Well, good for you then. What sort of small present would you like from me?
Nothing, I am simply stating that would be cruel for him to obliterate my soul, simply because, given the brain he gave me, I came to the conclusion that he does not exist. And because of that, I will suffer according to the bible.
I don't happen to believe that, but still. Carry on clinging to your words.
Goodness. I know you don't believe in that, I was simply stating what would happen to me if eternal torment theory was in fact true, so I could then compare it to temporary torment or annihilation theory. That is the only reason I went into detail with it.
I don't know that. I don't believe that. I don't teach that.
Clearly he doesn't have a very good opinion of those who are of different faiths.
2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. John 3:16-17 ESV / 13 helpful votes John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him....... but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Oh, and here's a nice one from our omnibenevolent friend. (okay okay Ill stop being snarky Im sorry, I just get upset by verses like these.)
Deuteronomy 17:2-5 “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.
Deuteronomy 7:3-4 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
Psalm 14:1 To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.
2 Chronicles 15:12-13 And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul, but that *whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. *
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
2 Peter 2:21"For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them."
If you look at creation myth, we wanted to go our own way and thought we could do better. What we created was a world where the first people felt shame at being human, and their children were involved in murder. Within a few generations they were so depraved in some instances, that entire cities needed to be destroyed. This is not something to say or take lightly.
Of course the creation story says that. Religion was a powerful tool to get people to co-exist with eachother, and leaving that would be horribly inconvenient. Although what you say depicts non religious people as these evil, destructive beings - let me ask you, what has been the cause of most wars throughout history? If Christianity is the way to peace, then why is there so much chaos in the religion, from homosexuality, abortion, stem cell research, drugs, cloning and all central aspects of scripture there is debate after debate. I don't see atheists brutalising gay people, and in fact the evidence seems to show that atheists are less likely to believe in things like capital punishment or waterboarding. I believe I can do much better than your God, and so far I haven't murdered anybody. In fact, I would say that just from what I can see in /r/atheism, many of us have similar feelings and ideas about many issues, and we're always progressing along with science. The subreddit /r/atheism clearly debunks your statement I believe. We're not depraved. We're just people.
You're not going to dictate to God what is moral and what isn't.
I bloody well would dictate to him that obliterating people's souls is wrong if I got the chance.
And you don't have to do anything more than simply NOT be shitty to other people, treat others with kindness and work for social justice, and have faith that God not only recognizes that suffering and horror SUCKS, but voluntarily JOINS IN WITH IT and takes on our nature and suffers WITH us, saying "it'll work out, just take my hand".
Actually, according to your scripture, I would have to do a lot more than that. I would also have to deny my sexuality. Which, as you know, is not proven to work. Nor would I want to if I could, however.
https://carm.org/bible-homosexuality
"it'll work out, just take my hand".
The problem is, this is the exact same request as all other religions. I could not take his hand, because I can't see the difference.
He might very well say "you called on me a lot, but you didn't really do that much, whereas gregwarrior ran a soup kitchen and was kind and decent even though he didn't believe in any reason to. I choose to save him and not you."
Well, given the fact that I am both gay and an atheist, I think we'd have to do some pretty intense nit picking to try and even suggest that I have the slimmest chance of going to heaven. But you know what? That doesn't matter to me. Even though by His standards, I am a contemptible, corruptible person, I know that is not to be the case. I am a really nice guy who is driven by a passion to help people, animals and the world. I really don't care if Im sent to oblivion because of that.
And believe me, if God would give me the choice I'd rather you go to heaven, because I simply would not be able to enjoy myself in that place, knowing that right below me, millions upon millions of people are suffering. Either suffering, or obliterated for no reason other than not coming to the same conclusion as Christians did. I would not be able to worship and celebrate a God who would do that to innocent people. Although you may tell me that I am simply too puny or weak or stupid to understand that doing that to someone, let alone millions of people, is a just and kind thing to do, I would not be able to accept that ever.