Gnarly Gnu

Great! In God, dinosaurs, dragons, Darwin or Don? Indeed do you feel there is a difference?

Darn, sounds like Lonely Planet.

Don't much like Emu, platypus is delicious though.

Man, that could be my problem too. Being curious and not unthinkingly accepting everything as taught are not desirable traits by the state education system. Perhaps I'll back off on Dr Daffyd's drugs and go for re-education. Fabulous, make one feel hungry for a juicy dino steak!

Ha ha, you have a nice day too Dafydd. In fact I am quite peaceful and in great joy!

If you are honestly wondering rgmwa (I'm not sure) please don't take my word for it, instead there is a wealth of evidence and information out there for you to consider - the reliability, integrity and historical accuracy of scripture has been examined by many, many people. If instead you mean to mock the book you've not studied then it also has relevant passages that apply like this. 2Peter 3 "knowing this first, that there shall come at the close of the days scoffers, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep all things remain thus from the beginning of the creation"

Funny daz... in seriousness though can you explain how his prophecies to date have come true exactly as he said?

The alternatives are altogether unpalatable for them so like you they cling on to their failed theory by faith and like intolerant atheists will sack anyone that dare raises questions. There is no mechanism in place in any living thing to add genetic information to DNA necessary to improve or change a species. All mutations are now known to be a corruption of the genetic sequence. Like they say keep the faith octave.... Quite a bit of stuff still being taught we now know is rubbish - global warming (didn't pan out as expected), 'fossil' fuels etc but I digress. The latter aren't so much faith issues so the science textbooks will likely be updated in a generation or so.

O.K. in a nutshell what I understand Jesus was saying is that a time of extreme 'tribulation' in the world is coming when the unrest / war / violence between mankind will be so great that finally God will step in to stop it for if he didn't all mankind on earth would likely die. Matthew 24 "for then shall there be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be; and if those days had not been cut short, no flesh had been saved; but on account of the elect those days shall be cut short"

Do you feel discussing other unrelated topics will cure my condition Dr Freud? Don't be a denier, Darwinian evolution theory is broken - disproved by modern science.... no examples of one species transforming into another different species, no examples of genetic information being added into DNA, utterly impossible mathematically given what we now know of the complexity of life. 'DET' is a quaint, old fashioned notion you are clutching to. From a mathematical probability and scientific aspect it is more logical to believe life came from alien spawn than started from nothing by an explosion caused by nothing that turned into everything. Open your mind octave! Don't be satisfied with one octave, go full spectrum!

I don't get this line of thinking from you evolutionists. It seems if you actually believed your own theory it would instead be - "why bother about endangered species at all when they simply aren't up to it. Let them die out naturally and a superior species will come along to replace them." That's how it's claimed to work, right? I fear you are right about mankind self destructing though. The good news is that finally God intervenes to prevent this: Jesus prophecy in Matthew 24 "for then shall there be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be; and if those days had not been cut short, no flesh had been saved; but on account of the elect those days shall be cut short"

Hey if you feel they are more advanced and superior no-one is stopping you moving in. I was only referring to what the people themselves said. Don't really appreciate the implied racist and misandrist 'white men' part either but I'll get over it no doubt. I believe that all peoples are the same age and originated from the same human ancestors. So do you believe in Darwinian evolution theory OK? I don't but you would surely be aware that this theory is VERY racist as it holds that dark skinned people are less evolved and closer to their primate ancestors than whites. The original title of Darwin's book gives a clue: "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life"

I've not seen other faiths advertise on the outside of public transport so seems reasonable. Be fun to park the bus at Lakemba. Another example of atheist preaching is seen in the tag line above: “Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, It will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.” Bertrand Russell (attributed). Instead it seems it was Bertie that faded away.

Sadly for many here that is true.

Roman Catholic doctrine holds that everyone outside their RCC goes to hell. Again this is unique RCC doctrine and certainly not something I would claim in reverse to them. I may disagree with some of their doctrines (where they deviate from scripture) but I do know many RC's that believe in Jesus Christ and trust him for their salvation. Your first claim appears to doom all the folks prior to the birth, death and resurrection of Christ to hell because they didn't specifically know about him, I'm not agreeing with that.

Children that die go to heaven. Older / responsible people are to be judged according to their knowledge and actions eg some may not have heard the gospel. Anyone that genuinely desires to know God (i.e. not just idle curiosity) then God will and does make himself known to them - it is exactly what he desires to do. There are many amazing examples of this happening especially in the Middle East currently. One primitive culture had a belief for generations that a man was to bring a book to them from God, similar to the Torres Straight Islanders who celebrate "the coming of the light". Animistic cultures can be quite tough and violent. Rather than dramatic signs and wonders to force us to believe God has chosen the principle of faith in him to redeem our sins (no-one can enter heaven with sin) so that no-one can boast they got to heaven through some great deeds or sacrifices they have themselves done. In this age very few have not heard about God, rather in the west at least the most reject the thought. BTW the purpose of the signs and preaching is to warn folks. If you see someone walking towards a precipice you warn them if you care about them.

Yeah that's quite blunt sign. Problem is we are inherently sinners so in fact it is not possible for us to simply 'turn over a new leaf' and stop sinning from then on. We have a degree of freedom to choose but no-one has the free will sufficient to cease all sin. Besides there is the issue of the sins we have already committed. So personally I find the sign confronting (which I like) but also a little bit misleading, ceasing to sin is indeed a desirable and noble goal but the sign implies we can save ourselves from going to hell by doing so. In scripture salvation is only by faith in Christ and only by the power of the Holy Spirit given to those that believe can the desire to sin be controlled. This can get into quite deep theology which is beyond discussion here.

1) I'm not judging you, my judgement is worthless anyway. God will judge you, in fact as you heard the gospel and rejected it he already has: John 3:18 "He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not has been already condemned, because he has not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God." 2) The inquisitions were RCC persecution of Christians and unbelievers. This is totally opposed to the teaching of scripture, it is for God to judge as above. It would be nice if the RCC one day acknowledged some of these shameful events of the past. Incidentally in Christianity a martyr is someone who is killed because of holding their faith; in Islam it's the exact opposite - a martyr is someone who kills others and in the process dies as part of their faith. It is the highest honour in Islam to kill unbelievers and indeed the Koran teaches it's the only way Moslems can be assured they will definitely get to paradise. 3) I was referring to lust outside of marriage - i.e. you are married but still lust after other women (or men).

Au contraire, today's fundamental atheists are in fact very preachy indeed. An example, I think you would agree with this belief:

I agree with this part, it is pathetic. Just to be clear 'going to confession' and talking 'to a priest in the confessional' are specifically Roman Catholic doctrines and are not based on the Bible. The idea that you yourself can pay a penalty for your sins by doing some good work, penance, indulgence or puja is actually repugnant to biblical Christianity.... it is quite the opposite to what the bible teaches and ultimately lead to the reformation 497 years ago. Again - many RC people are very nice and I personally feel much of what they believe and stand for is indeed good. Just pointing out that this particular doctrine is diametrically opposed to what the Bible clearly teaches. There are other doctrinal differences also.

Don - you may have misunderstood me. All of us in our lives have told lies, cheated, stolen something or lusted after someone etc. Sure I agree most people are nice - but at the same time each of us is also a liar, a cheat, a thief and an adulterer etc. That was my point - all men (even nice ones) are inherently sinners and incapable of redeeming ourselves of this sin condition. Can you understand that? Only Jesus Christ is sinless (even the Koran you've not yet read agrees on this point). My point was Humanism attempts to deny the existence of sin or evil. It's a delusion. So this world has rejected the only sinless man and God is in effect letting us see how that all pans out for us. Letting reality slap us in the face if you like.

OK to answer your last question first - the Bible is a collection of books written by about 40 different people over a 1500 year period. Only a few of the writers actually met each other, yet it all meshes together. You can do a study on a single word or phrase and find agreement throughout. A large quantity is prophecy, much already fulfilled and some yet to be. Some prophecy is very detailed and specific and is easily verified by known historical events. One of these would be the impending destruction of the Phoenician city of Tyre written by Ezekiel (fascinating due to the details in the prophecy and the corresponding unique manner of it's demise 250 years later). Another would be Jesus prophecy of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem which occurred about 40 years later, an awful event. There is very detailed prophecy by Isaiah about the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus which was written 750 years before Jesus was born. No doubt the mockers will jump in shortly but not one of them can explain how these details got to be in the book and subsequently took place years later. It is easily provable that these things were written well before the events took place, indeed only recently the Dead Sea Scrolls have verified the accuracy of many segments of the Old Testament. On your first point I find the scriptures to be true on at least three points 1) the detail and accuracy of prophecy as mentioned above and 2) I find the changes and events described in the book correspond with what I see happening in the world and amongst men 3) many things in my own life that align EXACTLY as the Bible describes. So now I have a question - to those here that don't believe the Bible and generally mock Christianity - why do you quote some parts of the Bible in an attempt to portray Christians as deluded or God as unjust? If you hold that the book is all fiction why try and selectively throw up some portions? For example don't like the thugs of Jericho being destroyed and think God was mean for this? Fine but if you also hold that the Bible is a fairytale why even raise this matter as if it actually happened? Why do you selectively chose to believe some events took place and yet at the same time hold the book is completely unreliable? Could it be because of bigotry? Or do you fear deep down that there could be some truth to this book? Why selectively quote portions as fact if you also think it's all rubbish?

Yes, as I've been saying we both rely on faith. As to the unjust claim Dazza this is explained in the Bible. It would be too lengthy to go into here but there are a good many articles on this matter if you are averse to reading scripture (here is one I just found and this is another). We are talking about God who - on our behalf - turned his face away whilst his own son suffered and died, he absolutely is painfully aware of the awful effect of sin on mankind. Romans 5 "for we being still without strength, in the due time Christ has died for the ungodly. For scarcely for the just man will one die, for perhaps for the good man some one might also dare to die; but God commends *his* love to us, in that, we being still sinners, Christ has died for us." This is an extraordinary thing.

Speaking only for myself, yes indeed I do horse. I see this in the countries past and present governed by the atheist faith (you cannot scientifically prove no God, ergo it's a faith). I've spoken to people who were imprisoned in some of these atheist countries (one a good friend) simply for being a Christian, yet I'm not seeing much of the reverse happening. Now I don't suppose you care to start discussing related aspects like abortion (infanticide)? I might seem blunt at times but you apparently think it's sweet and caring to not point this stuff out I presume? I believe there is a judgement to come for all people and nations, best people are warned.

Tens of millions of dead people (i.e. tidbits to you) under Stalin, Mao, Kim xx, Che, Castro and others imply that atheism is not an inherently peaceful or freedom loving philosophy - unless you mean 'peaceful' in the sense Moslems mean it (dead bodies = peace). That's not to say some individual Athi's are not quite nice people, I refer to the collective outcome or fruit of the faith. Not to make light of those that wrongly suffered or died at the hand of people claiming to be doing it for Christian reasons - or Buddhist etc. My Chicom friend holds Mao as a hero and has lame excuses that 'he didn't know everyone was dying', for more recent events in that area like Tienanmen 'the students started shooting the soldiers' and stuff like that, I expect you may fill us in with more. This teaches us that irrespective of beliefs mankind is inherently deeply flawed - as both the Bible teaches and Daffyd here has told us. This is the opposite to humanist dogma which is that everyone is inherently good and we just need to be nicer to them to bring out the goodness. Possibly a well intentioned theory but demonstrably wrong.