Viki_rrr said:

Здравствуйте, меня зовут Виктория. Я выросла в стране со светскими взглядами, но самая распространённая религия здесь — ислам. Мои родители не очень ревностные христиане; я с детства ходила в церковь, была крещена в православии, но не могла назвать себя по-настоящему верующей. До совершеннолетия я вела, в каком-то смысле, довольно разгульный образ жизни: рано познакомилась с алкоголем и сигаретами. В восемнадцать лет я начала интересоваться христианством, и, честно говоря, это был худший год в моей жизни. Я стала больше думать о религии, и это постепенно помогло мне выйти из кризиса. Конечно, я читала Библию, молилась, но, честно говоря, уверена, что мои знания недостаточно структурированы, и хотела бы услышать ваш совет: с чего мне лучше всего начать?

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Welcome!

public hermit said:

How about providing some quotes so we can get this show on the road? Present your evidence of what you have read, and then folks can agree/disagree.

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Just a couple of points:

1) This is not a complete list. I did not take the time to record them all.

2) Not a single early church father promoted idolatry or even hinted it was Christian practice.





''But the way of darkness is crooked, and full of cursing; for it is the way of eternal death with punishment, in which way are the things that destroy the soul, viz, idolatry, over-confidence the arrogance of power. . .''

The epistle of Barnabas, chapter 20.

100A.D.

Gregory Thompson said:

However, the reality that is objective stays the same regardless of what we think of it.

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Does it really. It seems to me what was fact 100 years ago can be fiction today. Look at physics. The fact was reality was made up to tiny bits of matter like billiard ball schema. Now its probabilitic.

The earth was flat and now its a sphere. There was a real substance call luminiferous aether, a proposed substance that allowed light to travel through empty space. Now this is not a fact.

The universe began with a BB which gradually evolved stars and galaxies as a fact under the standard model. Now thats being questions by the JWT. Who knows how our facts about reality will change in the future. There may be a complete paradigm shift which completely undermines the current models.

John Wheeler (Participatory Anthropic Principle) proposed that the universe was waking up to itself with conscious beings. That what we thought were facts long ago are then re conceptualised by the questions we pose of reality. That it is actually the conscious being who is creating that reality by the questions and choices made in measuring reality.


Wigner thought that there was no single objective reality and reality was subjective.

A quantum experiment suggests there’s no such thing as objective reality

FireDragon76 said:

An alternative hypothesis: Trump's politics skills (such as they are) don't exist in a vacuum: context is everything. The American electorate, worn down by decades of neoliberal technical managerialism, lost faith in major social institutions after the 2008 financial crisis, which made them vulnerable to demagogues.

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Not even that complex. The American electorate got tired of lip service and no change. That was essentially what I heard from a Trump supporter in 2016. It was "We've tried everything else."

ozso said:

It doesn't make any sense as far as I can decipher.

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It's really not that complicated.

Some right wing people play the internet game in two ways. The first way is to pick something that is minor and then get really mad about it. For example, over here in germany, there is currently a major ring-wing Brouhaha about "woke cheese", because the new packaging of a relatively popular cheese product features people of diverse color, age and sex. The more minor the thing they get mad about and the bigger the offense they take, the bigger the win.

Behold the horror:



At the same time, the internet game is played by engaging in relentless goading and trolling of the left, with the goal of "triggering" and "owning the libs". Any rise they get out of their opposition is a win for the people playing the internet game. If they don't get a rise out of them, they just reintrepret some statement of disagreement into a full-blown tantrum or take a single video frame out of context and turn it into a meme of left-wing weakness, like this popular image of a very reasonable and polite woman having a public discussion and making the deadly mistake of forming her facial muscles into this shape for a fraction of a second, henceforth and foreever more branding her as the "triggered feminist meme".



Now, please come up with a better comeback.

durangodawood said:

Were they trying to test God?

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Maybe it's what they could get?

GoldenBoy89 said:

What makes these statistics real?

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They weren’t doctored by fake reporting systems to make the department look better as they have been in the past.

Say it aint so said:

Politics was the motivation; for Trump and the leaders of that religious voting block.

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What Trump stated isn't the Christian belief on Salvation. That's the story. There's no reason to think that Trump doesn't believe what he says he believes. It fits with his demonstrated unfamiliarity with the bible. It's a belief no different from the average American non-Christian's, and just as wrong.

Quite obviously you don't believe that. Quite obviously you're not alone in that regard here in CF. So be it.

essentialsaltes said:

Truth is objective. There is only one reality, and truth is an accurate reflection of reality.

Not all questions or statements are amenable to being classified as true or false. "Vanilla tastes better than chocolate." is obviously a subjective opinion rather than a fact about all of reality.

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" is obviously a subjective opinion rather than a fact about all of reality.

What is all of reality.

BelieveItOarKnot said:

He certainly didn't "make Himself" that way. Nor does it follow that when we supposedly do the same we make ourselves that way also.

No one "decides" their way to heaven. And Jesus has always been One with the Father from endless eternity past to forever. No start, no finish. God.

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You said …

“The children of God are going through and the children of the devil are going to be left behind and sent to the fire at some point. No child of the devil that we all bear regardless of choices, is making it past the gate.”

I asked about the above …

What are these children of the devil that you are referring to?


My 2nd question put another way is, How was Jesus tempted?

Landon Caeli said:

Don't you understand there's no progression in stagnation? No future being a living antique. Only suffering.

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You reject conservatism?

fhansen said:

God never created man to be a sinner to begin with

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Satan and his messengers are the sinners. People are God's children. Draw your lines there and you won't find any need to mistake one for the other.

I would suggest a read through 1 Cor. 15:42-46. God planted all people in weakness, corruption and dishonor in a natural body that was doomed to die from the beginning.

Romans 11:32, God BOUND everyone to "disobedience."

When you realize the tempter is in your mind, you'll see it. But if you deny it, it's not even you denying

RDKirk said:

Sure, it does.

It can be true that no other Republican "has the personality or the charisma (or sheer hutzpah) to be the next Trump?"

And at the same time, "he’ll have everything else in place so that, when the facade crumbles, we’ll all understand that the All-powerful don’t need 'permission' of the people, to rule."

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So, does that mean the Heritage Foundation is calling the shots? They're the true leader of the country at the moment?

-- A2SG, sure seems like it sometimes....

Landon Caeli said:

I have no idea what you're talking about then.

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Which is a sad thing indeed.

Many on this thread believed the fake doctored numbers put out by DC police were real ! What is the problem now that many who actually live there are thankful to Trump for the drop in crime they have noticed? It must be so very discouraging to some that Trump is actually making a real POSITIVE difference in this country while the Democrats in political positions implode. The union chief of police exposed how statistics were doctored to make it seem crime was so much improved when actually it was not.

honey badger said:

Jesus said he could do nothing of himself and therefor neither can we

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That's because God is within us. All people. 1 John 4:7

IF we are born here, as humans, through water, the birth sack, we're God's children. Matt. 23:9

When we are engaged in trying to "make ourselves" that is a false gospel that seeks to make "me" better than "you" or differentiate the baseline

God does have other things going on with all of us. The judgment of the wicked messengers transpires in the collective as well.

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Some wrestle wittingly. Some clueless. Some in denial. But ALL wrestle, regardless and are therefore in service to God in these events.

honey badger said:

to reason with God is not of works ... but the ceasing from it ...

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It's also reasoning to stop being a lying hypocrite and claim exemption from the match

207. Follow the call





Paul, from his prison cell, evangelizes his friends:

“I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 1 to 3



The call we’ve received from the Lord is to love him and to love one another. Paul invites us to be humble because we have received a lot, we have received everything from God and we could believe that what we have, especially when the habit settles in, is our possession.



Stopping to walk is like stopping eating and drinking. It’s even worse. It is necessary to renew the water and food in our body to continue living. We receive them from nature. We especially have to renew the Love we receive from God by standing near him.



Sometimes we lose a lot of spiritual vitality when we move away from the Love of God and we can’t find a way to replace ourselves in the right way. So, to help others, it is necessary to find ways to keep ourselves in the path of joy, serenity and holiness, on the road with Jesus.



The new American Bible, 2011-2014

Book: Caring for our poverties, Normand Thomas

Viki_rrr said:

Здравствуйте, меня зовут Виктория. Я выросла в стране со светскими взглядами, но самая распространённая религия здесь — ислам. Мои родители не очень ревностные христиане; я с детства ходила в церковь, была крещена в православии, но не могла назвать себя по-настоящему верующей. До совершеннолетия я вела, в каком-то смысле, довольно разгульный образ жизни: рано познакомилась с алкоголем и сигаретами. В восемнадцать лет я начала интересоваться христианством, и, честно говоря, это был худший год в моей жизни. Я стала больше думать о религии, и это постепенно помогло мне выйти из кризиса. Конечно, я читала Библию, молилась, но, честно говоря, уверена, что мои знания недостаточно структурированы, и хотела бы услышать ваш совет: с чего мне лучше всего начать?

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Hello, my name is Victoria. I grew up in a country with secular views, but the most widespread religion here is Islam. My family are not very devout Christians; since childhood I went to church, was baptized in Orthodoxy, but I could not call myself truly faithful. Until I came of age, I lived, in some sense, a rather reckless lifestyle: I got acquainted with alcohol and cigarettes early on. At the age of eighteen, I began to take an interest in Christianity, and to be honest, that was the worst year of my life. I started thinking more about religion, and this gradually helped me come out of a crisis. Of course, I read the Bible, prayed, but honestly, I am sure that my knowledge is not well-structured, and I would like to hear your advice: where is the best place for me to start?

ozso said:

Maybe they should've illegally entered Australia instead. No, wait, Australia deports illegals too.

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With due process - and they have rights if on the Australian mainland.
But if our border forces grab their boats before they're on Australian soil - they can be detained for years without due process - and this is a violation of human rights and international law. I condemn such behaviours in whatever country they appear in - what about yourself?

ozso said:

Maybe the should've illegally entered a country that doesn't deport. Oops, no such country exists.

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Maybe you should reply to the pertinent points above instead of being trite.

Like - DO immigrants commit more crimes than native born Americans?
DO they contribute more to the economy than they take in welfare?
ARE they human beings - or should you despise them all equally?

A2SG said:

I'm not sure why I was quoted here, since this reply has nothing to do with anything I said.

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Sure, it does.

It can be true that no other Republican "has the personality or the charisma (or sheer hutzpah) to be the next Trump?"

And at the same time, "he’ll have everything else in place so that, when the facade crumbles, we’ll all understand that the All-powerful don’t need 'permission' of the people, to rule."

RDKirk said:

Both can be true.

We can have Republican politicians that broadly suck and everyone knows it, yet through gerrymandering and other techniques being put in place, be unable to oust them.

Cruz, for instance.

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I'm not sure why I was quoted here, since this reply has nothing to do with anything I said. But, I guess I can say I agree that ousting Ted Cruz would probably be a good thing.

-- A2SG, then again, I'm not from Texas, so I never voted for the guy anyway....

I think low testosterone in younger males has a lot to do with it.

Guojing said:

There is a difference in meaning between

• those who got it seem to have gotten it elsewhere
• no one was infected with Covid as a result of partaking of the Eucharist

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Without faith in the promises of our Lord, including those regarding the sacrament, this conversation is going to remain irrelevant to you; I see no point in discussing further.