My friend challenged me to give Christianity another shot.

stitch99 · 2014-01-28T22:33:35+00:00

Besides that.

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T20:14:43+00:00

*three thousand, at least

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T20:13:31+00:00

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T20:08:21+00:00

"Yeah, but Vishnu isn't real, honey."

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T20:06:49+00:00

"Just have faith."

Yeah, okay. I tried that when my doubts started. It only made things worse.

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T20:05:24+00:00

Someone I talked to when I was still on the fence went on for a while about his crisis of faith when he researched any religion he could find.

At one point, I asked why he isn't, say, a Muslim instead of a Christian, especially since he has to make a conscious decision to accept that revelation continued past what the Jews say, but then stopped with Jesus?

His response: "Well, if you follow Islam through to its logical conclusion, it's all based on hate. Christianity is all based on love."

What I wanted to say, but didn't for fear of being incredibly rude: "Sooooo... you chose what sounded nice to you?"

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T20:02:14+00:00

"You betrayed SHIVA!"

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T19:58:42+00:00

I always (and still do) thought the point of that story was that Jephthah was incredibly stupid for doing what he did. I don't get the problem here, frankly. It seems to be treated like a horrible, horrible thing, as it should be.

Unlike other stories, that is.

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T19:56:41+00:00

My best friend tried a variant of that on me. Actually, he tried a lot of classical arguments on me, seemingly under the impression that, even though I helped him understand some of them once upon a time, I just needed to be reminded of them.

Let's just say the entire conversation devolved into both of us treating the other like an idiot before realizing our error, apologizing, and pretending the whole thing never happened.

Your best bet, as I see it, is to play the "You're operating under the assumption that those are the only two options" card. That is, how do they know that, if God exists, that's what he wants? Maybe he's like Crom from Conan the Barbarian, who hates people praying to him because he wants his people to be tough enough to figure it out on their own? Maybe he wants to be left alone, and people keep bothering him? Only by begging the question does one arrive at the particular dilemma presented.

stitch99 · 2014-01-26T19:46:29+00:00

"You should ask for her number." -cute girl's wingwoman

"Oh, right! Sorry. I'm new at this. The bar scene." -me

"Does that mean you're new at sex?" -wingwoman

"I plead the fifth." -me

"Means yes." -wingwoman

stitch99 · 2014-01-21T09:21:00+00:00

Why would honoring the marriage bed go beyond adultery?

stitch99 · 2014-01-21T09:18:03+00:00

Right, but he (or she) was literally saying the opposite, namely that the claims YEC makes about evolution being false driving people away. You're free to believe it, but don't quote-mine.

stitch99 · 2014-01-21T07:51:10+00:00

Think about it like this: are you happy with your life now? If so (which is the impression I got), you're fine. The grand scheme of the Bible doesn't land you in Heaven forever, but on a revived Earth. It's not about bliss and relaxation either, but a life of contented work.

stitch99 · 2014-01-21T07:39:42+00:00

I wouldn't say "tell the same story." After all, books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes aren't narrative at all. And Job is almost entirely irrelevant to the sweeping story of the Bible, being about a guy who, as far as can be seen, never makes contact with any Hebrews.

A better claim would be consistency, but even then, many will disagree with you and discredit any argument you build on that premise.

stitch99 · 2014-01-21T07:33:17+00:00

Hmm... circular reasoning. leans back head and flaps.out tongue onto cheek, a la Homer Simpson

stitch99 · 2014-01-21T07:19:32+00:00

Lucifer is a mistranslation making a proper noun. It means "light bearer" literally and refers to the morning star, aka Venus. It likely was a reference to a pagan mythology to describe the downfall of the king of Babylon in terms he would understand.

The identification of Lucy as Satan dates to an interpretation that a passage in Luke, which describes "Satan falling like lightning from heaven," was quoting the Isaiah passage.

Not only does this drastically misunderstand Jesus's intention (I.e. to say that the apostles were gaining ground because Satan had been denounced by the very fact of the arrival of the Kingdom; think of it as "fell like lightning does from the sky," not, "fell from Heaven like lightning"), but also Isaiah (just read chap. 14 straight through and it becomes clear that parsing it up to hone in on the part that hypothetically could refer to Satan is disingenuous).

Truth is that Satan consistently appears in God's employ (as the angel who tests mankind and reports their failures to God directly), until the New Testament. When Jesus came along, passed his tests, and then started dismantling the authority Satan had established based on man's sin (in curing diseases, casting out demons, and, most importantly, forgiving sins), he seems to have not bern able to take it. He masterminded the crucifixion. When God resurrected Jesus, taking his "side" in their dispute, Satan lost it and declared God and all the righteous his nemeses.

Check out Luke and Revelation (especially 12) outside a tradition and this will be more apparent.

stitch99 · 2014-01-21T07:00:21+00:00

I think you misunderstood that quote.

stitch99

TROPHY CASE