Jesus said I am the way.

They only go on scientific facts and those don't chaenge once set in peer-reviewed stone.-
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LOL when I was young the steady state theory for the universe was yet not completely disproved and I also remember reading in an Asimov book on science that he did not think highly of the theory of continental drift.

Dark matter and dark energy was unheard of and the theory that of some of the great die outs being cause by asteroids impacts had yet to appear.

Science is in a constant state of flux as we learn more and more about the universe and it always will be. Side note in the last few years we had found that almost all galaxies had large very large black holes in their center massing 100 of million of stars.

Yes science is indeed lock into stone.

I was thinking about your comment here and think I did not give you sufficient credit for raising a valid point and also did not give the point you raised sufficient attention.

Why do Evangelicals share their faith and encourage others to embrace it? I think most do because they truly love people and truly want them to have a glimpse of and assurance that there is life beyond what we experience here and want them to know the true joy and peace that comes from knowing that God is real and that He does love and care about us.

I think some share their faith badly. I can't imagine that many people have come to know and love Jesus by being told they were going to Hell. And I suspect many now resist religion because of how unpleasantly and hatefully that Jesus was introduced to them.

And I think some truly don't know, don't care, and shrug it off. Some people that I most appreciate are agnostic or nonbelievers but at this point in their life they are truly indifferent to religion other than as a curiosity. They are delightful, warm, intelligent, caring, gifted people who do not share my beliefs or faith, but who do not care in the least that I believer and do not criticize me because I do. They, like you, might be intensely interested in Christian theology and history just as I enjoy studying and discussing other religions and/or ancient mythology, and they might participate in vigorous debates, but its okay with them if I believe something and they don't.

Such are different from the fanatical Atheists who seem almost desperate to justify their religion of non belief. And that's okay too.

Perhaps their fear of being wrong causes some of them to act irrationally and passionately.

After all, if we are right we go to heaven. If we are wrong, it doesn't matter. If they are right, it doesn't matter. If they are wrong they go to hell.

Heck, I would be afraid too.

However, I'm ready to go to hell, in case I would be wrong.

I take my responsibilities.

But I'm sure god will be in hell with me, for all his wrongdoings, which are obviously worse than mine..

The old man is indeed one of the most evil gods ever dream up, thank 'god' for his loving son!

That's OK with me as long as they don't patronize me, or feel pity because I don't know Jesus or feel concern because I'll be going to hell.

Atheists make up a teeny weeny 2% of the U.S. population...surprising isn't it?
My experience is that atheists don't try to convert religious folks...it just isn't in their make-up to do so...but evangelicals are constantly harping on me to see the error of my ways.

In any case, I'm glad you came back to my post. What I was trying to show is that we all wear blinders...I'm glad you took yours off for the meantime....I'm doing the same.

Just out of curiosity, do you see evangelicals 'patronizing' you or 'feeling pity' because you don't know Jesus, or 'being concerned' because you're 'going to hell' as somehow worse than an Atheist telling me that I'm delusional, dealing in superstitious nonsense, stupid, uneducated, stupid, brainwashed, fanatical, or pick your derogatory adjective or term of the day because I do have a religious faith?

Which makes you feel more indignant, insulted, or angry? Which are you more likely to criticize? Which would you be more likely to pile on with in a dog pack attack?

no, not worse... BUT...that stuff only happens on this forum...out in the real world...I have never heard an atheist badgering an evangelical to convert. Have you?

Honestly

Badgering to convert, no. That would not be in the Atheist catechisms because it would be too close to admitting that Atheism is a form of religious faith. (It takes more faith to believe that more than a billion people on Earth are delusional in what they claim to have experienced than it does to believe that God loves you.)

But trying to get a small village to take a historical cross (representing the Catholic friars who settled the village) off the village seal, yes. Demanding that the school take all or most of the traditional religious Christmas music out of the Christmas concert program, yes. Protesting a religious symbol behind the President giving a speech at a religious-based college, yes. Filing suit to have a granite sculpture with the ten commandments engraved on it removed from a courthouse, yes. Refusing to allow a small town where 99% of citizens are Christian to have a generic prayer before a football game or rodeo, yes. Protesting a traditional creche that has been erected on the town hall lawn for 50 years, yes. Getting militant if a science teacher should acknowledge that the theory of Intelligent Design exists, yes. And getting in my face re abortion rights, gay rights, anti-war rallies, save the whales or whatever, yes. Wanting religious symbols off public buildings, taking "God" back out of the pledge, and getting "In God we Trust" off our currency, yes.

A percentage of that tiny percentage of Atheists sometimes seems hell bent on denying as many fellow citizens of as many of their religious freedoms as possible and/or to remove as much evidence of religious faith from public view as possible.

I'm not referring to you Panzade, and I thoroughly enjoy discussing religion with non religious or non believers who are genuinely interested in the subject and aren't just looking for an opening to skewer somebody. I figure if I can't defend what I believe, then I really could be deluded in believing something that is indefensible. I believe any opinion worth having can be defended.

But I think even on the internet, the Christians are usually far more charitable and less insulting to the Atheists, than the Atheists are to the people of professed faith.

I agree with Foxfyre, that was rather splendid, spendius

I honestly don't know why the subject seems so threatening to some or why some seem to drawn like magnets to a thread like this. Intuitively, I hope it is the Holy Spirit that is pushing them along knowing that sooner or later they'll lower their resistance and the light of possibility can switch on. As I have long resisted being told what I must believe to go to Heaven, I do cringe when somebody starts spelling out the rules or words that have to be said, etc. to get somebody there. I don't want to make people hate Jesus because those who represent him, intentionally or unintentionally, represent Him badly.

But would a rational person be so 'frightened' if they truly didn't believe there could be anything to it? Interesting question.

I used to know an old preacher who said he thought some folks have to be dangled over the pit a bit before they understand it's gonna be real hot down there.

What do you think about this video? Good? Bad? Powerful? Disturbing? (It takes a few minutes to watch, but if your time is limited watch about the last half.)

6000 years !
If the age of the earth were the length of a toilet roll, Man has been here for the last millimetre. The interesting question is, why did God need all that toilet roll?

One presumes you would like to see a population that is difficult to control.

Is that right?

Where would you get the idea that God interferes in our lives. There was no interference in the life of the Prodigal Son, his father merely waited for his return. When the butterfly emerges from the cocoon it doesn't interfere with the caterpillars crawling on the ground.

We can do anything we want here - fight bloody wars (people in the past have loved that (some still do), you know, all that gore flying around. We can take all the money while the people toil and starve, rape and steal, drink booze, take drugs.

We can do all those things until we hate everybody including ourselves. Then, one day we can wake up. Could be from reading one small book, hearing one inspiring speech, or just become scared out of our wits, or gone completely insane. If we feel regret for all we've done, weep and tear our hair (like Saul of Tarsus when he heard the voice) then, we may want to change.

God does not interfere in our lives, he merely waits for our return. Maybe some don't want to change because they think some horrid punishment could be in their future. We aren't punished, but we may be required to make amends.

Do you have some example of God interferring in someone's life? Did you ever read the Book of Job?

I read it. It is hilarious.

Some fundamentalist do hold to that 6000 years time line. The vast majority of Christians do not. I do not myself.

My question to you is why was that 6000 years more interesting to you than anything else in that video?

Look out fresco. That's a trick-cyclist's question. I would be careful how you answer it if I was you.

Weeeeeeelllllllll......trick-cylist might be a wee bit of a stretch, but loaded a bit, yes.

I thought the video was completely silly, right from that "6000 years" bit on. The Rapture wasn't even invented until the 19th century--no one before then thought anything like that would be part of the final days.

Every generation, from the one right after Jesus died, people look at the signs and portents and predictions and decide, yep, the time is now, he's coming back soon. Every single time, he hasn't. Tony Alamo, the preacher now up for sexual misadventures with his flock, apparently postered most of the country predicting that the world as we know it woould end on a specific day in the 1990s, I think in 1992. I recently saw the remains of one of his flyers still glued on a cement lamppost. It lasted longer than he did. The question is, how many thousand times can you be wrong before maybe you conclude the whole thing is never going to happen