| Topic: Olympic opening ceremony |
|---|
| 41. Author: Andrew283 Date: Sun 4th Aug 2024. 10:50 Paralex, Sat 3 Aug 23:07 This is vile Reply |
| 42. Author: Paralex Date: Sun 4th Aug 2024. 13:38 And yet, the most inspirational Christians I have met, are those who have suffered most. My friends who lost both daughters before the age of 19. My former boss who lost his son at the age of 7. There is never an easy answer to suffering but when accepted in faith and trust in our God who knows all things, it can have remarkable effects in producing powerful Christian character. Trust in God is never in vain and those who allow Him to meet them in their deepest sorrows discover ever new depths of the Love of God. And my observation is that those who come out with the pretended indignation of illnesses of children, are the very one`s who are keen to promote "pro choice" which is the polite way of assenting to the murder of children in the womb. Post Edited (Sun 04 Aug 13:54) Reply |
| 43. Author: Wotsit Date: Sun 4th Aug 2024. 16:09 It was Dionysus. The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |
| 44. Author: P Date: Mon 5th Aug 2024. 12:02 I want to meet the creator who created god/the cloud wishing fairy, in fact the Karen in me wants to go even further up the management structure to meet his creator, I have some feedback. Reply |
| 45. Author: Wotsit Date: Mon 5th Aug 2024. 13:11 You`d have to meet about 3 billion individual beings, given that everyone who`s religious has their own unique notion of what their supreme being is like. Not even sub-sects can agree, never mind entire religions. Yet folk with faith are always prepared to tell us what we`re doing wrong in the most confident and self assured fashion. It`s almost like gods are created internally by each individual who believes in them. The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |
| 46. Author: red-star-par Date: Mon 5th Aug 2024. 14:20 Wotsit, Mon 5 Aug 13:11 Your own, personal, Jesus Reply |
| 47. Author: Wotsit Date: Mon 5th Aug 2024. 16:18 I prefer the Johnny Cash version. The Depeche Mode version is good too, although I suspect that it`s about heroin whereas the Johnny Cash version seems like a more literal, Jesusy, take. The Maralyn Manson version can get in the bin. I suppose we do all have our own personal Personal Jesus! The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |
| 48. Author: Paralex Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 01:06 One poster wants to know who created God. The Bible makes clear that God is an uncreated being and that created gods are idols. God wouldn`t be God, if He was created by someone else. The being who created him would supercede him as God. We can`t get our brains round that because we ourselves are created beings. Another poster says that everybody makes up details of their own God but the Bible is quite clear as to the characteristics of God. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, He is the creator of all things, He is Spirit, infinite and eternal, He transcends space, time and matter. He has created us in His image, He has revealed Himself in the scriptures of the old and new testaments, which clearly spell out the fall of humankind and the measures that He has taken to remedy the situation. Read through the whole Bible, the world best seller of today and all time, and you will have very little scope to make up your own God because it is very specific. Jesus also spells out Who He is and refers to the old testament prophecies that refer to Him. Our very calendar dates from His life. He is the watershed of world history and the Cross of Christ is the answer to the human dilemma ie why am I here, is there any purpose in life and what happens when I die. No wonder true Christians are confident about their beliefs Jesus by His Spirit living in their hearts, has opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Reply |
| 49. Author: P Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 06:02 But the bible is a fantasy fiction book written by men 🤷🏻♂️ Reply |
| 50. Author: Wotsit Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 07:28 I read the bible as a teenager. The whole thing. It turned me into a lifelong atheist. It is an abhorrent book, full of genocide and hate, men offering their daughters to be raped, petty vengeance, pointless cruelty, an obsession with power and control, justifications for slavery, etc, etc, etc. The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |
| 51. Author: Dave_1885 Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 08:28 Wotsit, Tue 6 Aug 07:28 Sounds about right for this “god” that they all believe in 🤷🏻♂️ Reply |
| 52. Author: Paralex Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 09:44 Sorry guys, you`ve been listening to the negative propaganda. An easy mistake to make because the human heart is naturally anti God. There is a natural inclination to twist the text to make it say something it doesn`t. For example " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" means only an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and no more. It is a check on human vendetta and vicious reprisals. But the central message is that Jesus Christ, God incarnate, gave His life for you and me. It is personal. He can answer the dilemma you have about life and death. " I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live". Sure, it seemed that God wanted to use His people, in the old testament to wage war and deal with nations which had descended into the depths of depravity. But didn`t he require our parents, grandparents and great grandparents to do something similar to the wicked Nazi regime. The history of humankind is far more twisted than you can imagine. Don`t be fooled by the easy answers. Slavery as it is described in the Bible is not the same as the slavery of the 18th and 19th Centuries. And there is no indication that God was in favour of it. In the Bible it mostly refers to a situation of employment or paying off a debt and most of the references are for fair dealing and protection of the " bond servant". Sure, some wicked people have misinterpreted texts and used them for their own evil ends. Slavery in our own country only came to an end because predominantly Evangelical Christians opposed it in the House of Commons. There was a majority of our ancestors who were in favour of it by voting for it to continue or by remaining silent. We are all implicated. It took decades of tireless campaigning by evangelical Christian William Wilberforce and others before anti slavery laws were introduced. Nowhere does the Bible condone forceably capturing and enslaving another person and it was only those who were touched by the grace of God in the Bible who were brave enough to oppose it. Post Edited (Tue 06 Aug 10:48) Reply |
| 53. Author: Wotsit Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 11:02 The bible is propaganda, huh? The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |
| 54. Author: Andrew283 Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 13:01 Wotsit, Tue 6 Aug 11:02 It`s OK though, it wasn`t the BAD slavery. They enjoyed it 🙄😂 Reply |
| 55. Author: Paralex Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 15:38 Andrew283 wrote: > Wotsit, Tue 6 Aug 11:02 > > It`s OK though, it wasn`t the BAD slavery. They enjoyed it > 🙄😂 It was a situation that the Israelis inherited and not one that God commanded. The good side of it was that it provided some security where there was no social security. The alternative for many would be sleeping rough. You could say our government hasn`t caught up with the compassionate principles in the Bible because every time I walk down Sauchiehall Street or visit Edinburgh the evidence of rough sleeping, homeless individuals is plain to see. So I wouldn`t be so self righteous, if I were you. Reply |
| 56. Author: Wotsit Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 16:06 So instead of working hard as a homelessness outreach worker (in Edinburgh) I should be more compassionate towards those whom society has failed by - checks notes - enslaving them? Post Edited (Tue 06 Aug 16:07) Reply |
| 57. Author: Paralex Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 16:46 No, in fact, by not kicking them out when they have no means of support and nowhere to stay. But I`m sure you knew that.🤔 Reply |
| 58. Author: Parboiled Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 17:04 Cheese Puff is always trumpeting his goody goodness..probably hangs his halo on the bedpost overnight. And dinnae get into theological battle with his mate, that’s just cruelty to an eejit Reply |
| 59. Author: Wotsit Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 18:13 Paralex, Tue 6 Aug 16:46 What`s any of that got to do with deities? It`s also worth pointing out that most people on the streets are there because they escaped from even more awful circumstances. Some of the most awful things imaginable happen under the camouflage of "family". This abuse happens often in Christian families as well as non-Christian. The majority of the ones who were kicked out were kicked out because they were making their family`s lives unbearable through violence or addiction. The circumstances under which this behaviour occurs is unrelated to faith Then there`s the mental health aspect (although that`s more chicken and egg) which impacts people on the street. I agree that empathy is hugely important when looking to help people who are struggling, and faith organisations are really good at that. For example, one area where Christian faith organisations excel in Edinburgh is with provision of high quality services. The only winter emergency shelter is run by Bethany, whilst various churches provide food and accommodation services. Another area where faith can help is in recovery from addiction. Many people are more likely to succeed if they replace the power the addiction has over them with faith. It works and it saves many people`s lives. The "giving oneself to a higher power" thing is the cornerstone of The Twelve Steps used by AA and related addiction recovery models. Faith has a positive contribution to make to society imo, but its secret sauce is its empathy, not its judgement. Sorry for the long post, I`m on a long bus journey and would rant about homelessness for hours if anybody would let me! The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |
| 60. Author: jake89 Date: Tue 6th Aug 2024. 22:19 Good on you, Wotsit. That`s a tough gig! Faith can definitely help people. What`s interesting though is people typically pick and choose which bits of a religion to follow whether that`s Christianity, Judaism, Islam or whatever. Religious scripture is almost always filled with contradiction and downright bizarre things. I don`t take things too seriously but I don`t believe in mocking someone`s religion. There are a lot of challenges for the LGBT community but surely the people at the ceremony would realise how their actions would be perceived? It`s not fair to pin the stupidity of a few individuals on the whole community but it`s obvious that would happen. Reply |