What are the benefits of being a Christian Veeky Forums?

What are the benefits of being a Christian Veeky Forums?

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celibacy#Christianity
youtube.com/watch?v=F-m3InsXb4s
discoveringislam.org/miracles_of_Islam.htm
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

peace of mind if you can't handle the thought of a world without meaning and the endless void that is death

There are no benefits anymore. Whatever stability it brought to society it's all in the trash now. The only reason there is to be a christian these days is out of your own faith. You can only be a christian if you actually believe in jesus, his teachings and that of his apostles, but it's something out of your own will, God has left this place anyways.

But nearly everyone, including most of the people you know, will burn in Hell forever. Also, the single most terrible sin, the one that can damn you forever without even knowing it, is left unexplained in the Bible. What kind of peace of mind is that?

This. I can't stand people that try to make religion about something besides faith

By nearly every metric, you're going to live a better life. I really wish the world hadn't robbed me of any chance I had at having faith.
>But nearly everyone, including most of the people you know, will burn in Hell forever
And that is just, by definition.

That is not christianity, though. It doesn't sound like it at all. To think someone would follow a man just because they fear of the dark, it's unthinkable. Those who think like that are nothing but rats.

A congregation that can act like an extended family. Answer to questions you feel must be answered. Now, whether they're the best possible answers is another question entirely.

To this

>I really wish the world hadn't robbed me of any chance I had at having faith.
Stupid world, letting you know when something is stupid like that.

Why should I chose Christianity over Islam? An Imam offered me the same kind of thing.

Death isn't a void. A void is an absence. There's no absence in death. Death simply can't be explained or described in any way whatsoever. The closest I can think of getting, however, is through this: imagine what your life was like in the year 1376. That's what you will return to in death.
Rats don't fear the dark. The dark hides them. Rats fear the light, for it exposes them.

Who gives a fuck if it's stupid, most of what anyone believes is stupid anyway.

That's just like, your belief, man.

> I really wish the world hadn't robbed me of any chance I had at having faith.
So do I, and i wish the world wasn't filled with beasts disguised as humans, i really wished the things that i followed so dearly as a code of honor had any relevance at all. I'm a good man, a lot better christian than most and i barely know Jesus as a mythical man, and it feels that it's me who has been betrayed the most. Sometimes i really wish there was a way to redeem this shitty life, but the faith is just not there. I don't know it, and all i have is this misery of betrayal.

The world is shit mate, it always has been, it always will be.

Then there's nothing more wretched and foul than a human.

>Imagine what your life was like in the year 1376
Those were good times. When people had a purpose, and the compassion of a being that was never there.

Can't you Christspergs just fuck off? I can tolerate you a lot more when you aren't shoving your preachy cult bullshit everywhere.

I want to be sedated as well. I fear the light.

Nah, it's true. Most of what you and I and everyone else believe is completely unjustified or flat out wrong or both, nobody has the time to actually read up on most matters and form a coherent opinion informed by the evidence. Since we're all basically condemned to live like morons, I'd prefer to be able to choose the moronic idea that makes me happier and fulfilled, thank you very much.
Mate, I'm not even talking about the irredeemability of the world or people or how contemporary morals are complete shit, how behaving virtuously is far more a pain than it should be, how it makes me unable to have a normal life, I'm talking about the simple fact that I literally can't read anything religious and not go "come on, how can I fucking believe in this stuff" within 5 minutes. Why, why, why.

>Those were good times. When people had a purpose, and the compassion of a being that was never there.
My point is that you weren't born in 1376, so it's nonsense to try to imagine what your life was at the time. What of "you" existed back then is the same as what's going to exist of "you" when you're dead.

>I'd prefer to be able to choose the moronic idea that makes me happier and fulfilled
As Shia LaBeuf would say: JUST DO IT. And it's not like there's a shortage of stupid ideas flourishing nowadays, as you said yourself. Just latch onto any one of them that seems plausiable enough, and you'll have your Christianity substitute.

>What of "you" existed back then is the same as what's going to exist of "you" when you're dead
prove it

Prove it incorrect.

>Just latch onto any one of them that seems plausiable enough
I don't know of any religion that is plausible. As for political doctrine or ethical theories, I'm already settled on that front, but those things don't have a transcendental character like religion.

that's not how that works m8
you're the one who made a claim, you're the one who has to prove it.

You have to make some meaning out of it somehow. When we're cornered into some shit, we start making up stuff to justify whatever is happening. There's a big advantage in having a powerful invisible being that never interacts with the physical world in that case, you make him your expy, you lay all your shit on him and get smug about it.

I personally don't believe any shit the Bible says, much less the jew garbage that is the old testament, but i really like to roleplay and think that not all of it is bullshit, that somehow being virtuous gets you closer to something that doesn't exist even if it means you're causing pain to yourself. It's a romantic, it's a game, it's the sweetest lie you can tell yourself.

Not burning in hell is what they advertise.

Why would I have to disprove the existence of reincarnation when the lack of evidence for reincarnation is my evidence?

This is a christian thread, my friend. Faith is what drives us. Sometimes you just have to believe stuff.

I can't consciously use a lie, that's just wrong.
Fucking hell, why can't I fall from my horse and see jeebus or something.

absence of evidence is not evidence of absence . lots of things are true even though there's no scientific evidence for them. if something can't be proven true or false through science it simply means that you need other reasons for believing or disbelieving in it.

Absence of evidence is actually quite often used as evidence.

Indeed. This must be what it feels like to be in the first circle of hell. To never be able to know God, despite whatever you or anyone tells you.

Nah, that's just what being Catholic is like

except there's also a lack of evidence for your own claim of what happens after death

If you are a Christian to have a sense of family, you are doing it wrong:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celibacy#Christianity

I becoming more convinced on the resurrection the more I read.

youtube.com/watch?v=F-m3InsXb4s

Following the Truth instead of living a life of lies, striving towards a union with God, fulfilling your true purpose and meeting your true self and being received into the Kingdom of Heaven.

I envy you guys so much.

Monasticism isn't the only way to go.

Pray for faith, even if it's purely mechanical at first.

Except for the absence of evidence of the contrary, which weighs more heavily in my benefit since a complete lack of evidence of anything happening makes the evidence lean towards nothing happening.

Watch the video, read N.T Wright, E.P Sanders, and Habermas

My God. My God. I am dying, I am Living. Save me my lord. I can't take it. Stop this mind, give me rest. Why must i suffer my lord? No one even cares about your servant. Release me, grant me death.

This. Be sincere and you will feel closer to him, like an imaginary friend, except you get to believe he's real.

You become retarded and go to hell together with a community of other retards that will go to hell.

I've already read that stuff, it doesn't convince me in the slightest.
That would amount to deceiving myself.

>I've already read that stuff, it doesn't convince me in the slightest.

Then I think you're retarded.

youtube.com/watch?v=F-m3InsXb4s

You can excuse your blithe solipsism

Wow, very compassionate of you.
As I said, I've already listened to that. If you read even the slightest amount of agiography, you'll find that people are perfectly willing to die or do things for stuff they think they saw and that actually never happened.

>How you want your eschatology senpai?

That really is JUST, by definition

So if we can't prove how a man died that means he just died fucking randomly for no fucking reason? If there's no evidence to support any cause of death that means the evidence leans towards there being no reason for his death, right?

Of course, but it makes belief in the resurrection far more convincing, especially when you have people like Paul becoming Christians and the early Christian creeds in the NT that date from 1-5 years after the cross. Sure, it's not 100% proof, but it adds a lot of credibility.

Deficiency is you can easy go to hell. For example - Old Testament don't allow eat pork, but modern Christianity allow it, but you don't know what a judge will think about this.
Christians remind me Communists. They also have faith in paradise.

It's still a man coming back from the dead, dude. If it happened today, nobody would take it seriously aside from people in the third world.

There is too much credibility behind this to simply deny it. Besides, it could have been as equally "crazy" then. Judaism had no tradition of a dying or rising Messiah. To them, the Messiah would be a king come to defeat the Romans. The idea of a dying and rising Messiah was crazy.

Um. What about the Muslim miracles?

>There is too much credibility behind this to simply deny it.
I really don't see the difference between this and tales of saints making dragons fart and flee in fear.

You also have to explain the empty tomb. Maybe the disciples and James and the 500 witnesses and Paul had "visionary" experiences, but that doesn't explain the empty tomb.

What Muslim miracles. Muhammad didn't perform any.

there are none

The resurrection is intended to be a historical narrative. The style of the Gospels show this.

same benefits as any other ideology; irrationality that frees you from the aches and pains of simply thinking/approaching about something in an honest fashion.

Entire villages claim to have seen werewolves, witches, and vampires.

But hey, they might have been right too.

*?

Explain the empty tomb please.

Whose problem is that?

I don't have to explain that anymore than I have to explain dragons farting. Who knows what happened. Maybe some other jesus syncretic superfan who was half pagan stole the body to cook a magic soup with it, I don't know.
Those tales are intended to be historical too. Like the one in the gospels about mass scale resurrection. Where's the evidence for that. Other tales include saints putting their staff into the ground and stopping blight, martyrs coming back to life and burning down houses. I mean, we can do this all day long.
Not sure what you mean by that.

Romans guarding the tomb stole the body and had a Weekend at Bernies.

Oh also....

discoveringislam.org/miracles_of_Islam.htm

No they aren't, they were intended to be legends.

The writing style of the Gospels is consistent with other historical biography's of the time.

Someone stealing the body of Jesus is consider historically implausible.

You're now doing the thing you accuse Theist of doing.

Those are not miracles in the Christian sense.

Also, the "scientific" accuracy of the Qur'an has been debunked multiple times.

By people who love logical fallacies, sure.

>No they aren't, they were intended to be legends.
Says who? Dude, when the police back then was ordered to destroy altars of those saints there were people who fought them, that is risked their lives for stories of dragons and blight and soaking wet martyrs.
Also, you're not explaining the mass resurrection event. Where's the evidence for that. It's kinda important.

What if one of the disciples stole the body to make the claim that he resurrected?

I mean the founder of Mormonism said the angel took the golden plates back. Was he telling the truth?

I mean people have lied about religious shit for centuries and some authentically believed.

I mean Muhammad has the same claim that angels spoke to him. What evidence makes him wrong and the Christians right?

And no, you cannot use the gospels or the Quran as evidence as references itself as evidence of it being true and that is circular reasoning.

So the Romans, so desperate to stamp out this infant religion that was sweeping through their empire and causing havoc among their pagan gods, and indeed tearing the empire in two, did not produce the body of Jesus that they had in their keeping, which would have stopped Christianity that very same day.

Great theory.

Right up there with "the moon is made of cheese", which iirc your false prophet believed.

If you have a hard time believing reality because it does not fit your normalcy bias, your incremental, secular humanist rationalist worldview, whose problem is that, but yours?

Where is my firmament?

Are you aware in order for the Bible to be right, you have to believe in flat earth theory (which man flat earthers claim that flat earth proves that the Bible is right and the space program is a lie because of the firmament).

Least I know where the flat earthers are coming from.

Your rambling is starting to make no sense now. Can you please give me a source for what you're telling me? I'm sure it's easily refutable.

"Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep." - 1 Corinthians 15:6

Scholars believe this to be apart of an early Christians creed from about 1-5 years after the cross.

Also, please please explain the empty tomb and explain Paul's conversion. Paul persecuted and may have even killed Christians. Then he suddenly becomes one one day due to his "experience."

So one of the disciples, huddled in fear that the Roman guards would arrest them next for being a disciple of Jesus, overpowered the guards at the tomb on the very day Jesus predicted He would rise from the dead, moved the massive stone out of the way, breaking all the seals, and carted off the body of Jesus, which was never again seen by anyone on earth.

Then he and his buddies got together and made up this lie, that Jesus rose from the dead, and even when parts of their bodies were being hacked off for this lie, when their bodies were being sawn in half for this lie, when they were being decapitated for this lie, when they were being crucified for this lie, and all they had to do was admit it was a lie.....

They all died instead, for no money, for no fame, for no risen Jesus Christ, just for the lie that they themselves had made up.

I believe in Biblical inerrancy, not Biblical infallibility. I am not a Fundamentalist faggot.

Are you fucking retarded. There were so many goddamn upstart religions in the Roman Empire they didn't give a shit about Jesus. Pilot offered to spare Jesus if only the Jews wanted it. Washing his hands and what not. They didn't give too shits about the king of the jews.

Firmament = the earth.
Waters below = waters on earth.
Waters above = a water canopy around the earth that fell and caused the Flood of Noah (and the massive oceans).

The bible says the world from an off-world viewpoint looks like a circle.

Have you seen a picture of the world from an off-world viewpoint?

It does look like a circle (because as a 3D being, you can only process information in 2D).

What group of religious people was being fed to lions in the Coliseum, again?

Because scholars believe the apostles were genuine in their belief. All of them, except John, died for their belief. And John had been tortured and exiled. If you had actually read the scholars I recommended and watched the video I linked you would know this. But you're mentally retarded.

I mean they could have found Judas bag of silver and paid the guards off. Romans were notorious for corruption and being in a far off hostile land. Why the fuck not.

Here is the problem. You are taking the word of someone as truth.

If you can do that, why not believe Mohamed or the guy who founded Mormonism?

Both said shit they claimed to be true and had stories of supernatural shit that everyone believed without seeing first hand.

>Your rambling is starting to make no sense now.
Because I'm listing stories of saints that you don't even know exist. I don't have the books here with me right now but I haven't made up any of them. I didn't even mention the story of the jewish boy in the oven.
>explain Paul's conversion.
He fell from a horse a hit his head. For fuck's sake, are you seriously telling me that if someone were to change their mind on a subject after falling from a horse the first thing on your mind wouldn't be "head trauma"?

Are you autistic? That was hundreds of years after Christians started proselytizing and assaulting Roman places of worship. Rome did not even care about Jesus when he was around. He had like a handful of followers.

There was no historical record of the great Christian threat during Jesus time. They were more concerned with the upstart Jews.

>I mean Muhammad has the same claim that angels spoke to him.

Mohammad was right. An angel spoke to him, for 20 years.

Where Mohammad erred, or did not err but was willfully evil, was not properly identifying that angel as satan/lucifer/the devil, but lying and saying it was Gabriel.

Gabriel, who asked Mary to bear Jesus as God's Son.
Gabriel, who reassured Joseph that Mary was bearing God's Son.
Gabriel, who announced the birth of Jesus, God's Son.
Gabriel, who watched Jesus, God's Son, grow to a man.
Gabriel, who was there when Jesus was baptized, and who heard God say "This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."
Gabriel, who was there at the Transfiguration and heard God say "This is my Son; hear Him!".
Gabriel, who cradled the dead body of my Lord in that grave, suffering him not to be corrupted, who held that lonely vigil for three days and three nights, removing the cloth from my precious Savior's face;
Gabriel, who was present when Jesus, the Son of God, rose from the dead and ascended triumphantly into heaven;

that Gabriel

Told Mohammad 600 years later that Jesus is not God, did not die, and did not rise from the dead.

Judas' bag of silver, thrown back into the temple, bought a potter's field and was turned into a mass poor burial ground, where Judas was buried.

Just as prophesied.

Everything that happened was prophesied to happen; even the amount that Judas would get for betraying Jesus. Even that he would splatter on the ground in a potter's field purchased with the blood money.

>Because I'm listing stories of saints that you don't even know exist. I don't have the books here with me right now but I haven't made up any of them. I didn't even mention the story of the jewish boy in the oven.

Sure faggot, they're principle is not the same as the gospel narrative which is intended to be straight forward history.

>He fell from a horse a hit his head. For fuck's sake, are you seriously telling me that if someone were to change their mind on a subject after falling from a horse the first thing on your mind wouldn't be "head trauma"?

See,now you're just trying to explain away shit. The plausibility of what you told me is low. You are doing what you accuse theist of dong. Also, the others around him were able to hear Jesus speaking to Paul anyways. And the narrative never says he hit his head.

The Christians were under persecution in the 1st century by both Jews and Romans. 10 waves of persecution finally ended when Constantine figured out that the more Christians were persecuted, the more Christians there were.

A few posts back, I said you couldn't use Gospel to prove itself was true. You need some external evidence. Otherwise all holy books that self reference themselves to be true have to be true which conflicts since they say none of the other books are true.

Otherwise, its circular reasoning.

Can you prove Muhammad or Mormonism untrue without using the Bible?

Otherwise, you only believe what you believe because you read that book first. If you were born Muslim, you'd still be a Muslim today.

There were no Christian to be be put into Arenas in Jesus's time. It was years after he died. How hard is it for you to get that?

Also, never says he was on a horse.

>Sure faggot, they're principle is not the same as the gospel narrative which is intended to be straight forward history.
Again, no, they're not. Even ignoring that, you still haven't explained the strange absence from any other source of the mass resurrection event in the gospel of matthew.
>The plausibility of what you told me is low.
Yes, sure, head injuries resulting in religious visions are far less frequent than actually seeing god. Are you insane?

Can I prove that a man who made no prophecies is not a prophet? Sure. Easily. Mohammad made no prophecies, and he is therefore not a prophet.

Can I prove that Joe Smith plagiarized the entire Book of Mormon from existing sources, copying even the spelling errors and grammatical mistakes of those documents?

No, but luckily someone took the time to, and it's called the CES letter.

Can I note Mohammad died and stayed dead? Sure.

Can I note Joe Smith died and stayed dead? Sure.

Can you back up your claims that Jesus did not rise from the dead?

Of course you cannot.

>>Mohammad was right. An angel spoke to him, >>for 20 years.
No one knew the angel before. That angel was a "black horse". Even some an allah workshippers before Mohammad thought it was not an angel but an evil spirit.

Christian persecution started in 32 AD; Saul of Tarsus was killing Christians very shortly after that. When Christianity fled Israel due to Roman demolition, the Romans began doing the same thing the Jews did. Persecute Christians.

And did so for centuries.

The Arabs/muslims made up the idea of djinn to cover for the fact that angels can lie.

If you looked into it, you would find that Islam teaches that angels cannot lie. And therefore Gabriel must have been Gabriel, and must have told Mohammad the truth.

Yet we know, outside of Islam, that the fallen angel known as the devil is the Father of Lies.

It is that angel who spoke to Mohammad, the Father of Lies, not Gabriel.

Any evil spirits that are not fallen angels are chained in the pit; they are the souls of the lost and damned angel/human Nephilim.