Rapture = Christians leave into Heaven, 144,000 left behind, and everyone else who isn't saved stays on the planet. Then you have the seven seals, the seven trumpets, then later the seven bowls. Those are all judgments. The earth will sort of continue. Satan and the people who fail to accept Christ into their life will burn in the lake of fire after the judgment. Satan will be stuck in a 1000 year lock, then released, and dealed with for the last time. During the entire judgment, the people on earth other than the 144,000 will still have a chance to get salvation. That's nice. I didn't watch it, btw, I posted that during lunch. I was at school, mind you.
Some say so. So Jesus doesn't count now? We already went down this road. Jesus is just as existent as Julius Caesar and you guys can't come up with anything that explains how hundreds of people saw a man die one day, and saw him alive the next. How thousands of people saw a man unnaturally heal sick and hurt people. How 12 people saw a man walk on water. How hundreds of people saw a man turn water into wine. How a man managed to feed five thousand people just from two fish and five loaves of bread. How could a single man do this without God? .. It's spelt "existence" btw
Claims There are thousands of reported UFO sightings every year. There are hundreds of claimed Bigfoot sightings every year. I am also positive that there have been way, way, way more than 12 people that swear they've seen the Loch Ness monster. People long for the chance to witness or be a part of something magical or amazing. There are also statistically plenty of flat out clinically insane human beings as well. Witness accounts of supernatural events documented 2000 years ago are less than meaningless. This group of people is more credible, seeing as we can still talk to and inquire about their claims: YouTube - Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama Thousands of people also claim that Benny Hinn heals the sick and injured dozens at a time:
Too add too your point, occasionally something will be made up. People in that area will occasionally blame an odd event on something someone else made up. E.g. Lets say someone made up The Loch-Ness Monster, occasionally people will see something in the Loch-Ness they cannot explain, and if they have heard of the monster, some of them will think it is the monster or is something too do with it. Now there are 2 events, or 'Sightings'. Then more people will hear of it, occasionally it will be on the T.V. or in a Newspaper, it will become more famous, and more people will blame events on it until eventually there are thousands of 'Sightings' and people around the world will hear about it. There will also be other events, e.g. 'UFO Sightings', now you are more likely too blame something on a UFO then a Loch-Ness monster, because UFOs are flying anywhere in the sky, and a Loch-Ness Monster is limited too Loch-Ness. Then there are things like acts of God(s). Millions of people are in religions. ANYTHING could be called an act of God. For example, quick recovery, beating very hard odds, dissapearances, things in the sky (or a lake), etc.
Now I have something to say. The bible is just a book. Seriously. So, if I right a book about zombies that fly through space and rule the universe and steal our souls in our sleep if we don't submit to their allmightiness, and in 2000 years, someone reads this book and starts spreading the news of this new truth called "Retardism", then people believing in Retardism will have a higher population than Christians today? It is the equivalent. Don't deny it. Even though I know someone here will be all like "No, that is exactly the oposite blah blah blah...". Let me tell you a story. I have a friend named Nick. He has a stepbrother named Joey. Joey is an athiest. He went to the library. He saw a pile of bibles on the table. He thought he would be nice and put the books away for the librarian. He put them in the fiction section. Joey did the right thing. Yay Joey!
Sarcasm right? The Bible isn't the most best selling book of all time for no reason. If it was as dumb as worshiping a zombie nobody would believe it. The fact that the Bible holds no contradictions and is objectively morally correct and makes perfect sense. Its quite apparent you're a fool and know nothing of the Bible. Next time you should bother reading a book before slandering it. You never give a review of a movie without watching it.
zom⋅bie [zom-bee] Show IPA –noun 1. (in voodoo) a. the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose. b. the supernatural force itself. 2. Informal. a. a person whose behavior or responses are wooden, listless, or seemingly rote; automaton. b. an eccentric or peculiar person. 3. a snake god worshiped in West Indian and Brazilian religious practices of African origin. 4. a tall drink made typically with several kinds of rum, citrus juice, and often apricot liqueur. 5. Canadian Slang. an army conscript assigned to home defense during World War II. Don't see what you're talking about. Care to elaborate? Onto your next point. Post a specific few contradictions. I'm not about to debate fifty contradictions, though I've read over a few already and they're quite misinterpretive, to say the least.
Duh! That is exactly what we mean. It is a book! I just used a zombie as an example. It could be a book about anything and it would be the same. Just because this book talks about God and all that other craap doesn't make it different or better. The book can't breath fire. It can't shoot lasers out of it's eyes. It is still a book. A book. A BOOK. It isn't any different to worship a random book than it is to worship the bible. It's the same thing. Is there no logic with you people? EDIT: Oh, and doen't say "But the bible's about Jesus! nah nah nah nah nah!" Then I'll just say "But this book's about zombies!" or "This book's about hamburgers!" It is the equivalent.
You may be thinking I need to step out of a religious mind and think about the Bible in an atheists point of view. Well, I have. I've thought about how any story could be faked in history no matter how credible. I've thought about what's beyond space and time and if scientists can prove how the world began from nothing or if it was there the whole time, but now I see that things couldn't have just spawned from nothing, so there must have been the beginning of atoms or at least something. But there isn't scientific evidence that at least something started from completely nothing, so something must have been existent throughout time. So then I thought why shouldn't this existence be God? Why couldn't this existence be God? So now I'll ask you to step into the religious mind and think about it for a bit. Then get back to me.
Evidence is false. ANYTHING could be fake. Anything you think you know, could be a lie. In fact, you could wake up tomorrow in the real world, this could all be a dream.
Could Be It could be a God. It's possible. We just don't know at this point. There's nothing wrong with not knowing. There's no shame in it. When someone asks you if god exists, what's wrong with saying "I don't know". It's the truth. We have no idea. If there is a god who built this immensely complex universe shouldn't he respect a mind that only pursues truth, a mind that observes the universe he created, learning more everyday, accepting what has been proven, and avoiding the treacherous quicksand of dogma. The only god that I can envision is a god that values logic and the pursuit to understand the universe through observation over blind devotion, faith, and an inability to change when new facts contradict old explanations.
The universe did not know that life would arrise. The universe does not care about the fact that we are alive. We are like flees on a dogs back.. We came up with the idea of god because we are alive. If we were not alive, like a rock.. We would not care either. We will never know the real answer. When we die, it's probably going to be nothing. Just like it was before you were born. If you believe that god created the universe, then who created god?? If you say that he always existed, then why not save a step and say that physical reality always existed. I find it hard to believe that our universe is the only one. What if we were just one universe out of an infinite number? Maybe the birth and death of universes is just a law of nature. Matter is created before life. Why would god play the waiting game? Why did we have to wait 14 billion years to evolve to give a hoot about why we are here. Why did he make us wait 14 billion years?? Why is the universe so big if it's just for us?
Dream stated some good points and actually used logic and isn't just being stubborn saying my way is right. I explained that the bible is a book, nothing more, nothing less. He explained his opinion as well. All of you have been claiming you've been debating over God's existence. Really, you've mainly been debating whether some stories of the bible are true or not. Okay, God has been in the existence forever. So, something had to cause God's existence. I don't just walk down the street and a plate of bacon forms out of nothing in front of me. That wouldn't make sense. The Bible is the equivalent to the stories of the gods from the romans, greeks, mayans, and other random civilizations. It is a compilation of stories teaching good values. Christians belive in a God. Athiests don't. Christians don't have any proof of a god. Athiests don't have any proof that there isn't one, but that's like saying there is a rhino behind me right now. It makes more sense to doubt this rhino's existence than to believe that a rhino is their. See what I mean? Course you don't.
Why do we need religion at all? It's false closure. A man-made hoax. The lack of a God is astounding.