Discussion about Jesus’s death which now encompasses creationism and the second coming. Thread 2

It only makes sense if you take the whole Bible in context. Heaven is for people who choose to live by love for God and the people He made.

Love requires justice. Those who reject a heavenly lifestyle will be told why they wouldn't fit in.

My peace, purpose and joy is my family and children. I don't need a God to have those things.

I don’t doubt their faith but the day of judgement stuff is on a different level.

He doesn't intervene

So why pray? If he's not going to intervene, why bother. Or if during a storm someone does pray and a tree just misses their house, why Thank God? According to you he didn't do anything. When the Pope went into hospital, why did he ask everyone to pray for him? Either God sometimes intervenes or he doesn't. And if he does sometimes intervene, and cure a child's cancer, why not everyone's? He's a bit of a capricious prick if he could, but doesn't.

Yes, exactly. God desires only good for us, and worshipping God is what we are created to do and it is the thing that brings us real peace, joy and purpose.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. That makes sense as to where these outlandish and unrealistic stories came from. Then will each generation the stories became more elaborate and separated off in to different branches depending on where people lived. 2000 years later here we are, people still believing the variant they were brought up with.

I don’t doubt their faith but the day of judgement stuff is on a different level.

God is Love, and that's why He made us and the world we live in. Our loving Him is for our common benefit, not to meet a personal need of God.

Try this article:

biblehub.com/q/why_does_god_need_worship.htm

Many people can happily let religion and science co-exist, and that's healthy. Indeed, it's to be encourgaed. Faith can help those who need a narrative to make sense of the world. I get that; it's not for me but each to their own. If it's helpful then thats' great.

However, a belief in creationism is to deny overhelming, verifiable and repeatable evidence that shows that earth has existed for and evolved over billions and billions of years. That's not a credible stance to take - if nothing else, the time frames are so far out as to be ridiculous

Not from what I've observed. I've just read some pretty unpleasant piss taking. It's something that believers have to accept and live with, but what's the point? You wouldn't start taking the piss out of someone because they loved their husband or children or pet dog. You might not feel the same way, or even understand, but you wouldn't jeer or be nasty. You'd just shrug and think "Oh well".

The Christians I know are all decent, well mannered people who believe the Bible as there is plenty of evidence for it.

The unkindness and lack of understanding is, if anything, more from the believers than the non believers. Most of the non believers are just trying to understand :)

UK baptist, not the American fundamentalist type! I know of at least 4 similar baptist churches within about 5 miles of the one I attend. It's a mainstream UK denomination, despite people on this thread making us out to be a crazy minority!

Some people think drug taking took place in (I don’t know what type) which is why there are outlandish stories. It may have been accidental, as in not knowing certain ‘herbs’ were hallucinogenic. No one can verify or not I suppose but it would explain some of the wild tales.

I don’t believe for a minute there was an ark full of two of each animals. Why do you believe these outlandish stories? Believe in god if you want but all these stories of arks full of every animal, talking snakes, talking donkeys, people being turned to salt, I mean come on!! It’s no wonder perfectly decent, well mannered people in real life scoff at such nonsense.

How can evolution be a fairytale? You just have to look at the night sky and see all of the stars and planets and time and space to know that it’s not made up and is evidence based.

I think it's a shame that these threads inevitably descend into arrogant name calling and unkindness from the atheists. Nobody owes anyone a kindness, but you have to wonder why people think it's okay to take the piss. You have to wonder where it even comes from. Is it necessary? Why does this behavioural pattern occur?

No, evolution is the fairy tale. My life is founded on truth

So a person raised Muslim by Muslim parents in a Muslim country is inexcusable because they've heard of Jesus before? What proof is there that their religion is wrong and that yours is right? I think it would take a lot more than just hearing about Jesus for someone to abandon their cultural and family religion.

Surely you're making the same choice to not accept Allah, if Islam turns out to be the one true religion? Do you think it's fair that you would go to hell in that scenario, even if you'd been a good person for your entire life?

As I understand it, beliefs about the Rapture/End of Days/Second Coming are very different across different types of Christianity. That part of the Bible, and especially Revelation, is mostly ignored by a lot of Christians.

Some people think John had lost it a bit when he wrote Revelation!

The Christian perspective is that abusing Free Will brought ALL evil into the world, including natural disasters. So they're a consequence of Free Will. You can also attribute many natural disasters in modern times to climate change, which is a result of Free Will and humans abusing the Earth.

I suppose when Christians think of a loving God, they think that God made us because he loved us and gave us complete Free Will with the hope that we would choose to love him back. He doesn't intervene because that would negate Free Will, and the 'rules' he set for himself when we were created.

Absolutely religion and science can co exist. The science I have studied confirms my belief in a creator God.