CIVIL RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION: All things Christianity

[ArcadiaGP]

"Checkmate Atheists"

 

[rvb]

"Checkmate Atheists"

Hardly a checkmate.....

Top/Left, if no God, then no afterlife, so not a valid situation.
Bottom/Left, if no God, then no afterlife, so not a valid situation,
So only the right two boxes are valid conditions. Ergo, if you find yourself concerned at all with the afterlife, you must believe in God.

Now as for what goes in the two boxes on the right, "smugness" won't be included in either, imo.

-rvb

 

[2A_Tom]

Hardly a checkmate.....

Top/Left, if no God, then no afterlife, so not a valid situation.
Bottom/Left, if no God, then no afterlife, so not a valid situation,
So only the right two boxes are valid conditions. Ergo, if you find yourself concerned at all with the afterlife, you must believe in God.

Now as for what goes in the two boxes on the right, "smugness" won't be included in either, imo.

-rvb

You are correct. That is not a valid argument and I don't believe their will be any joy in being separated for all eternity from friends and family who reject the gift of eternal life, or those who think they deserve it because of their good works.

There will be a point in eternity that God wipes away all the tears that we will shed over those we have lost and those we might have won but were too lazy or indifferent to try.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

"Checkmate Atheists" is a meme, a joke.

Batting 0 for 5 with INGO Religion Humor.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

A definition of smugness is excessive pride in oneself or one's achievements. I doubt a "smug" Christian-like person will be "on the other side" yelling checkmate either. That's not how this works. Now, having said that, I realize GP's grid is meant to be humorous and not necessarily theologically persausive.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

"Checkmate Atheists" is a meme, a joke.

Batting 0 for 5 with INGO Religion Humor.

I got it. And I did chuckle when I read it. It's not correct as I mentioned in my last post. But for what it was, it was funny.

 

[2A_Tom]

Never have seen the humor in being separated from God for all eternity.

I have used the contrast of if you are correct we I lose nothing if I am correct you lose everything.

 

[rvb]

"Checkmate Atheists" is a meme, a joke.

Batting 0 for 5 with INGO Religion Humor.

Now, having said that, I realize GP's grid is meant to be humorous and not necessarily theologically persausive.

sorry, guess I'm outta the loop...

 

[foszoe]

"Checkmate Atheists" is a meme, a joke.

Batting 0 for 5 with INGO Religion Humor.

Guess I'll just trash my 15 page response...

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Guess I'll just trash my 15 page response...

Only 15 pages? You must be busy today.

 

[ATM]

I liked it.

 

[PaulF]

Never have seen the humor in being separated from God for all eternity.

I have used the contrast of if you are correct we I lose nothing if I am correct you lose everything.

The the problem with Pascal's Wager is that it imposes an either/or where none exists...

...there is a third option: we are both wrong.

We both agree that man has a tendency to create false gods, right? Mankind and its history are literally full of them. So, while someone may believe in a god, there is still a possibility (even a likelyhood) that person has selected the wrong god.

The first commandment of the Jewish faith condemns idolatry, so If they are really God's "One True Religion (TM)" every other believer (or non-believer) that has ever lived is subject to "judgement" and damnation.

There are a billion Christians. There are a billion Muslims. Each side sincerely believes that their way is the only way. The only way to be certain if you are among the "chosen ones" is to die.

How kind do you expect your god to be to Muslims at judgement? How kindly do you expect to be treated by Allah?

 

[ChristianPatriot]

The the problem with Pascal's Wager is that it imposes an either/or where none exists...

...there is a third option: we are both wrong.

We both agree that man has a tendency to create false gods, right? Mankind and its history are literally full of them. So, while someone may believe in a god, there is still a possibility (even a likelyhood) that person has selected the wrong god.

The first commandment of the Jewish faith condemns idolatry, so If they are really God's "One True Religion (TM)" every other believer (or non-believer) that has ever lived is subject to "judgement" and damnation.

There are a billion Christians. There are a billion Muslims. Each side sincerely believes that their way is the only way. The only way to be certain if you are among the "chosen ones" is to die.

How kind do you expect your god to be to Muslims at judgement? How kindly do you expect to be treated by Allah?

There are very few people who doubt Jesus existed. Either He is who He says He is or He isn't. The number of people that believe a religion doesn't make it any more valid. How many people think stricter gun laws and a larger central government will make them safer? I'm sure we've talked about this before. Mohammed wrote the Koran by himself based on a vision. Jesus walked the earth for 33 1/2 years and performed supernatural things in front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses. Not really a hard decision.

 

[PaulF]

There are very few people who doubt Jesus existed. Either He is who He says He is or He isn't. The number of people that believe a religion doesn't make it any more valid. How many people think stricter gun laws and a larger central government will make them safer? I'm sure we've talked about this before. Mohammed wrote the Koran by himself based on a vision. Jesus walked the earth for 33 1/2 years and performed supernatural things in front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses. Not really a hard decision.

Jesus could have existed, and the stories told about him two or three generations later (not by eyewitnesses) could be fictionalized...both can be true at once.

Jesus existing does not equal Jesus being the messiah...that is a leap of faith, and you could be wrong.

Worse, some other group could be correct.

 

[ChristianPatriot]

Matthew, Mark, and John were there and wrote down what they saw. So you're saying that they lived sooo long that no one was around that witnessed it also?

 

[ChristianPatriot]

At what point does history stop being believeable? 50 years? 100 years? Did the Revolutionary War happen as it was written down? The Bible could've been written in the 70's for all I know. Truth is only what you can experience or see?

 

[ArcadiaGP]

I got it. And I did chuckle when I read it. It's not correct as I mentioned in my last post. But for what it was, it was funny.

Humor should be allowed to exist with relation to anything. Politics, religion, history, culture... Often, humor with regards to religion is treated like an attack on religion itself. At least, people feel compelled to defend the illogic in the humor (which is typically the joke.)

But, if you've got 100 pages of people being super-serious, they may just default to that mode when a few jokes are dropped in.

 

[ChristianPatriot]

Humor should be allowed to exist with relation to anything. Politics, religion, history, culture... Often, humor with regards to religion is treated like an attack on religion itself. At least, people feel compelled to defend the illogic in the humor (which is typically the joke.)

But, if you've got 100 pages of people being super-serious, they may just default to that mode when a few jokes are dropped in.

You wicked sinner

 

[PaulF]

Matthew, Mark, and John were there and wrote down what they saw. So you're saying that they lived sooo long that no one was around that witnessed it also?

Where do you get the idea that these people were eyewitnesses? This is factually incorrect, as the earliest gospels weren't recorded until after the fall of the second temple in ad70.

70 years is a long time in a place where word travels by face-to-face contact.

 

[PaulF]

At what point does history stop being believeable? 50 years? 100 years? Did the Revolutionary War happen as it was written down? The Bible could've been written in the 70's for all I know. Truth is only what you can experience or see?

Virgins don't have babies. Men don't rise from the dead. No one lives forever after death.

It isn't the age of the story that makes it unbelievable, it is it's content.