tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645439856635422478.post6671903555474365316..comments2024-03-08T07:31:03.679-08:00Comments on Templestream: Happy International Atheists’ Week!Rick Wardenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09689451026838986088noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645439856635422478.post-6953324865378456142010-06-06T23:06:21.082-07:002010-06-06T23:06:21.082-07:00Tatarize wrote:"You are relying on a No True ...Tatarize wrote:"You are relying on a No True Scotsman fallacy wherein you reject people who fail to fit your definition in order to prove the rule."<br /><br />EG: "No Scotsman likes pudding.<br />-- My friend Angus loves pudding and he's a Scotsman, he has a prekilt and everything.- No TRUE Scotsman likes pudding!"<br /><br />Why is this a weak and poor comparison towards understanding valid Christian regeneration? <br /><br />1. Regeneration is not qualified as "my definition" of true Christianity. It is neither arbitrary nor ancillary, like pudding. Jesus Christ outlined it as the main qualification for true spiritual life. See John 3.3<br /><br />2. Jesus outlined the signs of true regeneration and false confessions. Matthew 7.17, 13.1-9<br /><br />Jesus summarized these thoughts with the following statement:<br /><br />This is why I speak to them in parables:“Though seeing, they do not see;though hearing, they do not hear or understand.In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:<br /><br />“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.For this people’s heart has become calloused;they hardly hear with their ears,and they have closed their eyes.Otherwise they might see with their eyes,hear with their ears,understand with their hearts<br />and turn, and I would heal them."<br /><br />A person without regeneration, such as Hitler, is not likely a true Christian, no matter what he or she says. This is not my opinion, this is what Jesus himself taught. Although only God truly knows the state of a person's heart, the Bible has given us knowledge to "judge with righteous judgment" as well as a gift of spirit of discernment of spirits.<br /><br />I pray you will come to encounter the Light of the world and receive the gift of spiritual life.Rick Wardenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09689451026838986088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645439856635422478.post-80660598142083322832010-05-04T17:33:57.855-07:002010-05-04T17:33:57.855-07:00You can't express God's love to me any mor...You can't express God's love to me any more than you can express Bigfoot's hate for me. You can simply make an unsubstantiated claim about unsubstantiated nothings.<br /><br />I hope for your Enlightenment. As this country was founded on Enlightenment values and placing a premium on having a reason to believe before believing something. And hope that you'll join me in condemning all dogma religious-dogma or state-dogma. And understand that if you want to believe the most true things and the fewest false things then the only way to do that is to reject dogma and demand evidence before accepting a belief. After all the gulags of Soviet Russia were not the result of too much critical thought or the result of wanting too much evidence. Just as witch burnings weren't the result of demanding good evidence. Dogma is and always been the enemy. Unless you want to accept beliefs that are less likely to be true over beliefs that are more likely to be true, then the only answer is a universal reliance on evidence and a complete rejection of dogma.<br /><br />You are relying on a No True Scotsman fallacy wherein you reject people who fail to fit your definition in order to prove the rule. So you define True Christian ad hoc with given examples. So Mother Teresa might be classified as a "True Christian™" but if it became better known that she gave no relief to suffering people but rather thought that suffering was good for people and allowed them maximal suffering because it "brought them closer to Christ" then she might not be a "True Christian™".<br /><br />>>No Scotsman likes pudding.<br />-- My friend Angus loves pudding and he's a scotsman, he has a kilt and everything.<br />>>No TRUE Scotsman likes pudding!<br /><br />The fact that Hitler accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior suffices to make him Christian. While he was Catholic with Lutheran leanings he was still certainly Christian. It is not the general proclivity of atheists to go insane. Nietzsche expressed anti-Christian leanings and was unable to teach in Germany because of the pro-Christian stance of the universities and he was ardently opposed to anti-semitism with which Germany was rife with. Christianity and Anti-semitism went hand in hand in Germany and Nietzsche strong opposed both.<br /><br />Joseph Stalin didn't have people killed according to racial identity. Technically he committed democide rather than genocide.<br /><br />The church burnings in Norway were the result of a few Black Metal individuals very early on. These individuals were not neo-nazis although there are some neo-nazis within Black Metal. Just as there are some Christian Metal people within Black Metal, and Christian Power Metal (White Power Metal which is overtly racist and Christian). The truth here is that the Christians in metal are often the neo-nazis and the church-burning people were pretty much just that one individual (who wasn't a Nazi) a few decades ago.<br /><br />It's like saying that everybody who does rock and roll are pedophilic incestuous Democrats, because Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year old cousin and many Rock bands supported Barack Obama's candidacy. <br /><br />"Is it nothing to grope your way into the dreary prisons, the damp and dropping dungeons, the dark and silent cells of superstition, where the souls of men are chained to floors of stone; to greet them like a ray of light, like the song of a bird, the murmur of a stream; to see the dull eyes open and grow slowly bright; to feel yourself grasped by the shrunken and unused hands, and hear yourself thanked by a strange and hollow voice?" - Robert Ingersoll<br /><br />I hope to greet you like a ray of light.Tatarizehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06655536699564744308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1645439856635422478.post-64225067495096475312010-04-06T05:39:50.439-07:002010-04-06T05:39:50.439-07:00In honor of Atheists' Day and International At...In honor of Atheists' Day and International Atheists' Week I want to express God's love to atheists who have misrepresented Christianity. I especially want to express God's love to Tatarize, at the Atheist Forum at About.com. The best thing I can do is to pray for your enlightenment and salvation.<br /><br />True Christians don't burn down churches, as the two punks did in Texas. True Christians don't commit genocide, as atheist Joseph Stalin, a former seminary student did. True Christians don't try to wipe out the entire Jewish population, as Hitler did. Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7.20) Nietzsche was an outspoken atheist who progressively went insane, as many in history have. Most of the church burnings in the south have been racially motivated: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/churches.htm<br /><br />Most of the church burnings in Norway have been linked to Neo-Nazi Metal Heads who, like Nietzsche, have declared war on Christianity: <br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Christian_sentiment <br /><br />God bless you Tatarize. May the Lord shine his light into your darkened heart.Rick Wardenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09689451026838986088noreply@blogger.com