[quote]Headhunter wrote:<<< Is this why there aren’t any teeth in arguments proposed by Christians?[/quote]Metaphysics or epistemology thread. Let’s see your teeth. We missed ya at church today. Great Father’s Day service. Lotsa folks praising God, asking that he teach them to deny themselves, live for Him and serve others in His name. All the stuff yer most interested in.
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Why did God design people to act for their rational self-interest (we hope) and then tell them to torment themselves by denying their want for personal happiness? Happiness as a rational animal (Eudaimonia) is Man’s proper moral stance, one that follows from his nature.
Your God wants man to act unnaturally, yet created him to…do…exactly…that.
Rigged game.
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Every desire we have is good. Sexual desire is good. Anger is good. Even alcohol is good. But its the perverted ideas that Satan (of course a being you don’t believe in) that can make them bad. Thats the issue.
And I suppose Aristotle or Descartes never existed either?
They pre-date Jesus’ earthly life yet you and your kind don’t doubt their existence. [/quote]
Descartes lived about 1600 years after Jesus is supposed to have died.
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Well it seems you are correct. However my point still stands that there are plenty of individuals who lived before Jesus but their existence is not disputed. I was confusing Descartes with other ancient philosophers. [/quote]
Maybe you were thinking of Mithra?
"The Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.). The Orthodox Christian hierarchy is nearly identical to the Mithraic version. Virtually all of the elements of Orthodox Christian rituals, from miter, wafer, water baptism, alter, and doxology, were adopted from the Mithra and earlier pagan mystery religions. The religion of Mithra preceded Christianity by roughly six hundred years. Mithraic worship at one time covered a large portion of the ancient world. It flourished as late as the second century. The Messianic idea originated in ancient Persia and this is where the Jewish and Christian concepts of a Savior came from. Mithra, as the sun god of ancient Persia, had the following karmic similarities with Jesus: http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html
Sorry, guys. Jesus = Mithra.
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Uh no. The topic at hand is believing in the existence of ancient individuals, not the validity of Christianity or any other belief system. For me those days are over. I’ll leave that to others. So, you believe in ancient philisophical writers but not Jesus, whom nearly no one, not even atheistic scholars, would deny ever lived?
Why did God design people to act for their rational self-interest (we hope) and then tell them to torment themselves by denying their want for personal happiness? Happiness as a rational animal (Eudaimonia) is Man’s proper moral stance, one that follows from his nature.
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Just in case anyone takes laughing boy seriously:
“Epicureanism as a movement gathered strength before its founder’s death and continued for another seven centuries, waxing and waning, inciting both popular enthusiasm and sharp criticism. Many philosophers of the ancient world allied themselves with the school, devoting themselves to what they perceived to be the path to true happiness. Both Lucretius (99-44 B.C.) and Diogenes of Oenoanda (c. 200 A.D.) were products of this discipleship. Other prominent figures experimented with Epicureanism at some time in their lives without becoming committed to it. Horace and Vergil were both Epicureans in their youth but distanced themselves in later years. Also among these was Cicero (106-43 B.C.), who would become one of the most outspoken Roman detractors of Epicureanism. He expressed his contempt for Epicurus’s moral philosophy and theology in many of his works, including De Finibus and De Natura Deorum.”
Of course they’re going to say that. Who wants a population all demanding their right to be rationally happy, as free and thinking men? No slaves then, no people cowering in fear that some bishop won’t damn them to Hell.
[quote]orion wrote:
You do know the meaning of the word “proof” ?
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Apparently the meaning has changed somewhat since I was at school, if the article is anything to go by. And by somewhat I mean totally.[/quote]
Some people are never satisfied.
Jesus never even existed yet people believe in Jesus.
Scientists say something, construct extremely high probability models…and its obviously false.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
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Even IF they had “extremely high probability models” and IF the math was correct, they would still be extrapolating form what data we have- problem is, we know jack shit.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:<<< no people cowering in fear that some bishop won’t damn them to Hell. >>>[/quote]You really don’t know a thing about Christianity dude. I do not cower in fear. I face each day in the strength of the Lord and the power of His might. Knowing that the God of the universe loves me and sealed me in His Spirit. All my condemnation was poured out on Jesus. Romans 8:28-39 (caps as per the NASB translators indicating a quotation from the OT) [quote]28-And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29-For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30-and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. 31-What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32-He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33-Who will bring a charge against Godâ??s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34-who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35-Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36-Just as it is written,
‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’
37-But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38-For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39-nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.[/quote]I fear no bishop. Also, not even the Catholics (Big C Christopher) believe their bishops can damn anyone.