It's VERY clever. You knowing or not-knowing how something works doesn't make it exist or not because I am not sure how the internet (or sexual intercourse) works - but that doesn't change the reality of the internet. Same with God. Stop wasting time (not that God cares about Time) struggling over the trees, Pete.
If you left the church you're on the right track towards finding God. Peter Hiett might be of interest to you.
“… the greatest detractor from high performance is fear: fear that you are not prepared, fear that you are in over your head, fear that you are not worthy, and ultimately, fear of failure. If you can eliminate that fear—not through arrogance or just wishing difficulties away, but through hard work and preparation—you will put yourself in an incredibly powerful position to take on the challenges you face" - Pete Carroll.
Ya know... I've often wondered myself how the Lord can be a "loving" and "forgiving" God, and then turn right around and be told that the ONLY way to heaven is this STRICT, NARROW PATH, and if you don't take it, you're going to HELL. And the bible makes reference to this...
Matthew 7:13-14Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
Entering the Kingdom
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.
But then later on in the Bible it implies that at the end of someone's life, anyone, or in the end days, that ANYONE who shall cry out to the Lord shall be saved...
Acts 2:20-22New King James Version (NKJV)
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’[a]
So which is it, a narrow path that absolutely has to be followed, or just more or less forget about it until the end and then just call out to the Lord. I debate this with my son.
Last edited by High_Plains_Drifter; 11-07-2017 at 03:06 PM.
Maybe it doesn't matter....because if you think Christ's teachings 'have to be followed' - shows obligation to him only out of fear of punishment - that's not love in my book. I think the key in this life is Love wins. Love. Love folks. Then you'll be just fine. See? Christ's teachings are taught - from his perspective - to make our lives BETTER..so it's not that we 'get' to avoid them. Quite the contrary - we GET to live them
“… the greatest detractor from high performance is fear: fear that you are not prepared, fear that you are in over your head, fear that you are not worthy, and ultimately, fear of failure. If you can eliminate that fear—not through arrogance or just wishing difficulties away, but through hard work and preparation—you will put yourself in an incredibly powerful position to take on the challenges you face" - Pete Carroll.
In general, His will and His influence/power are two different things.
I think God knows what's in your heart. He knows that even if you're not a walking, talking Bible and worship around the clock spreading the word, etc, etc, but you always profess with your own lips that you are a Christian and never deny the Lord, and if you're a good person and treat people decent, you're charitable, you take care of your family and your home, you obey the law of the land and simply do the best you can, you're still going to heaven. I don't think the Lord is going to condemn anyone like that to an eternity in hell. I think the Lord knows who and what you are, and whether or not you can quote the Bible verse for verse is irrelevant. If he knows you have faith in him and believe with your heart, you're going to heaven, period.
Last edited by High_Plains_Drifter; 11-07-2017 at 04:39 PM.
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This, Pete, makes no sense at all. You've tripped yourself up here, big time.
If you believe in God, then, you do !!! There's no 'I believe in God, but I still don't know if there is one' option. You either believe, or, you don't. One or the other.
Tell me how it's possible to believe in something, be it a God or anything else, but at the same time, despite the belief, accept that the belief is very possibly false. You DO believe, or, you DON'T believe. It's that simple.
In saying you're an atheist, you say you don't believe in God. You also go to the extreme of being immovable in that non-belief. To you, there's no 'these guys who believe in God may in fact be right after all' recourse you can adopt (because then, you'd be an agnostic instead). You reject belief in God outright, 'end-of-story', by being an atheist.
... and that, Pete, my son, is A FAITH. You have FAITH you are right. By not accepting any alternative within the confines of that atheistic belief, you imprison yourself within the wholly illogical certainty of immovability from it, blind to any evidence saying otherwise. You refuse to concede any alternative as legitimate, or therefore, that there actually is one that you can seriously consider.
This is faith. In fact, it's blind faith. It's therefore a nonsense.
It's That Bloody Foreigner Again !!!
You're not understanding correctly. Understand the distinction. Please actually research the terms. According to the philosopher William L. Rowe, "agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist". Thus the two are not mutually exclusive.
Learn more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_atheism
Last edited by pete311; 11-07-2017 at 08:42 PM.
Guess you aren't aware petey. But WIKI'S accuracy can be changed, by the minute, hour, day, week, month, or year...by anyone who wants to create their own VERSIONS of whatever topic is being questioned.
Here is the FIRST paragraph from WIKI....
"This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)"
I love to make Liberals Cry, and Whine.
So, this is for them.
GOD BLESS AMERICA - IN GOD WE TRUST !
Last edited by PostmodernProphet; 11-07-2017 at 09:03 PM.
...full immersion.....
Here is a better source with a really interesting read. First 2 sections are the relevant parts.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/