The Evil of Christianity

just wow. Some people just think they see the world and have solutions, faith is a great thing, allow people to follow it if they are contributing to society whether you believe in it or not, it is those who do not allow people to freely believe in what they want if it brings no harm that are are really bringing it down. This is America and freedom is the right to have an equal say not the right to do whatever you want and that is a simple mistake society has bought upon itself.

It is easy to say all manner of things against the Bible and God ,Jesus and the Holy Spirit when you don't know them. One could go on and on about the Bible they have never study and go by a person that hates God and quote what they said..The fact is God is God and Jesus is the Son of God and the Holy Spirit is God too. God is first was first and always will be first all the rest are not God words they are man trying to be God. You look at the writhing of other religions and the sound like the teaching in the bible why? Because thousnads of years after the Bible some man said hey let me do what is in here but add to it or take from it to suit my need and the needs of the people that will follow me in this .Every human has a choice a free will choice to choose God or choose the son of perdition..without ever studying the Bible and know what the original words says how do you condenm what you don't understand? How do you tell the follwers of Jesus Christians that they have limited blips ??? That is showing your lack of knowledge which by the way people die from the lack of knowledge of what God has said....but my point is this ...It is written in Gods word the blips you call them that when the end is near there will be people like you saying all manner of things against God and we who are called by his NAME know the time is short there has to be a falling away, meaning people like yourself will not want to know the truth, before the son of perdition arrives on the stage..that is happening now Look at oprah she is teaching new age and she says Jesus is not the only way She denys Jesus she has 2 million followers in the church of hers.....they have changed what the word says for there own desires no sin no God she says that God is made in our image, The bible says we are made in the image of God... so We as Christians look up to God for He is are hope...the son of perdition will come saying he is Jesus and the world will follow him but he is not Jesus , Jesus will come after all the tirbulation and then judgement happens there is more inbetween that but for time and space i wont go into it ...before you mock something find out what it says and by the way catholics changed to bible to have control and there greed for power over the people they are not Chirstians for you 411 and just because someone says they are Christians does not make them Christians ..Christians are known by there fruit God knows us most times man does not and that is sad but the way it has to be ..Jesus is coming soon are you ready???? I am :) hisgrace ( there should be their)

Yes, it's sickening how people claim to be one thing and really aren't. I am a nonbeliever but I do good things no matter what. I think it makes me an even better person that I will help somebody out and not think of it as my "ticket to Heaven." I will definitely make a blog regarding this later.

offcourse jesus died for our sins. that doesnt say u dont have to do anything. but if u want to and try to trust in him thats the way like jesus said : no one comes to the father then by me ( trust and believe everybody )

It's religion that has cause so many wars and prejiduces and hate towards people, mostly of other religions. So I ask you why is it necessary to believe in God at all?

There is no scientific evidence supporting that God or heaven exists, and if one thinks about isn't it absurd that based on a probably fictitious books that was made by a human being thousands of years ago people have devoted their lives to prayer and an often firm belief that they are going to heaven after they die?

Many a man and woman has prayed when they had a terminal disease and the vast majority of them I'm sure died regardless of this prayer. To me "faith" is just that a wishful hope that something magical will save us from death and that someone way up in the sky is actually listening to what we have to say.

Why is it that if evolution has been proven and that indeed we came from the apes and lower animals before them, than why doesn't the bible talk about other animals going to heaven? Why are we so effing unique and special? The truth is we are not! We are just highly evolved apes that share 98% of our DNA with other Apes.

We have to stop believing in fariy dust and start believing in what is known and can be proven. Science is our only tool that has been proven to save people from diseases and accidents and will one day allow us to defeat the aging process so we won't have to rely on magical thinking.

I could have been about nine years-old. My Uncle was telling me about Hindu Gods. He said that God exists in everything, God is everything. So I asked my Uncle, is God in every grain of rice? He replied in the affirmative. So I asked my Uncle, in that case, when we are eating rice - who is eating who? He dismissed my childish question. Maybe I stumbled on some Truth? Perhaps, because God is everything, that is why we cannot see Him? I do not believe that the Hebrew God or Jesus are the only true Gods. It is a racist God or a bias God who appears in only one area of the world and expect every nation to believe that He is the true God. If God so loved the world he wouln't have a 'chosen people" and appear only in the middle-east.

Jesus did not come to be good and then set an impossible example. He came to die for our sins, to rescue us from something that we would never be able to get rid of. The world doesn't need another religion that tells us to be good and work harder. What we need is a savior. All world religions tell you to work harder, but never offer support to be better. Christianity offers support, and in fact the Holy Spirit is the one who does the change within you if you let him.
I just got into the discussion, so if someone has already mentioned this, forgive me.

i find it to be irritating that people think they can act as they please because they believe to have jesus behind them. i identify myself as atheist because i'm not like a lot of self-proclaimed christians that live as recklessly as possible because they think they can just sit in a booth and admit they've sinned thinking they're still on their way to heaven. it's confusing because you would think that if jesus died for your sins, you would have more respect than to just go on doing whatever you feel like without considering the consequences. fortunately, there are people out there that understand that the bible is a metaphor to live a better life.

I politely disagree with the original post, and not just because I'm an atheist.

There are many interpretations to the Bible, and I do think it has a good message. However, people will ultimately interpret it however they want to.

hp.ca.us pointed out that those of us who live in Christian communities have been programmed this way, and this is a very valid point to understanding why so many people use this justification for their actions.

Unfortunately, the only direct way to learn the Christian message espoused in the Bible is to read the Bible independently. There are problems with this as well. The Bible was written by man who was "born into sin." Originally it was written in Hebrew then translated into Greek then into a multitude of other languages. This leaves much to be lost in translation. (For those of you out there who speak more than one language, you know exactly how hard it is to translate exactly and not lose the original meaning.) I would also like to mention that Constantine had a council put together that selected the books that would be placed into the Bible. The Bible was ultimately put together by man and a lot could have possibly been lost since Jesus may have walked the earth. A lot has been lost to time.

Another problem is that the Bible is then interpreted by the Church one attends and is then interpreted by the priest delivering a sermon to his flock - a flock that may never even turn a page of their Bible except in church. (This doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions.)

The Spanish conquistadores and the Puritans believed they were doing God's will when they slaughtered the Indians. They called themselves Christians, and they indeed were. Does it make them hypocrites? Yes because they went against the teachings of the Bible. However, it was also influenced by their own desires. It was an excuse and justification for what they did.

“Tears may be dried up, but the heart – never.”
-Marguerite de Valois

This Comment: Instead of teaching that one should be like Jesus, people believe that Jesus "died for everyone's sins" so they wouldn't have to be like him. What happened here!?

I'll tell you what happened. You misunderstood alot. Yes, we all should be Christ-like, simly b/c all of his acts were of good things. Whether it was helping another, being compassionate, or obedient to God; all of his characteristics can be achieved by man today. No one will perfectly be sinless, simply because we are humans, not angels and ceratinly not Jesus.

And yes, he did die for our sins. Did you know that people back then used to die when they committed specific sins? Yes, they used to drop dead. For instance the man who touched the Holy Covenant, when instructed no to. He dropped dead in the sanctuary immediately. But everysince Christ died, we have extended mercy. We sin daily and constantly repeat them over and over again, yet we still wake to another day.

Thanks to Christ's suffering on that cross we are able to sin without paying immediate price like it used to be. There you have it, the truth.

"Sometimes your greatest hindrance can be the very eyes your looking through" -S.Chinn

I think you main fault is when you talk about how "Those who believe in Jesus as a god and "dying for our sins" see that as a ticket to commit wanton acts of brutality and evil, as long as they believe that someone already took care of their sins." The fault I see in this is that Jesus died for our sins not to take care of our sins but to open the gates of heaven. It is Church teaching that when Jesus died the gates of heaven were opened to the good souls that had previously perished and now people could still attain the kingdom of heaven despite the original sin that was set for humanity. I don't know anyone who commits crimes against humanity because they believe Jesus allows them to directly get into heaven. Do you?
Also, you wrote, "It makes being like Jesus something that we should give up striving for since it is clearly impossible if it took a God to do it!" but you miss the point that it is the effort to emulate Jesus and do good works in the world that achieves the satisfaction of the Lord.

Government has no other end, but the preservation of property. - John Locke

Maybe the important thing about Jesus and religion isn't what everyone else believes, but what you believe. Jesus makes people think, and that can't be a bad thing unless they are busy trying to influence other people's thinking with misinformation. I have never been aware that Jesus lied about being God. I was aware that Jesus said the he was the son of God, but he also said that everyine was the son of God. When the Romans interrogated the Jewish Rabbi they asked him if he was the son of God, Messiah, Savior, ect., and to my knowledge, Jesus' respose was, "If you say so."
We can't blame Jesus for the actions of those after his death. We might, however be able to blame Paul.
I, too agree that one of the most important messages to learn from Jesus is that he was human, not a God, and therefore all humans have the potential to live up to the example set forth by him.
But if you believe that Jesus was a God there is nothing to say that I'm right and you're not. It is all a personal choice, and perhaps there is nothing more to being a God than being thought of as one by another.

What astounds me about this and similar posts is that there is this necessity among religious zealots to prove themselves right publicly, when religion is supposedly a personal relationship between you and your god. (Other than evangelical religions such as Jehovah's Witnesses which require proselytizing, which is telling in itself). It's almost akin to a vampire's quest for blood. One drink is never enough; everybody must be one to validate your beliefs.

Also, when you mentioned Martin Luther King in the beginning, his speeches were based on CHRISTIAN principles!

Yes Jesus did teach us to look at our behavior and be responsible, but he also commanded that we strive to be like him. He didn't expect us to be 100% perfect because we as humans fall short and sin, but he knows that, and that is the reason he died on the cross, so that we could ask forgiveness for the wrongs (sins) we have committed and be forgiven for them. Jesus didn't die so we wouldn't have to be like him as you said above, he died so we could have hope, and as an example of true unconditional love and forgiveness so that we Christians can one day enter into the kingdom of God.
I don't agree with you when you said, "It makes being like Jesus something that we should give up striving for since it is clearly impossible if it took a God to do it!" The reason is first of all Jesus on earth was in full human form and flesh, so it didn't take a God to set the example of how we should strive to act, but it was in fact a human who came down to earth with the same temptations we have today and accomplished. what we should strive to everyday.
When you said Jesus is God, you were right, but you left out the third part of the trinity, the holy spirit!

I can definitely see your viewpoint although I don't agree with it. I believe that Jesus is part of the trinity, but I believe even if he wasn't his message still remains the same. The two biggest commandments... Love God with all your heart, and Love others as you love yourself.

Your Brother Rhino!

What is the argument anymore? What is the point of the argument?

I have to disagree. Christians are taught not to hate others. And that hating is a sin. To even be angry in your heart is like murder in God's eyes. God says to love our neighbor as ourself. So why would a Christian just become a Christian so they could hate people? Your argument doesnt really make sense. I think you should do a little more research on TRUE Christianity and read the Bible (the whole Bible), especially the New Testament. While there are some people who claim they are Christians but go about hating people, they are in the wrong. You as a Christian are supposed to love everyone and be merciful. Not to think you are better or can do whatever you want...that is false. completely false. You are correct about Some..but those people have not done their research in the Bible very well either if that is how they act. Christ did die for our sins so that we could recieve forgiveness. But if we do not forgive others, then God doesnt forgive us. You have to go by God's rules to be a true Christian..and that doesnt include looking down on people.

I readily admit that there are certain 'Christians' who do not uphold the word they profess. they "honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me"-Jesus quoting Isaiah 29:13
But just aswell, you cannot say that those people only exist within Christianity, but in all religion and cultures (which is clearly an over-gerneralization). Such as, the Muslims who claim to be of the peaceful religion of Islam, yet wage war and have since the founding of their religion- which is equally credible to christians aswell.
So you cannot single out Christians as guilty of this evil without also including other peace claiming societies aswell.

On the topic of golden rule being a generally good-person thing to say, I agree. Much of what Jesus preached in parables and through the golden rule were practical good-natured natural things, but from Matthew 5-7 you will read how he takes 'good' to the next level. It's what sets him apart. Not to mention Ghandi and MLK both were inspired heavily by Christian teachings, though it did not sway Ghadi's faith, it did influence his ethics.

As for people being "born into sin" I don't agree. This is proven by Jesus' words in John 9:1-3. Often times we don't understand God, but that's not because he's not making sense, it's becase we can't fathom God's plan.

As for not even trying to be like Jesus I must say That Romans 6:1-4 clearly tells us how that would be contradictary to the recieving of grace. Also 1 John 1:5-10 sheds more light onto the situation. If we have a true love for God, we would be so compelled to do his works just by knowing who God really is and knowing who we are, and thus acting accordingly.

Whether Jesus is a god or the God, or whatever, I can't persuade you or anyone else, that's everyone's own convition to be made either way. You could even argue that Christianity is Polytheistic, but I must say in Acts 5:33-39 it places a divinity upon the message of Christ as Son and Savior. A man speaking before the Sanhedrin says "Therefore, in the present case I advise you: leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purose or activity is of human origin it will fail, But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."
This purpose is spreading the goodnews of Jesus, the son of God, dying on the cross for the redemption of the people's sin. And now, 2,000 years later, we still preach for the same purpose. It seems clear to me that this purpose is from God.
Just some thoughts.
But I did really enjoy reading the opinions expressed in the blog.

I can't say I'm trying to be "right", or to pwn you in religious/faith argument, but I feel your post is offensive. It has a lot of short sighted arguments. I see where you are coming from though, I've felt how you feel. Christianity is confusing and often a lot of people are mislead by Government, Mega-Churches, and other sorts of non-sense.

Jesus as a moral teacher? I think C.S. Lewis wrote something about that.

It's like this, this world (culture, governments, POWER), America, all of that. That shouldn't matter. That shouldn't get in the way of Christ. Knowing I will never be perfect shouldn't get in the way of progression towards it. It's a life not about "Me", or my desires, but what God wants. Happiness and all of that are by-products. (An emotion a life long goal?) Life for another King, and another Kingdom. I think I heard it called as living in a super culture. Or living above the culture that is, but not a counter-culture. I think that suggests uprising, and revolution or violence. Violence isn't a good idea.

Maybe I missed the point but when you replace the word "Jesus" with the word "God" you are really not doing any harm because Jesus is God. Some people disagree but that is their choice. Agree to disagree. But yes, some people call themselves Christians and are definately not. Watch the MTV awards it's funny. A rapper will come up to the stage saying "I just recieved the award for best new album thanks to my song 'Smack my #!^$" up' and I would first off like to thank the Lord Jesus Christ." It's like, seriously, who makes songs with lewd lyrics like that and gives Jesus "credit" for making that person "successful"(-ly stupid). Ridiculous... WOW!!! I really got off the subject.

Have u guys started a forum yet? Because I think a comment thread that is 4 pages long is worthy of being its own forum! I only read the first page, but just to comment on the actual blog and not on what people have said about it, I have been doing a lot of thinking about Gandhi and other great people in history. I do believe Jesus is the Son of God, and in some mysterious way, He is God. But no one has to agree. It's my personal belief. There will always be people who agree or disagree for their own reasons.
Gandhi believed this: God is Truth and Truth is God, but none of us has completely grasped it yet.
Paul (in the bible) said, "If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet understand as he should." In other words, we should all consider that our own perspective is only one of the millions of sides to the Truth.

There is One Truth, just as there is One God, because God is Truth. Just because someone has a different perspective on Truth doesn't mean they don't have ANY truth.
God does not hold us accountable for how much of the Truth we have, but what we do with the part of Truth that He gives each of us.

No one is going to burn for all of eternity in hell just because they didn't see the same perspective about God/Truth as I do (which is that Jesus died for the sins of the world in order to rid death of its power so that we could have a life to look forward to after this one is done). Just because a person doesn't believe that, doesn't mean they're going to Hell. Likewise, just because a person believes in Hell doesn't mean they're a bad person, it just means they have a different perspective on the Truth.

sry, this is a long reply. Didn't mean for it to get this long. I'll stop here. =)

Shalom, Salaam, and Shanti,
~ rAch

"This is how I choose to live: as if I'm jumping off a cliff, knowing that You'll save me, knowing that You'll save me." -Relient K

"He is no fool who chooses to lose that which he cannot keep in order to gain that which he cannot lose." -Jim Elliot

I think it is always good to see people discussing a topic that Christians have made out to be too big for discussion. Christianity and really any religion always relies on the sheer magnitude factor of God's being to give arguments weight rather than raw contention and mere intelligence. So, people who can freely discuss new beliefs and ideas are probably not easily intimidated by this image of God created by the church. I see the church as the bully on the playground of life. They have their version of the Scriptures, which is the Bible as compiled by a small group of church leaders for the sake of preserving what was their own denomination of Christianity at the time. Jesus did make the claim to be God, not just a teacher, and the apostles claimed to be given the infallible Word of God to preach to mankind.

The Bible is taught as a social antidote that has been used in the attempt to unify the church and government throughout history. Maybe Jesus died on the cross with all brutality, but many others died as a consequence of Christianity. Like all major religions Christianity is volatile. It would be better to die and go to the Creator without any religion. There is no one religion that is some kind of simple answer for the complexity of our spiritual nature. Religions are all man-made. The only true way to be a part of the spiritual world is for the snake to shed its skin, for the human body to die and leave this material world of fools and their faiths.

I used to be a very strong Christian, but the more that the church tried to deceive me when I began to think about different ideas the more I realized that the entire notion of the Biblical god is evil. I believe in infinity, and I call that power God, but I do not engage in the primitive ritual of worship and I am no longer blinded by the darkness of such spiritual cancers as churches. I should also note that once you leave religion behind it is like you can see again, you can feel again, you can breathe again, and I have newfound peace and freedom in knowing I don't have to know everything about God. It is not my job to know. That is God's job, and that job is not the work of religion or faith.

no one religion can be accepted by everyone.

Bottom line here, we cannot prove that God exists or does not exist.

So why argue? well because its fun to bounce ideas off of eachother. Just keep it civil.

Love,

MOM

"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

It IS NOT a free pass to do whatever you want, just because Jesus died for our sins. If you are saved, which you have to be to go to heaven in the Christian religion, then you will strive to not do all the things you're not supposed to. Someone that calls themself a Christian, then goes out and does ungodly acts on a regular basis w/o regard to it being right or wrong, is not a Christian. That's just how it is. I doubt these people that wage wars and plan assassinations are Christians. Heck, I can call myself Australian... that doesn't make me Australian.

Curtis F.

"Never judge a philosophy by the abuse of it." -Ravi Zacharias

You might be interested to know that your concerns are almost as old as the church itself, but they had a different perspective on Christ's divinity. The early Church leaders did not doubt Christ's divinity- after all, he had performed miracles, claimed to be God's son, and after the resurrection and ascension his followers certainly had no doubts about his divinity. But the disciples had also known Jesus as a man, fully human, who loved and laughed and eventually suffered and died. The early chuch leaders insisted that Jesus was not just divine, but that he was fully and completely human. Without divinity, the hope of the resurrection would be lost, without humanity, his life could not be an example for mere humans. The early church leaders insisted on retaining Christ's humanity precisely because of your concerns. Huston Smith, the author of The World's Religions, does a much better job of explaining this than I do, so I'd encourage you to read the chapter on Christianity in his book.

Interestingly, you call evil what is actually good. This is part of a prophecy. More on that in a moment.

Disregarding other points, I would just like to address the idea that calling Jesus God is the evil of Christianity. Without Jesus as God, (the Son) Christianity would basically be any other religion. But, that's more complex than the space I have to commit to this. Let me suffice it to say, "He who has the Son has Life, but he who does not have the Son does not have life." Without Jesus being God incarnate, then nobody could have him, for he would be dead and his body given to the dust like all else who have lived.

There are like, forty or so, (offhand) reasons why it is essential that Jesus Christ is Lord. Some of them are completions of prophecies of the Torah (Old Testament) but others relate to how man is not perfectable. To be like Jesus is completely possible as he was a man as we were, completely. So don't mistake it! But, Jesus was also completely God.

We all have faults that by our own workings we would not have enough time to work through. Life is but a breath.

Imagine that since God judges all, any who falls short of his standard of righteousness is condemned. That basically is everyone. Ok, I'll put it this way-- it IS everyone. You, me, etc. God also loves everyone; he is not a respecter of persons. So he offers everyone the same deal; his Son will mediate for you and you can be justified before God despite the fact you f'd up. The issue is, man loses relationship with God when he loses his innocence; so he must restore his relationship with God. Trouble is, disobedience seperates one from a holy and just God. But, God loves us, right? So he isn't cool with the fact that he must destroy us. Anyway, that's just the beginning of the reasoning. And please note, sin and error cause more than just trouble for us, they also harm others. You understand the golden rule, but there is a second commandment that is equal to it. "Love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind and all thy strength"?

Anyway. there is a good prophecy regarding this. More or less, you're living in a looking-glass world if you consider what is good to be evil what is evil to be good. This is why you need more than just loving your neighbor; the golden rule does not establish a standard for morality. That's where God comes in.

Anyway. I'm glad to hear that you are thinking about the Lord, at least.

Jesus IS the Son of God. He HAD to die for our sins because of 1.) fullfillment of prophecy and 2.) we are sinful creatures that need a savior to atone for our sins.

Try reading some of the writings of Paul in the New Testament. He explains Jesus' nature quite well.

Jesus was either a lier, a lunatic, or our only LORD. The wimpy alternative posed by the writer of this blog shows neither guts nor truth. He claimed to be the "Way, truth and the life. NO MAN COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME," and also, "I and the Father [God] are one!" He has already told you clearly who and what he is; he left you no alternative viewpoint or wimpy merger of religions. You can either say he was lying, crazy, or admit that he is the one and only GOD.

This has 253 comments! COme on people, read something else.

“You don't find the big bang theory logical, so how did god get here?”

God is the only one who could have brought this world into existence. I said that since nothing never existed, something or someone must have always existed. God has always existed. He did not have a beginning. Since we see that something exist now, we have to conclude that it was created by a being who has no beginning. Let me go step by step now to sum it all up. We exist. We had a beginning. We could not have created ourselves since we did not exist before we existed. The earth has a beginning. It could not have caused its own production because it wasn’t there before it existed. The universe had a beginning. It could not have come from nothing because there would not have been anything to cause its existence. God has always existed. Nothing created Him because He has no beginning. He, the un-caused cause, brought everything into existence. This is the only way to explain the origin of the universe without saying that everything came from nothing. The thousands of other conclusions you speak of are just desperate stabs in the dark. In a murder case, the defense attorney tries to establish reasonable doubt so the jury won’t convict their client. What you are trying to establish is unreasonable doubt. There are thousands of possibilities in any murder case despite all the evidence that might be presented. It is possible that Laci Peterson decided that she had had enough of life, despite being 7 ½ months pregnant, and jumped into the marina. It is possible, but it is not reasonable. The defense attorney would never state this as a possibility nor would he state that there are thousands of possibilities so they really can’t conclude anything. There could be billions of possibilities, but only one is true, and I can tell you that the evidence for the existence of God is overwhelmingly greater then the rest of them combined. If you still want to conclude that God does not exist, you must acknowledge the fact that you are being unreasonable.

You believe that we are highly animals who have “unrivaled cognitive skills”. In order to come to this conclusion, you must believe in evolution, since it is the only theory that connects humans to the rest of the animals. Now, I could state the inconsistencies of this theory, but I will go another direction. If you believe in evolution, then humans are just a product of random mutations that built on each other. What you call cognitive skills is just the amount of cerebral cortex we have relative to our body size. What you consider consciousness is just the interactions between the neurons in your nervous system. If this is true, how can you say that anything is wrong? Murderers only kill because the interactions between the neurons caused them to commit the crime. Every action we commit is just what the brain has relayed to the muscles after reaching a decision. So basically, since everyone is born different, you cannot fault the people who are born with the tendency to hurt other people already built into their DNA. This is what science concludes. That is as far as science can take us in understanding human emotion. There is no soul, only action potentials and synapses. I will respect your wishes and not assume that you are for or against any of these things, but if you are against them, you should not pick and choose what parts of evolution you will take and what parts you will not.

Someone had this same question about the Old Testament laws not to long ago. I will copy and paste my response and then elaborate:

“…in the Old Testament God required many things of his people, some were about righteousness and holiness (the sacrificial and moral laws), and some were just to separate them from the people around them so they would not mix with them and become defiled. These are called the ceremonial laws. When Jesus came, he did away with the ceremonial laws because the chief priests were using this as the indicator for holiness, which was not what God intended. They kept all of the ceremonial laws, but they neglected the moral law and as Christ said, “You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” Matt 23:23-24 NIV. For this reason, ceremonial law is not followed unless someone wants to (although it really is healthier).”

Eating fat, drinking blood, eating animals that don’t chew the cud, eating fish that don’t have scales, and all those other things the ceremonial laws condemned were things that the nations around them did, and by not doing them, the Israelites set themselves apart. Homosexuality was part of the moral law, and was mentioned in the same chapter as incest and adultery. The moral law stands, and true Christians still follow that. As for the menstrual flow, it is the same if a man is bleeding. It is not so much a woman-man thing as a blood issue, and it was also part of the ceremonial law. The child birth thing is most likely because of the curse placed on childbirth, and the bleeding that is also associated with that. It is also part of the ceremonial law.

The Bible never says that men are better then women. Men are called to be willing to give their lives for their wives, something that is not asked of women. You might be stronger then most males, and if you are you are in the minority. On average, men are way stronger then women because testosterone contributes to the building of muscle mass while estrogen mainly contributes to the things that are considered feminine. On the other hand, I would agree with you that women these days are on average smarter then their male counterparts.

As for what you call hatred, it is really love. Hatred would be to believe that something is wrong, and not tell them because we want them to perish. It is the same with all the other religions. We can’t all be right, and if we are right, then all the other religions are wrong. This applies to every religion. The only reason Christianity seems to step on everyone’s toes is because we desperately want everyone to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Do you think you can have this kind of discussion with a Muslim or a Hindu? Even though they are convinced that they are right, they care nothing for anyone else. I care about your eternal soul Jacqulyn, though I have never met you. This is why I continue to answer your questions, in the hope that you will come to Christ. Jesus gave us this commission, to go to every nation and preach the gospel. For us not to do it would be hatred.

You are right in saying that sexual desires are natural. But so are stealing, malice, and all the other sins. The thing is, we are born with a sinful nature. It will seem natural to do the things that the Bible says don’t do because we have fallen. The Bible explains all that you are feeling, and everything that is going on in the world, something that no other religion does. I urge you to soften your heart to the gospel message. Jesus has done it all; all you have to do is believe in Him.

I know this is long Jacqulyn, but I hope you read it…

I see you have completely convinced yourself that God does not exist or you would not have said that there is no proof. It is basic logic, every cause has an effect and vise versa, unless there is someone or something that has always existed, so it has no cause. This is the only conclusion that makes sense. “Nothing” never existed, because if it did, there would be nothing to cause the something that we see today. This is logical. If “nothing” never existed, by logic, someone or something must have always existed. Unless you’re saying that humans have always existed, or the earth has always existed, or the universe has always existed, there must be a God. We reach this conclusion by LOGIC. I haven’t even gone into the realm of faith. If you can deny this, you are… in denial.

“Because we will die is no reason to mistreat each other. We all want to be seen/heard/loved/acknowledged/etc. I am sorry that you feel that you need a reason to be humane to others.”

What does humane mean? Who made the word? What does it refer to? If there is no God, then we “humans” are no different from the animals. All we are is animals who have achieved a level of advancement. So what gives us the right not to treat the other animals the same way we treat our own race? We should treat our dogs and cats the way we would want to be treated. Maybe, you would argue that only those animals that have the mental ability that we do can enjoy the benefits of the golden rule. What about people born retarded? Should we test their mental capacity to see if they are worthy of golden rule treatment? Animals feel many of the things we do: hunger, thirst, pain, fear, attachment; they all should be treated humanely because we are no different from them. And yet, you would disagree with this. Because it is wrong. We are not the same as animals. The reason we should treat each other humanely is not because we feel the same things, or because we look similar, or act similar. It is because God made us special, and requires us to treat each other that way.

“Because we are here. We definately know that is true. I don't need an overarching reason to live. I am alive and so I live. People have lived before me and people will live after me.”

So you don’t need a reason to live, but you need a reason to do all the mundane tasks that are associated with life? I’m sure you’re in school, and you must be in school for a reason. You might have a job, and you would have that for a reason. In fact, there is nothing in life that we do for no reason at all. So how could you say that you don’t need a reason to live? You wake up in the morning and just block out your belief that life is meaningless? You go to school and take difficult tests, do all that homework, and study all of that material while ignoring the uselessness of it all? You must realize that there is a darker reason why you find this sort of existence okay.

“We live in a civilized society based on the morals we create according to how we think ALL people should be treated.”

What if all people did not agree on what is civilized. Since you claim the rule of reciprocity was made by men, what makes this better then what any one else has come up with? Since it is only based on what you THINK, how can you expect it to apply to everyone when everyone naturally thinks differently? Suicide bombers don’t mind dieing themselves, why cant they be able to kill people? The rule of reciprocity doesn’t make sense without morals that are absolute, which can only come from God.

Thank you mersayochan.

Truthinlogic, your argument is the argument of an atheist. If God exists, you can’t go around and make up definitions for evil. Evil is the opposite of good. God represents everything that is good. Evil is anything that is against God. If Jesus was God, you saying that he is not is a lie, and lies are against God. The fact that you believe that Jesus was good and that it is good to want to emulate him shows that you have read and believe some of the what is written about him in the New Testament. The fact that Jesus is God is also written in this same New Testament, so why don’t you believe that? If God is the greatest good, then the greatest evil is not to accept Him for who He is.