I have two sisters who are Christians, and I just leave them be about it now because I don't want to strain our relationships. I'm actually okay with people having their beliefs, as long as they don't call for these beliefs to be put where they don't belong, like the creationism being taught in the biology classroom here. It's not science, and it has no place in a science class. We are doing our young people such a disservice.
Religion is actually taught in grade school in America?!? The only thing I remember from school is being forced to listen to the Canadian anthem and I always kept my hands at my side and didn’t sing along because I never agreed with blindly following anything, including a country.
Agree, you should leave people alone. Me and Captain are big boys and I only add nicknames to people I find interesting.
The religion of creationism is taught alongside the science of evolution in our biology classrooms, here in the county where I live. VICE? Is that you?!?
I don't think you are addressing my point about knowing whether or not you have accepted Christ or if anyone else has is possible. Sure many things can follow if you accept Christ or if you don't, surely God will know, but will any mortal? If you say the wicked will then know, then they are wicked before the Last Judgment and the Last Judgment is just there to explain something to them, their essence is known by another mortal or themselves and likewise for the saved. Christ introduces the possibility of an essential transformation through his acceptance, and it might even be written that you can know this, but this doesn't mean that you do know it or explain how to come to this knowledge.
Accepting Christ means opening yourself up to Divine Grace and being saved from Sin, now how do you do this, that is, how do you know that you or anyone else have accepted Christ? Is it written anywhere, this is how you accept Christ, if you do this or that you will know you have accepted Christ or not. This is obviously the case for friends on facebook and maybe other things.
Teh **** are you rambling on about?! Religion is on its way out the door, along with fossil fuels. And I say good riddance!
There are many who have never heard the truth of the Gospel, who have heard God's voice in nature, and are serving God according to the best of their understanding. These people will be saved. But anyone who openly and blatantly rejects the truth of the Gospel of Christ, cannot be saved, for they have rejected the shining Light which has come their way.
You cannot know for sure if others are saved, 100% no, because you cannot read hearts. However, you can know who has accepted Christ by their "fruits", as a general thing. When they do righteously, it is because Christ gives them the ability to be righteous. We can know if we are saved, by simple tests. Am I walking according to the Bible? Am I striving to be honest? Am I living my life the way Christ lived His? Are my prayers answered? The wicked will know for sure at judgment, but far too late. It's like the person who is caught and thrown and prison and finally admits they were wrong. They admit, but far too late to escape their punishment. Even fully knowing, if given another chance, the wicked would do nothing but try to escape the claims of God's law.
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” -- Richard Dawkins. I'm glad there's no evidence for such a vile monster, because that would really be a colossal buzzkill.
If I was an admin, I likely would (especially for those whose only posts are to preach their fictions). However, we allow all sides of an issue to express themselves...besides, it's always fun to watch theists twitch when the issue of "burden of proof" comes up... So, let the theists in this thread begin giving evidence for their claims...I'm all ears!