by boyzone 88 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Explain to me why the accident of your birthplace defines your religion?
It doesn't define your religion. If that were true there would never be conversions. Paul was born a Jew but converted to Christianity. There are plenty of Iraqi Christians that prove your premise wrong.
JD II
I am evil
I am the anti-buddha
I'll do better than that. "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation." Roman Catholic Cathechism at p. 244 section 847.
"The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims;..." (ibid., p. 242, section 841).
Leaves no room for atheists
If I could paraphrase:
Rule 1 - If I don't know about your invisible friend its not my fault, neccesarily
Rule 2 - I must try and locate said invisible, silent, imaginary friend
Rule 3 - Silent, invisible, imaginary friend can grant me salvation, even if I'm a Muslim prepared to deny my initial silent, invisible imaginary friend
and you have added your own Rule 4 - atheists are banned - perhaps because we struggle with Rules 1-3.
My goodness - is this the best intellectual effort theists can offer these days? Can someone please help Dough?
All very playground.
It doesn't define your religion. If that were true there would never be conversions. Paul was born a Jew but converted to Christianity. There are plenty of Iraqi Christians that prove your premise wrong
So you see no correlation between country of birth and religious outcome?
Of course there are individual conversions - you happen to have selected Paul as an example - he effectively converted to the religion he started - Paul was a cult leader, and that entailed a conversion. Much like CT Russell and other cult leaders - they weren't born that way - left to their own devices they would have been atheists ;-)
I'm unclear the point you are trying to make about Iraq - 97% Muslim 3% Other (includes some Christians) according to the CIA World Factbook.
If you are born in Iraq you will probably be Muslim. If you are born in the West you will probably be Christian.
If you think you're religious outcome is your 'choice' then I'm happy for you to believe that, but the facts indicate otherwise.
So you see no correlation between country of birth and religious outcome?
I never said that if you read my post carefully. Of course there is a correlation. It's just not cast in concrete. Even at three percent your premise is wrong. You might have worded your sentence more carefully, but even that lends itself to problems, for you.
I responded to an absolute statement of yours that "It doesn't define your religion." That's not true. It can, but it isn't a necessary consequence. Nowhere does Scripture say that ALL of a particular false faith would convert. Only few are chosen.
As for specifics, large swaths of the pagan world underwent conversion to Christianity. What were Muslims before they became Muslims? You want to look at it over a span of time as well.
he effectively converted to the religion he started - Paul was a cult leader, and that entailed a conversion. Much like CT Russell and other cult leaders - they weren't born that way - left to their own devices they would have been atheists ;-)
Say what? Come on, man. Get real. All you atheists have something deep and dark to hide, something you're embarrassed of. That's why you won't come to the light. For that reason alone the JWs are better than you, the good ones. And there really are some good ones in there, fine decent people, not hateful like the atheists and God-haters. Of course they can turn on a dime and allow themselves to believe in lies, but many are really nice good decent people with high moral standards. Fact.
Ad hominem attack now JD? Surely you can do better than that?
I never said that if you read my post carefully. Of course there is a correlation. It's just not cast in concrete.
So what religion would you be if you had been born in Iraq?
