Are you a good person? Take the Bible challenge. (page 12)

Satanus

Those are all just words. What would constitute evidence of god's holiness, imo, are things here now, that we can see.

I see many examples of good people, people who make small improvements in this world. Many people are working the helping us to understand nature better, for instance, crocodile hunter steve erwin and farley mowat. Many people working to ease international tensions and foster cooperation. Maurice strong is a good example. I could go on into the medical, scientific, technological and social fields, giving examples. I suppose francis assis could be an example in the field of religion.

S

Satanus

Nelson mandella is good. He kept the lid on black anger in south africa, thus possibly averting civil war.

S

jesusisgod

eclipse and satanus,

We can see good that people do but we don't know other peoples motives for what they do. Some people may do good for selfish reasons. Like a boyscott may help an old lady across the street to receive a bag, not to actually help her across the street. Im not saying this is alsways the case. An employee may go the extra mile at work for a raise or to look go to another. They may not have just gone the extra mile to be a blessing to their company. Bill Gates gave millions of dollars to charities, a good thing to do, but his received a substancial tax break for it. Again what were his motives? I don't know. Politicians do what seems to be good things sometimes but what is the motive? Selfish gain, sometimes we do here about the advantages and things offered to them because of what they did? What I am saying is people sometimes do things not out of the goodness of their own hearts but for selfish reasons.

Next, people who do good things, and there is a lot of them, doesn't mean they are good by nature. Do you think lying is good? I'm not talking about justified lying to a murderer to protect your family from them finding and killing them. Lying in general. Lying at work, exaggerating a story, lying about where you've been, what you do or did, etc, etc. Lying is wrong. If you lie under oath you get justice. Yet why do we lie? Why have you lied? If we are good by nature and we also realize lying is not good, then why do we lie?

If you turn on the news do we actually see all the good in the world? Not really. OJ Simpson is acting out his good nature again, I guess. He will be going to jail. Enron company who lied about a whole lot, and these were well educated people, look what happened to them. Education does really make for an improved good person. Just look to Nazi Germany who had a very well educated people for its time compared to the rest of society. All the people everyday, millions of them who break the laws of driving by spedding or not fully stopping at stop signs. There are laws to the road, why do ppeople break them if they are good? If someone is good would they follow the laws? That would be good. Being good means more then just doing a few good things, it means doing good all the time and never not being good whether in the past, present or future. This is the ultimate idea I see as good. Can anyone of us say we are good?

Robin

jesusisgod

sorry education doesnt make for a good person

Satanus

I'm glad that you admit that you don't know the motives of the great people who have done large amounts of good for mankind. My impression of your standard of being good is that, they would have to give or do good in a totally selfless way, w no motives of any benefits to themselves. Also, if a person commits one lie, all the value of them as persons of good nature is totally voided. Is that correct? S

nvrgnbk

sorry education doesnt make for a good person

Spoken like the worshipper of a tyrannical God.

Sad emo

jesusisgod - would you agree that all good things come from God? Therefore whatever good deeds a person does, regardless of beliefs, regardless of their perceived personal motives - the ultimate reason for doing good is that innate nature in man - because man is made in God's image.

Just like I'm seeing the sun peeking through the thick clouds outside.

nvrgnbk

I really like the way you put things, Sad emo.

Sad emo

Thanks Nvr

I think this is what Paul was getting at when he visited the Greek temple with all the statues of the gods, and they had one dedicated 'to an unknown god' - I like (maybe rightly, maybe wrongly!) to see atheists/agnostics/etc who are living upright lives ('Christian' lives if you like!) as worshipping, maybe unawares, that unknown god - this goes back to AuldSoul's comment on your other thread, that the good things we do are acts of true worship whether we know it or not - mercy and justice, not animal sacrifices.

Abraham didn't follow any official religion as far as we know - he simply did what was right and was 'counted as righteous' and called a friend of God

brinjen

I fail to see how following a list of rules makes you a good person. It all sounds very mechanical to me...

It's the way you treat those around you that counts. Doing a kind deed for no other reason than because you want to. Or because that is what you would like someone to do for you in the same circumstance.

sorry education doesnt make for a good person

What are you basing this on? Education is about learning about the world around you. What makes it tick. Education is finding out for yourself and making informed decisions, not blindly following because someone told you to.

Are you a good person? Take the Bible challenge.

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