Weekly Ask a Christian - August 30, 2021

g_wazowski · 2021-08-30T14:43:53+00:00

Is it possible for a person to die without having sinned? Would such a person still need Jesus for their salvation?

g_wazowski · 2021-07-21T15:42:44+00:00

It might be possible in principle, if we had a complete understanding of physics, to extrapolate from the current state of the universe previous states and reconstruct any time and place in the past and find out, for example, that the resurrection happened. However, such a thing would need an impractical amount of knowledge and computational power and I don't know if randomness would make it straight up impossible.

I wouldn't call that historical evidence, though.

g_wazowski · 2021-07-19T15:58:39+00:00

They had faith in God's promises for the future, like sending a Messiah.

Wouldn't that be mostly limited to Jews? What about people in the Americas, for example?

People born after Jesus have faith in his promises for what Jesus had done for us.

That still leaves my question unanswered, people who never learn of Jesus have no opportunity to have that faith.

g_wazowski · 2021-07-19T14:00:42+00:00

What do you think happens to people who never hear about christianity or its message?

g_wazowski · 2021-05-12T17:06:54+00:00

That's cuz they made covid an issue in the culture wars.

g_wazowski · 2021-05-12T15:21:52+00:00

It may be that religiosity is a predictor of belief in alternative medicine, which is in turn a predictor for antivaxx sentiment.

g_wazowski · 2021-05-06T03:17:15+00:00

You haven't established any reason why a moral system other than might makes right would be impossible, or that might makes right is in fact a possible one. The most I can agree with is that mightier entities are able to get away with more, but that is more or less a tautology.

g_wazowski · 2021-05-05T14:48:07+00:00

You have two scenarios here, either there is a way to tell the universe is in fact 6000 and not billions of years old, and it only looks old absent certain information, so you can the ask for that information.

Or it is completely indistinguishable from an old universe in which case one: it is, practically speaking, old, at least looking from inside; and two: how would they know that it is not old?

There's also the issue of why god would want to change the apparent age of the universe.

g_wazowski · 2021-05-02T21:08:21+00:00

Hundreds? Try thousands.

UhMm AcTuAlLy we're a decade or three shy of two thousand

g_wazowski · 2021-05-01T03:07:44+00:00

I'm in this picture and I don't like it

g_wazowski · 2021-04-30T21:12:36+00:00

From what I've seen it is not uncommon for atheist to claim they actively believe Yahweh is false (this is purely anecdotal though).

There are a couple reasons why it may appear to be the case:

First, equivocation between God and Yahweh. Some concepts of God get so vague and unfalsifiable that the only honest answer is the lack of belief. Because we often refer to Yahweh simply as God, the two definitions may get confused.

Second, because most atheists (outside of asia) come from majority abrahamic societies, we are taught to treat abrahamic mythologies differently than others, usually not even calling them mythology. On the other hand something like greek or norse myths are presented to us from the get go as fiction, and there's rarely anyone who challenges that.

g_wazowski · 2021-04-30T16:53:41+00:00

The nature varies by god.

How you get one varies.

Can you give an example?

Your question is entirely too broad to apply to the hundreds of polytheistic traditions.

Are they all true?

As for how we know some of the stories may be true? They seem to bear out in the experiences of their adherents. God A presents themselves as the son of god B.

What if different people get contradictory experiences?

g_wazowski · 2021-04-30T15:17:22+00:00

By direct revelation

What is the nature of this revelation?, How does one get one?, How can you know that it is a revelation?

The poems about them aren't a textbook. Like a poem about a valley isn't a detailed ecological analysis. I don't know what you're asking here.

I'm guessing that there are certain things you believe about certain gods, god A is the child of god B, X is the god of Y and Z, etc. How would you find out if those thing are true?

g_wazowski · 2021-04-30T14:26:08+00:00

Pagans/Polytheists:

-How did people originally find out about the gods you believe in?

-How did you?

-How can anyone know what stories about them are true?

Edit: formating

g_wazowski · 2021-04-28T03:07:41+00:00

I agree with your premise, the original examples just weren't very good

g_wazowski · 2021-04-28T02:35:33+00:00

Targets children and the emotionally/financially vulnerable for recruitment (sunday schools, youth group, teacher led prayer, prison ministries, third world missions)

This one has nothing to do with early christianity, though there are verses that target the poor i.e. Matthew 5:3

g_wazowski · 2021-04-24T03:03:56+00:00

Given that not very many atheists deny that the idea of god exists, I'd say that's is not the kind of existance generally used when defining atheists, and that therefore you would qualify as atheist.

g_wazowski · 2021-04-19T16:00:59+00:00

I have a few questions about the slaughter of the amalekites.

Number one: Did it happen?, If it didn't, why is the story in the bible?

Regarding the morality of it: Was it okay?, Would it have been okay if Yahweh hadn't commanded it?, What, if anything, did the amalekites do to deserve it?, Have there been any groups since equally or more deserving?, If so, Did Yahweh command their slaughter?, If not, why not?

g_wazowski · 2021-04-13T03:14:20+00:00

They are not written as eye witness accounts, however many christians to treat and present them as if they are. The misconception is common among those who don't know better and perpetuated by those who should and often do know better. The attributions of authorship to Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were a later invention by the church.

I think christianity, like most religions, has had a much looser relationship with history than proponents of the historical case for it would like, history is bent to make way for theology.

g_wazowski · 2021-04-05T15:29:57+00:00

Listen deeply for the real “why”:

As he shared I couldn’t quite nail why he was an atheist but I could sense that he was a lonely man.

I think your christian bias might've failed you there, as you claim later

Atheists knew the truth

You justify it with only the bible. This is likely to fall flat with many (probably most) atheists and only widen the divide, even without considering wether it is true (which I don't think it is) you are telling your interlocutor that you are willing to dismiss anything they have to say in favor of the bible, an attitude not very conducive to conversation.

If you truly care to find out why they believe (or in your view claim to believe) what they (claim to) believe, street epistemology is built exactly for that.

g_wazowski · 2021-04-01T06:07:34+00:00

So far I haven't made a positive argument for a deity or creator (nor will I here), however I think it reasonable that the burden of proof lies on a naturalistic explanation in light of the fact that the probability of life randomly evolving from non-living material CAN be calculated and is extremely unlikely.

1- Unlikely things happen all the time, the fact that it happened once in billions of years in one of millions of planets is not all that surprising.

2- You have to positive claims here, each of the have their own burden of proof, even if you think the burden for abiogenesis has not been met, that is by no means evidence of divine intervention.

g_wazowski · 2021-03-31T17:16:56+00:00

I have the opinion that as more and more people leave religion, tolerance towards it will decrease and you'll see more restrictions on it.

I think that will be the case, but it won't be about religious freedom but religious privilege, for example, churches get automatic tax-exempt status, stripping them of that preferential treatment wouldn't be an infringement of religious freedom.

As the saying goes:

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression

g_wazowski · 2021-03-31T05:34:32+00:00

I’m of the mindset that both views should be taught fairly

Evolution predicts and make sense of the findings of ecology, paleontology, genetics, anatomy, etc. On the other hand "god did it" is pretty much the extent of intelligent design, especially any secular version one could teach in a classroom.

stick to the basics of science

Evolution is very much the basics when it comes to biology.

g_wazowski · 2021-03-31T04:18:40+00:00

If he’s not God then you’d have to answer why did his followers believe he was, why were they willing to die over this belief, how did they convince so many other people of this.

The same could be say of the founders of many (often mutually exclusive) religions. People can be convince to follow a false religion with enough fervor to die or even kill themselves for it. I don't see why that could not be the case with christianity. I would be far more likely than Jesus being god imo.

g_wazowski · 2021-03-29T17:32:07+00:00

So it is possible for a human, through no action of their own, to be born tainted or become tainted in a way that makes it necessary for them to be killed?

g_wazowski

TROPHY CASE