God is perfect

[Ali]

Seems to me that you do have a problem with atheists as people.  You focus a lot of negativity towards atheists (not just atheism) in your blogs.

"The Ingratitude of Atheists."
"Atheists Must Make Bad Parents" - that's a particular favorite of mine
"Do You Trust Atheists?"
"Atheists Have No Life"

and so on.  

Hey, I don't blame you.  I think it's human to associate behaviors with people.  When I say "I hate lying" I wouldn't deny that this basically means "I hate liars."  I just think you should come clean to yourself that you hate atheists, not just atheism.  Or at least, that's the way you portray yourself.

[Buddy]

There's no hate speech on my blog. You seem to think any dissenting view directed at atheism is an insult and hate speech, but you're the only one using foul language and hurling personal insults. I don't do that.

I hate atheism. I hate what it has done to our society, and I hate the ignorance it breeds. I want to do whatever I can to help the unfortunate victims of it. I believe the best way to do that is to spread the true Gospel Message of Jesus Christ.

Recognize this paragraph from anywhere?

Well, yes, I hate atheism, but I don't hate atheists as people. Maybe I should change that on my blog, because though I've said this about 10,000 times in the atheist forums, atheists it seems will see whatever they believe.

No. Atheist believe in facts. Most make a decision after looking at evidence.

[Egor]

Seems to me that you do have a problem with atheists as people.  You focus a lot of negativity towards atheists (not just atheism) in your blogs.

"The Ingratitude of Atheists."
"Atheists Must Make Bad Parents" - that's a particular favorite of mine
"Do You Trust Atheists?"
"Atheists Have No Life"

and so on.  

Hey, I don't blame you.  I think it's human to associate behaviors with people.  When I say "I hate lying" I wouldn't deny that this basically means "I hate liars."  I just think you should come clean to yourself that you hate atheists, not just atheism.  Or at least, that's the way you portray yourself.

Well, you have a point there. I have changed the profile message on my blog, and I invite whoever is interested to check it out and comment.

But the truth is, I don't really hate atheists as people. I mean, I don't hate you. I don't even feel negatively toward you. To me, if I hated atheists as people, I'd want to destroy them as people, and the best way for me to do that is to simply ignore them, or even better support their rejection of Christ so they will surely go to hell. But I think that would kind of make me a Satanist and not a Christian.

When I write posts directed at "atheists" it's not at any person in particular, but rather at a group behavior. But I can see how that might be considered hate. But you have to understand who you're talking to: I'm used to physically fighting my friends at least twice a week. And to be quite honest, I have little respect for someone who won't fight. However, I realize most people think you only fight people you hate. But with me, it's more like I fight the people I respect.

To me, love is an action not a feeling. I work with some ridiculous people who like to go in the internet and look at dogs that are up for adoption at the local humane society. They won't adopt one, they just like to go "ooh and awww." They say they love animals. I disagree.

And to me, hate is an action, not a feeling. If I hated atheists, I wouldn't try to show them the way out of atheism. I can be pissed off at atheists as people, but that doesn't mean I hate them. If I came in here and said, "God loves you anyway, and hey! who knows? maybe there's a place in heaven for atheists, too!

Now, that would be hate.

[Egor]

No. Atheist believe in facts. Most make a decision after looking at evidence.

Oh, bullshit.

[AnimatedDirt]

My problem with the bolded above is that you seem to want god to follow some sort of logical physical rules (light cannot exist with dark or must exist with dark, or whatever analogy you're using.  Unless you believe that god literally made of light waves, it's just an analogy, and I think you've said both.)

Christ is quoted as saying, "I am the light of the world...", God did appear as a flaming bush, a light of sorts.  God's presence is manifested many times as a bright light.  I wouldn't say God is a light literally, but rather whatever he IS manifests itself as light.  In that sense God is light.

The problem with that, is that's just your interpretation of what god must be like or do, and theists are happy enough to shrug off other physical rules that would constrain god as it suit them.   I *do* think that an all-powerful being would be able to bend all sorts of physical rules.  Could god defy gravity and fly?  Sure, I like to think so.  Could he mess with the 4th dimension and turn back time?  Why not?  Superman did it!  Could god make a rock so large that even he can't pick it up?  Not sure, but it would be certainly entertaining to  watch him try.  And who set up these logical rules if not for god?

Why is it so difficult to accept that the insistance that an all powerful god should be able to create a rock so heavy he can not pick it up is rediculous...silly?  The bible never claims God is omnipotent (I believe the translation comes from the word Shaddai?, meaning Almighty)  In fact the bible is full of things God cannot do.  Lie.  Sin.  He cannot even go against his own Justice.

Is it possible to lay aside this silly notion of "if god is omnipotent, then..." thus he is not omnipotent.  We agree.  God is not omnipotent in that sense, but rather he is able to accomplish his will.

The whole light cannot exist for dark just sounds like an excuse to me.  Because surely god actually can do whatever he wants, whether it makes sense to our feeble human minds or not, and whether it follows our weak analogies or not.

This is funny to me.  *You can sit in judgment of whether there is a God (the Christian God) using your own mind and its knowledge or inferred knowledge, but light vs dark is just an excuse?  Am I not speaking with a person, one that believes what you can see and/or know scientifically?  Does light CREATE darkness or is darkness a result of what light IS or an interaction between light and an object(s)?   

And anyway, that still doesn't solve the question of "If god can choose to forgive us of our sins so that we can be in our presence, why doesn't he just go ahread and do it?"  What was the whole Jesus farce about?  People always say that Jesus had to pay the ultimate penalty for our sins, but what they seem to lose track of is that if he was god, he was paying it to himself.  And being all knowing, god must have known that was the way it was going to go down before he even created anything, but that's the best he could come up with?

Again, I thought I had explained a bit to you.  God cannot just flippantly "excuse" or "choose" to forgive sin, much like in our society we do not just flippantly excuse and forgive a murderer of their actions.  He/she is forgiven and returned to their free status if they serve their time/consequences.  Sometimes death is the consequence.  There's no coming back from that.  Forgiveness always comes after consequences.  Death is a consequence of life, yet we don't find Atheism protesting procreation, do we?  The consequence of living outside of God's ability to sustain life is death.  It's not much more difficult than that.

[Stevil]

If I came in here and said, "God loves you anyway, and hey! who knows? maybe there's a place in heaven for atheists, too!

Now, that would be hate.

In my opinion, love means accepting someone or something for whom they are. Supporting them, not necessarily trying to change them. Of course it is a bit different with children whom need a parent's guidance, eventually a loving parent needs to let go of the child and support it in making its own decisions.

[Guardian85]

No. Atheist believe in facts. Most make a decision after looking at evidence.

Oh, bullshit.

How is that bullshit? Elaborate please.
Atheists do believe in facts. I for one could be swayed any day with evidence. You have none. You have assertions and story books. And yet you are surprised and angry that we don't believe you. Do you realise how insane that is?

[MadBomr101]

No. Atheist believe in facts. Most make a decision after looking at evidence.

Oh, bullshit.

And the question is..."What is Egor full of?"

[Buddy]

No. Atheist believe in facts. Most make a decision after looking at evidence.

Oh, bullshit.

Excuse me? When something unexplainable happens, an atheist won't just blame a deity.

[Sweetdeath]

No. Atheist believe in facts. Most make a decision after looking at evidence.

Oh, bullshit.

Excuse me? When something unexplainable happens, an atheist won't just blame a deity.

Or run to a church to pray. >__>

[history_geek]

No. Atheist believe in facts. Most make a decision after looking at evidence.

Oh, bullshit.

Excuse me? When something unexplainable happens, an atheist won't just blame a deity.

Or run to a church to pray. >__>

Hmmm, for some reason I'm reminded of the scene in the Simpsons movie where the Dome is just over the town, and the people in the church run into the bar and the people in the bar run into the church....

Besides, I get a headache trying to figure out which "god" I'm supposed to blame for which weird thing that I can't immediately explain. Much easier just to find out what really happened in most cases...

[Egor]

In my opinion, love means accepting someone or something for whom they are. Supporting them, not necessarily trying to change them. Of course it is a bit different with children whom need a parent's guidance, eventually a loving parent needs to let go of the child and support it in making its own decisions.

You're contradicting yourself. Besides, that's not what love means. Love is an action taken for the true benefit of another. That's it.

[Stevil]

In my opinion, love means accepting someone or something for whom they are. Supporting them, not necessarily trying to change them. Of course it is a bit different with children whom need a parent's guidance, eventually a loving parent needs to let go of the child and support it in making its own decisions.

You're contradicting yourself. Besides, that's not what love means. Love is an action taken for the true benefit of another. That's it.

Not in my opinion. In my opinion love is respecting and supporting, its not about you its about them, its not about what you want, it is about what they want, its not about what you think is the correct path, it is about what they think is the correct path.

[MadBomr101]

You're contradicting yourself. Besides, that's not what love means. Love is an action taken for the true benefit of another. That's it.

Wrong again as usual.

Love is a deep, emotional and personal bond between people.  Hell, charitable volunteerism is people taking action to benefit others and they're not doing it out of love, they do it out of comapssion and a desire to lend aid to those in need.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong ???

[Ali]

Never mind.  Done debating for today.