send me your thoughts CHRISTIANITY

[Thumpalumpacus]

You missed my point, i am i. Christians are good so they can gain entrance into heaven. Take away that reward and ask, can there be good Christians? Go further and take away the god, can there be good Christians? IOW's, can Christians be good because it's the right thing to do....

...or because there's a God given carrot and a stick?

Is this not a bit presumptuous?

[pinkocommie]

You missed my point, i am i. Christians are good so they can gain entrance into heaven. Take away that reward and ask, can there be good Christians? Go further and take away the god, can there be good Christians? IOW's, can Christians be good because it's the right thing to do....

...or because there's a God given carrot and a stick?

I think some Christians might only be good because they want to get to heaven, but to say that because being a good Christian ensures entry into heaven, every Christian is good only because they want to ensure entry into heaven is a pretty huge assumption regarding a very large group of vastly different people.

Another argument to be made is - does anyone do good things only because it's the right thing to do or do we all do good things at least in part because of some personal carrot on a stick?  I do good things because I like helping people and it makes me feel good.  If someone else does good things because they like helping people and they want to get into heaven, I don't see how that's much different.  

Not to mention the complication of deciding which actions are considered "good" in the first place...

[Gawen]

You missed my point, i am i. Christians are good so they can gain entrance into heaven. Take away that reward and ask, can there be good Christians? Go further and take away the god, can there be good Christians? IOW's, can Christians be good because it's the right thing to do....

...or because there's a God given carrot and a stick?

Is this not a bit presumptuous?

I don't think it steps over any bounds of propriety or courtesy. Less rude than a Christian telling me I'm going to hell for not believing in his god.

Christians are stuck between a rock and a hard god. It's God's rules and God's morals. If one obeys such rules and morals, they get everlasting life. But...
I've heard it too many times...a Christian says without God he'd feel free to pillage, plunder and rape.

A Christian is good because his God tells him to be good and there's a reward for being good.  If there is no reward or even no God...what then?

[Heretical Rants]

A Christian is good because his God tells him to be good and there's a reward for being good.  If there is no reward or even no God...what then?

They grow up a little bit and start figuring it out for themselves, unless they find some other authority figure push the responsibility off on.

[Reginus]

Christians are stuck between a rock and a hard god. It's God's rules and God's morals. If one obeys such rules and morals, they get everlasting life.

Not the way I (an evangelical Christian) view things.  This is also not the biblical view imo, and I don't believe it is the most common view within Christian circles.  I think there is a relationship between obeying God's rules/doing good things and salvation, it just isn't a casual relationship.

I've heard it too many times...a Christian says without God he'd feel free to pillage, plunder and rape.

If they're saying that they would feel free to do immoral acts if they didn't think God was real, I honestly think they're kidding themselves.  In my opinion, all humans share an innate sense of moral responsibility regardless of their religious beliefs, which these people would still have to deal with.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't think it steps over any bounds of propriety or courtesy. Less rude than a Christian telling me I'm going to hell for not believing in his god.

Christians are stuck between a rock and a hard god. It's God's rules and God's morals. If one obeys such rules and morals, they get everlasting life. But...
I've heard it too many times...a Christian says without God he'd feel free to pillage, plunder and rape.

A Christian is good because his God tells him to be good and there's a reward for being good.  If there is no reward or even no God...what then?

I didn't say you were being rude.  I said you were being presumptuous, i.e. presuming something.  The reason why I say that your above post is presumptuous is because you have no way of knowing the hearst of any but a few believers.  To generalize from such a small sample is not only unreasonable, but unfair.

Christians may ascribe their morality to god, but, to be honest, I don't think there is a god, and so, no matter their attribution, I think that Christian morals come from Christians themselves, for better and for worse.

I'm not so sure they'd rampage if somehow we positively disproved god.  Even if I did think so, I'd have to pony up some evidence in order to construct a convincing argument.