Posts by PSacramento

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

PSacramento

But this thread has been about natural evil where the free will defense is not applicable.

Quite correct, though I don't agree with the term "natural evil", nature is not evil.

Regardless, it has been tried a few times and shown conclusively to be inadmissible.

Unacceptable you mean?

But you can. We have treated it in some detail and shown why it fails as an answer to natural evil for a god of love.

Ah, the issue is how do we define Love for a being that transcends our emotional AND temporal understanding of love?

It is very hard for us to reconcile a God of love with one that allows for horrific events and countless deaths because of the emotion attached to those events and rightly so. The moment we reject a view because it doesn't reconcile the with our notion of a God of LOVE then it seems we are making an emotional issue out of it ( not that there is anything wrong with that mind you) and that doesn't make the argument invalid or incorrect as much as "emotionally unaccetable".

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

PSacramento

Any answer that doesn't involve special pleading. By the way I concluded that all the answers were trite when I was still a born-again christian.

I think that atheist have a very valid point when they say an answer is not good enough for them.

Which is another way of saying that you have no rational answer, but you are willing to settle for anything that lets god off the hook, however inadequate.

I appreciate your honesty but how is that different from the way we used to make excuses for the failures of the Watchtower?

No, I think that what I may view as a rational answer may not be views as such by you or maybe as a good enough answer ( the free will argument for example).

The failure of the watchtower ( or anyone that sets themselves up as an unquestionable authority) are far different from the statements of an individual trying to fighure things out and stating what they believe is there view on a matter.

I don't let God off the hook and while I am agree with a certain doctrines that SEEMS to let Him off the hook ( like the view that God doesn't see death like we do, that since it is not permanent for Him He doesn't see it as a problem to be solved, etc...) I don't like them that much.

I can't argue that the above view ( God doesn't see death like we do) isn't a valid one, even if I don't like it.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

PSacramento

Sorry i meant to say " the evidence should never convict"

Well, evidence doesn't always equal proof, BUT I am still not sure what you are saying...

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

PSacramento

Psarcamento...you sound like " Hilton" ... " but there ought to be" so desperately " And, oh God if only there were....."

I have no clue what you are referring to here...sorry.

30

Hey There, so...what have I missed in the last couple of years?

by PSacramento in

jw
friends

hi everyone,.

so...what have i missed in the last couple of years?.

.

PSacramento

That's too bad.

30

Hey There, so...what have I missed in the last couple of years?

by PSacramento in

jw
friends

hi everyone,.

so...what have i missed in the last couple of years?.

.

PSacramento

Did any of your theology teachers NOT believe in God?

All of them did, though not to the same degree I think.

The views of certain doctrines were not always expressed the same, like the inerrancy of the bible for example.

30

Hey There, so...what have I missed in the last couple of years?

by PSacramento in

jw
friends

hi everyone,.

so...what have i missed in the last couple of years?.

.

PSacramento

AAWA ??I guess so...

30

Hey There, so...what have I missed in the last couple of years?

by PSacramento in

jw
friends

hi everyone,.

so...what have i missed in the last couple of years?.

.

PSacramento

Everything Ok with Lady Lee?

30

Hey There, so...what have I missed in the last couple of years?

by PSacramento in

jw
friends

hi everyone,.

so...what have i missed in the last couple of years?.

.

PSacramento

Sacramento is my family name :)

DO I think the bible is Inerrant?

Well, that depends on what one means by inerrant as it applies to the different books of the bible, the different genres.

I believe that the bible, for its intended purpose ( which IMO was to point the way to Christ) is without error.

Does that mean that the bible is without ANY error?

No.

It is the Word of God as passed on to selective men and put into human words for the purpose of bringing man closer to God.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

PSacramento

Thanks Cofty,

Good to see you doing well my friend.

I can't begin to put a number on the hours I have spent wrestling with these very questions.

Indeed, any theist SHOULD put in those hours, shoudl question, should try to find out the answers.

That said, I have yet to hear from an athiest as to WHAT answer they WOULD find satisfying, which I understand because that is a very hard question to answer IF it canbe answered.

For myself I know that there are certain explanations that hold weight for me BUT I openly admit that part of that is because I choose to have faith in God and that faith allows me to accept them a valid one ( not necessarily that they are right per say).