Like cars? Intravenous medication? Molecular biological research?
in some cases yes
but I was specifically referring to all other religions as they lead away from Christ.
Then you have no understanding of Wicca.
I wasnt directly refering to wicca, but to the notion that morality in itself is
As I said, it is your choice to believe this, but that does not make it true. Have you considered the possibility that you may be wrong?
yes I have, thats in part how I came to believe the way I do.
That the only method by which your god could offer us salvation is manifesting as a man and brutally sacrificing himself to himself, seems to limit your god's capacity for omnipotence. After all, the more omnipotent he is, the more directly he could offer us salvation. The method told in the Bible seems rather... crude.
That assessment is based on the presumption that the method of salvation is outright an "offer" and not a statement.
by that I mean the route of salvation, is meant for us, not necessarily his chosen method. Remember Christ asked if there were any other way, then he would do it, but not his will, but that of the father.
Do you also believe those who witnessed the resurrection of Mithras? I am unaware of any witnesses to mithras.
However I am aware of Paul's reference to over 500 witnesses of the resurrected Christ, living in corinth (the witnesses)
1Cor.15
[1] Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
[2] By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
[3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
[4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
[5] And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
[6] After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
[7] After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
[8] And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
[9] For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
[10] But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
[11] Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
[12] Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
[13] But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
[14] And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
[15] Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
[16] For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
[17] And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
You doubt the ressurection now, if you were living in corinth when this epistle arrived there, would you not ask around?
Would you not seek out these people and ask them if the ressurection was some scam?
yet I am aware of no one that denied it.
think about it, Paul is providing ammo for the first doubters, he is even offering up at least several hundred people ,as examples, If the ressurection did not occur, don't you think that the people who knew it would have said something?
wrote anything?
yet their is no refutation, no argument, no dismissal. it was somehow acceped.
You assume, of course, that Jesus was your god.
You called him Cruel, I asked if he were so cruel ,and injust why would he wait to receive a punishment he was undeserving of, when he had clear opportunity to leave it behind.
How did you come to such a realisation?
It began with my belief that some of the scriptures were true, and had not been corrupted of men, as at that time like many I believed falsely that they were corrupt and tampered with.
then the more I read turned out to be true.
then things I had been convinced were lies, and alterations turned out true.
Then I ran acros the verses of warning , not to add nor diminish from the scriptures. And I asked myself, did I really trus all of these new age fools who cast all of this doubt on the authenticity of the scriptures? or was it doubt in mankind in General.
To clarify, many people doubt the scriptures, because they presume mankind tampered with what they said., yet they do not hold the same level of doubt in the people who make the accusations in the first place. So I did some investigation myself, I sought out a true translation, and the more I looked, and looked, and looked ,the more I realized, my own doubt with no proof that the text had been altered even one jot or tittle, was just as bad as if I had altered it myself.
I found nothing to demonstrate the text were altered in any way.
just for example, the most popular slander, that the bible was written to controll the masses. yet Scriptures do not paint a flattering picture of those in power. Effective propaganda, does not slam those it is intended to keep in power. and ineffective propaganda, does not remain in existence for well over 3000 years.
I believe every Jot , and every tittle.
I will not add nor diminish from it.
I have learned my lesson.
How so? I have constructed two disproofs of a Literal Bible. One is the six-legged/four-legged locust problem,
praying mantis
and the other is the based on the fact that there is too much variation in modern human Y-chromosomes for them to be derived from just one varient 4000 years ago (i.e., a disproof of the Flood).
its funny how evolutionist claim that rapid genetic change is possible, until it is not in their favor to do so.
Honestly I don't know, It no longer concerns me, I did my own evolutionary research, and the who thing collapsed in my lap like a house of tissue paper.
I also believed the biblical people who lived for hundreds of years actually lived for hundreds of years.
Evolution is an alluring fairy tale, but it no longer interest me, as it is not reducable to its original components.
argue abiogenesis is seperate all you want, it does not function in absence of a system, and every living thing is a system.
sorry off topic
I found the contradictions many years after my deconversion. I was a Christian for 11 years, and I felt nothing. I started practicing Wicca, and wham, I felt something.
I have felt many things for non existent ideas. I had planned on creating fiction my whole life, I was enthralled by it, motivated, by it, and moved by it.
But the thing about Christianity, is that it doesnt just move me, it speaks to me. I see things I have never seen before, know things I should not know.
I spent the majority of my life dismissing it as moral codes, and inconsequential, after all I wasn't as bad as those murderers, or child molesters, or liars.
But I am.
the crucifiction spoke to me, in that it is nothing like any other heroic deed I have ever seen, or have seen since.
Christ did not leap in front of a bullet, he did not die for a meaningful cause, he did not perform any of the traditional or un traditional heroisms.
He did something that made no sense whatsoever.
unless of course it makes perfect sense.
