Gary's Corner

[Gary Childress]

Well, He is...to all those who will accept His kindness. But some don't. And they get whatever they ask for.

Great! I'd like to find a special female friend that I can love and who will love me back and settle down with me some day.

I didn't say he was a "Santa Claus" for your every wish. I don't think any Theist thinks that the Divine Being is there to do our bidding.

As I've said before: one comes to Him on His terms, not terms we dictate.

Does God truly know what it's like to be mortal? Assuming he came here as Jesus, did he really think he was going to spend an eternity in Hell or did he know he would eventually be OK the whole time he was here? Did he wonder if he was a worthless piece of biomatter just taking up space on an overpopulated planet? Does God truly know what it's like to be a human being, a REAL human being; fragile, lonely and helpless? Or does he think that he has truly shared our plight and therefore we should be OK with what's happening to us? Did God ever feel pangs of dread and guilt for drowning everyone? Has God ever feared judgement from a truly superior being? Felt like he had to repent and bow to the wishes of a superior being that might judge him harshly?

Or is the whole story of the Bible a fabricated fable by human beings just to get mischievous children to behave ourselves?

[Immanuel Can]

Great! I'd like to find a special female friend that I can love and who will love me back and settle down with me some day.

I didn't say he was a "Santa Claus" for your every wish. I don't think any Theist thinks that the Divine Being is there to do our bidding.

As I've said before: one comes to Him on His terms, not terms we dictate.

Does God truly know what it's like to be mortal?

Yes. Firstly, because He's God, and God knows absolutely everything. Second, because He's experienced it. And as tough as your road may have been, it was never close to as tough as His.

[Gary Childress]

The God of all things must be Yahweh. And the Bible is the words of God. Now I feel like vomiting.

[Gary Childress]

Question for IC:

Is William Lane Craig your idea of what a Bible scholar should be? Personally, I favor Bart Ehrman's approach over that of Craig. Am I wrong to do that?

[Walker]

The God of all things must be Yahweh. And the Bible is the words of God. Now I feel like vomiting.

Nausea can be the result of the lesser attempting to contain the greater, which is another reason why you shouldn’t buy wine in a container larger than your head.

[Immanuel Can]

Question for IC:

Is William Lane Craig your idea of what a Bible scholar should be? Personally, I favor Bart Ehrman's approach over that of Craig. Am I wrong to do that?

What we favour, maybe because they tell us what we want to believe, is not very relevant. But let us consider: is it wise to put wholesale trust in any human authority? Is anybody entirely infallible?

WLC and Ehrman are reputed to be experts in different topics, and, as mere human beings, may well be weak in other to topics. Which we may listen to, or which other authority we might listen to, would have to depend on the specific topic under consideration, wouldn't it?

Did you have a specific topic in mind?

[Gary Childress]

Question for IC:

Is William Lane Craig your idea of what a Bible scholar should be? Personally, I favor Bart Ehrman's approach over that of Craig. Am I wrong to do that?

What we favour, maybe because they tell us what we want to believe, is not very relevant.

I agree, hence my distaste of Craig. He's more into Christian apologetics than Bible scholarship. However, if you're not familiar with him, then it's a moot point.

[Immanuel Can]

Question for IC:

Is William Lane Craig your idea of what a Bible scholar should be? Personally, I favor Bart Ehrman's approach over that of Craig. Am I wrong to do that?

What we favour, maybe because they tell us what we want to believe, is not very relevant.

I agree, hence my distaste of Craig. He's more into Christian apologetics than Bible scholarship. However, if you're not familiar with him, then it's a moot point.

I'm very familiar with him. Much more than you, I'll warrant. But I'll bet what you actually don't like about him is that he's a formitable opponent of your skepticism. However, if you've got some actually critique of something he advocates, I'll hear it.

Go ahead.

[Gary Childress]

What we favour, maybe because they tell us what we want to believe, is not very relevant.

I agree, hence my distaste of Craig. He's more into Christian apologetics than Bible scholarship. However, if you're not familiar with him, then it's a moot point.

I'm very familiar with him. Much more than you, I'll warrant. But I'll bet what you actually don't like about him is that he's a formitable opponent of your skepticism. However, if you've got some actually critique of something he advocates, I'll hear it.

Go ahead.

Unless I'm mistaken, Craig believes the Bible is the truth about God and not so much a collection of texts written by ancient humans and collected in the Bible which was sorted and edited by humans. And in all that process, only the truth is present in the Bible, no human fabrications or anomalies exist. He and Ehrman have some quarrels about the validity of the stories in the Bible and I find Erhman's position much more scholarly and objective. He treats the Bible as scholars treat any other historical document, as a collection of writings from sources that may or may not be 100% accurate or that may contain embellishment. Do you disagree with my assessment of Craig's and Ehrman's positions?

[Immanuel Can]

I agree, hence my distaste of Craig. He's more into Christian apologetics than Bible scholarship. However, if you're not familiar with him, then it's a moot point.

I'm very familiar with him. Much more than you, I'll warrant. But I'll bet what you actually don't like about him is that he's a formitable opponent of your skepticism. However, if you've got some actually critique of something he advocates, I'll hear it.

Go ahead.

Unless I'm mistaken, Craig believes the Bible is the truth about God and not so much a collection of texts written by ancient humans and collected in the Bible which was sorted and edited by humans. And in all that process, only the truth is present in the Bible, no human fabrications or anomalies exist. He and Ehrman have some quarrels about the validity of the stories in the Bible and I find Erhman's position much more scholarly and objective. He treats the Bible as scholars treat any other historical document, as a collection of writings from sources that may or may not be 100% accurate or that may contain embellishment. Do you disagree with my assessment of Craig's and Ehrman's positions?

Well, there are discussions over how to understand some parts of the Bible, of course. And there are such discussions even among inerrantists, just as there are among the historicist set. So I think we'd have to look at the particulars, don't you?

Again, I would never give my entire allegiance to any ordinary man. So I wouldn't say I agree with WLC in everything, nor disagree with Erhman in everything. I'd want to know what I was being asked to consider.

I see no reason to abandon one's freedom to think, regardless of any man's reputation. Do you?

[Gary Childress]

I see no reason to abandon one's freedom to think, regardless of any man's reputation. Do you?

I agree. Sounds good. And right now, I'm feeling fine. If others want to believe that I'm going to Hell because I don't pray or go to church, then that's up to you all. I've decided I'm going to try not to be bothered by what other people think about religion and what's going to happen to me, etc.

[Immanuel Can]

I see no reason to abandon one's freedom to think, regardless of any man's reputation. Do you?

If others want to believe that I'm going to Hell because I don't pray or go to church, then that's up to you all.

Well, nobody goes to Hell for mere failures of church attendance. But to be fair, it's not a thing we've decided. You have. If you don't want to pray, to talk to God, and you don't want any relationship with Him, don't be terribly surprised if you have none.

The irony is that in the end, we all get what we ask for. I just think you might really want to ask for more than you're asking right now.

[Gary Childress]

I see no reason to abandon one's freedom to think, regardless of any man's reputation. Do you?

If others want to believe that I'm going to Hell because I don't pray or go to church, then that's up to you all.

Well, nobody goes to Hell for mere failures of church attendance. But to be fair, it's not a thing we've decided. You have. If you don't want to pray, to talk to God, and you don't want any relationship with Him, don't be terribly surprised if you have none.

The irony is that in the end, we all get what we ask for. I just think you might really want to ask for more than you're asking right now.

Don't worry about me. Worry about something else.

[Immanuel Can]

If others want to believe that I'm going to Hell because I don't pray or go to church, then that's up to you all.

Well, nobody goes to Hell for mere failures of church attendance. But to be fair, it's not a thing we've decided. You have. If you don't want to pray, to talk to God, and you don't want any relationship with Him, don't be terribly surprised if you have none.

The irony is that in the end, we all get what we ask for. I just think you might really want to ask for more than you're asking right now.

Don't worry about me. Worry about something else.

If you're not worried, then I guess I've done as much as anybody can do.

But Thomas Sowell has a very good saying. It goes, "If you love somebody, you tell them the truth; if you love yourself, you tell them what they want to hear."

Now, that's wisdom.

[Gary Childress]

Well, nobody goes to Hell for mere failures of church attendance. But to be fair, it's not a thing we've decided. You have. If you don't want to pray, to talk to God, and you don't want any relationship with Him, don't be terribly surprised if you have none.

The irony is that in the end, we all get what we ask for. I just think you might really want to ask for more than you're asking right now.

Don't worry about me. Worry about something else.

If you're not worried, then I guess I've done as much as anybody can do.

But Thomas Sowell has a very good saying. It goes, "If you love somebody, you tell them the truth; if you love yourself, you tell them what they want to hear."

Now, that's wisdom.

Seriously? Are you seriously saying that you're concerned that I'm not worried, that I feel fine? Does it bother you if I feel fine?