Originally posted by robbie carrobieWhat use is your unity to me - or anyone - if we don't subscribe to the beliefs or the purported "higher principles" that creates that unity for you?
you have still not stated why dissent is to be preferred than unity [...]we enjoy our unity, in fact i dont think there is anything quite like it in all the earth because we realise that there are higher principles than self.
Originally posted by FMFYou see John, this is where we just aren't connecting.
"God is the final authority" is a religious teaching. If I do not subscribe to this teaching, can I still have an afterlife? If you do subscribe to it, can you have an afterlife?
Why would you think that the phrase "God is the final authority" is a "religious" teaching?
If there is a being that has identified himself as the creator of all that exists, isn't it fitting that he should be the final authority about everything?
How is it "religious"? It's sound reasoning if you ask me.
I don't have much time left here today. I may fall asleep at any moment.
Originally posted by josephwI am not called John. My forum name is FMF.
You see John, this is where we just aren't connecting.
Why would you think that the phrase "God is the final authority" is a "religious" teaching?.
Because I do not believe that God has revealed Himself to you. Nothing you have ever said to me makes me think He has. So, the contention that He is the "final authority" is a religious belief that you happen to have and it is the result of teachings that you have been exposed to and have subscribed to.
If there is a being that has identified himself as the creator of all that exists, isn't it fitting that he should be the final authority about everything?
I don't accept that He has "identified Himself as the creator of all that exists". This is a tenet of religious teaching that you subscribe to.
How is it "religious"?
It's an element of codified belief - an assertion based on speculation - pertaining to a deity, that is laid out in your religious literature, and which forms part of a wider set of beliefs dealing with explanations, codes of conduct, and predicted outcomes (the chief among which is the prospect of immortality); this is how it is "religious".
It's sound reasoning if you ask me.
This assertion that it is "sound reasoning", again, is a tenet of your religious faith.
Originally posted by josephwSo you think everybody can enjoy an 'afterlife' even if they do NOT believe that "God is the final authority" and even if they do not live their lives in accordance with one of the religious creeds that flows from assertions about 'God's authority', such as Muslims or Christians or Jews?
I do not believe I will have an afterlife if I live my life in accordance with certain religious teachings. Eternal life is a free gift. One cannot "do" or "live" a life in such a way as to ascertain eternal life. [...]
Originally posted by LemonJelloahh yes, swelling expressions of no profit.
[b]what have you got to offer as an alternative?
Freedom from your intellectual slavery? Dry trousers?[/b]
(2 Peter 2:17-20) These are fountains without water, and mists driven by a violent
storm, and for them the blackness of darkness has been reserved. For they utter
swelling expressions of no profit, and by the desires of the flesh and by loose habits
they entice those who are just escaping from people who conduct themselves in
error. While they are promising them freedom, they themselves are existing as
slaves of corruption. For whoever is overcome by another is enslaved by this
one. Certainly if, after having escaped from the defilements of the world by an
accurate knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they get involved again
with these very things and are overcome, the final conditions have become worse
for them than the first.
Originally posted by FMFno you have misunderstood the text. If we are really helping persons overcome all
You mean going door to door telling people stuff like "We Are One" and the end times are here? How is it you think that this kind of thing makes your opinions "certified"?
manner of ill from prostitution to drug abuse and those persons who adopt our teaching
and our mode of life are really being helped and set free from all kinds of vice then this
certifies the validity of our teaching or will you argue that such works are not proving
the validity of our teaching and we would be better off as independent units
philosophising about this or that? I dont think so. Philosophy is one thing, spirituality
quite another.
Originally posted by robbie carrobieYour helping people to overcome problems does not "prove the validity" of your theories and assertions about God and about your religion's literature, robbie.
If we are really helping persons overcome all
manner of ill from prostitution to drug abuse and those persons who adopt our teaching
and our mode of life are really being helped and set free from all kinds of vice then this
certifies the validity of our teaching or will you argue that such works are not proving
the validity of our teaching an ...[text shortened]... ng about this or that? I dont think so. Philosophy is one thing, spirituality
quite another.
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Originally posted by FMFI think it does FMF, sorry, it makes our teachings very valid,
Your helping people to overcome problems does not "prove the validity" of your theories and assertions about God and about your religion's literature, robbie.
(2 Timothy 3:14-15) . . .You, however, continue in the things that you learned and
were persuaded to believe, knowing from what persons you learned them and that
from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise
for salvation through the faith in connection with Christ Jesus. . .
wise FMF, able to make wise, now what is wisdom but the application of knowledge?
what kind of knowledge are we imparting, well, knowledge that helps persons to act
wisely, to overcome addictions and horrendous circumstances. To free themselves
from the influence of gangs and criminality, indeed you will now state why this is not
the course of wisdom and why it does not validate our teaching, if you please.