lovejoydavid Member

Back after a long layoff, been around almost since the beginning!! Most of my friends are inactive now! Pitiful newsfeed.

This does, indeed, hold some commonalities with panentheism, or the notion that while God is not everything, everything is in God. It is a bit in the face of aseity, and the notion of transcendence. It is not that I think God sits on His throne and writes opinionated reviews of our every action. For one, He is the source…

For all the anthropological effort to fit any number of beliefs into the ‘ex nihilo’ box, I have rarely seen one that came even moderately close to the concept. They all have extensive pre-existent worlds, activities, some use “rivers of chaos”, etc. Genesis starts with “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the…

Is mine the first thread to have a reported post? That would be so cool...

The possibility remains that I do not, in fact, have a sense of humour.

Now now, poison, as I stated to adrian, that was a reference to my previous (joking) claim about the nearness of the end times (persecution of the Church is part of the book of Rev). It was meant to be funny, but for some reason, no one in this thread believes I have a sense of humor!

For that alone, your opinion of religion is justified!!! Aghast, I am, at such affrontery by me.

Honestly, I am not going to take anyone's word for it. I give the bible a power I give to no actual man. In this world, God would have to show up Himself to convince me to harm anyone, or to justify the harm one man does to another. And, that is not the Christ I know in my heart. I have lived a life of peace, and as much…

I suppose, but given the description in Revelation, it is going to have to be pretty darn obvious it is Him. Most of the Christians I know are pretty happy the way things are, they are not going to knock themselves out to go serve anybody. The persecution is a part of the end times events, and that was more of a reference…

Thank you, this is a thoughtful post, and one that I will engage with! It is near the kids bedtime, and the wife is out, so I will have to sign off for the time (and I owe Lucky a response). But I will be back!

I only give 'passes', as you call them, to those that Scripture specifically stated were doing God's will. Give me an atrocity post OT, or one in the OT that God did not order, and we have a different story. Did you actually think I was agreeing with Thomas in our last exchange? That many posts, and we never got past that?

I have no idea when it will happen. The point, for a Christian, is to be spiritually prepared, that is all. One cannot do that by assuming it won't happen. Neither, actually, does Christian equate prolife, but the statisticians tell a different story. By vast majorities, making the argument legitimate. However, if you are,…

No no, that was just a deflection. The attack was from an atheist, who was 'personalizing" the judgements and action of God, yet under the impression that God does not exist. So I simply agreed to agree. Most of the attacks against scripture, as well, are based simply on 20th century fundamentalist views of scripture, a…

I am not claiming that the OT is parables, merely that the book of Genesis is not intended for a literalistic explanation of creation. Even Origen, amongst other church fathers, felt that way. What you are debating is 20th fundamentalism, not church history. Moses wrote Genesis just a touch after the fact. The NT is either…

Neither does mine. He does not exist!

They would need to find a way to undo the cross, and bring back the law. Preterists agree with you, I do not. Cessationists agree with you, I do not. No, that person would be deemed the antichrist, or one of his immediate forebears. Or atheism Prior to the advent of Christianity, Roman Law included patria potestas, the…

I am the slave of a make believe master, you are a slave to a dogma of reality. What difference does it make?

And it is, of course, entirely your right to feel that way! I merely present my perspective on the event.

If you read the "conception" thread in this forum, you will see the case I laid out for why it is special pleading. I won't repeat here, except to say that birth is an inadequate justification for personhood. Heck, prior to modern medicine, it was the first 24 hours after birth (which is why abortion is just high tech…

I will get back to this, I am a little short on time today. However, this sounds so much akin to Whitehead's process theology and panentheism, that it would serve the discussion if I reread some of that work!

We don't need to 'closet' the terms, and we certainly shall not attempt to hide from the implications. He was going to sacrifice his son, and it was a legit offer. It was not, however, a real request. It was test of faith, and one I would have 'failed' wildly (mostly as I would not believe it, given subsequent revelation.)…

The point is that God did not accept, and will not accept, the actual sacrifice of our children. As God had already promised Isaac a future, and was in bound in covenant with Abraham, it was a test as to Abrahams faith in the ressurection (as pointed out in Hebrews later). Isaac lived, and had children. Those that actually…

Finally! Something useful has happened in a thread!!!!

The Adrea Yates issue was truly awful, and I honestly think they did the right thing in moving her to a low security mental hospital on appeal. In fact, Texas has since has a few proposals to alter the law to limit prosecutable time in the case of documentable post partum depression. Sadly, it is not necessary that, for…

Child sacrifice was common, especially in the region. It was Levitical law that put a stop to it. I submt, though, that it is that heritage that does allow you to judge such a thing. Considering that we, as a secular people, have decided that it is legal and proper that children should be non-people till birth.

I actually did not see this thread! I only follow the "my topics" as I have a few too many discussions going on. So as to show some respect, I will pull out a few stops for this. Isaac was a child born from a miracle. His father, Abraham, actually walked and talked with the God that committed that miracle. Further, Isaac…

Oddly enough, it is a neuroscientist that proposed that to me. A researcher from the UW, no less! He feels we cannot find the the mechanism by which faith works through analytics, but more through an apophatic, what it is not sort of way. I just wish I understood a larger percentage of what the heck he was telling me.…

Interesting words 'rejoin' and 're-embraced'. I understood you to say that you believed in transmigration and reincarnation, do you also believe in the pre-existence of souls? No big deal if you do, I think Origen did as well, just interesting. Gosh, I am not that sure how to approach this. I have heard the argument that a…

As an end-all authority, even I admit it is challenging, at best. We will continue to debate legitimate methods of interpretation forever. Orginally, molinism itself (and the concept of middle knowledge) came out of the counter reformation. More recently, Alvin Plantinga (our greatest living philospher) developed it with…

As far as I am concerned, if I cannot make a case for my beliefs (on abortion, gay marriage, etc) from a position completely compatible with the observable, experiential world, I don't push it. I think I have very good cases (even legal ones) against abortion, and that there are few or none against gay marriage (from a…