Originally posted by Wheely
You have to admit that if you only wanted to convey people and/or materials from one place to another, you could do it more efficiently without carrying an airstrip and fleet of attack aircraft around with you.

It doesn't have a lot to do with the teachings of Jesus per se but it sort of sprung out of somebody talking about vegetables and desert in a way w ...[text shortened]... istianity in the first place.

This, of course, sounds almost as bizarre as it actually is.

Well. I agree with you there!

Originally posted by Nordlys
Here are some of the things which don't make sense to me. Of course different Christians have different interpretations, so some of my examples only go for certain interpretations of Christianity.

- The discrepancies between the old and the new testament
- The idea that some people deserve eternal torture, and what's more, that even people who tried to d ...[text shortened]... give us a choice, and then not accepting the choice we make, but punishing the wrong choice

That seems a very small selection from the remarkable number you could have chosen from!

Originally posted by Wheely
That seems a very small selection from the remarkable number you could have chosen from!

Yes.

Originally posted by Nordlys
It's important to eat vegetables because they contain a lot of vitamines. Now if you'd eat the pudding first, and you'd find a fly in the pudding, you might be so disgusted that you wouldn't want to eat the vegetables afterwards. So it's safer to start with the vegetables.

If you are looking for the reason for something, always look for flies.

Ok, I understand the reasoning here (thanks for the fly tip by the way!) but I wonder if there is a more efficient solution to the fly problem than just making sure you eat desert after the vegetables.

If you throw your desert away because you were disgusted with the fly in your vegetables then you will be forced to "think of the starving people around the world" who,it seems, are always happy to eat discarded pudding. On top of that, you will continue to be hungry and yet unable to eat due to the earlier fly trauma. If you live in a house with a lot of flies you could end up with terminal pudding guilt and/or serious malnutrition.

I therefore propose that in future, vegetables and desert be mixed together and eaten as one dish. This will have the side effect of explaining Christian fundamentalism.

Originally posted by Nordlys
Here are some of the things which don't make sense to me. Of course different Christians have different interpretations, so some of my examples only go for certain interpretations of Christianity.

- The discrepancies between the old and the new testament
- The idea that some people deserve eternal torture, and what's more, that even people who tried to d ...[text shortened]... give us a choice, and then not accepting the choice we make, but punishing the wrong choice

- The discrepancies between the old and the new testament
With the givens, I can't think of one. Perhaps you are able to offer one of these contradictions?

- The idea that some people deserve eternal torture, and what's more, that even people who tried to do their best, but didn't believe in God, deserve eternal torture
I find it more perposterous to imagine anyone deserving heaven than I do all of us deserving hell. And what is the torture, in your mind? Surely you are not of the persuasion that Satan and his henchmen will spend eternity stoking the fires of hell, and rumbling around poking people with their pitchforks. The 'torture' is the unrelenting knowledge of each individual's choice--- against God.

- The idea that God's son had to die on the cross to save the world
Who else was qualified?

- God creating evil to give us a choice, and then not accepting the choice we make, but punishing the wrong choice
The choice was not either God or evil, but rather, either God's system of life or Satan's system of good and evil. The remedy was God paying the price for our wrong choice, our part nothing more than non-meritorious faith.

Originally posted by Wheely
It's very easy, it just takes time.

Be honest, respectful and as ethical in your decisions as it is possible for you to be. People follow that, even when they don't think they do.

Nils Bohr once said "If you have a decision to make, choose the option that has a heart" or something like that.

I thought this was what Gandhi , MLK and their ilke actually did. They were inspired by Jesus in many respects.

Originally posted by Nordlys
1- The discrepancies between the old and the new testament
2- The idea that some people deserve eternal torture, and what's more, that even people who tried to do their best, but didn't believe in God, deserve eternal torture
3 - The idea that God's son had to die on the cross to save the world
4 - That God demands to be loved - love should be something whic ...[text shortened]... o give us a choice, and then not accepting the choice we make, but punishing the wrong choice[/b]

I agree with 4 but God doesn't demand to be loved he just says that "love the Lord your God with all your heart" is the greatest commandment. Why do you think he wants us to love him , because he is insecure and needs our affection? No , it's because he has our interests at heart , he commands it for us not for him.

As for 5 , how do you think "love can be given freely" (4) unless we are also free to rebel (evil). He does not punish the "wrong choice" as it were , it's more a case of a person's separation from God (their choice) being it's own punishment. He can't force us to go to heaven and fufill the only purpose for which we were created. If someone actively chooses misery than that is what they end up having.

1- The discrepancies between the OT and NT are to be expected really. Judaism (OT) was being superceded by Christianity (NT) . The whole point of the NT was that it was correcting and clarifying aspects of the OT that were not accurate (eg - addressing religious legalism ). They're not supposed to agree , but if you like your religion all neat and tidy with a colour by numbers guide and felt pens then you will have a problem with it.