Come_Forth wrote:Because we have a freakin mind Do you want to die? No, so it would be wrong to kill you in most cases. I could just as well say you believe that you will go to heaven when you die therefore killing you would be a good thing since you would be in heaven.
But what’s the mind? Its just more electrons… negative and positive charges; Organic binary.
Without a soul, a human being is nothing more than the sum of his/her parts. Nothing but billions upon billions of tiny little atoms. If you kill a man then you do nothing but pull apart a complex machine: You do nothing but render it down into its component parts, for nature to rebuild. You have, in effect done nothing, made no permanent mark upon the physical sphere. What then is so immoral about it? You’ve done
nothing!
Now, if man
has a soul, it must be something that exists outside of nature. I.e. it’s not some organ that evolution can provide. It cannot, therefore, be rebuilt by nature… only created by something greater. Therefore, by killing a man, (if we follow Christian tradition) you have destroyed something irreplaceable; you have eliminated, not just disturbed, something of the universe.
Then you would have done something. You would have exercised power, not futility. And, as the philosophers and producers of Spiderman all like to say:
With power comes responsibility; from responsibility arises options of right and wrong.
Come_forth wrote: Would you live your life any different if there was no God?
If I were an atheist, my life would be much different. I would have a different world-view, different friends, different influence, different interests, different jobs, and different impact.
Now, if you mean that, I, still following my Christian beliefs would continue to act as I do now; even if there were no God? Then yes, I would probably still act in a similar fashion to the way I do now.
However, it seems to clear to me that there must
be a god, of some sort. I cannot ascribe to our physic’s bound electron, properties that can only belong to a god. Science has not given me an answer, and even if science were to be true, were to be completely empirical: Then I would hate to live in that world, where human’s are not valued any more than their weight in sub atomic particles.
Come_forth wrote: It looks like God would learn, people do not want to worship him/her/it. It seems like God's plans always screw up (Satan, Eden, flood, etc) Even the Jews would go worshiping idols everytime they had the chance in the OT.
Some people do not want to worship Him, many do. You cite the old testament; what of Job? Of Abraham?
What of the Saints and martyrs, who, skepticism about their miraculous achievements aside,
did die for their faith?
Some people do not want to worship God.
Some people do.
Come_forth wrote: I saw a bumper sticker today that said "26,000 children will starve today and you think that God will answer your prayers?" That is exactly how I feel.
I volunteer many hours at the soup kitchen, many more hours distributing goods to the poor, and doing other civic service. I am, in other words, trying to make a difference. What though, would their lives mean to me, if I valued them no more than the air? What would the lives of those twenty-six thousand (182,000 per week) matter?
A belief in God is the only thing that gives their lives any meaning at all. That same belief, in my case, would hold that there is an eternal life, with the potential to repay earthy suffering with bliss a million fold. We are all going to die, I don’t pray that God prevents that, or that He makes the road of life easier; I do pray that He gives us strength to deal with that road, and that He have mercy upon those who show up at heaven's gate, as I hope he will show me.
Come_forth wrote:Also I do not see how God could have free will since he would know the future and if he knows the future then he cannot change it or he never knew it.
I’m not sure what your saying. As there are many ways around this, though they’d all be speculation. For example, it could be that God being omnipotent, could see the future as an infinite, ever branching ladder, where each potential choice and its effect upon the future are written. Choosing, therefore, does not mean he does not ‘know’ the future; He like a computer at Chess, has already seen all the possible permutations, and has simply chosen a particular set.
Come_forth wrote: Xeno I like your view on salvation but I do find evidence for it in the Bible. "Unless a man confess with his lips that Jesus Christ is Lord he shall not be saved."
And, having read that, I as a Christian would be bound to it. But again, a Just God, would not hold those who have never heard or seen that passage to account, unless it was their sloth that kept them from viewing it. I do not believe in an Allah, who smears the heathen’s eyes in mud, and fills his ears with wool so that they cannot hear or see the truth.
Also, could you provide me with a passage for that quote?
The closest I can find is: "For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved"
), that often coincides with the end of religious wars, which should alert you to the false piety of those war's leaders.
Do you want to die? No, so it would be wrong to kill you in most cases. I could just as well say you believe that you will go to heaven when you die therefore killing you would be a good thing since you would be in heaven 
