luvluv

Koya:

"The cult of luvluv."

Well, it would look good on a t-shirt. But will it play in Peoria?

Print me up a dozen bumper stickers. If it sells, I'll cut you a finder's fee.

Gurdur:

I assume you've heard of the doctrine of the fall of man, correct? Humans are made to be good, but God invested them with free will which allows them to choose to be bad if they wish. I only meant to say that I don't believe in this "the devil made me do it" nonsense. Evil is simply making the wrong choices, and the possibility of evil is implied in the fact that we have choices to make. It doesn't come from anywhere. Goodness does come from God, because goodness has it's own existence. Their must be law for their to be lawlessness. But the law does not need lawlessness to exist. If no one disobeyed the law ever, it would still exist. But if there was no law, there could be no lawlessness. Evil, apart from a defined good, has no meaning. It's existence is dependant on a good to be strayed from. Therefore God, being good, creates all good things. Evil does not need to be "created" at all, it is simply the converse of good.

ex-preacher: That passage you quote in Romans is one of the first things that made me not a Biblical literalist. Another one is Paul's statment about marriage, in which Paul himself actually said: "This is not church opinion, this is my opinion" or something to that effect. This lead me to believe that other things that Paul had written were not given with divine authority, some of it was just Paul's biases. I agree that that scripture is totally and demonstrably wrong, and I have never believed in it.

hinduwoman

There is no marriage in heaven --- that is avoid any possibility of mental disorders.

ex-preacher

Why? Is it because you realized that your morality was superior to that contained in "God's Word"?

Isn't it audacious to suggest that you, in your human frailty, can decide what is right or wrong better than the apostle Paul - who claimed to have been taught personally by Jesus?

Are your insights superior to those of the early church fathers and the testimony of the church for thousands of years?

If you can answer these questions, we might make some progress.


<strong> So how do you decide which things have divine authority and which things don't? Isn't it just your opinion? Who's to say the opinion and biases of luvluv are better than the opinion and biases of the apostle Paul?


<strong> Never? Why not? Is human reason superior to "God's Word"?

I perceive, luvluv, that you are not far from the kingdom of reason. I have hope.

Proxima Centauri

You have a choice when you are speeding. You probably hope you won't get caught.
Well I won't get caught by the Christian God. The idea of a loving God who causes such suffering doesn't make sense. Its not likely the Christian God exists.
Lets call him the Unchristian God he's so cruel.

hinduwoman

The analogy with speeding tickets don't hold good for another reason. The Govt. which makes these laws is OUR govt, elected by us, or maybe not as the case might be. But it is a human agency, and if enough motorists get angry they can lobby successfully to change the laws.

With the Christian God, there is no debate, no chance of the law ever changing: it is a simple fiat imposed by an Authhority no one can even talk to.