Mageth

And who, exactly, are you to pass on the guilt or innocence of anyone in God's judgement?

Hmm. Let's review here:

- theophilus implicitly accuses everyone of being sinful by saying "show me a sinless person...etc."

- I recommend he view a few newborn infants - suggesting that I would consider them "sinless".

- theophilus responds by accusing me of "pass[ing] on the guilt or innocence of anyone in god's judgment!"

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick! And who, exactly, do you, think you are, theophilus? Christ's second coming????

One might call this a bit of inconsistentcy on theo's part, I reckon.

Mageth

I can. It is an INCONSISTENCY for atheists to care about inconsistency (wow, I said it twice), since their materialistic worldview neither precludes inconsistencies (three times!) nor gives a rip if they occur.

That's kinda like a flower growing out of a cow paddy. Cute flower, but it's still rooted in bullshit.

Jeremy Pallant

:notworthy

Harrumphrey

If your objective is truly to be understood (much less agreed with) in this forum, then you would do better to curb your patronizing and arch airs, bearing in mind that you are not our teacher and this is not Sunday School.

Let's not pretend that the problem here is the incompetence of your opponents to read, grasp, or process your ideas. You're only kidding yourself (and amusing us) when you preface your remarks with such superbia as, "If you'd read carefully..."

The problem, I'm sorry to tell you, is that your ideas and assertions themselves are self-contradictory, nonsensical and circular at best, and like most theologians your basic defense mechanism is to keep them mired in a semantic morass through which it becomes very sloppy to wade.

The phrase "incomprehensible in his essence" is typically problematic, and rather than own up to its convenient vagueness you merely pretend that we are too thick to deal with the gravity and sophistication of your ideas, or that we have missed some subtle catch-point that you would like to pretend exists.

Such transparent tactics are ill-advised if you wish to gain ground with nontheists. It is tediously arrogant of you to assume that if someone disagrees with you then it must perforce mean that he wasn't paying attention. Throughout your posts this is your pet assumption, which you employ in an apparent attempt to invalidate anybody who contradicts you. Most of us here have some experience reading letters and can probably parse a sentence too. Your slyly disparaging prefatory barbs accomplish nothing but to reveal your own obdurate refusal to question the strength and coherence of your own asseverations. You're shooting yourself in the foot.

The word "essence" can be understood a million and one ways. I won't even bother trying to divine what idea it services when you use it in the phrase "essence of god". The one word applied to the other has the effect of ambiguity squared.

Your use of the word "incomprehensible" is somewhat more apt, albeit not in the way you probably meant it, but simply because the concept of god you continue to promote is, we will agree, incomprehensible -- by reason of remaining meaningless.

Hawkingfan

There is no evidence of an afterlife. However, there is evidence that human's lives come to an end.

Hawkingfan

You must have a problem realizing people actually die. Maybe you need to see a dead body at your local cemetery. My body, like yours, will some day die. When it is buried, it ROTS in the ground and turns to dust. That is the end of us.
If hell is a very real place, then where is it? Explain to me how I can go there when my body doesn't exist. Explain to me how a soul can feel pain without nerve endings. Or do souls have nerve endings to feel pain? Will I have a brain to register it? Explain to me the science behind how something can burn forever. How can I keep from burning away? Since I won't have any mass or energy (it's in the ground rotting, remember), what is actually going to burn?

Hawkingfan

This makes no sense. It is like saying, "You were given cancer because you have cancer."

You've met every single person in the world and every person who has ever lived?

What about mental patients who do not understand right and wrong?

What about people who's mental and physical capabilities do not allow them to "sin"?

Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas

Hawkingfan,
Correct. We aren't responsible for Adams sin...we are responsible for our own.




Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas

Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas

Mageth,
And thus...


Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."




Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas

Mageth

Hear Hear, SOMMS.