It's an interesting chapter in the history of interpretation. Margaret Mitchell and Rowan Greer have an interesting book on how 1 Sam. 28 was debated in the early Church. It's curious that she's regularly called a 'witch' in the chapter headings, but not in the text (typically called a medium or necromancer on the basis of the Hebrew אוב). In Greek, she's called a "belly-myther" (ἐγγαστρίμυθος) or something like a ventriloquist, the idea being that demons spoke from one's belly.
It's especially stupid because, while the evening is an historically pagan holiday--the actually name 'Halloween' is of Christian origin commemorating the Hallowed evening before All Hallows or All Saints day.
<sigh>
http://wikitravel.org/en/Indonesian_phrasebook
http://jakarta.usembassy.gov/us-service.html
English is a fairly common international language. Considering that you're managing to post on the internet, I'd say it's fairly likely you have a phone. You can call your travel agency and the Embassy. Call the company you hired your interpreter from. You have 8 days. Your life hasn't ended. Traveling to a foreign country without any familiarization with the language was a big mistake, but you have access to plenty of resources to get by. Memorize enough basic phrases to acquire directions and transportation to your next lodgings, and proceed with your vacation for the next 8-days.
I’m a Christian despite all of those atrocities, but I can’t easily explain them away. We have to seriously interrogate the structures and doctrines that are central to our faith and ask whether and how they contributed to the atrocities of the past and perhaps the atrocities of the present/future.
Going “back to Jesus” seems too facile of a fix for me. Exactly what “Jesus” taught is the question, right? One example off the top of my head is the emphasis from oppressors to follow Jesus’s example of meekness and passivity (e.g. what slaveholders told slaves). The cruciform image of Jesus is central to the Christian story. It’s at the core of our doctrines. But it has also contributed widely to the oppressed remaining in that state. There are plenty of other examples, of course.
A couple things that helped me think through this include Marika Rose’s <em>A Theology of Failure: Zizek Against Christian Innocence</em> and anything by Amaryah Armstrong (a great podcast episode here).
The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian by Brian Maclaren, is a novel that explains a biblical scientific worldview being faithful to both traditions.
> Brian D. McLaren (born 1956) is an American pastor, author, activist and speaker and leading figure in the emerging church movement. McLaren is also associated with postmodern Christianity and progressive Christianity and is a major figure in post-evangelical thought.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" - Aristotle
Cognitive decoupling is a prerequisite to algorithmic intelligence.
Have you seen this? https://www.coursera.org/course/mythology
I cannot recommend enough her book Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved. It's my early contender for best book I've read this year.
Also check out her interview on NPR
Edit: I can't spell.
The company which used to own Gloria Jeans Coffee but funneled profits through the church?
The record label which is currently funneling profits through the church?
The company which operates a letterbox company in the Bahamas?
The church whose founder, failed to alert police about allegations that his father had sexually assaulted children?
The church whose founder, wrote a book called "You Need More Money"
The church which has been in cahoots with governments in the past and parachutes its members to safe seats in parliament?
>and you'd think Hillsong would be better about this.
The wolves sometimes don't even bother to disguise themselves as wolves.
I've always wondered what the people who reject contemplative prayer think Jesus was doing when he prayed for 40 days in the desert, just constantly going, "Father God, we just want to thank you..." constantly.
Edit: I know I'm not a protestant, I just wanted to make that observation. While I'm here, if you are interested in Christian mysticism or just a new way of looking at prayer, I recommend Armchair Mystic. I also recommend the Reimagining the Examen app as a good contemplative, prayerful way to end the day.
Please don't advocate people trying to change their sexual orientation. The APA has found no evidence that sexual orientation change efforts are effective, yet plenty of evidence that it's harmful and destructive.
That's not to say that your friend didn't change her sexual orientation (although the APA suggested that there was evidence that most people who claimed a change in sexual orientation during several studies examined were indeed bisexual). And keeping in mind that most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation, fluidity for natural reasons outside of one's control can happen over the course of someone's life.
> It is never ok to abort aka murder an unborn child for any reason.
You just sentenced my wife to death. My wife had an ectopic pregnancy last spring (2016). We had just started trying for a baby and were thrilled when we found out we were pregnant. But then we found out it was ectopic. The embryo had implanted in her fallopian tube. This results in fetus dying 100% of the time. There is no physical way for it to survive. If untreated, it kills the mother 92% of the time. So while my wife is pro-life, we realized what was happening. We saw the ultrasounds. We wanted her to live.
What's even more terrible is that a shot of Methotrexate didn't end the pregnancy. She endured it for another two weeks before finding out it hadn't passed. By this point, the pregnancy had gotten so large that her fallopian tube was rupturing and she was bleeding internally. We had to rush her to the emergency room because she was dying. The doctors ended up having to remove that entire fallopian tube in order to save her life.
So are my wife and I murderers?
PS My story has a happy ending. We got pregnant 3 months later, and now have a beautiful healthy baby boy who we cherish.
Neither. The Hebrew word for "day" there definitely means 24-hour time period, but that doesn't mean the universe was made in 6 literal days.
Genesis 1 is complex and beautiful, but ancient Near-Eastern people don't think like modern Western people, and ancient Near-Eastern people wrote Genesis 1. It's way too much to explain here. Read The Lost World of Genesis One, by John Walton.
> sexually frustrated and disgruntled SJWs holding sticks and clubs waiting for unsuspecting conservative (or just generally anti-government) Christians to walk in so they can collectively beat him/her.
Given that the only people who literally get beaten (or murdered) over LGBT issues are... well, LGBT people... describing your frustration at being portrayed as unkind as "getting beaten" is pretty tone-deaf. When people are suffering real violence, melodramatically describing being disagreed with as violent seems to indicate that you don't give a damn about the real violence.
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." - Mel Brooks
> This video was intended to make Christians feel bad
People are supposed to have consciences, Christians especially, and appealing to those consciences is not an act of violence. If you resent the pricking of your conscience, I don't think telling people to shut up is a good solution.
The doctrine of concurrence which is held by Catholics and many Protestant denominations that I know of would say yes, both. God is the ultimate source of all good, but we also have the honor of working with God and allowing God to work through us. So the good things you do are a joint effort - God empowers you to do them, and your cooperation with God is part of God working through you.
We should be humble and recognize that God is the ultimate source of the good in us and the good we do, but we should also balance that with the recognition that God created us to do and be good and celebrate what we accomplish!
I am truly sorry.
I pray your faith would allow you to grieve, but not grieve without hope. A day is coming soon when all sad things become untrue.
Rev. 21:1-14: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
As far as a book about going through tough loss, I have really drawn a lot of comfort and insight in Tim Keller's Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.
Just 6 years ago, only 30% of white evangelicals said "an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional life."
That number spiked up to 72% this year.
At this rate, by 2020 evangelicals will say "If the candidate hasn't officially sold his soul to the devil, then they don't have my vote!"
For what it is worth, Catholics DO NOT worship saints, and anyone who insists they do is being disingenuous. As for the Pope's infallibility, that doesn't mean that he is a man is without error, or that he never makes mistakes. It is only in very rare cases when he makes official statements regarding the faith that this comes into play. Very rare as in it has happened only a couple of times in the last couple of centuries.
I'm not Roman Catholic, but I suggest you get your information about them from them. A place to start would be something like Patrick Madrid's Answer Me This!.
Life isn't about brains. It's about love and purpose. Read <em>Man's Search for Meaning</em> by Victor Frankl (not a Christian book) for more on that subject.
Yup, it's in there. You can buy one here. Unfortunately, they didn't have a hardcover, but this paperback edition is pretty nice and feels authentic. I've only read The Screwtape Letters. I think I might start with Mere Christianity, idk.
It contains:
I'm so excited, and it only cost $48.84
Evolution, as a scientific theory, does not address the origins of life at all.
And it really sounds like you don't understand the process of evolution at all. Random mutations are just one, and not ~~even the most important~~, evolutionary process of change.
I would suggest you read up on this as it sounds like you don't really understand the basic scientific premises of the theory well enough to properly object to it.
Give this a look: https://www.coursera.org/course/geneticsevolution
EDIT I stand corrected - apparently random mutations are one of the most important determinants of genetic variation.
The proof is in the pudding. Based on the description from Amazon, the central theme does seem to be summed up with: God immediately asked Tina this question: “What role did you play in this, Tina?”
If that is true, I’m willing to give the friendly atheist a benefit of the doubt.
I completely agree with the criticism you're making here, but that change, in a really dumb way, actually makes more sense because Easter derives from the name of the fertility/sunrise goddess Eostre who was celebrated around that day.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Easter
Also, the origin of the word East. So, technically, you can then hook it up to the "rising son" (the sunrise, get it? ...yeah). And, of course, Spring is the time of new life, so the theme of resurrection/rebirth fit nicely as a place to celebrate Christ's resurrection. But, the name... pagan origins. Halloween? Christian origins. Oye.
> he’s had nagging questions that he’s ignored for years
(Sigh) I wish he hadn't ignored them. That implicitly assigns them great import, essentially concedes "I wouldn't believe if I dared look at these questions". Whereas actually facing them is how you build confidence.
> started researching cults and Christianity checks all the boxes
That's weird. There are some smallish Christian groups that fit the definitions of a cult. In general, though, no.
Can I ask what kind of church you're in? Because some churches encourage a "brittle" faith, telling people to believe all manner of things inflexibly, mistaking that for strength - but inflexible is a synonym for breakable. Force something inflexible to flex, and it shatters and falls to pieces. Other churches help people grow in faith that's living and supple, that tolerates mystery and mistakes and change. I wonder if he's ever seen the latter sort.
Anyway. A lot of people have come by disbelief "honestly", so to speak. I wonder if it would help to learn more about some such people? My favorite is Rachel Held Evans, who explains in Faith Unraveled how her brittle faith broke down... but then regrew, differently, in that living and supple form. Or, more pessimistically, you could look into Tony Campolo (the world-class preacher) and his son, Bart, who doesn't believe, for one model of how Tony deals with the disappointment.
God bless you. I'll pray for you both.
Rodney Stark's book "The Rise of Christianity" suggests a few ways in which Christian morality was superior to pagan morality:
The book God's Own Party suggests that it started with the identification of Communism as the ultimate enemy of Christianity. At some point, it got into a self-reinforcing spiral, where if some is good, more is better.
Most of the bylines at Sojourners show you what churches those authors make their homes in.
Abortion should be avoided whenever possible though... we should push for quality sex education and free birth control.
If you think you can come on this sub and find a simple solution to finding a spouse, you're making a terrible mistake. If you think that a group of strangers, Christians or no, can tell you what you're doing wrong, you're making a mistake.
For now, I'm not particularly sure how reading your Bible and praying more to get closer to Jesus are going to help you find a wife. Those things are going to help you get closer to God, sure, but in the privacy of your own home. Get out there and join some ministries––work with other people in as many capacities as you can. Doing volunteer stuff through church is a great way to meet like minded people. That's about the best advice I can offer since I know literally nothing about you.
edit: by "popular" demand, you should read this book. It's actually very helpful for making good decisions. it will not, however, magically find you a girlfriend.
Aside from having more integrity than the vast majority of POTUS, he's also among the brightest. He's often derided as ineffectual but he's anything but. I love Hunter Thompson's memories of him from Carter's amazing Law Day speech.
Funny how Adam4d's comics consistently get upvoted here but then blasted in the comments.
> before the Church plunged Europe into the Dark Ages
If by the "Church" you mean the "collapse of the Western Roman Empire partly due to invasion and raiding" and by "plunged" you mean "precipitated the slow decline of the infrastructure of the society" and by the "Dark Ages" you mean the "Early Middle Ages" then there are plenty of history books, a good overview one is Europe: A History or for a wider view History: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day.
Former atheist...I was convinced because I have not found an adequate explanation of objective morality without appealing to "something higher." I might recommend "Man's Search for Meaning" if you haven't read it, it's a short book...it's not Christian but somewhat theistic, iirc. I struggle with some of the supernatural aspects of Christianity but radical love and self-sacrifice seems so essential to meaning and life and I haven't seen this expressed better than through Jesus and his genuine followers.
I looked it up on YouVersion and it's a fascinating translation! It's like the Message's Hawaiian cousin.
Here are some of my favorite findings:
Acts is called "Jesus Guys" (which is surprisingly accurate)
Revelation is "Wat Jesus Show John" (pretty much exactly what Revelation is about)
The Magnificat is "My heart say good tings bout da Boss Up Dea Inside Da Sky," and the Nunc Dimiitis is "Boss, you wen do wat you wen promise to me, da guy dat work fo you".
The Biblical Magi are "Da Smart Guys Who Know Plenny Bout Da Stars" (Mt. 2), and Herod's massacre of the Innocents is "Herod Kill da Kids" - which he did.
The "Our Father" begins with "God, you our Fadda. You stay in da sky..." and ends with "But take us outa dea, so da Bad Guy [evil one] no can hurt us."
Ephesians 2:8-9 ends with "Da tings you do by yoaself, eh, no talk big, cuz no worth nothing" which is kind of how a lot of pastors - even those who don't speak Hawaiian pidgin - summarize Ephesians 2:8-9 - nothing we do by ourselves can merit God's favor.
Only the New Testament books have been translated, but it's been unanimously loved, judging by the Amazon reviews. As this review puts it:
> I can't testify to how useful this is for a native Hawaiian Pidgin speaker, although I hope and imagine it would be. However for me, the novelty of the pidgin as well as the plainspokenness actually does help me understand certain passages. (Matthew 24 is a favorite!)
From a linguistic perspective, pidgins are fascinating.
Edit: About 39% of the Old Testament books have been translated. I felt a little guilty because I laughed at "Da Rules Second Time" (Deuteronomy), since I grew up watching The Fairly OddParents and they had this massive book of rules governing fairies and magic in the show called "Da Rules".
For an alternative perspective, may I recommend Marty Klein's book His Porn, Her Pain: Confronting America's Porn Panic with Honest Talk About Sex
Despite the rather breathless title, it's by far the sanest book on the subject I've yet found, and I recommend it to anyone concerned about their own porn use or that of their partner.
It's heavily research-based, and one of his most fascinating findings is that we tend to get from porn what we bring to it. That is, I'd we expect it to cause us shame, then it will. If we expect it to give us uncomplicated sexual enjoyment, it will do that too.
This explains why a significant percentage of society views sexually explicit material without it particularly complicating their lives, while at the same time many other people experience deep guilt, shame, and worry.
Ultimately, we are responsible for our own sexualities. If sexually explicit material bothers you, or makes you feel stressed, anxious I would recommend avoiding it. But I would also recommend understanding that other people may make a different decision, and that is theirs to make, not yours.
And if your caught in the middle, if you simultaneously enjoy porn but feel guilty about it, I'd recommend reading Klein's book, but maybe also working with a sex-positive therapist to unpack why you associate sexuality with shame, and whether that's something you wish to continue doing.
Honestly many translations of the Bhagavad Gita are very accessible, even to newcomers, and give a good overall view of many of the core principles and beliefs.
Checkout Easwaran's version for one that's both very inexpensive as well as tremendously friendly to newcomers and westerners alike with it's introduction and commentaries.
Personally, I prefer
> Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. > > - Proverbs 28:26
under the assumption that it's a variant of
> The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool. > > - Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
At least that's my interpretation, and I'm sticking with it :p
I don't believe abortion is murder ... but I do wish abortions were less common... people should be responsible enough to not get to the point where one is needed.
If Georgia was smart, they would supplement this choice by increasing access to birth control... but we know they won't do that.
I've read Siddhartha, and it's a fantastic read. Your teacher made an excellent choice, you'll enjoy it. Incidentally, the book isn't about Gautama Buddha. In the narrative, Siddhartha will actually meet Buddha, but it is merely incidental.
>What should I do about infoming my mom about this? On one hand, I'd like her to pray with me. On the other hand, she has a habit of being extremely protective with me, and I know that she'll freak out the moment I tell her. I don't know what to do. I know that if I tell her, I'll never hear the end of it at home or at school
Ew. You're in 12th grade, you are either an adult or about to become one. Why do you have to tell her anyways? You aren't obligated to tell your mother exactly what you're reading in English if she doesn't ask. If you don't want to deal with her freaking out (which is totally understandable), don't mention it.
>I know I'll face trials like this all through my life, I feel confident that God is all I need to get me through these pages, and I'm worried that telling my mom could lead to her trying to dominate the situation and make it worse. The last thing I need right now is chaos. I just want to get through this quickly and peacefully. Prayers for that too would be awesome. Thanks again!
I think you're making this into way more than it actually is. Siddhartha is a pretty damn good novel that focuses on the titular character's spiritual journey through life. It's not going to obliterate your faith or be terrible. In fact, I'd actually happily recommend <em>Siddhartha</em> to anyone looking for a book recommendation.
I still trying to figure out why want can't call yourself a Christian anymore. It seems like you have a problem with the fundamentalist of each camp, not with Christianity itself.
I suggest you watch this: Lord, Save us From Your Followers
"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." - Luke 6:38 :)
>Fully human and fully God, so Paul isn't talking about him.
Of course. But following the logic of what was said it would implicate him. So you are left with a couple of choices; either Paul is wrong, or it's not meant to mean literally everyone. Additionally there are other who have not sinned: all who died before the age of accountability: Those in the womb, babies, and very young children. I think you would agree they have committed no sin themselves.
>My short answer is, Mary didn't do anything for me.
Oh, but she did. She said yes to God. That was a very powerful choice on her part and it directly affected the course of human history.
> but there's no point focusing on her or any other saints when we have the Son of God to look at and compare to
Not everyone is ready to look directly to God, God can use others in our lives to steer us towards him, whether that be a mentor, a friend, or a saint. Additionally each saint reflects God, indeed each human does. How could we not? We were made in his image. The saints are just clearer reflections since they are closer to God, and Mary is the human closest to God. She will point to her son unfailingly.
I really recommend you look into why we believe as we do.
https://www.amazon.com/Behold-Your-Mother-Historical-Doctrines/dp/1938983807
is a good starting place.
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby. It's a brief, readable, sweeping history of the role of the American church in the development of racially oppressive systems, stretching from colonization through to the present day. It's a humble but prophetic word, clearly written out of love for the church and a desire to see true repentence, reconciliation, and restoration. This is a must read for all American Christians, especially those who, like me, come from Evangelical or conservative faith traditions that have historical been uniquely complicit in the culture's racist systems. Again, the goal and result of this book is not shame and guilt but empathy and humility.
Dr. Walter Martin wrote the definitive work on cults, in Kingdom of the Cults. In Chapter 1, he lays out what he feels is the central issue which defines what a Christian cult IS.
Predominantly, a "cult" within Christianity is a sub-sect that 1) wholly denies the deity of Christ, a central tenet of Christianity, and 2) uses orthodox language, but subtly "re-defines" important concepts (salvation, sanctification, etc.) to mean something OTHER than the original Scriptures' intention.
In his estimation, Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as Mormons, Christian Scientists, and Bahai are all cults. (Don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger. Read the book for yourself.)
>unless there’s profit to be made I suppose
Like selling books. Or paid lectures. Or convincing people to donate to your mission.
For some reason, it's hard to credit profiting prophets.
dear thread- I simply thought it was very uncool for this guy to do this.
although the Bible itself is not sacred, the words in it are (to Christians), and the amount of disrespect towards these words by Rusko, simply for a blunt and a chuckle, makes me just as sickened as people who see parents let their children run amuck behaving like little shits.
I don't mean any direct attack on this guy, I just highly disapprove of this behavior and while forgiving him, hope it doesn't happen again. I hope that he will regret this in some fashion. As I have stated throughout this thread, if this were the book of Magic Cows and he did this publicly in front of a Magic Cowist, I would think of him as a bully and have sympathy of the Cowist.
Here is a completely unrelated photo
Hmm, why did they pretend he never existed then? Couldn't he have just simply retired?
According to this source, this wasn't the first time this has happened:
>It is notable that GW has previously terminated leadership for moral failings, including relationships with students, but none of these leaders were immediately scrubbed off of the internet. I also couldn’t find the back issue of “Studio G” (GW’s Women’s Ministry magazine) anywhere on the Internet, where David’s wife Linda was the cover girl and had a multi-page article about her. That’s kind of sad that they are scrubbing her as well.
But this is the first time that the church has pretended that the person doesn't exist.
This is a fantastic read for any christian. I also highly recommend the book With: reimagining the way you relate to God. Both have really changed me as a Christian and as a man.
I don't mean to sound offensive, but if all demons are are people acting slightly strangely then I'm not interested or impressed. If someone gets video of an immense creature like Balrog, then we'll talk, otherwise, this is more boring than reality TV.
I got 90 results for "the bible says so" in r/Christianity and 2070 for r/atheism.
It may not be as prevalent, at least here, as you intuit.
Here's one Harvard study on employment discrimination. Check the cited works within it for more information. The magnitude of discrimination is comparable to that of black people in some cities. It's easy to find this type of scenario in other areas too if you do the research.
I went with my fiancé, who wasn't gonna live with me, to view the apartment. When she asked about our relationship, we told her. She subsequently told me she wouldn't be able to help me because of that.
These stories aren't infrequent or unique to me. Ask any gay person. Most all that I've met have some stories of anti-gay prejudice.
> That is, until archaeological finds definitively showed that Belshazzar was a real person who was exactly as the book of Daniel described.
Now, let's not get carried away here. Near as I understand, Belshazzar's father was Nabonidus; yet in Daniel his "father" is said to be Nebuchadnezzar himself.
(Of course, elsewhere in the Bible there's some confusion between fathers and grandfathers, etc. But this can't all be hand-waved away by reference to this as if there's never error here. Plus -- again, as near as I understand it -- there may be reasons to think that traditions which appear in the book of Daniel to be about Nebuchadnezzar [e.g. in chapter 4] were originally about Nabonidus, but then were transferred to Nebuchadnezzar, for reasons.)
Pretty sure the rapture is going to be in 1988.
It was convincingly argued in the bestseller '88 Reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988':
https://www.amazon.com/reasons-Why-Rapture-Will-1988/dp/B00073BM8O
Can't argue with cold hard logic like that.
It sounds like your community is legalistic and not very loving. Where is Jesus in all this?
The Jesus who did not condemn the woman caught in adultery. Oh yes, he said "Sin no more," but also said, "Neither do I condemn you."
He came and taught us this prayer:
"Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins," ordering his words in such a way that we know he forgives us daily.
There are two books, either one of which may help you.
Breaking the Bonds of Legalism, and
May you find the God of Love in all this, and be free from the legalism of the Pharisees, welcomed instead into the Kingdom of Love.
I'm trying to write a comment but it hurts too much to try to put this into words.
I'm so sorry for what you went through. A father is supposed to be the spiritual leader of the home and what you experienced is so twisted and damaging. I can't adequately express my sorrow over what I just read.
The worst thing about this is our relationship with our earthly father will color the way we see God for the rest of our lives. Unless we regularly replace our thinking from what we experienced with truth from God's word we will forever feel from God what our fathers caused us to feel.
There is a book called Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Townsend that I would recommend to you. It talks about healthy ways to deal with difficult people in our lives that cause you pain.
I don't know how to answer your question about honoring. But you do need to forgive him and try to look for the good in him and honor that. Your father is a sinner created in the image of God but broken. Maybe some day you can see the good in him. I don't know.
The flair is there specifically to prevent these kinds of misunderstandings. Book covers, similarly, are used specifically to cue readers into the tone and genre of the book.
But sure, I guess if you put a Harlequin style cover on "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" would be fine. Perfectly clear.
Being judgmental without content is never a good idea. In the "why do American Christians think evolution is wrong and/or evil", you wrote: "Because It is a theory devoid of truth, in clear contradiction to the scriptures, and lacking scientific evidence." and then quoted 2 Peter. Compare the top-voted answer, "Many American Christians are Biblical literalists. They believe everything in the Bible is literally true in exactly the way it is described. The Genesis account of creation doesn't describe evolution so they don't believe it."
He's not talking down to anybody, or posturing like he's smarter than anybody; he's answering the question in plain, honest language. By comparison, you dumped a bucket of "I know better than anyone else" on the floor. I don't know how things are in your community, but where I'm from your answer was a long way from speaking with humility.
Online discussions, where there are no facial expressions or vocal inflections, are hard enough to navigate, and it's even tougher when every new forum you visit is going to have slightly different rules than the ones you've already been to. You might like to read How To Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, which has suggestions in it which work pretty much everywhere.
You want upvotes? Don't be insulting ("If that's not enough, then go believe everything created it's self. I can't change your heart."). The only lesson people learn when you speak to them that way is that they don't want to be anything like you.
I think this much longer, holistic article about the legislation is worth reading. This law is about a lot more than evangelizing.
What's kind of scary to me is that I recognize a lot of the same sentiments that are behind the legislation in the States too.
I'm not ready to personally answer your questions, but if you stick around on this sub, there will be a series of Theology AMAs discussing various theological topics soon. The post talking about it is stickied to the front page of this sub.
But for your convenience, here are a few links you might be interested in:
This year's Denominational AMAs
Hope these help.
You shouldn't feel guilty. Your a 17 year old your body is wreaking havoc on your brain. Your brain is still developing and getting away from undesirable habits is hard. This is one of the hardest points in your life to have have control over self.
God is not disappointed in you. God understands that we sin and gave us salvation so our sins don't have to weigh us down. Your going to make mistakes and going to fail over and over again. That's ok! That's part of life and struggles that come with being human. What's important is that you reflect on those mistakes and try to live better the next day.
Also you should know your normal. It's normal for young people to feel the way you do. If your starting to have a problem this is a good time to catch it early. Treat it like you would any other goal. Break things down to obtainable short term goals and build up to long term ones. You should do this with everything you want in life. Including your walk with Christ. Life is long and complicated your journey with Christ will likely be the same. Understand failure is not an unsuccessful attempt it's when you stop trying
On a more practical note here is a link to setting up a DNS filter for porn.
https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/#familyshield
If you set this up most explicit sites will be completely blocked. You will have to put effort into turning this filtering on and off. That way you have a minute to think about what your doing.
Here's some light reading on the topic
Edit: C'mon. That was funny.
Edit^2: Captain goes down with the ship.
Except again, not really. 1) Christian humanism is still alive today, I’m literally reading a modern Christian humanist book right now. and 2) the values of both secular and Christian humanism are pretty clearly defined. Again I think you’ve confused humanism with post modernism.
Would it help if we just renamed ourselves "Followers of the Jewish Messiah?" Christianity is just the name of the collection of people who ended up following Jesus as the Messiah. Some of us strongly follow our Jewish roots in our practices under the New Covenant.
You're completely ignoring the entire definition to suit your point. The actual definition of atheism from Merriam Webster is...
>a : a lack of belief or a strong disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods b : a philosophical or religious position characterized by disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods
Edit: Spelling
Yet abortion rates hit record lows year after year during the Obama administration. Compare that to in Texas, after (unconstitutionally) forcing many abortion providers to shut down, the abortion rate <em>rose</em> 3% over what it would have if they didn't shut down, due to the decreased access to contraceptives and other family planning services.
Actually, I think he does get it. Except he's willing to throw down many assumptions and bend natural morality to some degree to support his conclusions. It's how religion survives. It can no longer suppress social and scientific change, so it quietly adjusts itself to it. A thousand years ago, this passage wouldn't need this interpretation. Some kids mocked a prophet, and they were killed for it, fair enough. A thousand years into the future, it might need an even softer interpretation.
OP, I grew up in Israel, and I never heard the word "naar" refer to adults. The word principally means youth, and it is typically used to refer to teenagers and children. They may have not been "young children", but they were young nonetheless. To assume that they were adults, when they could have been anywhere from 3 years olds to Isaac's age (and that's stretching it REALLY far) is to outright alter the meaning of the passage.
A tremendous number of Muslims (especially youth) are very indifferent to their religion. All over the place they're skipping prayer, drinking alcohol, looking at pornography, etc...in fact Islam-dominated nations (90-99% muslim) have some of the highest consumption of pornography in the world, which honestly doens't come as any surprise because of how incredibly restrictive and repressive the religion & culture is.
This is an era where all kinds of people are growing indifferent to the religion they were raised with.
> The Crusades were a minor daliance in human history by comparison to Islamic Jihad. Islam - by it's very nature and structure - was and remains far, far more violent than Christianity ever was.
Bwhahaha!
on July 15, 1099, Christian soldiers were victorious in the one month Siege of Jerusalem. In keeping with their alliance with the Muslims, the Jews had been among the most vigorous defenders of Jerusalem against the Crusaders. When the city fell, the Crusaders slaughtered most of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants,[11] leaving the city "knee deep in blood".
The simple fact is that all Abrahamic religions are responsible for mind boggling amounts of killings, and heinous brutality.
(FYI- Historians don't believe the blood was actually knee deep. Just that there was intense slaughter and brutality.)
Guess who invented waterboarding? Catholic Priests in Spain.
Guess who converted to Christianity and were then burned to death? Jews living in Spain.
The list of crimes, brutality and slaughter that can be laid at the feet of Christianity is almost endless.
Another comment - have you guys heard of Librivox? It's a website dedicated to hosting audiobooks in the public domain, like our project.
Maybe we could get involved there and offer our recordings once we've finished?
And if this project continues to be successful, we could read other public domain works related to Christianity. Reddit Reads On The Incarnation?
Salvation is God making all things new... reconciling all things to himself. That's right, all things, all of creation.
Humanity is created in God's image and fell, taking the rest of creation with us (because it was all in our care). Christ became a man to restore us to God. So we can become "saved" from our rebellion and its effect, death. By participating in God's salvation, we're essentially cooperating with him to save, not only ourselves and each other, but all of creation.
"Soul" in Latin is Anima. The soul is what "animates" us. I don't know if other languages use this same word for "beasts that aren't human" the way we tend to.
That's not to say for sure that my dogs will be there the same way my wife will be, I just don't know that. But I'm pretty sure that there will be animals (and plants)... In fact, it should be quite a bit like the Garden described in Genesis. Creation (re-)perfected.
Well I, for one, do believe that part of the background of Mark 5 is indeed to be found in a genuine (Enochic) demonological tradition. Though the behavior of the demoniac in many ways matches up with Greco-Roman accounts of things like epilepsy. That being said, commentators also often point out that many motifs here (including "legion") point to a sort of allegorical anti-Roman aspect (a legion, of course, being a Roman military unit).
People suck at causality and statistics, basically, and are way too fast to accept wild statements that agree with what they want. No, really. In the same way that our eyes fail to correctly discern a range of patterns, our brains - at least, without specific training and application - are really, really bad at keeping track of these things. "Thinking, Fast and Slow" is a useful reference on that.
** HUG **
I'm curious, how are you expecting God's love to come? Has no one loved you?
I'm not undermining what you're going through, because I've been there myself, but the one thing I've learned from myself and from many others like you, is that unless God reveals Himself in the way that we expect Him to...nothing else seems to be satisfactory.
Take a moment to think about the people in your life and the things that people have attempted to do for you. Then ask yourself, have I been shutting the love of God out?
From my personal experience of pain and hurt, although I hated it...I also loved it. It defined me. And as much as it sucked, I was unwilling to let it go. I was more willing to hold on to my pain, my hurt, my despair, and let it take me to the grave...than to let it go. As such, I blocked out the love that God was showing me, all that time. I came to know God's love when I finally let go of my pain.
This is a painting that I did back in 1999, as a memory to that moment of decision. It's called "Faith".
Faith
The caption that goes with it is:
> I stand at the edge of sanity, the hands of the past clawing at my back with familiar pain. All that I desire lies before me, in a chasm of doubt and blissful uncertainty. His voice rumbles from the deep twilight...I must choose.
God loves you. Let go of your pain.
>Am I allowed to live my life, to be gay?
You're allowed to live your life anyway you please (within the law, of course.) Being a minor, and still under the care of your parents (I assume) your options are limited for the time being, but once you turn 18, your life is your own.
I would highly recommend talking to someone familiar with your own personal experience -- i.e. another gay Christian -- in real life preferably, someone local you can talk to and can help you. As someone else has already suggested, a local gay friendly church might be a good place to start, if there are any. There might be some local meetings on sites like meetup.com which could help.
If you are planning on going to college and your parents want you to go to a private conservative Christian college, you will probably need to talk this out with your parents. If you're already struggling, you don't want to go through another four years of the same thing without anyone knowing you're suffering in this way.
I wish you all the best.
I think you probably know how personal accounts work. There are always conflicting versions; only fiction is tidy.
I would seek out the writings of Hugh Ross. Former atheist astrophysicist and cosmologist. Converted to Christianity when he discovered the creation order in genesis agrees with planetary science concerning the formation of the earth. Navigating Genesis might be a helpful first read.
The Bible in OP's picture is the New Living Translation. It's actually just a standard Bible with an additional super-condensed ~40 manga pages illustrating stories from the Old Testament, and ~40 manga pages illustrating the Gospel. You can buy it here.
Source: I bought this exact Bible about 11 or 12 years ago.
/u/GarbageGroveFish /u/TreyWimbo
Here's a chapter from a book I wrote that might be helpful. Spoiler: I don't think the text is a "rapture" text at all, nor does it say anything about Christians leaving.
Its actually pretty well known that women would serve in the role of deaconness. Also its common place to remove the bones of a holy person from a tomb and either find that their flesh didn't fully decompose, and hence treat it as a relic, or to combine them with other bones. Its why you can find really metal Orthodox monastic photos like this
You might try starting with with John Granger's work over at Hogsheadprofessor.com
I myself was first inspired to read the Potter series after stumbling upon Granger's insightful article on literary tradition in Touchstone magazine a while back.
I'm very glad I did. Harry Potter is one of our generation's very few 'shared texts'. To be able to talk about the deeper Christian motifs and themes at play in Rowling's work intelligently and with grace is no small thing.
Please don't advocate people trying to change their sexual orientation. The APA has found no evidence that sexual orientation change efforts are effective, yet plenty of evidence that it's harmful and destructive.
That's not to say that you didn't change her sexual orientation (although the APA suggested that there was evidence that most people who claimed a change in sexual orientation during several studies examined were indeed bisexual). And keeping in mind that most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation, fluidity for natural reasons outside of one's control can happen over the course of someone's life.
Psychological professionals also denounce getting people's hopes up about their chances of success in changing their sexual orientation -- i.e. it's unethical to lie to people about their chances of success. It's also unethical to minimize the harm it can do:
>Among those studies reporting on the perceptions of harm, the reported negative social and emotional consequences include self-reports of anger, anxiety, confusion, depression, grief, guilt, hopelessness, deteriorated relationships with family, loss of social support, loss of faith, poor self-image, social isolation, intimacy difficulties, intrusive imagery, suicidal ideation,self-hatred, and sexual dysfunction.
If you're advocating that people try to change their sexual orientation as you did, you're advocating the above. Jesus doesn't want that for his children.
EDIT: I truly hope you're not trying to pass off the work of Marquis de Sade as your own.
EDIT 2: As to response to Sade's nihilistic views on God, Dostoevsky is typically presented as the appropriate counter. I have found this to be a nice summation of both of their views.
Paragraph breaks, please. Giant blocks o'text on a Sunday night are not fun.
Technically not true. The bulk of Sunni Orthodoxy believes in the possession of djinn as theoretically possible, but that it is rare in practice. A minority of the medieval and classical Sunnis rejected it entirely.
The situation is the same for sorcery.
An interesting paper: https://www.academia.edu/3621193/The_denial_of_supernatural_sorcery_in_classical_and_modern_Sunni_tafsir_of_surah_al-Falaq_A_reflection_on_underlying_constructions
I always confuse Bibleman with Captain Bible, the hero of a quite terrible DOS game that my family had in the mid '90s. It is full of incredibly bad theology and the entire gameplay mechanism revolves around using prooftexts to defeat some cyber devil's lies.
>If the media doesn't cover this in a week or two I will post the story as an addendum to this comment.
Phew, I'm glad this commenter is willing to give us disclosure after a week. It would have seriously annoyed me if I never found out what happened.
Ultimately, yes, we’re one unit. Practically, however, there are oppressors and an oppressed.
Seeing as you’ve said your on the spectrum of same sex attraction, but are anti gay, I think you’ll really like this book.
Workout, make sure your diet is straight, join clubs of hobbies you are interested in, go out and do things, just be outside.
Read the books Models by Mark Manson and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson.
These books changed my social life/mental health and so did those actions. Do these things on top of just praying, because prayers can usually only work if you're willing to work.
I have the same problem, I've been using an app on my smartphone to markdown prayer requests so people who I promise to pray for regularly still get remembered.
Edit: The app is called Prayer List and it's available for Android phones.
>Question: do people who are not Christians automatically go to hell? it scares me that my family might be "damned" :/
[Matthew 25:31-46]
Jesus teaches about "Sheep" (saved) and "Goats" (condemned). Essentially, one must receive Christ and express Christ through love. I don't want to be alarmist, but Jesus says that not even everyone who calls him "Lord" will enter heaven.
Don't worry about not knowing everything! That humility does you a lot of credit, and everyone has to start somewhere! You're doing now one of the best things that you could be doing: talking to Christians about your beliefs. I hope that we are helping you, and I hope that you feel encouraged to ask whatever questions you have.
I would suggest you talk to the Christians that you know. The best thing to say to them is just the simple truth: you're interested in learning more about the Christian faith. I think flesh-and-blood Christians will be able to help you more than we on the internet can.
Lastly, it would be great if you could find some way to read some of the Bible, which you admit to knowing little about. I would advise you to start by reading the books of Matthew, then Genesis. There is a fantastic free android app with the bible in over 400 languages that you might find convenient, but obviously not if your parents would check your phone, or if you don't have a smartphone. I imagine a paper copy would be hard for you to keep secret, too.
If you get regular time like this to browse the internet safely, the comment reply to this, /u/VerseBot, will link to biblegateway, which has the entire text of the bible in many translations. I'd recommend NLT as it is simple English.
I hope this helps you.
I don't think you're right about nobody wanting to throw the woman in jail. Some people wanted to make it a Class C Felony.
Also, what if there is no payment made? Or self-induced miscarriage?
I agree that counseling and support do wonders; to that, I would add education.
I would argue that most translators, because of a theological bias, have opted for the pagan definition of the word that gets translated "propitiation" instead of the Jewish definition (which, I believe, would have been the definition of Paul, John, and the rest).
This is from my book, Salvation And How We Got It Wrong:
> How do we account for people who have an experience that leads to them actively changing a portion of their life decisions? How do we account for mid-life crisis's, change in political orientation? How can we account for these types changes obviously linked with consciousness, and thus the brain?
I don't see why not. I can write software that will behave one way then, when given a certain set of inputs, will start behaving differently so I don't see why the same thing can't happen with the brain, although obviously in a more complex way.
Do you think there's something specifically about somebody changing their worldview or changing their mind which rules out a naturalistic explanation? What am I missing?
Let me give you a real example. Take a look at Phineas Gage. The man suffered a traumatic brain injury and as a result, his personality drastically changed. This suggests to me that physical changes in the brain can be linked with changes in personality. We also know that physical damage to the brain can result in memory loss, which suggests that memories are also closely linked with the physical structures in the brain. Other cases show that there is a close link between the physical structures of the brain and the way that we perceive the world, have emotions etc.
I would suggest this excellent TED talk by Vilayanur Ramachandran. He explains the links between the physical brain and the amazing psychological affects it can have.
I see you're Muslim, maybe this video will help answer your question. It's a Muslim student asking Ravi Zacharias (Christian apologist) about Christianity and the law.
>Why is religion so insulted by science?
It's not. Religion vs Science is a false dichotomy. relevant article
Misc facts:
Today on r/todayIlearned there was an article about the Priest who came up with the big bang theory.
Christian denominations and evolution
Gregor Mendel's work was a precursor to evolutionary theory.
Not to mention that the Catholic Church supports evolution and the possibility of ET life.
Partially yes, by historical research.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization#Timeline
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/civilization
Human civilization transforms the world, creating cities, temples, monuments. Animals just live and die adapting to their environment, without changing it much.
Honestly, I think the more precise and incisive question here would focus on Genesis 6:6 -- specifically whether the use of the verb נָחַם here implies that God came to realize that he had made a regrettable decision in his creation of humanity (which I think would present more of a challenge to the traditional notion of his perfection and omniscience), etc.
For detailed studies on God's impeccability/omniscience or lack thereof in the Hebrew Bible, see things like Carasik's "The Limits of Omniscience." Curiously, in a footnote he writes
>The one scholar I have found who denies that the biblical God was omniscient is James Crenshaw, who remarks, "For modem readers there is something shocking about depicting God as having to search diligently to discover Job's wrongdoing, but the biblical YHWH cared about good and evil, and lacking omniscience, searched the human heart ("Qoheleth's Understanding of Intellectual Inquiry," in Qohelet in the Context of Wisdom [ed. A. Schoors; BETL 136; Leuven: Peeters/Leuven University Press, 1998] 221)
Really, though, I think that skepticism of God's full impeccability/omniscience in the Hebrew Bible has been around for about as long as critical/comparative analysis of the Hebrew Bible in its ancient Near Eastern context itself has.
You might also see Shaviv's "Polytheistic Origins of the Biblical Flood Narrative" here.
Mormon dietary restrictions come from a revelation called The Word of Wisdom. The Word of Wisdom was originally introduced as a sort of health code. In it, members are told abstain from "wine or strong drinks," tobacco, and "hot drinks." "Hot drinks" has been interpreted to mean coffee and tea.
For many years, members assumed that the caffeine content in coffee and tea was the main offender, but the LDS church clarified within the last few years that there is no doctrinal basis for avoiding caffeine. This means that, currently, the only standing reason not to drink coffee and tea is "because we said so."
^(Edited for clarity)
It's movies without pre-meditated scripts other than to meet with specific christian people, and it's quite an experience!
Father of lights - http://www.wpfilm.com
Holy Ghost experience (it's actually in the making)kickstarter
https://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml
> If you're considering publishing channel logs, think it through. The freenode network is an interactive environment. Even on public channels, most users don't weigh their comments with the idea that they'll be enshrined in perpetuity. For that reason, few participants publish logs.
> If you're publishing logs on an ongoing basis, your channel topic should reflect that fact. Be sure to provide a way for users to make comments without logging, and get permission from the channel owners before you start. If you're thinking of "anonymizing" your logs (removing information that identifies the specific users), be aware that it's difficult to do it well—replies and general context often provide identifying information which is hard to filter.
> If you just want to publish a single conversation, be careful to get permission from each participant. Provide as much context as you can. Avoid the temptation to publish or distribute logs without permission in order to portray someone in a bad light. The reputation you save will most likely be your own.
Also, here is a very simple devotional booklet to go along with it. 3 basic questions for every day:
According to secular historians?
Yeah...not a chance.
The consensus is that pre-Exile, the Bible is entirely unreliable. Post-Exile it has a lot of fact, but it's heavily propagandized.
Here's a great book to read on the matter: https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Unearthed-Archaeologys-Vision-Ancient/dp/0684869136