Do people still believe in Hell?

[Amaris]

I'm not inclined to take your alleged past belief seriously(your probably lying to throw me off balance in the debate) but whatever.

Virtue Online(orthodox Anglicans), got questions.org, Charisma News, Carm.org, and dozens of other websites. Plenty of books but I'm too tired at the moment to find enough.

If you are telling the truth(you probably aren't but I'll throw you the benefit of the doubt) then you are apostate and you know very well what that means. If so, then I simply don't respect anything you have to say.

As for one and only path-that's in multiple New Testament passages, passages that were not challenged or ignored until the last fifty years.

Ah well, I can't convince if you decide nothing I say is deserving of basic human respect. That said, please feel free to visit my old website: http://omegafuturetlx.tripod.com/index.htm
It's a little long in the tooth, but it still functions for the most part.

This is pretty much it. Jesus summed it up perfectly. They can't all be true. All the westernized softening of religions aside, the simple fact is that you can't accept two different religions as "true" because no two religions are compatible. Either Jesus was the son of the biblical god or he wasn't . Muhammed was the one true prophet or he wasn't. Either the Hindu gods exist or they don't. And so on.

You've never met Christian Buddhists? They're lovely people. No interpretation of Christianity (and they're all interpretations since we sit some 1,700 years, multiple empires, changing political climates, hundreds of languages, and dozens of cultural contexts outside the original manuscripts) is absolutely right, or absolutely wrong. When humans are involved, it's just not possible to be so starkly black and white without eventual concession to some shade of gray.

When I met @Coloratura he was still a minister. He is not lying to you.
I do not doubt this is true.
But there are also people whose lives were in utter shambles before they left religion, people who were beat down by the intolerance, the bigotry, and the hatred, and who found liberation, peace, and goodness in the abandonment of belief.

Yours is not the only path.

Thank you for the character witness.

Or they're all wrong and there is no real religion.

This is also my opinion on the subject.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Ah well, I can't convince if you decide nothing I say is deserving of basic human respect. That said, please feel free to visit my old website: http://omegafuturetlx.tripod.com/index.htm
It's a little long in the tooth, but it still functions for the most part.



You've never met Christian Buddhists? They're lovely people. No interpretation of Christianity (and they're all interpretations since we sit some 1,700 years, multiple empires, changing political climates, hundreds of languages, and dozens of cultural contexts outside the original manuscripts) is absolutely right, or absolutely wrong. When humans are involved, it's just not possible to be so starkly black and white without eventual concession to some shade of gray.


Thank you for the character witness.



This is also my opinion on the subject.

People tend believe in whatever they prefer to believe in. One can fairly argue Christian Buddhism is a separate religion as it is neither Christianity or Buddhism but a feel-good mashup of both.

 

[Voth commando1]

That's the whole problem with religion in the west its all "feel good".

 

[Amaris]

People tend believe in whatever they prefer to believe in. One can fairly argue Christian Buddhism is a separate religion as it is neither Christianity or Buddhism but a feel-good mashup of both.

Does your faith make you feel bad at times? Does it make you feel good? Does it give you encouragement? Does it admonish you when you feel you've done wrong? That is what faith does. A group of people who have similar faiths, and who organize themselves to better communicate that faith with one another, is a religion. You are part of a religion, and unless your religion is a group of monks led by Brother Maynard, there are times when your faith is going to make you feel good. To ostracize, and chastise, others who are part of a faith that makes them feel good is disingenuous at best, and hypocritical at worst.

 

[DimesDan]

That's the whole problem with religion in the west its all "feel good".

I wouldn't classify someone as being a sinner from birth particularly feel good.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Does your faith make you feel bad at times? Does it make you feel good? Does it give you encouragement? Does it admonish you when you feel you've done wrong? That is what faith does. A group of people who have similar faiths, and who organize themselves to better communicate that faith with one another, is a religion. You are part of a religion, and unless your religion is a group of monks led by Brother Maynard, there are times when your faith is going to make you feel good. To ostracize, and chastise, others who are part of a faith that makes them feel good is disingenuous at best, and hypocritical at worst.

Christianity is Christianity. It just is. Buddhism is Buddhism. It just is. Christian Buddhism is Christian Buddhism. It just is. To confuse one with the other is to understand neither.

 

[thestrangequark]

Christianity is Christianity. It just is. Buddhism is Buddhism. It just is. Christian Buddhism is Christian Buddhism. It just is. To confuse one with the other is to understand neither.

Even I know enough about religion to know this is not how it works. Religions evolve, incorporate, amalgamate all the time. Modern Christianity has incorporated beliefs from many different religions.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Even I know enough about religion to know this is not how it works.

Then you don't understand religions. They aren't menus and you don't get to mix and match as you see fit.

 

[thestrangequark]

Then you don't understand religions. They aren't menus and you don't get to mix and match as you see fit.

Uh...yes, that is exactly how they work. You really need to read up on your history, dude.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Then you don't understand religions. They aren't menus and you don't get to mix and match as you see fit.

Modern Christianity that incorporates elements of other religions is feel good bullshit specifically designed to comfort people and prevent discussion and disagreement.

 

[thestrangequark]

Modern Christianity that incorporates elements of other religions is feel good bullshit specifically designed to comfort people and prevent discussion and disagreement.

Feel good bullshit like...Christmas?

 

[JeffinOakland]

Uh...yes, that is exactly how they work. You really need to read up on your history, dude.

Uh no. Don't be a condescending prick.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Feel good bullshit like...Christmas?

Exactly. A pagan holiday co-opted by Christians and then diluted by consumerism and inclusivity.

 

[thestrangequark]

Or the Old Testament, for that matter.

 

[Amaris]

Then you don't understand religions. They aren't menus and you don't get to mix and match as you see fit.

Have you never heard of the Council of Trent? Nicea? The Bible exists because scholars from all over the empire got together and literally picked and chose what books fit their narrative the best. The Bible went from 73 books to 66 books. The book of Revelation was tacked on to the end. This is what Christianity has done its entire existence.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Or the Old Testament, for that matter.

There is nothing feel good about the old testament.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Have you never heard of the Council of Trent? Nicea? The Bible exists because scholars from all over the empire got together and literally picked and chose what books fit their narrative the best.

Now you're catching on. Only one truth exists and noone knows what that truth is.

 

[thestrangequark]

There is nothing feel good about the old testament.

That wasn't my point. I brought up the Old Testament because it is a specific example of what you are denying, namely, this:

Then you don't understand religions. They aren't menus and you don't get to mix and match as you see fit.

Uh no. Don't be a condescending prick.

I'm not being condescending. It is an indisputable, observable as well as historical fact that religions evolve, incorporate and amalgamate all the time, just as I said. To deny this is to be ignorant of the facts.

 

[Amaris]

There is nothing feel good about the old testament.

Ecclesiastes 9:7
Nehemiah 8:10
Psalm 47:1

Now you're catching on. Only one truth exists and noone knows what that truth is.

So you contradict yourself? You said:

Then you don't understand religions. They aren't menus and you don't get to mix and match as you see fit.

Which is it? The true religion is not knowable, or you can't pick and choose? Each of these statements are definitive, and allow no room for the other.

 

[JeffinOakland]

That wasn't my point. I brought up the Old Testament because it is a specific example of what you are denying, namely, this:

I'm not being condescending. It is an indisputable, observable as well as historical fact that religions evolve, incorporate and amalgamate all the time, just as I said. To deny this is to be ignorant of the facts.

Are you suggesting the old testament is an amalgamation of previous religions?