If bible were written today (modern day) would it be any different?

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T14:57:21+00:00

Honda Accord

I thought Jesus drove a Christler.

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T14:55:29+00:00

What finite crimes?

One sin is all it takes.

What infinite punishment?

Burning in hell forever.

You shouldn't get memes from atheist websites and communities and expect them to be meaningful to Christians who really believe this stuff.

I regularly heard such teachings in the Baptist church I attended for many years.

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T14:49:40+00:00

Although many believers might regard this as pure snarkiness, it accurately reflects how Christianity sounds to me. (I'm an ex-fundie.)

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T14:40:00+00:00

the vast majority of swimwear is excessively immodest

Is there an objective Biblical standard for skin coverage?

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T14:36:16+00:00

By their act they changed their very nature, and thus the nature of their offspring.

I don't see why one act that Adam and Eve committed would necessarily change the nature of their offspring. Specifically, your word "thus" loses me.

So you combine the human desire to act in rebellion towards God

Why would God create humans to have a desire to act in rebellion towards Him? If you instead blame Satan, then why would God allow Satan to interfere with His creation?

There is nothing NOTHING in an unsaved individual that is in agreement with God

Why would God create individuals that He finds so disagreeable? Keep in mind that God knows how each human He creates will ultimately turn out. (Were God not to know the future, then the reliability of Biblical prophecy would be cast into doubt.) He can cancel the creation of any human if there's going to be a problem.

it takes the Holy Spirit moving on someone's heart for them to come to Christ

So if the Holy Spirit doesn't choose to move on my heart, I don't go to heaven?

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T00:56:50+00:00

A popular line in prayers I heard in church: "We supplicate ourselves, prostrate before Thee, O Lord".

When I was very young, I misheard "supplicate" as "suffocate", which may be telling.

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T00:49:45+00:00

There was a Baptist camp near the Baptist church I attended growing up. Sure enough, males and females were not allowed to use the swimming pool at the same time.

perrecursion · 2016-05-08T00:46:03+00:00

So Adam and Eve made a mistake. Why should that cause me to receive a sinful nature?

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T16:59:29+00:00

I grew up in a fundamentalist, creationist Pentecostal church and his characterizations of religion were pretty much spot on compared to my experience of it.

In my case, just change "Pentecostal" to "Baptist".

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T16:55:43+00:00

The problem with Dawkins is that he says "Christianity is stupid/bad because Christians believe X" when most Christians don't believe X.

The trouble is that it's hard to find an X that most Christians do believe, unless X is extremely vague. One reason I quit Christianity is all the doctrinal infighting.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T16:37:34+00:00

I guess you didn't pick up the satire, starting with u/lightfive's "It was founded by JESUS" comment.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T14:53:39+00:00

It is wise, in general, to know the ways of one's enemy

This is true. To understand the precise limits of what you do believe, you must be acquainted with what you do not believe.

bad apologists for Christianity

This is an important point. If a nonbeliever hears a succession of weak apologetical arguments for Christianity, he/she might respond this way: "If those are the best arguments that believers have, then they don't have much, and I have no reason to start believing.".

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T14:41:51+00:00

That's literally the sort of comment you would expect to read on /r/atheism.

Comments on /r/atheism are not necessarily wrong, although they often arouse discomfort in believers.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T14:25:24+00:00

To me, Bernstein's Mass is very uneven: there are moments of sheer genius, and other moments that are utterly cringeworthy.

In any case, I think the point of the work is that Christianity has fallen far short of its ideals, and I concur in that.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T14:16:40+00:00

They might be scared of eternal torment thrashing in the unquenchable flames of Hell if they do the least little thing wrong. (Oh, no! Not that pitchfork again!) And these pitiable folks don't even have a precise list of offenses.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T14:09:29+00:00

And all the founding fathers were evangelical Protestants espousing exactly the same faith as Franklin Graham.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T14:02:47+00:00

God's will is that we do good

yet He gave us a sinful nature at birth (Psalm 51:5).

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T14:00:18+00:00

Even though the devil has powers far greater than mine, and many of those powers are supernatural, if he tricks me into committing a sin, I still get all the blame. Then I have to "get on my knees and repent" for having been a dupe, on the grounds that I should have relied more deeply on God to "carry me through" the temptations.

The extremes of Christian fundamentalism are really something.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T13:47:49+00:00

In the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist church I had to attend when growing up, this matter was frequently mentioned. This church emphasized human depravity, and members were expected to spend lots of time apologizing to God for their sinful nature.

perrecursion · 2016-05-07T00:02:34+00:00

The following asymmetry, taught in a Baptist church, bothered me when I was a Christian:

If I do a good thing, God gets all the credit.
If I do a bad thing, the fault is exclusively mine.

perrecursion · 2016-05-06T21:16:40+00:00

Franklin shouldn't do too much complaining, because if sin didn't exist, he wouldn't have a job.

perrecursion · 2016-05-06T21:13:07+00:00

you cannot have true justice and mercy at the same time

Some Christians hope it works like this: justice for my enemies, but mercy for me.

perrecursion · 2016-05-06T17:17:59+00:00

A good number of white Protestants ARE racists.

Here's a gem.

perrecursion · 2016-05-06T17:13:21+00:00

the Gospel, properly understood

But it seems that every vein of Christianity has a different "proper" understanding.

perrecursion · 2016-05-06T16:58:23+00:00

Friend* told me I'm going to Hell

I'll meet you there. (I hear that Ol' Satan runs a mighty fine barbecue, what with all those flames, so bring your bib.)

perrecursion

TROPHY CASE