticide? You not only have despicable thoughts, you frikkin promote them as "good ideas"


You prove the claim that without Christ in your life, you are morally bankrupt. You are just so far gone you don't even realize it.