For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(Eph 2:8,9 [KJV])

Being good isn't sufficient. (Nor, by the way, is it necessary; interesting, huh?) If you don't want to take ANY chances, you must have faith in Christ.

(I sure can sound preachy at times, can't I?)

 

Are you a pastor by profession?

That is kind of strange to think that a murderer who has faith in Christ would have a better chance of going to heaven vs. someone who lives a fairly good life and doesn't care for Christ at all.

 

A mathematician, a risk analyst, a teacher, a magician, a website operator, but not a pastor.

It is strange. Remember the thief on the cross next to Jesus:

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
(Luke 23:43 [KJV])

I didn't make the rules, I just pass them along.

 

Do you read the Bible frequently?

I think I should start...

 

Three or four times a week. But I have a pretty good memory.

There's no time like the present.

 

Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, persecuted Christians before he was converted on his way to Damascus; he was known as Saul then. (By "persecuted", I mean "imprisoned" at the very least, probably "murdered".)
(See Acts, chapters 8 and 9.)

Even the worst people can be redeemed.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by magician

 

This really comes down to whether or not one believes in the human soul. Since the soul is spiritual, it would not die with the body, so it's got to go somewhere. I, however, do not believe in a soul. I believe we are little more than extremely complex machines. I believe when the brain dies, the complex accumulation of experiences that has shaped ones personality is gone, as if it had never existed, except in the influence one has had on other people's experiences.
If their is a Judeo/Christian/Islam type god, I would assume it would not be so petty as to punish me for my skepticism, having mostly likely transcended such small human emotions; I would think it would instead examine the relative quality of my coexistence with other humans. Demanding faith seems so clearly to be a man-made mechanism of control added at some point to so many religions that I feel it lessens their credence as effective guidelines for living a virtuous life.

 

God does not tell you shit. Some idiot who smoked a lot of weed and/or needed to control the ignorant masses wrote that. Christianity ... hell all popular religions are due for a rewrite, they no longer make sense to anyone with a 4th grade education. (note to everyone, my wife is a devout Spanish Catholic, so take that last statment as my personal belief and don't be offended, she isnt)

We could sit here and poke holes in the bible all day long -- but at the end of the day, who cares. We all end up feeding the worms.

Nothing more nothing less. The sheer arrogance of human beings thinking they are better and different from other creatures never ceases to amaze me.

You die, that's it. Do you honestly think that your Tomato plant, the cow you eat, the weed you kill with Roundup comes back to life in some other realm? Shit, if there was a "heaven" I'm goddam sure I'd want to kill 99 percent of the religious twats there ....

 

I find it interesting that you can say in so many words that my education is not the equivalent of that of a fourth-grader, then insist that I'm not to take offense at your remark.

I, for one, care.

Unless it isn't.

No.

By the way, you might get a few people to take your postings seriously if you toned down the invective a jot.