I was reading something about...

Sketcher

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I don't know if karma is just? It simply is.

But at least a stillborn child, or an aborted child, or a murdered child will quickly be born again in a few moments for another chance.
There is no super-being in Buddhism who makes a just decision and no god made the rules. It is simply a matter of creating patterns in your mind that colour your future experiences.
The root is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of reality, so we make decisions based on the misunderstanding... if we understood reality it wouldn't be a thing to act from lust, hatered, jealousy, greed, fear etc. The idea that you could take something from me, or me from you, literally would have no meaning... there is no 'me' or 'you' in the sense of individual beings, only a convenient fiction we use to negotiate our apparent 'reality.'
The 'laws' of karma aren't fair, or just, it's just nature. If you act with selfishness then you act from a state of delusion. If you act with cruelty, then your delusion will become very cruel. If you act with kindness then your delusion will become very kind... But the Buddhist approach is to escape the delusion completely.
Do you really accept that?

If so, can you see why a Christian would accept Christianity, even in light of these circumstances?
 
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Lukaris

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I believe the ancient Christian view is that children are largely innocent. There is an ancient letter of observation of Christians to the emperor Hadrian by the philosopher Aristides that testified of it. I had posted in a different sub forum & resurrect it here:

The early Christians seemed to take the innocence of children as a given. An account of the philosopher Aristides ( who later became Christian, St. Aristides) ( 125 A.D.) in his surveillance accounts to the Emperor Hadrian,


And when a child has been born to one of them, they give thanks to God; and if moreover it happen to die in childhood, they give thanks to God the more, as for one who has passed through the world without sins. And

The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher

The quote is from chapter 15 but the letter is actually only about 12 printed pages ( some “chapters” are a couple of paragraphs).

There is also testimony from the 2nd century writing of Hermas which circulated widely in the early churches. The statement chiefly concerns individuals who remained innocent as children but affirms that “all infants are honorable before God” (something I had previously posted elsewhere months or years back):


There is the description of a disposition of some people as to that of an innocent child in the 2nd century writing of the Shepherd of Hermas ( 9th Similitude):



CHAPTER 29
“And they who believed from the twelfth mountain, which was white, are the following: they are as infant children, in whose hearts no evil originates; nor did they know what wickedness is, but always remained as children. Such accordingly, without doubt, dwell in the kingdom of God, because they defiled in nothing the commandments of God; but they remained like children all the days of their life in the same mind. All of you, then, who shall remain steadfast, and be as children, without doing evil, will be more honored than all who have been previously mentioned; for all infants are honorable before God, and are the first persons with Him. Blessed, then, are ye who put away wickedness from yourselves, and put on innocence. As the first of all will you live unto God.”

http://www.orthodoxebooks.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/The Shepherd of Hermas - Hermas.pdf
 
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Mark Quayle

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Why create the world at all then? Before time began, God would have known how things would have turned out, yet the world was created in full knowledge that he would be creating beings that would suffer beyond imagination for ever...
That's... obscene... That's more than Jesus suffered... Jesus' suffering is not limitless... Those poor souls will suffer without limit.
What mind can conjure up something so evil... merciless.
"Forever" is a human concept. Jesus suffered every bit of what I should have suffered in hell. His payment of my debt was precise and thorough.

Remember that the Creator is by definition First Cause. Thus he isn't under the constraints of time. Thus I don't think the 'afterlife' is time dependent either. This temporal existence is for us now.
 
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~Anastasia~

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Why create hell?... So more can go to heaven?.... What?
Hell is for the demons - the angels who knew God and rebelled against and rejected Him.

And there have been very different ideas of what “hell” is than the Dante-esque ideas many people accept today.

God as understood by ancient Christianity makes a lot more sense than what some very vocal groups today teach.

It’s true - a “god” who creates human beings for the purpose of sending them into eternal torment would be a monster. That isn’t the way the early Christians understood God. And it hardly aligns with a God who IS agape-love, as we are told He is.

Yes, a person can reject God. It’s not a matter of head-belief as many teach. It’s a real rejection of who God really is. I don’t know if anyone will. I guess some people really are that twisted to evil. But even those God has mercy on. Their condition would be one of their own making, their suffering of their own being who they are in the face of who God really is. God will spare them as much as possible, because He still loves them. That is why they will suffer - because they hate Him and He loves them anyway.
 
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drich0150

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I was reading something about Susan Atkins, she was one of the followers of Charles Manson.
After murdering Sharon Tate, and her unborn baby, she went to prison for the rest of her life.
While in prison she found God and became a Christian and helped many of the other prisoners.
I'm not sure about Sharon Tate.... Do you think she will go to heaven? And what about the unborn baby....
What about other children who were raped and murdered... How many of the kids end up in hell when their killers get a second chance to find God....

These are extreme examples, but these things do happen. Hitler was evil, but how many of his victims can go to heaven... Their suffering will be increased beyond all imagination and will last forever... This seems very odd to me.

I'm a Buddhist and used to the idea of Karma.... You plant a seed (an intentional act) and it ripens (happiness or suffering)..... mainly through conditioning how you perceive reality.

❤️ I find this a real stumbling block in seeing Christianity as reasonable and just. How do you reconcile this with your conscience?

this is found in heb 4: 12 God’s word is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts. 13 Nothing in all the world can be hidden from God. He can clearly see all things. Everything is open before him. And to him we must explain the way we have lived.

We find out in John 1:1 that God's word in the greek is "logos" and heb 4.. and "the word" is another name for Jesus the Christ. So plug in Jesus Christ into heb 4 and it reads: "Jesus the Christ" is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts. 13 Nothing in all the world can be hidden from God. He can clearly see all things. Everything is open before him. And to him we must explain the way we have lived.

This means Christ is our final judge, not some ritual or allegiance to a specific denomination of worship. Rather Jesus will divide or separate our actions from our intentions and down to the core of our heart. nothing will be hidden. it is to that scrutiny in which we are judged. He knows where both women were at the end of their lives, and will rightfully judge them. as we do not need a 100 years to be who our hearts want us to be.

As far as the child or any child the bible says we are given over once to live and then the judgement. now if you consider the purpose of this life is to be old enough to decide where you want to spend eternity you have to live at least that long to understand and make a decision. which is different for everyone. because if you are not old enough to know any better then there can be no judgement. at which point God has two options to welcome them in as their age and development would not have them understand sin, or to put them back into rotation and assign them another life to live till they can make this decision.
 
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