Personal Questions

[ER]

 "Jesus coming back from the dead argues more for God being personally accessible to humans than anything else in organized religions."

I don't believe in vampires or zombies either.

RC, I'd actually be grateful if you could discredit the resurrection for me in a way that covers all the known facts. I have truly tried, and I think the only explanation that fits what we know was that the claimed event truly took place. If I quit believing this I would discard Christianity entirely as something based on a lie.

[RCMerchant]

^ What facts? The Bible? I read comic books , but I don't believe in the Incredible Hulk.
It's hard for me to believe something that was written over 2000 years ago without any hard evidence.
People write books that say the Mothman is real- will someone read that in 2000 years and say it's true?
Perhaps. Myself, I need evidence of the existence of something to believe in it. I'm kinda weird like that.

[Newt]

Someday I want to try making Sanguinaccio Dolce, which is an Italian dish mixing blood and chocolate.  The blood is for salt, chocolate for sweet, supposed to be quite good and pretty easy to make.

Now I have the phrase "Like Water For Chocolate" stuck in my head...disturbingly.

[ER]

^ What facts? The Bible? I read comic books , but I don't believe in the Incredible Hulk.
It's hard for me to believe something that was written over 2000 years ago without any hard evidence.
People write books that say the Mothman is real- will someone read that in 2000 years and say it's true?
Perhaps. Myself, I need evidence of the existence of something to believe in it. I'm kinda weird like that.

How much research into the authenticity and age of Christian scripture have you done though, RC? I used to believe in later dates and retroactive validation of the books of the Bible and that the wording was altered with time, but the more I studied, the less I found that to be the case. There is reason (or many reasons) to accept the earliest claimed dates for most Bible books and reasons also to accept the traditional authorship of the books and the accounts they give. Archaeology has been especially supportive of much of the history of the New Testament. Logic also can go a long way in an investigation of the resurrection story, by that I mean thinking which explanations go with what we know or what we can make educated guesses about what could have happened. What theories survive that examination and which don't? It isn't exactly what I want to believe, it's what I do believe, reluctantly, but solidly.

Go beyond flippant dismissals and look into the subject sometime and see if you don't find yourself surprised too. Or don't. Your life, your time.

[RCMerchant]

^ No thanks. I will never believe in it, just as you will. To each his own.
We could go back and forth on this all day- and achieve what?  
I'm sorry I brought this up.

[ER]

^ No thanks. I will never believe in it, just as you will. To each his own.
We could go back and forth on this all day- and achieve what?  
I'm sorry I brought this up.

Ach, between our two warped minds I doubt there's a topic we we would fear to take on.

Like this:

Would you rather push a button and cause all child molesters everywhere to catch fire, or push a button and have twenty million dollars placed in your bank account?

[indianasmith]

Spontaneous pedo combustion!!!!

[Rev. Powell]

^ No thanks. I will never believe in it, just as you will. To each his own.
We could go back and forth on this all day- and achieve what?  
I'm sorry I brought this up.

Ach, between our two warped minds I doubt there's a topic we we would fear to take on.

Like this:

Would you rather push a button and cause all child molesters everywhere to catch fire, or push a button and have twenty million dollars placed in your bank account?

Can I advertise that I will only push the button after 20 million people donate $1 to my "burn the pedos" fund?

[RCMerchant]

Let 'em burn. What am I gonna do with a million bucks? I don't care about money, except to pay my bills.

[El Misfit]

^ No thanks. I will never believe in it, just as you will. To each his own.
We could go back and forth on this all day- and achieve what?  
I'm sorry I brought this up.

Ach, between our two warped minds I doubt there's a topic we we would fear to take on.

Like this:

Would you rather push a button and cause all child molesters everywhere to catch fire, or push a button and have twenty million dollars placed in your bank account?

Where's the button to burn pedos? That needed to be pushed a long time ago.

[Rev. Powell]

Would you rather live in a smaller house with neighbors nearby or a larger house with neighbors far away?

[El Misfit]

Would you rather live in a smaller house with neighbors nearby or a larger house with neighbors far away?

Small house, I really don't need the empty rooms. Plus taxes would be lower I would think.

[ER]

The latter describes our situation, and I enjoy it.

[Jim H]

^ What facts? The Bible? I read comic books , but I don't believe in the Incredible Hulk.
It's hard for me to believe something that was written over 2000 years ago without any hard evidence.
People write books that say the Mothman is real- will someone read that in 2000 years and say it's true?
Perhaps. Myself, I need evidence of the existence of something to believe in it. I'm kinda weird like that.

How much research into the authenticity and age of Christian scripture have you done though, RC? I used to believe in later dates and retroactive validation of the books of the Bible and that the wording was altered with time, but the more I studied, the less I found that to be the case. There is reason (or many reasons) to accept the earliest claimed dates for most Bible books and reasons also to accept the traditional authorship of the books and the accounts they give. Archaeology has been especially supportive of much of the history of the New Testament. Logic also can go a long way in an investigation of the resurrection story, by that I mean thinking which explanations go with what we know or what we can make educated guesses about what could have happened. What theories survive that examination and which don't? It isn't exactly what I want to believe, it's what I do believe, reluctantly, but solidly.

Go beyond flippant dismissals and look into the subject sometime and see if you don't find yourself surprised too. Or don't. Your life, your time.

After hearing "Oh, but MINE is different, look into it!" a half dozen times for different religions, it's remarkable how little it moves you. 

Would you rather live in a smaller house with neighbors nearby or a larger house with neighbors far away?

Larger house.  I seem to not really talk to my neighbors much, so might as well get the space.  But I guess it does depend on how remote.

[RCMerchant]

Would you rather live in a smaller house with neighbors nearby or a larger house with neighbors far away?

Small house, with folks around. What am I gonna do with a big house? I have a small house. Big house around folks you don't know? No way.