Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Yes, Satan nailed Eve in the Garden of Eden and had a son.

Jesus’ teachings of loving God, and showing your love for God ‘by’ loving others is clearly the polar opposite of your assertion. That’s right...because grace can’t be earned...if it could be earned then it wouldn’t be grace. But, loving God, and showing your love for God ‘by’ loving others would certainly go towards leading a good life. Not done as often or as good as it should be, but the premise is still there. If the only thing motivating a person to be good and decent is the expectation of a divine reward, then that person likely has a bad theology.I think teaching children Jesus’ New Covenant commands is a great mindset for them to have.

Rev 20:10
...they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

People can believe whatever they choose. My life has become better with the belief Jesus died and was resurrected three days afterward. I accept the Bible at face value. Doe this make me a better person than others? No, but it guides me to be a better person, a happier person, a content person. I'm far from perfect and sin every day. My only regret is I didn't accept Jesus as my savior years ago. The words in the Bible are like the UCMJ, they can burn you or save you. YMMV

There was a lot less strife in Chitcago, Portland and Seattle and less quuuers kissing on the streets and schietting on the streets 60 years ago in San Francisco before Christ was kicked out of school, and a lot less overdoses and suicide by young folks back then too. Fuggers werent kneeling on the field or rioting either. Prolly ust a coincidence though.
Know way those dumbassed sheep herders years ago could know. They ust made some lucky guesses by coincidence.


No way id trade our wonderful progress for Him, though. Nah, we got it too good now. Well, if that dumbassed believer Trump gets elected again anyway.

It's what you believe, Old hat, but you cannot in any way KNOW what I said isn't true. Besides, what you say proves mine: people invent gods.

You are perfectly free to believe anything you like. I won't call you names because of it. It is in fact one of our inalienable rights. Not God-given, I would argue, but inalienable nonetheless. Whether you choose to worship Jesus or Yahway or Allah or Bahl or Osiris is none of my business - unless and until you start telling me I have to as well. With a gun to my head. Then things get hairy.

I cannot believe in a loving God who blesses us with (for example) a child and then kills that child with some agonizing cancer. Or inflicts more plague than harvest upon us. I can't believe in a God who does those things. Because if a God doesn't control everything, then he isn't an all-powerful god. And if he does control everything, then he's a vicious, capricious, vengeful, and cruel thing.

Jag and others. It is not the unbelievers who are afraid. Universal statement - you know this for sure, and how? Religion is there with all its promised comforts of the hereafter precisely because we as humans are afraid of death. So we try to soften it by making up stories of how wonderful it will all be after we die. Uh - not all of the "stories" are about "wonderful"

In actuality, it ought to be just the opposite. The reality is that when we die, we absolutely cease to exist. Universal statement - you know this for certain, and how? ALL the evidence says that we simply...stop. Really - - evidence? - - or absence of anything to the contrary, or ?? From "all" of it, please state some of the "evidence that we simply stop. The good news is that we will never know we are dead. It would be impossible to be aware of anything, including that we are unaware. It is in fact exactly like falling asleep: we do not notice the moment when we stop being conscious precisely because we are unconscious. Is there some irrefutable evidence of the above from someone who simply stopped and did not know that he/she was dead?

That should be a comfort. It is a comfort to me. I think that if I were in fact able to "look back down upon myself" from soul height and realize that I was dead, it would be a horrific trauma. I'm confident that won't be the case, for which I am deeply grateful. The sad thing is that all you believers won't know you were wrong and none of those promises will happen. I won't know I'm right and you won't know you're wrong. I think I will know if I am wrong - can you prove that I will not?

Lastly (and maybe I'll give this an everlasting rest, ha!) I will say that I am not an atheist. An atheist is an anti-religion zealot, just as eager to convert as the most fervent missionary. Not to sure about this definition - "the anti-religion zealot" part - for those I have known were content to say that God does not exist and to argue that strongly - but did no work toward having me join their team. Are any of the Atheists on the Campfire doing conversion work - might they speak up on this? I am not that. I am simply a non-believer who was raised in the most rigorous Catholic way - until I started asking what seemed to be rational questions. And got what were patently absurd answers, one whopper after another to "explain away" every earlier whopper. And it all unraveled. I'm still pointing out the absurdities. And slyly smiling.

You're biased to making a link between religion and civil unrest whereas that link doesn't exist. There are other causes for the problems over there.

Jesus’ teachings of loving God, and showing your love for God ‘by’ loving others is clearly the polar opposite of your assertion.

That’s right...because grace can’t be earned...if it could be earned then it wouldn’t be grace. But, loving God, and showing your love for God ‘by’ loving others would certainly go towards leading a good life. Not done as often or as good as it should be, but the premise is still there. If the only thing motivating a person to be good and decent is the expectation of a divine reward, then that person likely has a bad theology.

I think teaching children Jesus’ New Covenant commands is a great mindset for them to have.

If, IF!, there is no life after death, and I think there is, following God Jesus is still The Way.

Sheesh. None are so blind as those who would not see.

Thats what the stiff necked jews said before being taken captive by ancient Babylon, Rome.

Thats what the empire of Israelites said as they degenerated into a degenerate nation under Jeroboam as they were being defeated and taken captive by the Assyrians.

There is a reason the Jews, Tribe of Judah, has experienced the curses they have suffered through.

Hey, God looks after His own chosen people well, really, really well....which is why they have suffered for thousands of years? Oh, wait, it must be that pesky free will thing at work.

Jesus apparently died to cover off for people’s sins. People keep sinning yet the slate is washed clean. It’s just one of the many contradictions in the bible – lead a good life but you’ll be saved anyway as long as you accept Jesus as your saviour, all sins aside.

I lead a good life without a religious belief system, and outside of any expectation of a devine reward. I guess this grace must be more of an innate human trait that we developed.

Angry believers use the threat of damnation and hell when they are confronted by logic from non-believers, so their focus changes to suit their immediate circumstances and shows their true preoccupation with the “afterlife”.

No offence but that response has zero meaning to me – it’s your opinion and it’s of no value to me.