Do you call yourself a true Christian? Then you should be spreading the good word as the Bible commands it. This thread is made just for that purpose. Here you will have your chance at converting atheist(s). And when you'll meet God and he'll ask you if you've been a good Christian, you will be able to say "Yes! And I have a post in a thread to prove it."

Here you can post questions for atheist(s) that Christians can answer, but atheists presumably can't. If they can't answer, then they will supposedly see the error in their ways, and that will lead them the Truth.

Let the posting of questions begin so that atheist(s) can attempt to answer them.

2124290
Many Christians claim, that morality comes from God. They say, that if they learned that God doesn't exist, they would have no problem raping and killing people. They say that the only reason why they don't do bad things is because they'd burn in hell if they did. Instead they do good things, so that they can get to heaven.

It is the same with other religions. Those that crashed the plane in WTC did so because they thought it would lead them to heaven. We have their statements saying this.

Many people don't do good because they want to do good. They do it because 'Daddy' sais so. And let's not forget that 'Daddy' is the only one that actually knows what good is (objective morals!). That is, for instance, why Christians represent the biggest opposition for gay people. Bible says, that being gay is a sin. You cannot call yourself a faithful Christian without considering that being gay is a sin. If 'Daddy' would say that it's okay to be gay, then there wouldn't be so much opposition against gay people. It doesn't matter what your opinion is on the subject. What matters for a true Christian is what is written in the Bible.

Being a Christian is not just some label that you put on yourself and live your life as if nothing has changed. There are obligations that come with being a Christian. Those obligations are written in the Bible. Converting people to Christianity is one of the obligations. Why? Because it sais so in the Bible. Because 'Daddy' sais so.

Why the selfishness you ask? Well it's not like being good comes naturally. That would mean that morals aren't objective. That's why we have the Bible. If you follow it, it doesn't mater if you are selfish or not.

In a certain situation saving someone from getting hit by a bus would be like Abraham saving his son even though God wanted him dead. I'm sure Abraham wanted to save his son, but the point is, that it is irrelevant what a person thinks. What matters is what 'Daddy' thinks. I admit, this isn't a very good example, since God probably wouldn't mind, if you saved someone from the oncoming bus.

If not being selfish would be a rule by which Christians could live by, then Christians wouldn't even need the Bible.

2132789 Yes, I think you are right. If people were nice to each other then perhaps the guide book (the Bible or the law) wouldn't be needed.

But if these things were so self-evident God wouldn't even have to give people the Bible. People would just be good on their own. But things aren't so self evident. Christians say that you can only know what is good if you read the Bible. And if you read it you see, just how not self-evident the good deeds are.

If you loved someone, would you murder them? Would you steal from them or betray them?
I'm sure Abraham loved his Son. Your answer to the above questions is No. But if Abraham answered so, it would actually be the wrong answer. Even in your quote it's evident, that a Christian should above else do as God commands, not do as he thinks is Good.

So, the correct answers to your questions would be: Yes, you should kill if God commands you to kill. It may seem immoral, it may seem wrong, but that is irrelevant. If you want to call yourself a true Christian, then above all else you should do as God commands and as the Bible teaches.

So, for a true Christian, sticking to the rule "Don't hurt others." is not enough or even correct. Perhaps society could function on that rule alone, but if you read the Bible you see, that God wants other things as well. Some of those things even contradict the rule "Don't hurt others."

The gist of my view is this: If the Bible is true, and you want to be a good Christian, then you should do the things that the Bible commands, even if they seem immoral. That, or you can't really call yourself a true Christian.

3365720 Religiosity of people is measured, so this issue shouldn't be contentious. I'll show my chart and you can show me yours (you misslinked it).

Either way, this is not a valid argument for me. There used to be a time when every single person on the planet believed that Earth was flat. Perhaps the time we live in is no different and everyone is still wrong about a certain issue. Other people believing in something, holds little argumentative value in my eyes.

But we're being practical. If my neighbours were awesome in every way, except that they believed that the Earth was flat, I wouldn't change my view of the planet Earth just to hang out with them. I would enjoy their company if I could, but I wouldn't give up my 'religion' of roundness of Earth to achieve that.

Same for Christians. They are awesome people and I love to hang out with them, but all that is irrelevant to the actual subject of correctness of a certain religion or the need to accept it.

Christianity has association with Crusaders wars and burning of people. I think you could find dirt in every religion or philosophy. Atheism is no different. Lots of dirt. Lots of taboo. Again, I don't care about any of that. If Christianity was bad in the past it doesn't mean it will be bad in the future. Same for Atheism.

In practicality, I don't see any difference as to what religion I hold. If I changed to Christianity my life would still be the same in every way (unless I'd start going to mass and would start praying).

You are correct. If I wanted to change to a certain religion, it wouldn't be much of a problem to do that. But then again, staying an atheist isn't much problem either. Even in the worst possible scenario I could just pretend to be a member of a certain religion to avoid being burned alive or something. I think the world has become more tolerant, however, so one can really be whatever one chooses to be.

You have a point in that atheism is more tabooed than Christianity. Perhaps, in certain environments it would be more practical to proclaim yourself as a Christian as opposed to an atheist. However, these circumstances are becoming increasingly rare as we become more tolerant and even if that were not the case, it wouldn't be right to change one's belief just on the basis of that.

I am not yet fully convinced to join the ranks of Christians.

1948980
2124290
Sorry, but Vengeful's right; you don't do it for brownie points, you do it as needed if someone's making seriously bad decisions based on an ignorance of the Gospel. I'm no expert, but I suspect that "Brownie Points" are not important, but if they were, then how to really earn Brownie points, if that were even possible, is to try to understand God better if possible and live a selfless, caring lifestyle, which may sometimes include converting, but that's not the special thing that everyone has to do. And the Christian lifestyle isn't the thing you bring up to compare to that of others and see who's higher or lower on the totem pole, and thus make yourself or others feel unnecessarily bad, because different people have different strengths and weaknesses, and different skills, so compare to yourself, based on what you know you can do, and don't compare or contrast to others. But that's assuming that Brownie Points are even important to begin with.

3365720
I don't know, we're getting stiff competition from Islam.

3366919

live a selfless, caring lifestyle, which may sometimes include converting, but that's not the special thing that everyone has to do.

God said that you should be spreading the Word. He didn't say whether that will give you any points or not, but it sure wouldn't piss him off if you did, since he's the one that told you to do it.

And the Christian lifestyle isn't the thing you bring up to compare to that of others and see who's higher or lower on the totem pole

compare to yourself

Some people go to Heaven and some go to Hell. Perhaps God is throwing dice to decide who goes where, however, there is indication in the Bible, that there are some parameters, based on which God makes his decision to let you in. So, I there is such a thing as comparison to others. When you look at people around you, how many of them do you think will end up in Hell? Will you be one of them?

3366980

God said, that you should be spreading the Word. He didn't say whether that will give you any points or not, but it sure wouldn't piss him off if you did, since he's the one that told you to do it.

That may be so, in the sense that perhaps it's not really about getting points after all and it's about being more like God in terms of grace over time. Which is also why that perhaps we don't have to have a huge placard for converting atheists.

3367016

we don't have to have a huge placard for converting atheists.

I think this thread is a positive one. People only come here by their own will, so no one gets harmed by it. It's much better then knocking on the doors on Sunday mornings.

3367282 You may be right. Although, atheism is on the rise in America

the world seems to be growing in Islamic population. Should I convert to Islam then?

3367319 People aren't putting their religion on the first priority in their life. You can hardly find anyone, that still practices 'no sex before marriage'.

However, if religion becomes a big part of peoples lives, it oftentimes gets corrupted and you get burning of witches and books.

Maybe we should teach people to be good unrelated to religion. Like ethics, maybe?

3369853 Religion can act as a common denominator. For instance, many people wouldn't hate on gays so much, but when the religion that they hold dear tells them that being gay is evil, they can rally up and implement systematic laws against it.