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I'm not limiting anything. I do not set limits on things that don't even exist. If your god actually spoke to you and it wasn't delusional on your part, then that would be your personal experience and that is not verifiable so therefore it doesn't further your argument. You don't have an argument because there is absolutely no proof for a god. Personal experiences do not count as evidence. Might want to broaden those horizons a bit.
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Him who? If there is a god how do you know it's male. Assumptions and sort of typical with christians.
Oh, c'mon NS. Having been a Christian yourself, you know better than that. I mean, really...in our language what pronoun do we have to infer God? Him? Her? "It"? Maybe we should just stick with YHWH or Elohim, and set gender aside.
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OH dear dog, I actually laughed out loud. It's EXACTLY how I described. I used to be one.
Again, LOL.
Uhhh...o.k...
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There you go making assumptions again. I bet I know more about the bible than you do.
I didn't make an assumption. I asked a question. After all, it's not as if NO ONE has ever used the bible to justify their wrongdoing, simply because, "Hey! It's in the Bible!"
And as far as your 'bet' is concerned, I TAKE that bet. But of course, we'd first have to agree on...WHICH Bible? Somehow, I don't see an agreement about that forthcoming.
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Jesus' fictional character is an example of an idea of how a person should behave but where is he now?
Still here.
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I didn't think having a temper was being perfect but whatever.
There's a difference between having a temper and having a justifiable temper. After all, "Vengeance is MINE, sayeth the Lord." To me, there's a valid reason for that.
When Jesus overturned the tables of the merchants at the temple, his temper was justifiable. Our 'tempers' are often not justifiable. Consider an un-Godly man beating up his wife because he suspects she cheated.
Can we ALWAYS determine when our temper/anger is justifiable?
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You asked the same question consecutively as if that's going to change my response. I'm an atheist so you're kind of preaching to yourself here. Maybe trying to convince yourself that I'm just being stubborn and there really is a god and I'm just mad at it. You can't prove there is one so that means all that you believe is based solely on blind faith.
I don't think you're stubborn and simply mad at God. But I don't think you -- and some others -- are using the correct methods to determine whether God exists.
For you, it's like trying to prove BEAUTY exists by using math. Can't be done. Yet, you may determine that beauty doesn't exist because it doesn't calculate.
Yeah. That won't fly. And yet I believe that *you* see beauty.
How do YOU explain beauty if there's no 'scientific' explanation for it?
Want undeniable proof God doesn't care whether Christianity spreads or not? Want undeniable proof Jesus breaks his promise to protect missionaries thousands and thousands of times?
First some stats:
"Foreign and indigenous missionaries in the unreached and unengaged world are being hung out to dry as they try to reach the people groups in the 10/40 Window. If they were fully funded, there is a great chance that we could finish the task of reaching the world for Jesus."
Did you catch that? Foreign missionaries trying to spread Jesus to desolate parts of the world are woefully underfunded. They need money desperately to bring Jesus to the indigenous people.
As it happens, God missed a terrific opportunity to fund spreading the message that he wants all people to believe in his son, Jesus:
The Powerball lottery money up for grabs on Nov 8, 2022 was 2 billion---that 2 BILLION dollars--the largest lottery jackpot in human history. God could have had any one of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world whose heart burns for spreading Jesus to buy a single lottery ticket and God could have worked a miracle giving them the winning numbers so they could donate the money to the missionary field.
But as luck would have it--and we're only talking about pure luck here, folks--a young hedonistic man of 30 years of age by the name of Edwin Castro wandered into his local gas station on November 8, 2022 and bought a single winning ticket in Altadena Ca and instantly went from poverty to billionaire. He wasted no time spending his windfall. He bought a $250,00 vintage Porsche, then a $25 MILLION dollar home in Hollywood Hills where he now rubs shoulder with the biggest movie stars in the business, and then bought a $4 MILLION pad in his home town of Altadena to crash in when he's too lazy to make the 18 mile drive to Hollywood Hills. Next up for Mr. Castro no doubt: a yacht and a private jet.
"Smiling $2B Powerball winner Edwin Castro spotted palling around town in vintage Porsche"
"His big smile totally makes cents.
The lucky 30-year-old, from California, was dressed down in a quarter-zip Under Armour shirt, joggers and flip-flops while running his errand at a Chase bank with a pal on Wednesday. He added a whopping $997.6 million to his account when he won the largest lottery prize in US history last year."
Now I just want readers to contemplate a couple of questions:
In what kind of crazy mixed-up universe does a God, who made the earth and its inhabitants solely for his son, Jesus to come into the world to die to save us from our sins, and then command his believers to spread the Good News to every living creature then turn around and give a giant jackpot of 2 BILLION bucks, that could have brought tens of thousands of heathens to Jesus, give all that loot to a pleasure-seeking individual to spend on luxuries like automobiles, homes, private jets and the rest?
Ask yourselves another question: who could use that money better to spread the gospel of Jesus to every living creature as he commanded--a pleasure-seeking hedonist OR a missionary organizations whose calling it is to bring the name of Jesus to every corner of world?
Well, apparently far as God is concerned, it is the sensual-seeking sybarite Edwin Castro who needs the money more than the missionaries charged with spreading Jesus' name throughout the world. Edwin Castro, the luckiest man in the world thus far hasn't showed the slightest inclination to give a dime to God's work.
So ask yourselves this mind-bending question:
When God's people need money desperately to spread the gospel of Jesus, why does God allow a fun-seeking hedonist to win it?
If you puzzle about this completely crazy upside-down turn of events and try to make sense of it maybe you can convince yourselves that the reason is that God doesn't touch dirty filthy lucre from lotteries, even though God would be happy as a lark to take the money if a lottery winner had donated it.
Now run this through your addled brain:
God apparently doesn't want a Christian to win the Powerball BUT God will take the money if a Christian donates it!
In what universe does that make the slightest bit of sense?
It does make sense in the REAL world if you consider that God if he exists doesn't care one iota whether Jesus' name and his message is brought to every living creature as Jesus commands in the gospels as these events show. Nor does God get involved one iota with the Christian enterprise of spreading the gospel of Jesus, again as these events show.
God simply doesn't care about Jesus and whether his gospel gets to people. I've just shown you the proof.
Now about the other matter:
Jesus specifically promised he'd protect missionaries from harm in Mark 16:15-18
"He said to the apostles: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. And these signs will accompany those who believe: they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all."
Meditate on Jesus promise as you read the stories below:
"Funeral held for missionary family killed in Palau"
"Hundreds turned out for a state funeral to remember three members of a missionary family who were beaten and stabbed in what the republic's [of Palau] president described as "a heinous crime that has never been experienced in the republic before."
"The family of an Iowa missionary murdered in Jamaica nearly seven years ago said justice is finally served. Randy Hentzel, from Ankeny, was with another missionary, Harold Nichols, when they were killed in 2016."
I used to work with a Christian who believed gambling was a sin. I asked him, "Why?" and he replied, "Because they cast lots for Christ's clothes!"
...to which *I* replied, "The 11 Apostles cast lots to see who was to replace Judas; either Justus or Mattias."
Gambling, in of itself, isn't sinful.
That's your opinion.
While I have little respect for the Jehovah Witnesses, in terms of their website there is a good explanation of why they and many other christians see gambling as a sin: https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teaching...ambling-a-sin/
Buying lottery tickets is not a Christian thing to do. Would they have donated the winnings?
Certain Christian groups prohibit gambling of any sort, others don’t.
Just as some Christians are non-drinkers (they’ll say Jesus wine was non-alcoholic grape juice as justification ), while others are not.
SDAs and Mormons for instance are normally total non-drinkers, as are some Baptists.
Some other Christian groups totally ban smoking cigarettes too.
Some groups are just more legalistic than others.
The same thing would apply to other religions too.
Certain Christian groups prohibit gambling of any sort, others don’t.
Just as some Christians are non-drinkers (they’ll say Jesus wine was non-alcoholic grape juice as justification ), while others are not.
SDAs and Mormons for instance are normally total non-drinkers, as are some Baptists.
Some other Christian groups totally ban smoking cigarettes too.
Some groups are just more legalistic than others.
The same thing would apply to other religions too.
Some groups just don't know how to have fun.
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