"Until heaven and earth pass away"--have they? Of course not--what could be clearer? And until that happens, JC says that the Law (of Moses) is in effect, period.
Now Paul--who was active and wrote his epistles before any of the Gospels were written, remember--wanted to grow the church, wanted to make it something other than a minor Jewish sect. How to do that? Ah, decide that you *don't* have to keep kosher, you *don't* have to keep the Sabbath...and especially that you *don't* have to be circumcised! Eternal life, *and* keep the tip? Now that's a product!
So we're left with a choice: to follow what Paul decided, or what JC said. And you can't pick more than one, because they're contradictory. Personally, I'd think that anyone who claimed to follow JC, and thought he was perfect, would strive to obey JC on this matter. But I do realize that it's much more convenient to follow Paul, and much easier to make the church grow that way. And let's get real: People *want* to eat pigs, and have cookouts on Saturday, and get tattoos.
No one can infallibly know or rule out anything for a fact but by our own standards of knowledge, inference and scrutiny, God fails every test. There's no evidence for God's existence and no rational reason to believe in it. Very surprised out how many God fearers exist here though.
To be an atheist, you cannot believe in free will.
Actually, by definition all that "atheist" means is someone who doesn't believe in any god(s).
I've certainly met nonbelievers who believe in free will, and others who don't. TBH I've met atheists who accept and espouse all kinds of irrational crap--so much for atheism's necessarily being an "intellectual" or "reasoned" position!
Atheists might believe in karma, or reincarnation, or all manner of goofy sh!t. The thing (and the only thing, in my experience) that they share is that none of them believes in a god. That's it.
Galen's legacy will always be marred by the years he spent working with a coach who played with drugs and is now banned.
We'll never know the truth. It's hard to accept that Galen wasn't doping in some way what with the many witnesses, fact that he was Alberto's favorite, and all the stories about him. God might not care about medals but God might care if you lied and cheated your way to the top.
Galen's legacy will always be marred by the years he spent working with a coach who played with drugs and is now banned.
We'll never know the truth. It's hard to accept that Galen wasn't doping in some way what with the many witnesses, fact that he was Alberto's favorite, and all the stories about him. God might not care about medals but God might care if you lied and cheated your way to the top.
There is no question he is no longer the same runner but of course the injuries and surgery give him a before surgery and after surgery which somewhat coincide with possible pre and post DOPing.
To be an atheist, you cannot believe in free will.
Actually, by definition all that "atheist" means is someone who doesn't believe in any god(s).
I've certainly met nonbelievers who believe in free will, and others who don't. TBH I've met atheists who accept and espouse all kinds of irrational crap--so much for atheism's necessarily being an "intellectual" or "reasoned" position!
Atheists might believe in karma, or reincarnation, or all manner of goofy sh!t. The thing (and the only thing, in my experience) that they share is that none of them believes in a god. That's it.
You can't believe in free will, and be consistent with the beliefs of atheism, the main tenant being that there is no God. Chemistry, physics, biology, can't make choices. They only follow laws. Since we nothing more than a combination of physics and chemistry, we also, cannot make choices. If you feel so compelled to believe in free will, then you must believe that there was some type of creator. You don't have to believe in a particular creator, just that something created all of this "something."
"Until heaven and earth pass away"--have they? Of course not--what could be clearer? And until that happens, JC says that the Law (of Moses) is in effect, period.
Now Paul--who was active and wrote his epistles before any of the Gospels were written, remember--wanted to grow the church, wanted to make it something other than a minor Jewish sect. How to do that? Ah, decide that you *don't* have to keep kosher, you *don't* have to keep the Sabbath...and especially that you *don't* have to be circumcised! Eternal life, *and* keep the tip? Now that's a product!
So we're left with a choice: to follow what Paul decided, or what JC said. And you can't pick more than one, because they're contradictory. Personally, I'd think that anyone who claimed to follow JC, and thought he was perfect, would strive to obey JC on this matter. But I do realize that it's much more convenient to follow Paul, and much easier to make the church grow that way. And let's get real: People *want* to eat pigs, and have cookouts on Saturday, and get tattoos.
Jesus wasn’t saying that Christians must keep the law. He was saying that lol remains, as a witness against us, as proof of how far we are from true holiness. Jesus expected us to obey the law as our salvation, there would be no need for him to go to the cross or the empty tomb.
No one can infallibly know or rule out anything for a fact but by our own standards of knowledge, inference and scrutiny, God fails every test. There's no evidence for God's existence and no rational reason to believe in it. Very surprised out how many God fearers exist here though.
“Our own standards of knowledge, inference and scrutiny”. I think it’s pretty obvious based off how small we (humans) are compared to the universe at large. Our knowledge is limited to our observation of the world we live in. Our inference is limited. Our scrutiny is biased (one way or the other). What you fail at (and I mentioned this earlier) is that you are applying our knowledge to a Being that was able to speak things into existence. Our knowledge is limited, His is not. There is evidence and a rational reason to believe in God.
People within Christian circles debate things such as free will and predestination all the time. I think it's pretty obvious that people do have choice, and throughout bible, God will give prophets choices, in which sometimes they choose the wrong choice.
To be an atheist, you cannot believe in free will. Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens admit as much. We are just doing what protoplasm does under the sun at this temperature.
So you can choose between some kind of creator, or realize that you have no choice or control over your life.
It’s a fun conversation to have! I will agree, people have a will. It’s not “free” however. You’re either a slave for sin or set free from. People are responsible for their own actions. However, God “describes” and “prescribes” the future. I’d like one example of a prophet given a choice. most the time it’s “Do this” and the Israelites so “no.”
This is why I can't understand fat people who claim to be Christian. God created you in his image and sculpted a beautiful body for you, then you stuffed your cakehole with beer and Cheetos until you turned your body - your gift from God - into something grotesque. And you still think you're doing what God wants you to do with your life?
Just so. Proverbs 23:2 says to "put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite."
If "G-d" be real, and if the Bible really be the Word of "G-d," then the gluttons who make themselves fat are headed for the pit.
Along with people who get tattoos, eat pigs, trim the corners of their beards, combine meat and milk, flick a light switch (much less drive a car) on Saturdays, and so on.
People always use Leviticus as a “gotcha” for Christians, yet those people only prove their own ignorance. Do some research on why those things were a no-no back then and why they aren’t now. Enlighten yourself. Do it for your own edification. It’ll help you avoid embarrassment again.
Galen's legacy will always be marred by the years he spent working with a coach who played with drugs and is now banned.
We'll never know the truth. It's hard to accept that Galen wasn't doping in some way what with the many witnesses, fact that he was Alberto's favorite, and all the stories about him. God might not care about medals but God might care if you lied and cheated your way to the top.
We can never be sure if there's a God, and we can never know if the chief lab scientist mistook "Testoboost" for testosterone medication.
You can't believe in free will, and be consistent with the beliefs of atheism, the main [tenet] being that there is no God.
At the risk of repetition: The English word "atheist" is defined as "one who does not believe in any god(s)." That's literally what the word means, and all that it means. (Its opposite is "theist," which is a person who *does* believe in one or more gods.)
I have met quite a few atheists (that is, nonbelievers--precisely the same thing) and would venture to say that most of them have not considered the question of free will at any depth. They don't spend any time or mental energy (which is limited for some of them, in any case) on the question at all. They simply don't believe in god(s). That's it, and that's--by definition!--what makes them atheists.
Other than that, the ones I've encountered are about as varied a group of humans as there could possibly be. Some are clearly intellectual, some just as clearly not; some feel compelled to "proselytize," and some couldn't care less whether others believe or don't; some can provide a reasoning behind their nonbelief, and some can't provide any rationale for it. Some even believe in the supernatural, and some don't. But none of them believe in god(s). If they did, they wouldn't be atheists.