miata

I don't wear a sign and I try to respect others and their faith but I don't understand why people should suffer eternal torture for having a open mind. I don't know any one who post here and never will but I would not want anyone to suffer especially forever. I help people in need and I love people but I would never tell them to follow my lead in areas of faith.

I don't get the don't question idea as we cannot learn much without investigation.

Biff the unclean

WHAT!!!!???? You mean that the Christians who took John 15:6 (If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.) as a mandate from Jesus, to burn unbelievers alive, for over one thousand four hundred years, were wrong? How embarrassing for them. If only you had been there to tell them that Jesus didn't really mean what he said.
Or do you mean that church authorities never did such a thing? In that case all those tens of thousands of people will be quite pleased to hear that they aren't dead.

Jinto

That's a statement, not a command. Not, of course, that the idea of Jesus throwing everyone who doesn't wait for him into a lake of fire isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it wasn't a mandate, and anyone who takes it as such is simply wrong.

Faith

Well, that was my point, actually. Since I am not without sin, I feel it isn't my place to cast stones, not even righteously. Someone who follows the teachings of Jesus would look to Matthew 7:1 and realize none of us is capable of judging unhypocritically, because we aren't without sin, and they wouldn't judge or attack others based on that very verse.

Sorry if I sounded judgmental. I respect everyone's beliefs, Christian or no.

Peace.

miata

Why don't people love each other as they are? I read about the Salem Witch trials and their burning and now we know many of the people who were burned had eaten weat that made them delusional. I guess people with mental illness with delusions or even mania were burned as well. Men did this in the name of God but I don't think that if there is a God he would have been a member of that church.

My point is this, if God is love why would his followers not follow his lead. I truely wish there was some super power that could help us be better but not out of a threat of being burned. How is that free will? People who are evil blame it on satan when many folks are just evil without any encouragement from some fallen angel.

I am an atheist but I am not evil, nor do I want to associate with those who are. When I do something wrong it is my fault and I don't blame anyone or anything else.

Starboy

And if you don't have faith in Jesus? Don't tell me that Christianity is not about judgement. If Christianity was not about judgement then there would be no point in trying to save people. Stop lying to your self.

Starboy

Mageth

Well, honestly, I can respect that interpretation, though I think the NT leaves the question of "Christian judgment" more ambiguous than your interpretation (as has been pointed out by the many verses posted here). And if more "Christians" would only follow your strict "no judgment" interpretation - unfortunately, many do not, and judge people, fellow Christians or not, for a variety of "offenses" all the time. The airwaves are full of judgmental, attacking Christians - or, perhaps, they're not "true Christians"?

And you, at least, seem to recognize that even your position on "true Christians" here on this thread can be viewed as judgmental, even making your position seem hypocritical. A nice conundrum you've gotten yourself into, huh? You see Christians as restricted from judging, but in so doing you implicity limit Christians from judging those who judge!

Mageth

I think what Faith is getting at is that a Christian should not be about judgment, should not judge (which is one way to interpret Jesus' words, though there are counterexamples elsewhere in the NT where Chrisitians are instructed on how and when to judge). Even Faith didn't restrict Jesus from judging, and the NT is replete with examples of such judgment. So, IMO, Faith is not correct in saying "Christianity" is not about judgment, even from the strict "no judging for Christians" position.

miata

Does it matter who is right? None of us can save anyone; I don't want to be saved.

Mageth

That depends on who is right, no? If the person who believes that you will end up in hell if you do not believe the same way they do turns out to be right, it would seem to matter very much (don't worry - that possibility seems quite bloody unlikely). If I, an atheist, turn out to be right, then it really doesn't matter very much what god one believes in or doesn't believe in.

Yes; even the Christians believe that.

Well, I certainly see no reason to think I need to be saved, but if "saving" turns out to be necessary for some reason, then I suppose I'd want to be saved.