@Scoobes
1. Isn't that just blackmail. You have freedom, choice and the ability to hold opinions... but you must share and follow my opinions or else I'll make you suffer...
That sounds more like a bully and dictator to me. I think this is where the view that Saphi had of not following god (if he exists) comes from. There is no benevolence in this attitude. A person doesn't need to believe in god to be morally just, yet they would be punished regardless? Do you honestly think that an atheists have less morals than a believer?
2. You aren't born addicted to drugs or alcohol. Homosexuals are born gay. Would you be against homosexuality if it wasn't in the bible? Aren't your moral values being dictated to?
And again, why does not believing automatically equate to there being "nothing" for them."
1. Blackmail? Doesn`t blackmail force you to go down one route for the sake of the one that is blackmailing? In religion, all his given to people for their own decisions and their own hapiness aswell.
How can even something like that even be seriously considered when Jesus died for our sins so we can have salvation? Doesn`t that show how loving God is - even if you don`t believe.
Thing is, one could say that if you are good, love and caring, aren`t you really on God`s side? But there also needs to be the recognition that He is the reason for all.
No benevolence? Only if you are already dead, cause till the very last breath you can find salvation. It`s not a lack of goodness. Who`s talking about having more or less morals? It`s about God`s ways, not morals.
2. Actually no. More than once i saw people claiming that even them thought they were gay, live in a gay "world" (his words not mine) for years only to find out that they weren`t gay at all.
I don`t remember homosexuality being in the Bible.
"Being dictated" is an expression that doesn`t encompass faith. God doesn`t force anyone to believe nor would He want anyone to be forced to. People open up themselves to God not because how pretty the ethical system or to play safe because in the end it woudn`t cut it, but because they feel Him in their hearts.
Faith is a gift that people receive when they open their hearts to God. If you don`t open, or at least even try to, then you are pretty much saying that you don`t want Him. It`s the same with love. If you don`t open yourself to someone like a friend or a lover you are rejecting what he/she has to offer you, so why resent the consequences? If you don`t give, what do you expect to recieve?
