You can live with hope or you can live without hope.

[floo]

You certainly don't need to be a Christian to understand what is being said in the Bible. I have read the book for most of my life!

[BashfulAnthony]

You certainly don't need to be a Christian to understand what is being said in the Bible. I have read the book for most of my life!

As I have pointed out, on many issues, if you've read it, you have most certainly not understood it?

[BashfulAnthony]

You certainly don't need to be a Christian to understand what is being said in the Bible. I have read the book for most of my life!

What does this well-known New Testament term mean, then:  the abomination of desolation,"  anybody?

[Sassy]

Because any belief not derived from evidence is fantasy, by definition. If there were any evidence for a god, then 'goddidit' would be a leading theory in cosmology.  As it is, there is no such evidence, so goddidit is not even a theory, never mind a leading one.  Goddidit, is therefore, is an indulgence, a fantasy indulged for psychological reasons, but not a rational explanation based on evidence.

I believe you are fooling yourself. God has never been out of the running regarding the creation and existence of the world and mankind.
You denying the truth that God platys an integral part of mans life and belief is really the illusion you create.
The evidence is that those who believe have prayers answered and miracles happen.

Prayer and miracles don't really meet the standard of evidence you would expect in a scientific context.

There is a scientific context for proving or disproving God, is there. Didn't think so, so why make such a statement about a scientific standard of evidence it doesn't meet?  Surely the truth is that science doesn't have anything to explain prayers being answered and miracles. Do no standard to meet.

  It's patchy, not consistent, and probably these phenomena find a truer explanation through psychology and the placebo effect.

Placebo affect would not explain a miracle or answer to prayer.
I am surprised at you Torridon...you have no arguments..

For instance if you go to Lourdes you might see crutches left behind by people who believe they were miraculously cured, but in reality might have just found there the necessary self-belief to cast aside their walking aid.

Are you really having a laugh... You might dip a wheelchair in the water and it will come out with two new tyres... Sounds silly now doesn't it.. Do you actually have any arguments at all to explain why people are really cured?


 

We don't get amputees coming home from Lourdes with suddenly regrown limbs.

I don't know but isn't withered limbs renewed just as good a miracle?  Seems that amputees have had limbs grown back in the past. Could be a matter of belief.

This suggests the healing power of prayer is a natural power already resident within the minds of all humans.

Doesn't suggest any such thing... How do people severed spinal cord get up and walk?

Also this phenomenon is culturally widespread, it is not confined to Abrahamic faiths, probably most alleged miracles take place in other faith contexts, particularly in Hinduism and Sikhism.  So I grant you, belief in God can be a beneficial thing but that doesn't make god actually exist in any normal sense of the word.

You do not have a scientific argument at all...

[Sassy]

OK So one CAN understand its messages etc & STILL be a non-Christian.??

Do you understand that Jesus died to save sinners?

Well, if you believed it, you would know why...

[Leonard James]

OK So one CAN understand its messages etc & STILL be a non-Christian.??

Do you understand that Jesus died to save sinners?

No he didn't, he died because somebody didn't like what he was preaching. In any case, according to you, his "death" was very temporary.

Well, if you believed it, you would know why...

I don't think Trippy is very inclined to swallow fairy stories.

[floo]

OK So one CAN understand its messages etc & STILL be a non-Christian.??

Do you understand that Jesus died to save sinners?

Well, if you believed it, you would know why...

Jesus died because he upset the religious authorities of the day. He was far from perfect himself if the gospel accounts about him trashing the Temple, frightening the pigs over the cliff, telling people to leave their responsibilities and follow him etc have any veracity. Who died to save Jesus from his sins?

[BashfulAnthony]

OK So one CAN understand its messages etc & STILL be a non-Christian.??

Do you understand that Jesus died to save sinners?

Well, if you believed it, you would know why...

Jesus died because he upset the religious authorities of the day. He was far from perfect himself if the gospel accounts about him trashing the Temple, frightening the pigs over the cliff, telling people to leave their responsibilities and follow him etc have any veracity. Who died to save Jesus from his sins?

I have answered the points you make here, more than once,:  but as always you ignore any answers made to your responses., You have little or no knowledge of the New Testament and the teaching of Jesus.  All you do is repeat that you have read it many times;  and as I've pointed out, reading it is not the same as understanding it  -  not that I think, for one minute, that you have even read it.

[jeremyp]

A string of posts from Sass who knows what she is talking about.

If ever there was a time to be a grammar nazi...

[Shaker]

A string of posts from Sass who knows what she is talking about.

If ever there was a time to be a grammar nazi...

There's always time to be a grammar Nazi 

[Leonard James]

OK So one CAN understand its messages etc & STILL be a non-Christian.??

Do you understand that Jesus died to save sinners?

Well, if you believed it, you would know why...

Jesus died because he upset the religious authorities of the day. He was far from perfect himself if the gospel accounts about him trashing the Temple, frightening the pigs over the cliff, telling people to leave their responsibilities and follow him etc have any veracity. Who died to save Jesus from his sins?

Nicely put, Roses!

[Alien]

A string of posts from Sass who knows what she is talking about.

If ever there was a time to be a grammar nazi...

There's always time to be a grammar Nazi 

Don't forget the full stop.

[Shaker]

Not required when an emoticon ends a sentence 

[Alien]

Not required when an emoticon ends a sentence 

Roight.

[BashfulAnthony]

Not required when an emoticon ends a sentence 

"Write the sentence with the full stop in the normal place and then write the smiley face.

This is true even if there is a sentence following the smiley face. This is because the new sentence begins with the first letter of that sentence. The smiley is, in fact, not actually part of either sentence. It is, in its own right, a new sort of sentence -- one that is simply shorthand. It equals some other sentence like "I am smiling, happy, whatever," and yet, because it is not written as a sentence, it needs no punctuation following it."

[Shaker]

According to whom?

[Sassy]

A string of posts from Sass who knows what she is talking about.

If ever there was a time to be a grammar nazi...

You really do not get it, do you. I have O level in English which took me literally 6 lessons to do and pass.
What I find really stupid is that you and others moan about  English grammar(but only here on sites where you post) is the hardest for anyone including English teachers. But I do know as any educated person that sometimes we tend to write as we speak without punctuation. The educated amongst us have no problem with reading what everyone else writes because our ability to comprehend and understand what we see if above that of the average person.

You complaining about grammar is about your lack in ability to see what is before you in content. It is the lack of the person complaining which is the real issue. You are lacking in the ability and intelligence to be able to put in your own punctuation as you read. I have no problem with the punctuation and the grammar fallacy.

All people who complain about grammar (basically the stringing of words together to make sentences) are actually lacking in the intelligence and ability to correct it themselves.
That they lack the knowledge, education and ability to understand what is written based on the words strung together. The sentences do make sense to those educated enough to know what is being discussed...

[floo]

Your sentences regarding matters of faith make no sense at all Sass, even if they were grammatically correct.

[Shaker]

... which they're not.

[Rhiannon]

OK So one CAN understand its messages etc & STILL be a non-Christian.??

Do you understand that Jesus died to save sinners?

Well, if you believed it, you would know why...

Jesus died because he upset the religious authorities of the day. He was far from perfect himself if the gospel accounts about him trashing the Temple, frightening the pigs over the cliff, telling people to leave their responsibilities and follow him etc have any veracity. Who died to save Jesus from his sins?

Nicely put, Roses!

The pigs are a veiled reference to one of the Roman legions. He didn't really frighten Pigling Bland and chums to a watery grave.

As for trashing the temple, fair dos, materialism seems to be an eternal plague on humanity and we need santuaries where we can escape from it (Cathedral gift shops take note - our spiritual lives aren't enhanced by being able to buy giant pencils and fridge magnets).

[Leonard James]

The pigs are a veiled reference to one of the Roman legions. He didn't really frighten Pigling Bland and chums to a watery grave.

Tell me more about this Roman Legion, and why you think Jesus was referring to them as pìgs.

[Rhiannon]

The pigs are a veiled reference to one of the Roman legions. He didn't really frighten Pigling Bland and chums to a watery grave.

Tell me more about this Roman Legion, and why you think Jesus was referring to them as pìgs.

Len, nobody kept pigs by the thousand. But Roman legions (note that) numbered thousands. The Tenth Legion were infamous in Palestine and were partly responsible for the destruction of the temple. Their emblem was the boar.

I don't think Jesus referred to them as pigs, but the writer of Mark did. We was making the point that Jesus triumphed over those that wanted to destroy him and his followers. It's a kind of satire.

[Leonard James]

The pigs are a veiled reference to one of the Roman legions. He didn't really frighten Pigling Bland and chums to a watery grave.

Tell me more about this Roman Legion, and why you think Jesus was referring to them as pìgs.

Len, nobody kept pigs by the thousand. But Roman legions (note that) numbered thousands. The Tenth Legion were infamous in Palestine and were partly responsible for the destruction of the temple. Their emblem was the boar.

I don't think Jesus referred to them as pigs, but the writer of Mark did. We was making the point that Jesus triumphed over those that wanted to destroy him and his followers. It's a kind of satire.

Blimey, you've got to hand it to these Christians! Their ingenuity in thinking up "explanations" for the otherwise daft stories in the Bible knows no bounds! 

[jeremyp]

Not required when an emoticon ends a sentence 

Yes, because the crime of ending a sentence with an emoticon (or, indeed, putting an emoticon anywhere in a sentence) far outweighs the missing full stop.

[jeremyp]

A string of posts from Sass who knows what she is talking about.

If ever there was a time to be a grammar nazi...

You really do not get it, do you.

Wrong, it is you who has failed to get "it".

Foo wrote

    A string of posts from Sass who knows what she is talking about.

I'm pretty sure she meant

   A string of posts from Sass - who knows what she is talking about?

I've observed her posts about you quite a lot and it would be totally out of character for her to imply you know what you are talking about ever.

Anyway, thanks for the rant.  I deleted the rest without reading it.

Who knows what you are talking about?