[quote]storey420 wrote:
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Everything I believe. EVERYTHING, was absolutely standard at the founding of this nation. Vanilla Westminster Calvinism. Nothing extreme about it. Totally mainstream American here. [/quote]
lots of bad ideas were absolutely standard at the founding of this nation. Not exactly an argument strengthener…just saying[/quote]What were the good ones?
[quote]Headhunter wrote:Why would anyone believe in something just because someone else said so? >>>[/quote]Depends on who says it.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
[quote]storey420 wrote:
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Everything I believe. EVERYTHING, was absolutely standard at the founding of this nation. Vanilla Westminster Calvinism. Nothing extreme about it. Totally mainstream American here. [/quote]
lots of bad ideas were absolutely standard at the founding of this nation. Not exactly an argument strengthener…just saying[/quote]What were the good ones?
[/quote]
I think the ideas of attempting the create a more free society than what they had come from was a good idea although it didnt quite play out the way you’d think for those seeking “liberty for all”.
i think we should all just stop arguing and stick to what we do best; pick heavy things up, then put them down.
[quote]iStandOnMyHands wrote:
i think we should all just stop arguing and stick to what we do best; pick heavy things up, then put them down.[/quote]
Oh right, sure. Because we all agree that to pick heavy things up, then put them down is more worthy than pulling heavy things down, then put them up…Wow, dang, reflexive launch into argumentation. Yeah, maybe I do need a break from this place…
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
Seriously, I want to know.
If God does exist who will he favor the most?
What if the true religions hasn’t been invented yet?
Do you think an all-powerful god would really be jealous and smite you if you accidentally were born into the wrong one?
These questions burn in my mind and feel like there is a gap in my understanding that needs to be satisfied.
Discuss.[/quote]
The one that has ONE rule: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, all thy soul, and all thy mind.
All others are just power grabs by schemers.
[quote]iStandOnMyHands wrote:
i think we should all just stop arguing and stick to what we do best; pick heavy things up, then put them down.[/quote]
You are certainly welcome to participate in those threads. These aren’t those.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, and all thy mind.[/quote]
Or else?
Or else?[/quote]Outstanding insight indeed!!! That’s it.
Another gold medal champion autonomous man is in the house.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
The one that has ONE rule: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, all thy soul, and all thy mind.
All others are just power grabs by schemers.
[/quote]
So, Catholicism. 
From the link: The greatest game ever created had but one rule, and it was this: “Do not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” All else allowed.
Assuming that I have no a priori knowledge of good and evil, how can I conclude that disobeying that rule is bad? Is obeying the rule a good act or an evil one? How am I to know unless I already have knowledge of good and evil?
[quote]pookie wrote:
From the link: The greatest game ever created had but one rule, and it was this: “Do not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” All else allowed.
Assuming that I have no a priori knowledge of good and evil, how can I conclude that disobeying that rule is bad? Is obeying the rule a good act or an evil one? How am I to know unless I already have knowledge of good and evil?
[/quote]
Still doing your father’s work I see. Anyway, you don’t have to have knowledge of good and evil to obey what God has told you. No one said that it was “bad” or “good” just don’t eat the fruit.
Simple.
[quote]pookie wrote:
From the link: The greatest game ever created had but one rule, and it was this: “Do not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” All else allowed.
Assuming that I have no a priori knowledge of good and evil, how can I conclude that disobeying that rule is bad? Is obeying the rule a good act or an evil one? How am I to know unless I already have knowledge of good and evil?
[/quote]
Or, you shall surely die. They knew what was up.
[quote]ZEB wrote:
Still doing your father’s work I see. Anyway, you don’t have to have knowledge of good and evil to obey what God has told you. No one said that it was “bad” or “good” just don’t eat the fruit.[/quote]
Why obey? Why not eat the fruit? How would they decide whether to obey or not if they can’t tell right from wrong?
Is your contention that obeying God is not good? Or that disobeying is not evil?
It might seem simple to you, but that’s because you know good from evil.
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Or, you shall surely die. They knew what was up.[/quote]
Did they even know what death was? Wasn’t the Garden of Eden an earthly paradise where all living things dwelled in peace free from violence and death?
God had recently completed His project of commanding light and matter to exist from nothing and ordering them in such a way so that He declared them “very good”. He continues as I type this to sustain their ongoing existence every millisecond (near as I can discern because God is not in any way subject to time. Both it and space being His creations) by the Word of His power. Adam and Eve knew exactly what He wanted them to. Just like you do Pookie. Exactly.
Right so it was trap. An all powerful god would surely have known they would fail at the test. Why put the talking snake there? To really, really test them? This stuff cannot be believed.
A god that sets tests, knowing you will most likely fail, cannot be loving.
[quote]pookie wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Or, you shall surely die. They knew what was up.[/quote]
Did they even know what death was?
[/quote]
Without the tree of knowledge?
They did not even know that they were butt naked, one would think anything above and beyond that was also beyond them as well?
[quote]pegasus3 wrote:
Right so it was trap. An all powerful god would surely have known they would fail at the test. Why put the talking snake there? To really, really test them? This stuff cannot be believed.
A god that sets tests, knowing you will most likely fail, cannot be loving. [/quote]Lemme make this a little worse for ya. God did NOT test them knowing they would fail. He decreed their failure. And He did it by divine mechanisms known only to Himself whereby He remained and remains utterly free from so much as even the whiff or smudge of sin. All this is addressed in His Word. HE defines what’s loving. Not his corrupt rebellious creatures, myself included.
[quote]pookie wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Or, you shall surely die. They knew what was up.[/quote]
Did they even know what death was? Wasn’t the Garden of Eden an earthly paradise where all living things dwelled in peace free from violence and death?
[/quote]
Yes they knew, it was expulsion from the Garden. They wouldn’t walk with God and would no longer be filled with the Holy Ghost.