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Awesome!
I'm totally on board!
The only point I would add is that when someone doesn't get what I'm saying, I pray and ask God to tell me how to explain it better/differently.
I believe it is the job of the communicator to find a way to be understood, rather than blame the listener for not getting it.
God Bless you!
You answered my post, just not my question. You said Alien Abductions are more probable than the Resurrection and asked for a scientifically valid method showing the opposite, which I gave. I then repeatedly asked for a method that supported your position, which you just ignored and tried to undermine the application of the Historical Critical approach that I had applied. It was tangential to the topic of the thread though, so I can't remember where it was.
People aren't obligated to answer all posts or questions directed at you though, so that fine. If someone chooses not to answer your criticism of their position, that is their right and vice versa.
I agree with you that we should be held to a higher standard. There have been some mean-spirited atheist members however who have been consistently verbally abusive of polite Christians, and this I think has driven some people to react in an inappropriately angry and hostile manner to legitimate questions posed by other atheists.
I hope NV stays and would love to work @Truthfrees with you to help answer some of his more complicated questions; I have some formal theological training as I am a cantor in the Orthodox Church, and I think together we might be able to provide answers. I think we also ought to try and loop @Der Alter into this because he is in my opinion the most knowledgeable Biblical apologost on the website that Inknow personally (I am sure there are others, but @Der Alter is a close friend and I have found his support to be amazing). @Aelred of Rievaulx and also @ViaCrucis are extremely talented theologians. It might be good if the five of us got together with @NihilistVirus in a conversation to talk things through with him; we would each come from different denominations (Calvinist Baptist, Word of Faith, Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox) and in this way, we could also each offer the perspectives of our denomination. Because where @Nihilist Virus might find one denomination's view to not answer his question satisfactorily, the view of another might shed light on it, whereas, if we look at the question from all five, we can review with him the totality of Christian thought on the issue,
In my experience, @Nihilist Virus, you have not always understood the answers you were provided with by some members, and in some cases put them on ignore, thinking they were trolling you. Some may have been, but I think many were not; there actually are some paradoxes in the Christian faith, some questions where we cannot provide a definite answer, but these also do exist in science, for example, consider the limitations imposed by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
One example of a subject matter where I have seen you become very unsatisfied with the answers provided, but where I don't think we can neccessarily provide any fully intellectually satisfactory answer, is on some of your questions relating to the relationship between God, the devil, and the Christian scriptures and Christiam faith. This is an extremely complicated area and it involves several branches of theology as well as one of the classic philosophical conundrums known as the Theodicy Problem, which amounts to, why does God allow suffering?
Gnostic Christianity had a very easy answer; they said this world was made by an evil demiurge and we had to escape to a purely spiritual realm with the helpmof the good God, who sent Jesus as a messenger to provide saving knowledge on how to escape the prison of matter. In mainstream Christianity as defined by the Statement of Faith on this website, the answer is much more complicated.
There are several other issues like this one where we may not have an answer that you find agreeable; one reason why I would like to team up woth TruthFrees, if she is willing, and some of the other leading apologists, is because I think if we pool our resources from different denominational traditions we might be able to provide an answer that works for you.
I'm sad to see this, friend.
I've walked into some matters where I was knocked down and people were rude, but that's often the case with the Internet. It's not the forum itself; it's certain people on their keyboards who simply have nothing good to say, think they're always right because they know this or that, and don't mind telling others off.
I look for interesting things to talk about and started a blog. Sometimes you have to make your own niche in a big place like this and tell the people who are nice to you how much you appreciate them. Smile and pray for the rest of them. And keep going! Don't get stuck in a thread where you feel you're right and you keep getting shot down -- just say, "Well, that's how I feel, but thanks for your input" and go away before it gets hairy and you get hurt.
I'm very sensitive, and I always remember that I'm in charge here. I have the ultimate tool for a forum and people who try to dig at me or generate a negative response.
It's called the power button. Then you step away, go do something else, pray about it, come back, and go find something nice to talk about. By then the ones who were picking on you have signed off or they're off to another topic and leaving you alone.
Please give that a try, and don't leave us. Hang in here with me, okay? I don't bite.
All good things
Emmy
Hi and please don't go..
Not all of us Christians are like those you describe from Apologetics.
Quite a few of us are more than willing to have a meaningful conversation/debate with you!
This is technically my introduction because I never made a thread here. But really, instead of a "hello", I'm coming here asking if there is a reason to stay.
I was born into a Christian home and indoctrinated into the faith my whole childhood. At 18 I backslid, then I got stronger in my faith and dedicated myself to reading the whole Bible. This utterly obliterated my faith.
I'm not making this post to open up a dialogue on that issue. I've already turned over every leaf on the apologetics forum and have gotten very few answers. So if you are looking to argue, you can respond to my arguments there. But I doubt I'll respond because, as stated above, I'm not convinced that I have a good reason to stay on these forums and if nothing enlightening happens on this thread then I'm done here (and my expectations are that this thread will probably be taken down and action taken against my account).
The vast majority of attempts at answering my questions have been abysmal failures, which wasn't surprising, but what surprised me was the amount of vitriol and hate Christians have spewed at me. I've participated in this, sometimes i10 yearsnstigating and sometimes rightfully responding to unprovoked attacks, and I simply do not see the love of Christ anywhere on these forums. I have no desire to be a jerk, but even if I did I should not receive rude comments back from a Christian. Am I wrong in thinking that Christians are held to a higher standard than I am?
Again not answering. You asked for a scientifically acceptable Method, as I asked for in return.
You need to stop blaming others for your lack of faith. I do have one question for you and the fact is why do the majority of atheists make the same claim you make about being raised in a Christian home but lack the Christian faith of that home, well there's one of two problems 1.) How would you know a Christian home if what you claim is true 2.) You were never a Christian but thought you were one by imitation. You see I thought I was a Christian for 36 years because I thought as you do until through "getting religion" for my daughter backfired on me. And that problem was that as you I thought I was a Christian and found out that I didn't know what and Christian was let alone how to become one. So please stop blaming other for your lack of comprehension of what a Christian entails and admit what you had was a religion and NOT a FAITH.This is technically my introduction because I never made a thread here. But really, instead of a "hello", I'm coming here asking if there is a reason to stay.
I was born into a Christian home and indoctrinated into the faith my whole childhood. At 18 I backslid, then I got stronger in my faith and dedicated myself to reading the whole Bible. This utterly obliterated my faith.
I'm not making this post to open up a dialogue on that issue. I've already turned over every leaf on the apologetics forum and have gotten very few answers. So if you are looking to argue, you can respond to my arguments there. But I doubt I'll respond because, as stated above, I'm not convinced that I have a good reason to stay on these forums and if nothing enlightening happens on this thread then I'm done here (and my expectations are that this thread will probably be taken down and action taken against my account).
The vast majority of attempts at answering my questions have been abysmal failures, which wasn't surprising, but what surprised me was the amount of vitriol and hate Christians have spewed at me. I've participated in this, sometimes instigating and sometimes rightfully responding to unprovoked attacks, and I simply do not see the love of Christ anywhere on these forums. I have no desire to be a jerk, but even if I did I should not receive rude comments back from a Christian. Am I wrong in thinking that Christians are held to a higher standard than I am?
In my time here I've seen hatred, mockery, and willful ignorance. What I haven't seen is love or intelligent discourse. Are atheists treated that way because we're not wanted here?
This is technically my introduction because I never made a thread here. But really, instead of a "hello", I'm coming here asking if there is a reason to stay.
I was born into a Christian home and indoctrinated into the faith my whole childhood. At 18 I backslid, then I got stronger in my faith and dedicated myself to reading the whole Bible. This utterly obliterated my faith.
I'm not making this post to open up a dialogue on that issue. I've already turned over every leaf on the apologetics forum and have gotten very few answers. So if you are looking to argue, you can respond to my arguments there. But I doubt I'll respond because, as stated above, I'm not convinced that I have a good reason to stay on these forums and if nothing enlightening happens on this thread then I'm done here (and my expectations are that this thread will probably be taken down and action taken against my account).
The vast majority of attempts at answering my questions have been abysmal failures, which wasn't surprising, but what surprised me was the amount of vitriol and hate Christians have spewed at me. I've participated in this, sometimes instigating and sometimes rightfully responding to unprovoked attacks, and I simply do not see the love of Christ anywhere on these forums. I have no desire to be a jerk, but even if I did I should not receive rude comments back from a Christian. Am I wrong in thinking that Christians are held to a higher standard than I am?
In my time here I've seen hatred, mockery, and willful ignorance. What I haven't seen is love or intelligent discourse. Are atheists treated that way because we're not wanted here?
Again not answering. You asked for a scientifically acceptable Method, as I asked for in return.
This however is merely a series of simple statements in tabular form, juxtaposed.
In our previous discussion all these points were raised and dismissed with Historical Critical Method still finding the Resurrection more probable.
This however remains a tangent, so I suggest you find our previous discussion, review it, and then start a new thread somewhere if you wish to discuss it. (With preferably some form of Method that can back up your claims)
You need to stop blaming others for your lack of faith. I do have one question for you and the fact is why do the majority of atheists make the same claim you make about being raised in a Christian home but lack the Christian faith of that home, well there's one of two problems 1.) How would you know a Christian home if what you claim is true 2.) You were never a Christian but thought you were one by imitation. You see I thought I was a Christian for 36 years because I thought as you do until through "getting religion" for my daughter backfired on me. And that problem was that as you I thought I was a Christian and found out that I didn't know what and Christian was let alone how to become one. So please stop blaming other for your lack of comprehension of what a Christian entails and admit what you had was a religion and NOT a FAITH.
Sorry to hear about your struggles here on this site and with your quest for peace for your soul.So faith is a good thing? Does it then follow that faith in Islam is good? No? But how do you know which faith is the right faith? Oh right, you know by faith which faith is the right faith.
Did the above never occurr to you over those 36 years? Also, what makes you qualified to tell me who or what I was? How do you know anything about me? You just know it by faith?
Faith is a wonderful thing. But faith requires an object, and that object must truly exist. So no, one cannot have faith in Islam, because Islam is false, and demonstrably so because it is internally inconsistent.So faith is a good thing? Does it then follow that faith in Islam is good? No? But how do you know which faith is the right faith? Oh right, you know by faith which faith is the right faith.
Did the above never occurr to you over those 36 years? Also, what makes you qualified to tell me who or what I was? How do you know anything about me? You just know it by faith?
I am sure you understand the Irony when you talk of Bias.There is no scientific method in play here so I would not ask for one. This is a matter of a historical method: examining sources. I only was comparing the sources, nothing more.
I'm not inclined to go look it up as I'm not even inclined to continue arguing unless I'm convinced that the person I'm talking to is unbiased. But no, we never established that the resurrection is more historically plausible; I cannot conceive of anything more absurd.
This is technically my introduction because I never made a thread here. But really, instead of a "hello", I'm coming here asking if there is a reason to stay.
I was born into a Christian home and indoctrinated into the faith my whole childhood. At 18 I backslid, then I got stronger in my faith and dedicated myself to reading the whole Bible. This utterly obliterated my faith.
I'm not making this post to open up a dialogue on that issue. I've already turned over every leaf on the apologetics forum and have gotten very few answers. So if you are looking to argue, you can respond to my arguments there. But I doubt I'll respond because, as stated above, I'm not convinced that I have a good reason to stay on these forums and if nothing enlightening happens on this thread then I'm done here (and my expectations are that this thread will probably be taken down and action taken against my account).
The vast majority of attempts at answering my questions have been abysmal failures, which wasn't surprising, but what surprised me was the amount of vitriol and hate Christians have spewed at me. I've participated in this, sometimes instigating and sometimes rightfully responding to unprovoked attacks, and I simply do not see the love of Christ anywhere on these forums. I have no desire to be a jerk, but even if I did I should not receive rude comments back from a Christian. Am I wrong in thinking that Christians are held to a higher standard than I am?
In my time here I've seen hatred, mockery, and willful ignorance. What I haven't seen is love or intelligent discourse. Are atheists treated that way because we're not wanted here?
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