Christianity is the Best religion

[Alphabit]

... It's the only major religion that claims that not believing in it will condemn you to eternal damnation.
Even Islam makes a point that hell isn't necessarily eternal.

So if you want to improve your chances of getting into heaven, you'd better become a Christian because at least, if you stuff up and... let's assume, Buddhism has it right, then you'd only spend a limited amount of time in hell before being reincarnated. Whereas, if you're Muslim and you turn out to be wrong and Christianity turns out to be right, then you'd be doomed forever!

So yeah. There you have it... Or, you can call yourself 'agnostic' and hope that God (if there is one) will find mercy in his heart to forgive you for your excessive wisdom and awareness.

[SadisticMonkey]

Or you can reject this bullshit as a pathetic myth conceived by sick minds.

[Black-Lightning]

At 12/9/07 02:34 AM, SadisticMonkey wrote: Or you can reject this bullshit as a pathetic myth conceived by sick minds.

I'd rather die, believing in Christ, and proven wrong, than to die not believing and proven wrong.
Seriously. What's the hurt?

[SteveGuzzi]

At 12/9/07 02:02 AM, Alphabit wrote: ... It's the only major religion that claims that not believing in it will condemn you to eternal damnation.

Really? In what source does Christianity -- as an entire religion -- claim that you must believe in every one of its tenets or otherwise be condemned to eternal damnation?

The last time I checked, there was only one thing in Christianity that is said to eternally condemn a person, and that's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit... which is something a person could be guilty of regardless what religious group they do or don't belong to.

"Truly I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter: but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin: because they say, 'He has an unclean spirit'." - Mark 3:28-29

"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." - Matthew 12:30-32

So yeah. There you have it... Or, you can call yourself 'agnostic' and hope that God (if there is one) will find mercy in his heart to forgive you for your excessive wisdom and awareness.

Your post was completely devoid of both wisdom and awareness, so at this point there isn't much reason for you to be getting worried about the excess thereof.

[Alphabit]

At 12/9/07 02:47 AM, StephanosGnomon wrote:

At 12/9/07 02:02 AM, Alphabit wrote: ... It's the only major religion that claims that not believing in it will condemn you to eternal damnation.

Really? In what source does Christianity -- as an entire religion -- claim that you must believe in every one of its tenets or otherwise be condemned to eternal damnation?

The last time I checked, there was only one thing in Christianity that is said to eternally condemn a person, and that's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit... which is something a person could be guilty of regardless what religious group they do or don't belong to.

"Truly I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter: but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin: because they say, 'He has an unclean spirit'." - Mark 3:28-29

"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." - Matthew 12:30-32

So yeah. There you have it... Or, you can call yourself 'agnostic' and hope that God (if there is one) will find mercy in his heart to forgive you for your excessive wisdom and awareness.

Your post was completely devoid of both wisdom and awareness, so at this point there isn't much reason for you to be getting worried about the excess thereof.

The Bible says that not believing in Jesus will land you in condemn you to eternal damnation.
Here's just one quotation from the Bible:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his ONLY BEGOTTEN Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)"

Ok, you could argue that it only tells you what'll happen if you DO believe in Jesus but it doesn't specify what happens if you don't... But then again, if that was the case, what the hell is the point of even writing down this sentence?... Surely Saint John must have better things to do. Also, I doubt that God is a smart alec.

[SteveGuzzi]

At 12/9/07 03:22 AM, Alphabit wrote: The Bible says that not believing in Jesus will land you in condemn you to eternal damnation.

I gave you two quotes attributed directly to Jesus, which both describe in similar terms what can land a person eternal damnation, and how that everything else can be forgiven. Jesus even says you can blaspheme against him and be forgiven for it.

You gave one quote... which was irrelevent to the entire topic.

...

You suck at this.

[poxpower]

But assume there's a religion that you don't know about that sends you to hell forever if you're a christian...
Man I wouldn't want to be a Christian if that religion turned out to be true.

[stafffighter]

Jesus was Jewish, just to highten the irony.

[SadisticMonkey]

At 12/9/07 02:39 AM, Black-Lightning wrote: What's the hurt?

Wasting your life.

[Alphabit]

At 12/9/07 03:28 AM, StephanosGnomon wrote:

At 12/9/07 03:22 AM, Alphabit wrote: The Bible says that not believing in Jesus will land you in condemn you to eternal damnation.

I gave you two quotes attributed directly to Jesus, which both describe in similar terms what can land a person eternal damnation, and how that everything else can be forgiven. Jesus even says you can blaspheme against him and be forgiven for it.

You gave one quote... which was irrelevent to the entire topic.

...

You suck at this.

Are you saying that the 10 commandments are meaningless so long as you don't commit blasphemy?
Surely, 99.999% of Christians would disagree with you totally... If what you say were the case, we might as well rip out half of the pages in the Bible. Why would God almighty overight his own laws? It's not like he doesn't have the power to make up his own mind.

[SadisticMonkey]

Also, wouldn't the idea of eternal damnation make it the worst religion?

[SteveGuzzi]

At 12/9/07 03:41 AM, Alphabit wrote: Are you saying that the 10 commandments are meaningless so long as you don't commit blasphemy?

Look kid, don't misrepresent what I said.

I told you that Jesus, who is what Christianity is all about, said that only one sin was unforgivable whereas other sins could be forgiven. That doesn't mean everything else is 'meaningless'. The fact that forgiveness is even associated with them infers that they are still bad things... if they weren't bad, then there'd be no point in granting forgiveness for them.

...

You have completely and utterly failed to back up your original post, and have done nothing but reveal just how much wisdom and awareness you really possess, ie. "not much."

[fahrenheit]

At 12/9/07 03:41 AM, SadisticMonkey wrote: Wasting your life.

how is believing in something wasting your life?

[Sajberhippien]

At 12/9/07 04:45 AM, fahrenheit wrote:

At 12/9/07 03:41 AM, SadisticMonkey wrote: Wasting your life.

how is believing in something wasting your life?

If it affects how you act, then it may be a waste of life.

[SteveGuzzi]

At 12/9/07 04:45 AM, fahrenheit wrote: how is believing in something wasting your life?

At 12/9/07 05:35 AM, Sajberhippien wrote: If it affects how you act, then it may be a waste of life.

But ideally, a person's beliefs SHOULD affect how they act.

In other words, if a person believes in following the Golden Rule, then they SHOULD act like it... but how many truly do? Who "wastes more life" -- the person whose actions follow their beliefs, or the person whose actions are contrary to the beliefs they hold?

Howsabout this: if it makes a person act intentionally in a manner that is harmful towards others, THEN you can say it's a waste of life.

[cellardoor6]

At 12/9/07 03:22 AM, Alphabit wrote:

The Bible says that not believing in Jesus will land you in condemn you to eternal damnation.
Here's just one quotation from the Bible:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his ONLY BEGOTTEN Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)"

That doesn't say that everyone who doesn't follow Christianity as interpreted by the current Christian faiths is condemned to "eternal damnation".

Ok, you could argue that it only tells you what'll happen if you DO believe in Jesus but it doesn't specify what happens if you don't...

Bingo, then quit filling in the voids with your own logic. Quit claiming something that Christianity is saying something that it doesn't even really claim.

But then again, if that was the case, what the hell is the point of even writing down this sentence?...

Maybe people have a chance to accept Christ after death? Maybe salvation isn't something you can only attain through a certain church?

[stinkychops]

how can you say any religion is better than another
all religions are designed to control people and society. This is usually a good thing with the boundries being set around what is right or wrong but it is only when the usually good ideals are percieved in the wrong light that a religion becomes bad.
the christians/catholics have their crusades and consumerism
and the islamic have their suicide bombings
any religion has a good or bad side
heres a hypothetical situation for you, if no-one belived in jesus/god or went against the ten commandments, then everyone would all be sinners, and god would have no power (assuming he exists) because a god is only as powerful as he is followed in society.

[stinkychops]

also cant someone become a christian at any stage in their life and therefore all the sinning time of non belief would be forgiven. If you say no then all those babies unable to comprehend sins are sinners.

Also what if someone was never told of god, and therefore never had a shot at worship how is it all fair to damn them to hell.

[stinkychops]

At 12/9/07 06:43 AM, stinkychops wrote: also cant someone become a christian at any stage in their life and therefore all the sinning time of non belief would be forgiven. If you say no then all those babies unable to comprehend sins are sinners.

Also what if someone was never told of god, and therefore never had a shot at worship how is it all fair to damn them to hell.

whoops i ment
{all those babies unable to comprehend jesus and therefore believe he exists before babtism are sinners.}

[Al6200]

In Catholic doctrine, people who don't worship God but still lead good, wholesome lives go to a section of hell called Limbo (this includes unbaptized babies). While it technically is eternal damnation, Limbo isn't really bad per say.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbo

Its difficult to describe, but Dante's Divine Comedy describes it as a massive medieval castle, that while nice, doesn't achieve the pure bliss of heaven.

So to say that unbaptized babies suffer eternal damnation under the Catholic doctrine is technically correct, but doesn't really consider the complexity of the Catholic hell.

If someone did grow up in a Christian culture and became atheist, I believe they'd go to a worse part of hell, but I'm not completely sure.

[Drakim]

Look, this assumes that one of the current religions HAS to be true. What if the real religion was forgotten long ago? What if it never took root and disappeared before people ever knew it?

What if none of the religions are true to God? Maybe the religion that would please him does not exist. Maybe he doesn't want you to worship him though a religion at all?

You say that Christianity is the best bet because it has the worst consequences if it is true. Well, then I'll make a new religion here and now:

Antitheistianity
Anybody who is a theist, (believes in God), goes to hell forever, burning and burning and burning. This hell is slightly worse than the hell in Christianity. Only way to not go there is to not be an theist.

There, congratulations, Christianity now longer is the best bet by your logic. Convert plz.

[Brick-top]

That's called Pascal's wager. Made by a French philosopher about 350 years ago.

You see, there are thousands of Religions out there. Some of them having a Heaven and Hell scenario. So what if by converting to Christianity I could be angering the ONE TRUE GOD / GODS even more? I could be condemning myself to an eternity of damnation by doing something that you consider to be a good idea.

AND if God is all knowing an all powerful, don't you think that he would know that I'm only converting because I want to get into Heaven? And not because I truly believe in him?

My friend, this is a archaic and flawed attempt to covert people.

[KeithHybrid]

My religion is right and yours is wrong.

That's what I'm getting out of this.

[The-Hydra-of-Spore]

At 12/9/07 02:39 AM, Black-Lightning wrote:

At 12/9/07 02:34 AM, SadisticMonkey wrote: Or you can reject this bullshit as a pathetic myth conceived by sick minds.

I'd rather die, believing in Christ, and proven wrong, than to die not believing and proven wrong.
Seriously. What's the hurt?

Well that's silly. If there is a god you go and meet him, and he tells you to fuck off for only believing in him "Just in case." or maybe this "God" gets more pissed off if you worship the wrong one than not believing in him/her at all. Why don't we believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster "Just in case"? It's a pathetic argument. I follow my beliefs by reading both sides of the argument sitting down having a good think and deciding what I think is right.

[lapis]

These verses are probably also relevant.

Matthew 19:16-19:

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied,
- do not murder
- do not commit adultery (!)
- do not steal
- do not give false testimony
- honor your father and mother
- and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'

The next two verses are as follows:

"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Notable absentees form Jesus' list of six commandments that one should follow if he wants to enter the Kingdom of the Father are of course the ones about accepting YHWH as 'elohekha' and having no other Gods before Him. You have to follow Jesus only if you want to be perfect and obtain "treasure" in Heaven, and that might only be through imitating his actions, not by simply accepting him as being the son and incarnation of God.

But that's just my take on it.

[Empanado]

At 12/9/07 11:36 AM, lapis wrote: You have to follow Jesus only if you want to be perfect and obtain "treasure" in Heaven, and that might only be through imitating his actions, not by simply accepting him as being the son and incarnation of God.

But doesn't that means that I'm still going to hell if I don't gouge my eyes out after watching porn? (and married, I guess)

[lapis]

At 12/9/07 11:59 AM, Empanado wrote: But doesn't that means that I'm still going to hell if I don't gouge my eyes out after watching porn? (and married, I guess)

Just watch Hentai instead.

[Christopherr]

Read The Divine Comedy by Dante. He's one of the most notable, and not to mention one of the oldest, Christian philosophers. He even says that Hell is not eternal damnation, and one must serve out his sins (each sin to its own punishment) until he may go to Purgatory, then to Heaven. He is one of the few who has realized that it is stupid to punish someone forever for less than 100 years of mistakes.

[lapis]

At 12/9/07 12:33 PM, maddskill wrote: In the bible it never says erernal damnation.

Heh, this passage very closely resembles Matthew 5:27-29.

Matthew:18:8:

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

[Drakim]

At 12/9/07 12:41 PM, lapis wrote:

At 12/9/07 12:33 PM, maddskill wrote: In the bible it never says erernal damnation.

Heh, this passage very closely resembles Matthew 5:27-29.

Matthew:18:8:

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

This verse only says that the fire is eternal (won't go out like normal fire), not that your stay there is.