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Smiling JOe

SoWal Expert
Nov 18, 2004
31,648
1,773
I'm still wondering of all the people who died before Jesus was born, are going to Hell for not believing.
 

Lollerwaffle

Beach Comber
Dec 27, 2007
26
1
Ugh. This bothers me so much. Evolution is based on science. Intelligent design/creationism is based on religion. Have a science class, and have a religion class. Let parents choose how their kids should be brought up, and place them in the class that coincides with their ideals. Living in the south, there is nothing that I hate more than being preached at about Christianity from teachers. Here is the issue with having intelligent design taught in schools: It could work, if we lived in a perfect, objective world. But humans are EMOTIONAL beings. If they are religious, chances are, several teachers end up preaching at you, and take offense and could even punish your grade wise if you don't agree with their ideals. Or jeez, it could even be wiser to say "Some people believe in evolution. Some people believe in intelligent design. Here are some library resources and websites if you wish to inform yourself more." Religion is too much of a private, personal issue to be lawfully forced upon those of us that aren't religious. If intelligent design is going to be taught around here, we all know it's going to be based off of Christian ideals. Well, they should also be teaching what hindus, muslims, etc etc believe too, if they're going to do that. Or they could just be sane about it, and have an entire class devoted to teaching about what all of the different religions of the world believe, and speak objectively about ALL religions. If the point of forcing christian based religion into schools is to "show both sides of the story," then it's obviously just a ploy to further that sect's cause. There are more than "both" sides of the story. There are hundreds of sides. Teach them all or teach none at all. Evolution doesn't even qualify as a religious belief. It's a theory, that some people choose to believe is a likely one. It has nothing to do with god, jesus, religious rituals, bible stories, etc.

I got absolutely plenty of exposure in school, just from my peers telling me I would go to hell for my sexuality, constantly trying to 'save' me, and preaching at me every chance they got. I can't imagine how horrible high school would have been if the teachers were actually teaching that stuff. It would have just given those kids more justification to harass me. If you live in the U.S., chances are, you have an understanding of the difference between evolution and religion, because your parents teach it to you based on their beliefs.

http://www.fstdt.com/fundies/top100.aspx?archive=1 Please enjoy this hilarious link.
 

hnooe

Beach Fanatic
Jul 21, 2007
3,027
640
I'm still wondering of all the people who died before Jesus was born, are going to Hell for not believing.

No all people born before Jesus was born are all now in Heaven. Their timing was very good on this. Jesus did not die for their sins, just ours.
 

Lollerwaffle

Beach Comber
Dec 27, 2007
26
1
What happens to people in foreign countries that have never been exposed to Christianity at all? They haven't even heard of it. Do they get to burn in hell for their ignorance?
 

NoHall

hmmmm......can't remember
May 28, 2007
9,042
996
Northern Hall County, GA
Okay, then why don't you explain to me what happens to them?
Because church was canceled this morning because of ice. I'm watching a movie...:D

Hell is simply eternal separation from God, not punishment for not being submerged in dogma during life (which can be its own form of hell.) If God is truly omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent (which is outside of time, so there is no such thing as "before" Jesus) and omni-benevolent, then the whole point is for all people, even the little pygmies in Africa, to spend eternity with God.

Several places in the Bible speak of general revelation, which is the idea that even if those poor, ignorant people don't have the means to steal a Gideon's Bible from a motel or watch Creflo Dollar on t.v., God reveals himself to them in some way.

One of my favorite Christian authors puts it this way:

"Jesus said, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but my me.' (John 14:6) He didn't say that any particular ethic, doctrine or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that he was. He didn't say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could 'come to the Father.' He sai that it was only by him--by living, participating in, being caught up by, the way of life that he embodied, that was his way.

"Thus it is possible to be on Christs' way and with his mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason to be on your way to God though maybe you don't even believe in God..."

By this definition, I think there are a lot of people I know who won't touch Christianity and its off-putting dogma with a 10-foot pole and a handful of card-carrying atheists who will not be burning in hell. After all, Jesus himself was not a religious man.

p.s. We should probably leave this thread to the evolution debate. This subject has been hit several times. I think it goes on for a while on a thread called "worry." I'm going back to my trashy movie now...
 
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