| This is a good thing, IMHO. |
| The numbers matter not. At the end of life, we will each realize that God have us the chance, and those who have listened to him will have the reward. It doesn't matter if the "nones" boast 99.9% of the population. Higher number =/= being right. |
| _has given_ |
| I wonder if all the "unaffiliated" will be so proud shen Jesus comes back and rips them a new asshole? |
I guess I missed the part in the Bible where Jesus returns to earth to rip new assholes for the "unaffiliated." Please tell me you're just trying to make Christians look bad. I'm no longer Christian, but hate to think those who kept the faith think this way. |
In other words, you don't dispute the Pew Statistics. I wonder whey Jesus would let so many potential followers be led astray. I though he loved us and wanted us to be with him in heaven. |
Jesus wants exactly that, but he gave everyone free will. He does not force people to come to him and he doesn't "let" followers be led astray. |
He does not force people to come to him, but he does condemn them to hell if they don't -- if you believe what it says in the Bible, and more and more people don't |
And that's their free will. But it doesn't change the end result. Sorry. |
same. |
Condemn? No. People choose to not believe in heaven and then shouldn't miss it, right? |
It does if the Bible is just an ancient book of stories and mythology, Sorry. |
Just for the sake of argument, let's say you are right and it's just a story. What do believers lose? Nothing, we are better off living our lives as Jesus wanted us to. We aren't missing anything. What do non believers lose if they are wrong? Eternity That's quite a gamble. Right, but what will the believers lose by believing? Absolutely nothing. We lead our lives as Jesus would have wanted |
It's known as "Pascal's wager" and it could apply to anything anyone tried to get you to do or believe via a threat. (e.g., "If you don't clean your room, I'll tell you Daddy to whoop you when he gets home!" or "Don't go into the woods -- THere's a bear in there who eats little kids." The other thing, is that it presents the Christian God (assuming he exists) as too dumb to know that some people are hedging their bets -- not completely swallowing the bible story about accepting Jesus as your savior, but pretending to, just in case God is actually there to judge people after they die. Is God really that dumb? That shallow? |
| Are there actually people who can choose whether or not to believe? That seems to me to be like deciding that salt will taste sweet to me from now on. I can respect that God is very real to some, but those who profess belief in case there really is such a thing a heaven strike me as profoundly dishonest. |