Simon Anders
Valued Senior Member
Or he or she is not a Christian."
This is the basic thesis of Q and Strangerinastrangeland on another thread. I thought it was a distraction – though one can read Q’s psychic interpretation for why I dropped the issue on the other thread. Here I will address why I think their thesis is false.
A Christian could view the Bible as a flawed human document inspired by God. That the various writers of the Bible did their best, but the results were affected by their cultures and psychologies. Still these Christians believe essential truths and inspiration can be found in the Bible especially in the 4 Gospels.
Q tends to start ranting about God being the authority and that Christians must listen to God. (perhaps in a past life Q was a Fire and Brimstone preacher, who knows) These non-fundamentalists do not disagree, but they do not think it is as easy as Q seems to think it is to know what God wants and has 'said'. Thus they feel there is a process via prayer and contemplation and perhaps discussions with other Christians and listening to experts – whom they choose from amongst the wide variety of churches out there.
Thus they need not decide to hate homosexuals, a pet issue of Strangers, and do not need to be threatened by carbon dating and estimates of the age of the earth or when animals evolved or humans for that matter.
Q and Stranger think that they are in the position of saying that only fundamentalists are real Christians, despite the fact that they are not Christians and are not agreed with by many Christians on this issue.
So why do they do Q and Stranger take this position. One possibility:
It makes it easier for them.
If you have to take the entire Bible literally, then you do run into contradictions with Science, especially in the non-gospel portions of the MT and in many portions of the OT.
I think it is ironic, in a way that seems to escape Q, that he is, essentially, setting himself up as a religious authority, and seems intent in not admitting that this role serves his position and might not be justified. His sidekick may not realize that in supporting Q, he is also saying that in fact there are millions and millions less Christians in the world and that only fundamentalist Christians can be Christians. A belief that begins to slide their position much closer to Adstar’s.
Many people want their enemies simple. They like to demonize or oversimplify issues. You can see this when countries gear up to war. You can see this here in threads where atheists bash theists as if they are all fundamentalists. You can see it here in threads where theists bash atheists for being without morals or for not being creative or whatever.
You like your simple enemies that are all exactly the same.
You need that.
When will you stop needing that.
This is the basic thesis of Q and Strangerinastrangeland on another thread. I thought it was a distraction – though one can read Q’s psychic interpretation for why I dropped the issue on the other thread. Here I will address why I think their thesis is false.
A Christian could view the Bible as a flawed human document inspired by God. That the various writers of the Bible did their best, but the results were affected by their cultures and psychologies. Still these Christians believe essential truths and inspiration can be found in the Bible especially in the 4 Gospels.
Q tends to start ranting about God being the authority and that Christians must listen to God. (perhaps in a past life Q was a Fire and Brimstone preacher, who knows) These non-fundamentalists do not disagree, but they do not think it is as easy as Q seems to think it is to know what God wants and has 'said'. Thus they feel there is a process via prayer and contemplation and perhaps discussions with other Christians and listening to experts – whom they choose from amongst the wide variety of churches out there.
Thus they need not decide to hate homosexuals, a pet issue of Strangers, and do not need to be threatened by carbon dating and estimates of the age of the earth or when animals evolved or humans for that matter.
Q and Stranger think that they are in the position of saying that only fundamentalists are real Christians, despite the fact that they are not Christians and are not agreed with by many Christians on this issue.
So why do they do Q and Stranger take this position. One possibility:
It makes it easier for them.
If you have to take the entire Bible literally, then you do run into contradictions with Science, especially in the non-gospel portions of the MT and in many portions of the OT.
I think it is ironic, in a way that seems to escape Q, that he is, essentially, setting himself up as a religious authority, and seems intent in not admitting that this role serves his position and might not be justified. His sidekick may not realize that in supporting Q, he is also saying that in fact there are millions and millions less Christians in the world and that only fundamentalist Christians can be Christians. A belief that begins to slide their position much closer to Adstar’s.
Many people want their enemies simple. They like to demonize or oversimplify issues. You can see this when countries gear up to war. You can see this here in threads where atheists bash theists as if they are all fundamentalists. You can see it here in threads where theists bash atheists for being without morals or for not being creative or whatever.
You like your simple enemies that are all exactly the same.
You need that.
When will you stop needing that.