Anonymous wrote:Regarding the story of the prodigal son: the father loves both of his sons, and rejoices when the prodigal returns. I see so much misinterpretation of this parable. It is a parable, for one thing, not a real story, and is meant to be understood through that lens.

In the context of Jesus’ time, asking for your inheritance before your parent died was essentially a slap in their face, and basically meant that you wished for their death and saw no point in hanging around waiting for them to die. So there’s the fact that what the prodigal son did was utterly horrible.

The resentful, good son is essentially just being a jerk. In technical terms the rest of the inheritance is his, not the other son’s. He still has everything, and his brother only has his life. He’s just upset that his father is glad to see the lost son and got a party. Like, why isn’t he relieved that his brother isn’t dead? He’s being petty, and he doesn’t have love in his heart even though he “did” the right things. That matters. Where your heart is matters.

We have all been the prodigal son at one point or another. We have all turned away from God and gone on a bad path. And then we have regret and wonder if we can ever come back, can we ever be loved again? Well, God loves you, no matter what you did wrong or what mistakes you made and he will welcome you home with open arms.

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Anonymous wrote:What's making them read and post is that tiny flicker of spirit that ultimately fears God and knows that the retribution is coming. Deep down they know this is bigger than them. Hatred of Christianity than seems like the only answer. They are actually not arguing with Christians, they are arguing with themselves.

If Christians posting here were very judgmental or rude, I could see pushback.

I don’t see that, only Christian discussion of faith and Salvation.

It’s just not right.

Fearing God is good. He is to be feared. But His immense and undying love for us is greater.

If you don’t like Christians, and reject God, and feel Jesus death was a minor detail if you are a Christian, I don’t know what to tell you.

Maybe start your own thread? Instead of thread jacking!

Anonymous wrote:What's making them read and post is that tiny flicker of spirit that ultimately fears God and knows that the retribution is coming. Deep down they know this is bigger than them. Hatred of Christianity than seems like the only answer. They are actually not arguing with Christians, they are arguing with themselves.

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Anonymous wrote:I don't see the point in eternal life. I'd rather have finite, but healthy & happy life, rather than "eternal." Quality not quantity, essentially.

So the thought of spending eternity in paradise with our Creator in perfect peace is unappealing to you?

We have different perspectives. A "creator" of peace, is also the creator of suffering, if all roads truly lead back to them as a creator of everything. And I'm not really interested in spending time with that kind of being. Ultimately this is simply not a worldview I could make myself believe in, if I tried.

But honestly, the concept of eternity sounds incredibly boring. And I'm not exactly a thrill seeker.

NP here. This a million times over. The Christian God seems like a narcissist, and the relationship with God that Christians promote sounds to me like an abusive, highly dysfunctional one. I also think paradise is a subjective concept.

In a way, even the meaning of eternity is debatable. Christians seem to assume it means an unending continuation of time. That's one meaning, for sure. But another meaning is being outside of time. Some religions have a different vision of eternal life after death, and it means that you experience eternity by escaping being-hood altogether. That vision appeals to me more than the Christian version of sitting around in some sort of brightly lit paradise with a bearded old man who pretty much gets people to follow him by gaslighting and torture and then the ultimate guilt trip of "I sacrificed my son for you," when, you know, I never asked him to do that.

The Christian God owes you or me zero explanations. Relationship with Christian God is clearly defined in the Bible and is older than me or you. Paradise is clearly documented place as witnessed in many Bible passages.
We don't assume things about eternity. Eternity is documented in the Genesis and all throughout New Testament.
It doesn't matter what appeals to you. What matters is if you will appeal to God. In Christianity, it's God's will first over human will.

There are scriptures from other religions that are OLDER than the bible. The fact that the bible is old doesn't mean it's documented fact.

And in the bible, it seems to me that god loves the prodigal son more. Won't that be a kicker? If god takes you for granted and even despises you for your failure to question anything and failure to use the brain and capacity for reason he supposedly gave you and then rewards the prodigal son, the one who questioned, the one who doubted? Won't that just be hilarious!

Any god worth worshiping isn't a god who would want his children to be lemmings who blindly follow because they read something in a really old book.

You are desperately trying to present things through human logic. The God of Bible operates at a level that cannot be grasped by human logic. The God of Bible asks for obedience. So, you either do or you do not. Obey. The rest are simply human, impermanent musings. You can indulge yourself in them but they help you nothing with the God of the Bible.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the point in eternal life. I'd rather have finite, but healthy & happy life, rather than "eternal." Quality not quantity, essentially.

So the thought of spending eternity in paradise with our Creator in perfect peace is unappealing to you?

We have different perspectives. A "creator" of peace, is also the creator of suffering, if all roads truly lead back to them as a creator of everything. And I'm not really interested in spending time with that kind of being. Ultimately this is simply not a worldview I could make myself believe in, if I tried.

But honestly, the concept of eternity sounds incredibly boring. And I'm not exactly a thrill seeker.

NP here. This a million times over. The Christian God seems like a narcissist, and the relationship with God that Christians promote sounds to me like an abusive, highly dysfunctional one. I also think paradise is a subjective concept.

In a way, even the meaning of eternity is debatable. Christians seem to assume it means an unending continuation of time. That's one meaning, for sure. But another meaning is being outside of time. Some religions have a different vision of eternal life after death, and it means that you experience eternity by escaping being-hood altogether. That vision appeals to me more than the Christian version of sitting around in some sort of brightly lit paradise with a bearded old man who pretty much gets people to follow him by gaslighting and torture and then the ultimate guilt trip of "I sacrificed my son for you," when, you know, I never asked him to do that.

The Christian God owes you or me zero explanations. Relationship with Christian God is clearly defined in the Bible and is older than me or you. Paradise is clearly documented place as witnessed in many Bible passages.
We don't assume things about eternity. Eternity is documented in the Genesis and all throughout New Testament.
It doesn't matter what appeals to you. What matters is if you will appeal to God. In Christianity, it's God's will first over human will.

There are scriptures from other religions that are OLDER than the bible. The fact that the bible is old doesn't mean it's documented fact.

And in the bible, it seems to me that god loves the prodigal son more. Won't that be a kicker? If god takes you for granted and even despises you for your failure to question anything and failure to use the brain and capacity for reason he supposedly gave you and then rewards the prodigal son, the one who questioned, the one who doubted? Won't that just be hilarious!

Any god worth worshiping isn't a god who would want his children to be lemmings who blindly follow because they read something in a really old book.

You are desperately trying to present things through human logic. The God of Bible operates at a level that cannot be grasped by human logic. The God of Bible asks for obedience. So, you either do or you do not. Obey. The rest are simply human, impermanent musings. You can indulge yourself in them but they help you nothing with the God of the Bible.

Okay. At the end of the day, I'm going to go with logic. But, hey, you do you. Let me guess, you don't believe in science, climate change, etc.? Your fine with us willfully denying logic, reason, observation, and destroying the earth because, hey, end times, amirite!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the point in eternal life. I'd rather have finite, but healthy & happy life, rather than "eternal." Quality not quantity, essentially.

So the thought of spending eternity in paradise with our Creator in perfect peace is unappealing to you?

We have different perspectives. A "creator" of peace, is also the creator of suffering, if all roads truly lead back to them as a creator of everything. And I'm not really interested in spending time with that kind of being. Ultimately this is simply not a worldview I could make myself believe in, if I tried.

But honestly, the concept of eternity sounds incredibly boring. And I'm not exactly a thrill seeker.

NP here. This a million times over. The Christian God seems like a narcissist, and the relationship with God that Christians promote sounds to me like an abusive, highly dysfunctional one. I also think paradise is a subjective concept.

In a way, even the meaning of eternity is debatable. Christians seem to assume it means an unending continuation of time. That's one meaning, for sure. But another meaning is being outside of time. Some religions have a different vision of eternal life after death, and it means that you experience eternity by escaping being-hood altogether. That vision appeals to me more than the Christian version of sitting around in some sort of brightly lit paradise with a bearded old man who pretty much gets people to follow him by gaslighting and torture and then the ultimate guilt trip of "I sacrificed my son for you," when, you know, I never asked him to do that.

The Christian God owes you or me zero explanations. Relationship with Christian God is clearly defined in the Bible and is older than me or you. Paradise is clearly documented place as witnessed in many Bible passages.
We don't assume things about eternity. Eternity is documented in the Genesis and all throughout New Testament.
It doesn't matter what appeals to you. What matters is if you will appeal to God. In Christianity, it's God's will first over human will.

There are scriptures from other religions that are OLDER than the bible. The fact that the bible is old doesn't mean it's documented fact.

And in the bible, it seems to me that god loves the prodigal son more. Won't that be a kicker? If god takes you for granted and even despises you for your failure to question anything and failure to use the brain and capacity for reason he supposedly gave you and then rewards the prodigal son, the one who questioned, the one who doubted? Won't that just be hilarious!

Any god worth worshiping isn't a god who would want his children to be lemmings who blindly follow because they read something in a really old book.

You are desperately trying to present things through human logic. The God of Bible operates at a level that cannot be grasped by human logic. The God of Bible asks for obedience. So, you either do or you do not. Obey. The rest are simply human, impermanent musings. You can indulge yourself in them but they help you nothing with the God of the Bible.

Okay. At the end of the day, I'm going to go with logic. But, hey, you do you. Let me guess, you don't believe in science, climate change, etc.? Your fine with us willfully denying logic, reason, observation, and destroying the earth because, hey, end times, amirite!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the point in eternal life. I'd rather have finite, but healthy & happy life, rather than "eternal." Quality not quantity, essentially.

So the thought of spending eternity in paradise with our Creator in perfect peace is unappealing to you?

We have different perspectives. A "creator" of peace, is also the creator of suffering, if all roads truly lead back to them as a creator of everything. And I'm not really interested in spending time with that kind of being. Ultimately this is simply not a worldview I could make myself believe in, if I tried.

But honestly, the concept of eternity sounds incredibly boring. And I'm not exactly a thrill seeker.

NP here. This a million times over. The Christian God seems like a narcissist, and the relationship with God that Christians promote sounds to me like an abusive, highly dysfunctional one. I also think paradise is a subjective concept.

In a way, even the meaning of eternity is debatable. Christians seem to assume it means an unending continuation of time. That's one meaning, for sure. But another meaning is being outside of time. Some religions have a different vision of eternal life after death, and it means that you experience eternity by escaping being-hood altogether. That vision appeals to me more than the Christian version of sitting around in some sort of brightly lit paradise with a bearded old man who pretty much gets people to follow him by gaslighting and torture and then the ultimate guilt trip of "I sacrificed my son for you," when, you know, I never asked him to do that.

The Christian God owes you or me zero explanations. Relationship with Christian God is clearly defined in the Bible and is older than me or you. Paradise is clearly documented place as witnessed in many Bible passages.
We don't assume things about eternity. Eternity is documented in the Genesis and all throughout New Testament.
It doesn't matter what appeals to you. What matters is if you will appeal to God. In Christianity, it's God's will first over human will.

There are scriptures from other religions that are OLDER than the bible. The fact that the bible is old doesn't mean it's documented fact.

And in the bible, it seems to me that god loves the prodigal son more. Won't that be a kicker? If god takes you for granted and even despises you for your failure to question anything and failure to use the brain and capacity for reason he supposedly gave you and then rewards the prodigal son, the one who questioned, the one who doubted? Won't that just be hilarious!

Any god worth worshiping isn't a god who would want his children to be lemmings who blindly follow because they read something in a really old book.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the point in eternal life. I'd rather have finite, but healthy & happy life, rather than "eternal." Quality not quantity, essentially.

So the thought of spending eternity in paradise with our Creator in perfect peace is unappealing to you?

We have different perspectives. A "creator" of peace, is also the creator of suffering, if all roads truly lead back to them as a creator of everything. And I'm not really interested in spending time with that kind of being. Ultimately this is simply not a worldview I could make myself believe in, if I tried.

But honestly, the concept of eternity sounds incredibly boring. And I'm not exactly a thrill seeker.

NP here. This a million times over. The Christian God seems like a narcissist, and the relationship with God that Christians promote sounds to me like an abusive, highly dysfunctional one. I also think paradise is a subjective concept.

In a way, even the meaning of eternity is debatable. Christians seem to assume it means an unending continuation of time. That's one meaning, for sure. But another meaning is being outside of time. Some religions have a different vision of eternal life after death, and it means that you experience eternity by escaping being-hood altogether. That vision appeals to me more than the Christian version of sitting around in some sort of brightly lit paradise with a bearded old man who pretty much gets people to follow him by gaslighting and torture and then the ultimate guilt trip of "I sacrificed my son for you," when, you know, I never asked him to do that.

The Christian God owes you or me zero explanations. Relationship with Christian God is clearly defined in the Bible and is older than me or you. Paradise is clearly documented place as witnessed in many Bible passages.
We don't assume things about eternity. Eternity is documented in the Genesis and all throughout New Testament.
It doesn't matter what appeals to you. What matters is if you will appeal to God. In Christianity, it's God's will first over human will.

There are scriptures from other religions that are OLDER than the bible. The fact that the bible is old doesn't mean it's documented fact.

And in the bible, it seems to me that god loves the prodigal son more. Won't that be a kicker? If god takes you for granted and even despises you for your failure to question anything and failure to use the brain and capacity for reason he supposedly gave you and then rewards the prodigal son, the one who questioned, the one who doubted? Won't that just be hilarious!

Any god worth worshiping isn't a god who would want his children to be lemmings who blindly follow because they read something in a really old book.

You are desperately trying to present things through human logic. The God of Bible operates at a level that cannot be grasped by human logic. The God of Bible asks for obedience. So, you either do or you do not. Obey. The rest are simply human, impermanent musings. You can indulge yourself in them but they help you nothing with the God of the Bible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay here's where I confess that the thought of eternity scares the sh!t out of me.

I mean when does it ever end?

It doesn't. That's the difficult part. God sent his Son to us to deliver us from our sins precisely because eternity burdened by the debt of sin is worse than anything you can possibly imagine in this life. We are spirit beings. Today we see massive onslaught against spirit. It will get worse in the end times. There will be only a handful of Christians left due to sheer hatred and prosecution against us. Yet, God's might is so indescribable. In one move He will smash all evil that ever existed. He will create new Earth and Heaven because he is not interested in correcting anything that is rotten. Corruption is irreversible. God is not interested in correcting and saving anything that has been corrupted. He is interested in a completely new. And His will be done.

You contradict yourself. If God isn't interested in saving things that have been corrupted, then he wouldn't have sent his son to deliver people from their sins, as you proclaim.

Christians like to talk in circles and then wave away the contradictions and hypocrisy in their words and actions. It also never ceases to amaze me how much Christians pretend to care about other people then take joy in the notion of the end times and the idea of people suffering.

Calm down. Everything is ok. Try to find peace in your own religion.
If pinnacle of your day is to bash Christians than you have not found internal peace in your own religion or lack of thereof.

When did I say the "pinnacle of my day" was bashing Christians? But of course that's what Christians do when you question their contradictions, they shame you and then accuse you of not having internal peace.

For what it's worth, I've yet to meet a Christian IRL or in person who seems to have internal peace.

And frankly, I think humans are meant to have some angst, some inner rumblings. So I don't take your accusations as an insult.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay here's where I confess that the thought of eternity scares the sh!t out of me.

I mean when does it ever end?

It doesn't. That's the difficult part. God sent his Son to us to deliver us from our sins precisely because eternity burdened by the debt of sin is worse than anything you can possibly imagine in this life. We are spirit beings. Today we see massive onslaught against spirit. It will get worse in the end times. There will be only a handful of Christians left due to sheer hatred and prosecution against us. Yet, God's might is so indescribable. In one move He will smash all evil that ever existed. He will create new Earth and Heaven because he is not interested in correcting anything that is rotten. Corruption is irreversible. God is not interested in correcting and saving anything that has been corrupted. He is interested in a completely new. And His will be done.

You contradict yourself. If God isn't interested in saving things that have been corrupted, then he wouldn't have sent his son to deliver people from their sins, as you proclaim.

Christians like to talk in circles and then wave away the contradictions and hypocrisy in their words and actions. It also never ceases to amaze me how much Christians pretend to care about other people then take joy in the notion of the end times and the idea of people suffering.

If pinnacle of your day is to bash Christians than you have not found internal peace in your own religion or lack of thereof.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the point in eternal life. I'd rather have finite, but healthy & happy life, rather than "eternal." Quality not quantity, essentially.

So the thought of spending eternity in paradise with our Creator in perfect peace is unappealing to you?

We have different perspectives. A "creator" of peace, is also the creator of suffering, if all roads truly lead back to them as a creator of everything. And I'm not really interested in spending time with that kind of being. Ultimately this is simply not a worldview I could make myself believe in, if I tried.

But honestly, the concept of eternity sounds incredibly boring. And I'm not exactly a thrill seeker.

NP here. This a million times over. The Christian God seems like a narcissist, and the relationship with God that Christians promote sounds to me like an abusive, highly dysfunctional one. I also think paradise is a subjective concept.

In a way, even the meaning of eternity is debatable. Christians seem to assume it means an unending continuation of time. That's one meaning, for sure. But another meaning is being outside of time. Some religions have a different vision of eternal life after death, and it means that you experience eternity by escaping being-hood altogether. That vision appeals to me more than the Christian version of sitting around in some sort of brightly lit paradise with a bearded old man who pretty much gets people to follow him by gaslighting and torture and then the ultimate guilt trip of "I sacrificed my son for you," when, you know, I never asked him to do that.

The Christian God owes you or me zero explanations. Relationship with Christian God is clearly defined in the Bible and is older than me or you. Paradise is clearly documented place as witnessed in many Bible passages.
We don't assume things about eternity. Eternity is documented in the Genesis and all throughout New Testament.
It doesn't matter what appeals to you. What matters is if you will appeal to God. In Christianity, it's God's will first over human will.

There are scriptures from other religions that are OLDER than the bible. The fact that the bible is old doesn't mean it's documented fact.

And in the bible, it seems to me that god loves the prodigal son more. Won't that be a kicker? If god takes you for granted and even despises you for your failure to question anything and failure to use the brain and capacity for reason he supposedly gave you and then rewards the prodigal son, the one who questioned, the one who doubted? Won't that just be hilarious!

Any god worth worshiping isn't a god who would want his children to be lemmings who blindly follow because they read something in a really old book.