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Originally posted by RBHILLIf I fail to come to know the truth, will that be entirely my fault?
If you are 100% sure where you will spend Eternity?
Well because I am a Christian and I would love for you to be saved so I can see you at the big feast in heaven someday. I am praying for you all to come to know the truth, that will set you free from all sin and doubt/fear.
http://www.heargoodnews.org/gospel/doyouknow.html
For example, suppose I listen for days on end to you and the other Christian fundamentalists, absorbing all the information you can provide, but I *still* don't find it convincing. Is this my fault? Can I help it if I am not convinced? I don't think I can. I don't see how I can believe anything through effort: I end up convinced or not by the way my mind works, not because I exert or fail to exert effort in sufficient quantities.
Do you assume that, if I don't believe what you do, I must have bad irrational reasons for doing so? That would be highly invidious.
Another question: If I come to know they truth (as you define it), and your prayer *helps* me to come to know it, will I deserve salvation less because you helped my by praying for me? You would be partly responsible, then, wouldn't you, so wouldn't there be less room for me to be responsible? So, will people who are prayed for less deserve salvation more?
Even more critically, are the people whom you don't pray for (or who tend not to be prayed for by Christians generally) at a disadvantage? Are they more likely to go to hell? Are famous people, who are more often included in people's thoughts, like Princess Diana, more likely to go to heaven than obscure people, like Pawnokeyhole (notwithstanding RBHILL's potent petitions)? If prayer really does help, then I think the answer must be yes, unless God does something extra like make nonspecific prayers more powerful than specific prayers, so that the famous don't get favoured...
Originally posted by PawnokeyholeNo one deserves salvation at all. Not myself. Not RBHILL. Salvation is totally of grace, independent of anything any of us can do. So no one deserves it more or less than anyone else.
Another question: If I come to know they truth (as you define it), and your prayer *helps* me to come to know it, will I deserve salvation less because you helped my by praying for me? You would be partly responsible, then, wouldn't you, so wouldn't there be less room for me to be responsible? So, will people who are prayed for less deserve salvation ...[text shortened]... nspecific prayers more powerful than specific prayers, so that the famous don't get favoured...
Each of us is responsible for whether or not we turn to God to save us from our sins. We are all sinners. That is what separates us from God. There is only one answer -- Jesus' death that covers over our sins. Apart from Him, we cannot overcome our sins, and God cannot have a relationship with us. God must judge our sins unless they are forgiven by Christ. But we must turn to Christ repentantly, recognizing that we are helpless to overcome our sin and that we need His forgiveness.
God is more powerful than anyone's prayers. If he chooses to save someone, it will not depend on whether or not any of us prays for them. But that is a very different topic. And a complex one. No one can ever say they weren't saved because no one prayed for them. If a person is not saved, it's because they have not come to Christ for forgiveness.
Originally posted by joelekAman.
No one deserves salvation at all. Not myself. Not RBHILL. Salvation is totally of grace, independent of anything any of us can do. So no one deserves it more or less than anyone else.
Each of us is responsible for whether or not we turn to God to save us from our sins. We are all sinners. That is what separates us from God. There is only one answer ...[text shortened]... for them. If a person is not saved, it's because they have not come to Christ for forgiveness.
Originally posted by NemesioIf people were nothing more than physical substances I would agree. You can’t mix chemicals in a laboratory and produce an emotion.
Well, certainly you can't argue this point in the physical realm, right?
I mean, this is pretty easy to demonstrate.
Nemesio
This is where science and evolution break down. Random and impersonal chemical reactions cannot explain consciousness.
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Originally posted by The Chess ExpressJust a second.
If people were nothing more than physical substances I would agree. You can’t mix chemicals in a laboratory and produce an emotion.
This is where science and evolution break down. Random and impersonal chemical reactions cannot explain consciousness.
You can influence emotions with chemicals.
Just shoot a subject up with adrenaline or dopamine and you'll see.
Emotions are simply neurotransmitters (chemicals) being perceived
by the body.
Nemesio
edit: hold on...emotions or consciousness? What's the topic?