On what basis do Christians claim that their god is "good"?

quite possibly. is it a form of maladjustment, perhaps? certainly fits that as well as it does arrested development (or, the need to sabotage one's own 'evolution' in favour of servility to a greater authority).

Even jesus knew the value of wine in this regard. I honour him when I need time out from my own reality. If I add a large bowl of salty snack food, reality recedes even further into the murky distance.

 

Did you just recite the Gospel of Pretzels?

AboveAlpha

 

pretzels or corn chips, both work with a tumbler of good shiraz

 

If you have nothing good to say about your so called "savior" then why did you bother saying anything good at all? Did you just feel an overwhelming compulsion to prove me right AGAIN?

 

First off don't knock the unions. We NEVER would have had a middle class in this country without them.

Second throwing money at problems is EXACTLY what we need. Even if all they did was take money from those who are hoarding it and throw it out of a helicopter over major cities that would be an improvement over letting the hoarders keep the money they stole.

And third it isn't Democrats spending money that causes problems as you seem to be implying. Tax and spend stimulates the economy. Like it did when Ike had a 91% tax rate and built the highways. That's how we got beyond the debt left by WW II. We GREW our way out of it by SPENDING MONEY. Borrow and spend like the GOP does only creates deficits and keeps the money in the hands of the hoarders. In order to have a thriving economy money must CIRCULATE.

You were right about Ike and the highways. But today even the Democrats are further right than Eisenhower or even Nixon who passed OSHA. All good in the world comes from liberalism. Conservatism never did serve a legitimate purpose. And it never will. Its there simply to serve the greedy and ignorant at the expense of everyone else.

Of course the Democratic Party needs a major overhaul to set it back on the right path. But the GOP is beyond repair and its ONLY hope for survival is if they can keep enough voters from the polls. The biggest threat to freedom in this country is that at the same time the GOP has gone completely insane they are doing everything they can to take away our voting rights. http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/ugly-new-turn-republican-war-voters

And unfortunately the lunatics have almost all of the guns.

 

Good question...… the Jewish Bible contains some pretty scary judgments on how pagans/witches/Gentiles and others......should be treated under specific conditions........... on the surface..... it is extremely difficult to line this up with what any of us would term ethical behaviour............… I consider the G-d of the Jewish Bible ethical because it was made clear........ that the law was in need of magnification/improvement to be made "honourable!"



Isaiah 42:21


The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.


As a Christian.... this would of course remind me of Matthew chapters 5 - 7!

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Mat&c=5&t=KJV

 

..and some folks believe in unicorns and fairy dust....................I'd trust God before I'd trust you, I think.
The only thing is, that if you're right, we got nothing to lose, but if I'm right.............well, take your water with you...........

 

Surely not pascals wager yet again.

Buy that figgerin', I ought to always covdr my hiar just in case the muz got it right.



that is the penalty for failure to cover hair

btw yours is the worst avatar, ever.

 

I know, but again, I have this different sense of humor [avatar]

 

ok i will just avoid your posts for now

 

The ONLY way the Christian belief can be reconciled with a decent god is if god is using Christianity as a trick to see who will preach that god is so horrible that you need Jesus to save you from him. So if I'm right its the Christians who are going to Hell. And if I'm wrong then god isn't worthy of being worshipped. And you aren't any safer worshiping him than if you didn't because you're going to be spending eternity with a violent lunatic. Good luck with that!

 

just kidding

 

Why avoid posts? If one has a valid argument there is no need for such tactics. But I see that atheists do such things as well as start threads that are based on false statements and fallacies.

 

It is commonly a tactic you employ. Why do you denigrate it in him?

 

The "Jewish Bible?" You make it sound as of the OT isn't part of your Bible, or that it's not the same god who did and commanded so many horrible things.

 

You seem to be getting an entirely incorrect impression about me.

I have nothing against Unions but I do have issues about not requiring accountability.

As far as Tax and Spending well that has NEVER worked.

You can create massive programs to generate jobs during a national economic crisis but unless the programs are massive nationwide construction programs that will last decades...simply throwing 300 Billion at a problem to create a small number of jobs that will last only a year or two is self defeating.

AboveAlpha

 

That's a good reason to fight Republicans on the Keystone Pipeline. But the Obama stimulus actually did some good. Though half of it was in tax refunds. And it should have been bigger. If you have Nexflix you should check out "Inequality For All" with Robert Reich. I think you'd find it interesting.

 

Since I am an Independent I don't want to FIGHT either Political Party...I want the two parties to get together and solve problems and develop strategies to help the American People.

It would seem that the FRINGE ULTRA-RIGHT AND ULTRA-LEFT WINGS of both Parties NEED TO BE CUT OUT LIKE A CANCEROUS TUMOR!!!

The VAST Majority of American's are MODERATES and they see beneficial aspects within the platforms and ideologies of BOTH Parties but it is the EXTREMISTS in both Parties that shout the loudest and this makes it seem like each party is being run by a bunch of PSYCHOPATHS!!!

On one hand you have Ultra-Religious Zealots that have wormed their way into the Republican Party and the GOP was once all about providing the environment and infrastructure in the U.S. that would allow both Small and Large Businesses to THRIVE AND GROW....thus creating more jobs and a growing economy.....all of a sudden the GOP was all about RELIGION, PRAYER IN SCHOOLS, ANTI-ABORTION and most stupidly of all ANTI-EVOLUTION.

On the other hand you have the Ultra-Leftist Liberals who have wormed their way into the Democratic Party and the DEM's used to be about PROTECTING THE WORKER, UNIONS, EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE....and this somehow turned into passing laws that degrade the RIGHTS given to Citizens in the Constitution and Bill of Rights....Laws being passed where Government was like BIG BROTHER....always watching and telling us what we could eat and what we could say and even how a KID could not ride his bike without first putting on a HELMET or else the Parents would get a $100 Fine and just spending Tax Dollars on paying Government Salaries of people who did NOTHING to contribute to the U.S. Economy as the amount of Tax Dollars spent to pay these Salaries is GREATER THAN THE AMOUNT OF MONEY THESE PEOPLE GENERATE IN COLLECTED TAX DOLLARS!!!

I am just SICK of the entire thing!!!

Somewhere along the way we forgot that we are ALL AMERICAN'S and a Citizen is not determined to be a Citizen by what race, creed or color they are.

AboveAlpha

 

I always wanted to talk to a real moderate. I'm very curious to learn why you are one. As a moderate you want to position yourself between the two sides. But the two sides are NOT locked in place. Remember it was Republican Eisenhower who had a 91% tax rate. And it was Republican Nixon who signed OSHA and the EPA into law. By today's standards they would be EXTREME liberals. Meanwhile you have Obama who for 5 years tried to negotiate a "grand bargain" to make major cuts to Social Security and Medicare. By 1970's standards hy would be seen as EXTREME conservatives. Yet somehow no matter how far to the right BOTH parties have gone by pandering the rich you managed to stay right in the middle. Today's middle is somewhere down around the 20 or 30 yard line. DEEP into conservative territory. And yet you still think you're a moderate. How do you explain that? I think you're confused!

 

Since the VAST MAJORITY of American's are Moderates even if they might be registered Democrats or Republicans....I am an Independent....the fact that most American's are Moderates has been very apparent when American's almost ALWAYS vote for the better candidate and NOT along Party Lines.

As a Moderate I am Fiscally Conservative and Socially Liberal....as again are the vast Majority of American's.

The idea of being a Moderate is to take the best concepts and ideas from either party and institute them to make the nation better as a whole.

I have voted Republican and Democratic and Independent as well but lately the IDIOTIC EXTREMISTS that plague both Parties need to be weeded out as this might allow our Government to actually get some things done.

AboveAlpha

 

Interesting that you would say that. Who are the "IDIOTIC EXTREMISTS that plague" the Democratic party? And what makes you think they are extremists? Also which Republicans have you voted for?

 

and yet that doesn't seem to be working especially well in America.

 

Congratulations.
You just made the perfect case for why the stimulus package was too small.
You are wrong about tax and spend, of course. Our highest taxes were during and after WWII, our time of greatest expansion. It was also the time of greatest government spending, through the depression, through the war and after it where jobs, education and housing were spread out like a banquet for returning GI's, all at government expense. This was the great era of union expansion as well.
You claim you are a "fiscal conservative". Do you think a military budget that is higher than the next 15 closest countries combined is about right, or is this a wise place to make deep cuts in our budget? Since this huge build up has not actually allowed us to win a war, and its expansion all over the globe could be argued as a primary source of the anger leading to terrorist actions, it seems a reasonable place to trim to me.
What say you?

 

I voted for Reagan twice....voted for Bush Sr. once...voted for Clinton twice and Perot once.

The Republican and Democratic Presidential Candidates by themselves are not Extremists but they have pandered to extremists in order to get votes.

A perfect example of this is how McCain...who I find to be a very honorable man who has no interest at all in Ultra-Right Wing Religious Ideology....still had to court such groups in order to win the Republican Candidacy.

The Republican Party can no longer allow a Presidential Candidate to pander to such groups as to do so will ENSURE the loss of a Presidential Election.

AboveAlpha

- - - Updated - - -

It will work as the Republican's have found out very recently what will NOT work.

AboveAlpha

 

The U.S Military budget can be cut as it is too high and we have developed some breakthrough tech. specifically in the fields of Direct Energy Weapon Systems which once deployed and the first Free Electron Laser System for an Aircraft Carrier will be installed on the USN. CVN-78 Gerald R. Ford Nuclear Stealth Carrier....which will make many other weapon systems redundant.

Stimulus Spending only works when such spending is devoted ONLY to building up U.S. Infrastructure....it does NOT work when 100's of Billions are spent that do not result in long term JOB creation.

AboveAlpha