Christianity

[Harbal]

Who or what are you, AJ?

Now that is as good question! I go into that in the very first section of the email course.

Are you ready to sign up?

How much will it cost me to "sign up"?

It will cost you your soul, Gary.

[Gary Childress]

Now that is as good question! I go into that in the very first section of the email course.

Are you ready to sign up?

How much will it cost me to "sign up"?

It will cost you your soul, Gary.

Well, that's about the only thing I have left after I gave just about everything I have in vain to the woman I'm in love with. And, at this point, I might need it if there is an afterlife because I feel closer than ever to the point of finding the answer to whether or not there is one.

¯\_(*_*)_/¯

[Dontaskme]

Who or what are you, AJ?

Now that is as good question! I go into that in the very first section of the email course.

Are you ready to sign up?

Only a scam man, a con man, would ever think of making money out of what is ultimately free to discover at any moment, when the student is ready to let go of all the absurd falsity of their cultish conditioned indoctrinated education.

Remember, no one, or thing ever read an instruction manual as to the how life was possible at all, prior to it being the experience, and yet here it is, the experience of life, in it's entire content,in a universe that is fully formed, with no idea how it was formed, and not an instruction manual in sight as to how this in-formation was possible, neither is there any hope of there ever being any chance of reproducing it exactly with your theory or idea.

There is no way you can tell yourself who or what you are except as a personal conceptual model, using an imagined conceptual overlay, a pretentious label, a poor subsitute of a model of your own making, one of many available to the human mind, and one that you yourself will be so sure of, you'll believe people will want to buy it. And yet, like many other false models, it will never resemble anything of any originality, in any way shape or form, ever...

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination and scam and con away to yourself and others until the cows come home, MOO...you are just many of the one, here today gone tomorrow, it's all you will be capable of achieving here, building sandcastles with sand that has always existed and was never your property to sell off in the first place.

.

[Immanuel Can]

Christianity isn't a flavouring. You can't sprinkle some of it over paganism, and call that paganism "Christianesque."

Why not; what's to stop you?

Well, one can DO it, of course. But not and be right about that.

[Dontaskme]

Christianity isn't a flavouring. You can't sprinkle some of it over paganism, and call that paganism "Christianesque."

Why not; what's to stop you?

Well, one can DO it, of course. But not and be right about that.

Yeah like one can tell biblical stories, but not and be right about that. Also charging people money for it is another scam and a con.

Obviously telling someone that poking a sharp pencil in one's eye is going to hurt is true, but everyone knows that, and one doesn't need to charge money for that advice, not that people are dumb enough to pay for that advice anyway.

[Harbal]

Christianity isn't a flavouring. You can't sprinkle some of it over paganism, and call that paganism "Christianesque."

Why not; what's to stop you?

Well, one can DO it, of course. But not and be right about that.

But the thing about all religion is the thought that they are right. You should know that better than anyone.

[Alexis Jacobi]

Man, the nutjobs are out in force today!

[Dontaskme]

Man, the nutjobs are out in force today!

It's the nut job's job to crack the champion of all nutters from running the nut house.

[Alexis Jacobi]

Oh, there it is again. Medics! Administrators! Moderators! Therapists! Gary's threatening suicide again. He's come to the end of his rope and the forum is not helping him much. What to do, what to do!

[Gary Childress]

Oh, there it is again. Medics! Administrators! Moderators! Therapists! Gary's threatening suicide again. He's come to the end of his rope and the forum is not helping him much. What to do, what to do!

Where did I threaten suicide? Are you hallucinating?

[Immanuel Can]

Catholicism is certainly Christian-esque — because it is a syncretistic adaptation. Have you assimilated nothing of what I’ve written recently?

Christianity isn't a flavouring. You can't sprinkle some of it over paganism, and call that paganism "Christianesque." It's something one is, or simply is not, depending on whether one fits the Scriptural definition.

If it is the case that one can only be a Christian by "accepting" Christ as one's "savior" then it also seems true to me that one either accepts Christ as their "savior" or one does not.

Correct.

However, what if one accepted more than one as their "savior"?

Then, Acts 4:12 -- "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved."

To be clear, I find it difficult to believe that Christ was the creator of the universe.

John 1:1-14. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it....And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

...if it were not for Christ (among others), then what I believe to be evil would have a greater hold on the world, and someone who is weak, like me, would have likely perished or perhaps have been put to death at a very early age.

That is very likely correct, Gary. Apart from the mercy that recognizes those in distress, the poor, the lowly, the widows and so forth as the equals of the rich, powerful and celebrated, we might live in a very survival-of-the-fittest world. And that is a legacy of Christianity, as a matter of historical record. That is also why, in places where Christianity has not been historically influential, infanticide, exploitation, and violence against the weak are common features of life. And it's why most educational institutions, medical missions, prison relief organizations, addiction programs, international aid programs, and other welfare agencies have, or have had at some time in their past, Christian values driving them forward. It's not accidental. There is a relationship.

Call that "Christianesque," perhaps...the offshoots or halo-effect of days when Christianity was taken more seriously as an orientation point for social values. And one can also look at such agencies, and see what has progressively happened to them as that mandate has been removed. It's all very telling.

[Immanuel Can]

Why not; what's to stop you?

Well, one can DO it, of course. But not and be right about that.

But the thing about all religion is the thought that they are right. You should know that better than anyone.

And what we know, from the basic laws of logic, such as Law of Non-Contradiction, is that they can't all be right. So we should be careful to examine such claims before accepting them, no?

[Alexis Jacobi]

Man, the nutjobs are out in force today!

It's the nut job's job to crack the champion of all nutters from running the nut house.

OK, very well, but we need a soundtrack!

Come ye nutjobs from the farthest reaches of cyberspace! Come to a philosophy forum and barf it all up here!
Wait? What was the topic here?!? Christianity?

No! Let the mental cases have the floor, sane conversation is a bore!

[Harbal]

Well, one can DO it, of course. But not and be right about that.

But the thing about all religion is the thought that they are right. You should know that better than anyone.

And what we know, from the basic laws of logic, such as Law of Non-Contradiction, is that they can't all be right.

If we turn to the basic laws of logic, we know that none of them are right, but religion is all about feeling you are right, isn't it?

So we should be careful to examine such claims before accepting them, no?

I have never come across any religious claim that warrants examination.

[Alexis Jacobi]

And, at this point, I might need it if there is an afterlife because I feel closer than ever to the point of finding the answer to whether or not there is one.