Dan56

Doing good can also hurt you when you do good.. Doing good is doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing, and sometimes doing good calls for a personal sacrifice, e.g; giving your hard earned money to help the poor, putting yourself in harms way to protect someone else, assuming risk for the sake of others, or even cleaning up a mess that you didn't make. Being good for goodness sake is a positive self-enhancing attribute (for kids), but doing good because its the right thing to do is a testament of ones character. Your not good for goodness sake, but because its the honorable thing to be.. jmo

A baby isn't violent, nor do they intend to hurt, so they simply require patience. Pacifism wouldn't work with someone like Hitler, it would have only of enabled him to kill all the Jews instead of only 6 million.. Pacifism doesn't stop violence because it rewards bad with good, and that's an incentive which promotes more bad. So imo, staying idle to avoid violence is not taking the high road, its just surrendering to evil, and evil flourishes when its not met with resistance.

How do you help a mugger by willingly becoming his victim? That's like saying your unwilling to let a baby learn to walk because they might fall down and hurt themselves. When a person decides to steal, murder, rape, or harm others, your really not assigning value to their lives by condoning their choices. Your simply tolerating an abusive person because you don't care enough to correct them. Becoming a victim yourself does not make you an advocate of peace, it simply emboldens an abusive person to claim more victims.. jmo

There is also understanding, and you don't always need verifiable evidence to gain knowledge.. If you lived hundreds of years ago and someone explained how a gasoline engine could pull a wagon instead of a horse, you might accept that as a fact, based on understanding alone, despite having never seen a gas engine run. Likewise, belief can also be substantiated via understanding, which is why I'm convinced the bible is precisely what it says of itself. I know what it says, and my understanding is that it's a supernatural book of, what must be, divine origin. No way any man, or any conspiracy of men, could have put this book together. It's just not possible! So just like the gasoline engine, its possible to have knowledge of a truth through understanding, without the necessity of verifiable evidence... jmo

A soul is just a living being; "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). So in that sense (definition), the soul exist. The real question is whether or not a soul can be immortal. "And so it is written; The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam (Christ), a life-giving spirit. " (1 Corinthians 15:45).

Jesus said; "I am the Truth"?. If a fundamentalist believes that, are they self-righteous? Again, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). If this is true, then a Christian can't possibly believe that there are other paths around Christ that lead to God.. Just a fundamentalist opinion.

Your answers are also assumptions, so there's a strong likelihood that you are also mistaken. You can be certain of nothing, the foundation of what you believe ( agnosticism ) is based on God being unknowable.. And I stated why I believe in an intelligent designer, the complexity of human DNA being beyond random, etc. But your correct, God cannot be definitively proven. Yes, that would appear to be self-evident.

Its not known, it is believed.... If the bible stories are true, then a spiritual world exist (Matthew 17: 1-9). If the stories are fabricated, then its anyone's guess. I personally choose to recognize that a creation demands the existence of a Creator. Our physical surroundings are evidence of an intelligent Designer. God's divine nature is clearly understood by the visible things that God has made (Romans 1:20). Even a purely secular mind knows the consequences of good and evil (right & wrong). I think that a God-given awareness, a consciousness, of His existence, is instilled in everyone, whether they acknowledge it or not. "Mankind has been gifted with an awareness of God's existence. Like most things in life, this awareness must be confirmed, developed, and lived by in greater detail, but the proofs of God's existence are readily available through an honest observation of the creation. The evidence is so obvious that, in God's judgment, it leaves humanity without justification for not knowing of His existence. What is really difficult is proving God does not exist! Most people merely accept His existence as a fact, but few appear to make it foundational to their way of life. On the other extreme are those who utterly reject it because they have faith only in what they call “science.” That faith is an impossibility because they have no scientific answer to where life came from in the first place."

Except that Christ came for a specific purpose, and when the time arrived, self-defense wasn't an option. Prior to that ultimate sacrifice, Jesus did evade persecution; "Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple" (John 8:59). So prior to fulfilling prophecy, he didn't willingly let others interfere with his mission; "Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come" (John 7:30). Yes, Jesus could have wiped them out, but that would have defeated his purpose (salvation). The 'wiping out' comes at his second appearance. Jesus also had his disciples carry a couple swords (Luke 22:38), so he obviously didn't oppose self-defense.

The spiritual world is in a different realm, its not observable. Your soul perishes in its physical form, but your intellect (self awareness) doesn't perish when your brain dies.. Its a belief not backed by observational evidence, unless you count the resurrection of Christ. He said the only sign would be that the Son of Man, like Jonah, would rise after 3 days.. That was observable and witnessed. Every observable thing that exist was not created by anything physical, so everything seen is evidence of a spiritual existence. Eliminate what's known and your left with what's unknown, and God is the answer to that, at least for me. Saw the film "Lucy", and Scarlett Johanson pretty much said the same thing at the end . We are contained and restrained by time, but we are everywhere outside of it..

There no distinction between extremist, but I believe a radical Islamist kills for a different reason, which is to create terror. While Jihad is a war against unbelievers, a radical Christian usually doesn't kill others just because they don't share the same belief. Both are crazy, but at least the abortion clinic bomber has a reason, which is defending the lives of the unborn. Muhammad asks believers to kill in the name of Allah, while Christ taught that vengeance belongs to God.. So while there's a difference in the faiths, crazy is still crazy, no matter what religion is attached to it.. jmo

When you read what Christ taught and consider it in an idealistic way, that's a philosophy. When you listen to what Christ taught and accept it as an absolute truth, its a religion. Perhaps religion is just taking a philosophy to heart.

I don't see much difference between religion and philosophy. Christianity is a religion, but most people philosophize about its fundamental soundness prior to becoming a Christian.. Perhaps the difference is that a philosophy is something that a person wonders and speculates about, while a religion is something a person dwells on and commits themselves to. A church from a biblical perspective, is simply the many membered body of Christ, those who accept and follow Christ are his church. A practice is following an example or belief, Witchcraft is a practice, Hinduism is a practice, even Humanism is a practice, no god required. I often think that following what Christ taught doesn't necessarily make you religious, no more than following the example of a good parent. Being religious is joining one of the various denominations of Christianity, this defines your allegiance to a group and makes you subordinate to their rules and cause... jmo

A living soul is just the essence of who you are, its yourself and its existence transcends the temporary body we currently occupy. The spirit is the intellect of the soul, both of which transgress mortality. The only thing that perishes is our flesh bodies, we are changed at death (1 Corinthians 15:52), and the soul inherits a new incorruptible body, of which the spirit possesses. Your soul is just your being, and only God can destroy it (Matthew 10:28). That's a Christian perspective of course.

Thanks for letting us know Murph.. I had wondered why he seldom posted anymore, but had no idea he was battling lung cancer. His decorum and etiquette was always open to accepting what others believed. We didn't agree about much and didn't share beliefs, but I never remember him ever debasing anyone, and that made him a good moderator and contributor.

God has ended physical life, nearly all of it at one point.. But the first born of Egypt and the Pharaoh's army still spiritually exist.. No spiritual being has been killed, only the flesh bodies that we temporarily possess. Yes, God ends life in the flesh, but our spiritual souls live on.

My point was that they are all still alive and awaiting judgement. We all die physically, but our God given spirit lives on.

That's correct, the wages of sin is death... But no one has been put to death because judgement has not yet arrived. My point being, God has not spiritually killed anyone to date, not that God won't kill in the future.

In the spiritual sense, God has not killed anyone yet.. Death is a natural part of life in the flesh, we were all born to die. If God cured everyone, it would defeat the whole purpose of us being here. God is life, and without him, life does not and cannot exist. People who want to live, naturally worship the life giver. While some don't find this to be a compelling reason to worship the giver of all life, I find it unusual to refer to God as "evil". God is not evil, God is good, and God is love. Evil is simply the result of sin, and sin is our disobedience to God.

I wasn't telling you what you believe, I was expounding on what you don't believe. And when it comes to God, gods, or deity, you don't believe in nothing.. If I'm wrong, correct me. Otherwise, your just irritated with the truth.

Everyone believes something, but my point was that Atheist don't believe in nothing God related, no deity, or life after death. Its an attribute of what I believe, not my fault I agree in the sense that a person should always wonder, always ponder, and always question what's true. I'm not skeptical about what I've chosen to believe, but its healthy to always wonder, because we stop learning when we stop questioning. Skepticism is what we're left with at the end of our knowledge, and growth stops where the facts end.

Lots of partial believers I guess... Or "I believe this, but ain't sure about that" type of people.. I'm among the 31% who believe the bible word for word, so I'm all in.. I can't fathom a Christian not believing in the resurrection, its the ultimate validation that Christ was and is exactly who he proclaimed himself to be.. I wouldn't classify them as 'Christian' if they deny the resurrection. You either believe it or you don't, there can't be any wishy-washy middle ground.. If a person can't accept that Christ rose from the dead, what possible hope do they hold for themselves? "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:16)

Very true and succinctly put.. Our rationale is limited to what we observe, and to many, its difficult to comprehend anything beyond that. There you go..... In monotheism, one God is the ticket, everything else is idolatry.

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Hebrews 11:3). "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead" (Romans 1:20). For me, its as simple as believing that you ate a peanut butter sandwich . I don't need to investigate the existence of God, creation demonstrates intelligent design, not a series of random accidents. Zeus was not a man who walked the earth, there were no eyewitnesses to his existence. The prophecies of the coming of Christ were real, right down to the time and place of his birth to the details of his death. As pointed out in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, proof does not convince anyone, they wouldn't believe regardless of evidence; "And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31).