Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Then again, the parable is consistent with the character of the Christian God. Whether you are "saved" or "damned" ultimately depends on where you were born. No Jesus, no salvation. At least according to orthodox Christianity.
Actually...no. A Christian doesn't steal the bike in the first place. In fact, he makes sure his neighbor's bike is protected.
That's not a Christian, that's just someone with morals.
Having good morals and being Christian or religious have nothing to do with one another. I don't understand why morals and religion got so mixed up in each other. Some people act like you have to be religious to have good morals, and some people actually think that being a strong Christian believer means you have amazing morals or something.
In fact, he makes sure his neighbor's bike is protected.
And how do you do that? My neighbors are a bunch of rugged, responsible, self-reliant individualists who, were someone to approach them and say, "I'm going to make sure your bike is protected" would probably say, "I'll protect my own bike. Mind your own."
Don't you mean that a Christian isn't supposed to steal the bike? Or are you trying to suggest that no crimes are ever committed by Christians?
Yes. That is correct--that is how we are SUPPOSED to do it.
Quote:
More accurate would be to simply state that a good person doesn't steal the bike, religion is no guarantee of honesty, nor is the absence of belief a guarantee of criminal behavior.
No...religion is not a guarantee. But a true relationship with Christ is a guarantee. There is a difference.
CHRISTIANITY: The belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...... makes perfect sense.
Nor is lack of religion a guarantee that people will retain basic moral principles like stealing is wrong. Without religion, perhaps the only thing keeping people in check is the legal or physical consequences of such actions.
We have a prime example of this scenario back at the turn of this century. A new thing called Napster came on the scene. For the first time ever, people could feast on all the music they want and download it for free. Movies too. The industry tried to fight back and teach people that this was still considered stealing, but since the consequence factor was completely gone, millions of people did it. If the laws against theft were wiped off the books, how long do you think it would take stores like Walmart to be ravaged? Probably immediately ,I would say.
I'll bet a lot of Christians were stealing music, too. Me? I never did, and I still pay for all the music I consume. Oh, and I don't believe in God. So no, the only thing keeping people in check without religion is not consequences, but empathy and a conscience. I don't need religion to tell me when something's wrong.
As it's been said, you'll always have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things, but for good people to do evil things requires religion.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.