@fmf saidNot true because I didn’t become a Christian due to a Christian environment and I can point you to others that were in one culture and have switched
"Nurture" refers to whatever you are exposed to, your upbringing, your socialization. Interest in the Christian Bible is something you absorbed from your human environment. That's where you and every religious person gets their religious beliefs from. "Nature" is whatever results from your hard wiring. Do you think that religious beliefs can make good people do bad things?
@kellyjay saidAnything in your human environment is "nurture": geographical locations, colleagues, friends, neighbours, books, education, culture, arts & literature, highs and lows, travel, tragedies, experiences. Exposure to or access to the Bible is an element of "nurture".
Not true because I didn’t become a Christian due to a Christian environment and I can point you to others that were in one culture and have switched
@fmf saidI've shared with you my past before I became a Christian, I didn't have anyone in it that would have given me a clue about Christianity. I knew no one who was, and if there were anyone who was, they hid it well. When I was a little kid my parent thought I should go once to see if I wanted it to be part of my life, they sent me into church alone, game me money to put into the plate when it was passed around. The plate came, I put the money in it and left, I did what I was sent to do. They asked if I wanted to go back I said no, I think I was around 5 or 6 at the time.
Anything in your human environment is "nurture": geographical locations, colleagues, friends, neighbours, books, education, culture, arts & literature, highs and lows, travel, tragedies, experiences. Exposure to or access to the Bible is an element of "nurture".
Here is an example of someone coming from a devout Muslim family going against your nature environment.
@kellyjay saidYou don't seem to understand the difference between "nature" and nurture".
I've shared with you my past before I became a Christian, I didn't have anyone in it that would have given me a clue about Christianity. I knew no one who was, and if there were anyone who was, they hid it well. When I was a little kid my parent thought I should go once to see if I wanted it to be part of my life, they sent me into church alone, game me money to put into the ...[text shortened]... om a devout Muslim family going against your nature environment.
[youtube] IBGK-8fjpHM [/youtube]
@whodey saidGood question.
Was Adam and Eve superficially good?
Obviously, Christian doctrine would suggest that no one is purely good, and so the concept of a good man has room for sin.
Perhaps the ideologically appropriate response would eb that none are actually bad that we can judge (Mt. 7:1). But, in conventional terms, it is difficult to not call someone who does atrocious things bad.
I have no good answer for the Adam & Eve question.
@fmf saidI just reject your views it isn't that I don't understand. God can and does reach into every life regardless. Our choices are our choices, they can take us down a path but the places we are brought up do not bind us to the culture as chains we cannot leave.
You don't seem to understand the difference between "nature" and nurture".
@fmf saidLiving in a free country didn't hinder my not being exposed to the Bible, but having a family that didn't bother did. There was no one that prayed, no one that read the scriptures, no one that went to church in my life. I didn't met a religious person until I joined the Navy and that was a Mormon not a Christian.
Exposure to or access to the Bible is an element of "nurture".
@kellyjay saidReading the Bible and joining a religion is "nurture" not "nature".
Living in a free country didn't hinder my not being exposed to the Bible, but having a family that didn't bother did. There was no one that prayed, no one that read the scriptures, no one that went to church in my life. I didn't met a religious person until I joined the Navy and that was a Mormon not a Christian.