to not understand why Christians think Jesus died for our sins?

[switcheroooo]

If Jesus died for everyone's sins, does that mean people are not accountable for their actions? You can kill people, steal and lie but have a protected status because Jesus died for your sins.

How does this work? Why are people not responsible for their own sins? Where is the justice?

Yes, you can't say you haven't been warned. God has made it clear in the Bible which is widely available

Doesn’t sound a very happy life.

I'm a good parent and I know my children are sinners. It doesn't stop me loving them

It is, it's a peaceful life and a fulfilling one.

I haven’t read the bible - probably the majority of the population haven’t.

This god seems to be a particularly unpleasant character.

As is mine - I’m sitting in the coffee shop near our holiday home in the South of France. The sun is shining, DH is happy and DT’s are coming to visit this weekend. Life is perfect.

From a Christian perspective, you are being saved from an eternity without God - Hell isn't necessarily eternal fire and punishment, but eternity without God. Christians believe that even if you don't believe in God, you are still in his presence on Earth when you're alive, so don't know what it's like to be without him.

If you die without repenting for your sins, or being truly sorry, you will spend eternity in the afterlife without him.

Sure. But good parents teach and guide their children rather than punishing them.

What kind of parent would threaten their kids with a terrible and everlasting punishment if they didn't do what the parent wanted them to do?

I don't know, maybe you parent very differently from how I did, and from how my parents did. But the kind of vengeful God presented by many Christians does not align with my own experience of the actions of a kind and loving parent.

Which is exactly what it is. To believe all the stories in it of talking donkeys and snakes and people turning into salt etc is, in my opinion, barmy. I can’t take the people who believe that seriously.

So basically as a non believer I’ve nothing to worry about. My life continues quite happily.

Well I’m church treasurer, go not quite but fairly regularly and am confirmed and I don’t understand it either.
I believe in the history and that Jesus was a good chap with a good message - love thy neighbour (if everybody did that the world would be wonderful) but as for the rest of it…
Then all that bobbing, bowing and regalia you get in the CofE and RC, it’s like a throwback to medieval times when the church had a stranglehold on society.
Am I unreasonable to think all this?

Well that’s gobbledygook!

God does teach and guide us - that's what Jesus did! Parables, the Beatitudes, other teachings that are passed on through the prophets and saints.

God literally gave us a guidebook with rules.

“God tends not to intervene unless we ask him to.”

This is where I can’t understand your point.

You believe he does answer some prayers?

But that in many cases, for example perhaps innocent children who wholeheartedly believe in god, who are being abused and regularly pray begging for him to intervene… he doesn’t?

Why does he intervene for some people who believe and others who don’t? If he can intervene, why not answer the prayers of innocent abused children who believe in him completely?

Like I said already before, anything can change at any time. You sound so arrogant and cover confident talking about enjoying life and how you will always enjoy life.

That is fine if you think it is the end for everyone. Plenty of people believe:

death - then day of judgement

Doesn’t align with our parenting standards.

You think being a non believer makes you immune to the afterlife?

The day of judgment wouldn't work unless it applied to everybody otherwise it would mean you would never face any consequences for your actions.

Parenting standards change in society all the time. If you decide your principles in life based on society, then it is constantly changing.

For now yes

Anything can change any time. Me and my family could be dead in 5 minutes. Your DH could become unhappy. Your DTs might never make it to your holiday home.

How have you got to your 50s thinking life is always enjoyable and perfect?

Nothing arrogant about enjoying a happy and healthy life. I’m confident in my life - we’ve worked hard, raised two amazing children, have a long and happy marriage, lucky enough to retire very early and live in a beautiful country(so long as Trump stops trying to take us over!).

I don’t worry about things I have no control over.

Ok but what about when he is asked? What if a child being horrifically abused asks god for help, for it to stop? Please can you explain what a loving, omnipotent god capable of answering some prayers chooses not to answer that one from a child?

This is something that, as an RE teacher, I get asked all the time, especially at GCSE. And unfortunately, for people who are atheists, the answer doesn't satisfy them.

As humans, we are not meant to understand God. We can try, but we can never fully or truly understand him. His decisions are beyond our understanding as we are humans and he is infinitely more than that. So yes, there is suffering and atrocity in the world, but I can't explain why.

Most theologians say all evil/suffering is a result of humans misusing Free Will. Catholics believe that suffering can make you better and brings you closer to Jesus' suffering on the Cross.

As mentioned above, I don't think these explanations will be good enough for atheists, but it's part of having a faith/faith in general.

As a teacher, do you have atheists in your class? How do you handle their views?

Lots of atheists! And agnostics and other faiths. We're a Catholic school, but our Catholic intake in actually very small.

We learn other viewpoints anyway, including non-religious and other religions, and I make it very clear that they are entitled to their own beliefs. I tell them that I have to teach them what Catholics believe as that will be on their exam, and they go to a Catholic school

Despite the fact we’re an atheist family, my DD did RS/Philosophy and Ethics at both GCSE and A Level. She just enjoyed the debate side of it, plus it’s one of the easiest subjects to pass 😆 Most of her class were non believers. Teachers have to teach from both viewpoints, ie from a religious side but also a non religious side. They aren’t allowed to give their personal opinion to sway anyone, although DD said it was easy to tell which teachers were Christians and which ones weren’t.