I would have to say that one of the biggest misconceptions the general public has of Christianity is faith. I see that the general public has the misconception that the Christian faith is a blind faith and this really stood out to me when I watched Religulous from some recent thread and that biblical faith isn’t blind.
Another misconception I’ve heard/noticed is that science and Christianity can’t get along. The farther along I am into getting my MD has only helped to solidify my faith. There’s just so much going on in such intricate and perfect order that it’s hard for me to think that life happend by chance. I love this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.”
Indeed, sometimes I am astonished when I read about Issac Newton and his discoveries and intellect and how Christianity humbled him and how he sees God’s order in the universe. Some of my favorite quotes from him are. ?This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.? and ?I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.?
Or how the body is organized and development of the human body when it’s growing from an embryo to an adult talking to the smartest man I know a friend who is a pediatric endocrinologist and a Christian as well.
[quote]ron22 wrote:
There’s just so much going on in such intricate and perfect order[/quote]
Are you talking about the human body?
Really?
lol
[quote]JoabSonOfZeruiah wrote:
I would have to say that one of the biggest misconceptions the general public has of Christianity is faith. I see that the general public has the misconception that the Christian faith is a blind faith and this really stood out to me when I watched Religulous from some recent thread and that biblical faith isn’t blind.[/quote]
Here goes another vaaaast topic with significance in every particle of the universe. You’re killin me man =]
This depends on how “blind” is defined in this context.
CS Lewis once said something like “I don’t believe the Christian gospel because I can see it, but because by it I see everything else” That is exactly correct.
I gotta be honest. I don’t generally waste my time trying to convince unbelievers with “evidence” because that proceeds on the erroneous assumption that the things of God can be reduced to a data set equally accessible to those with and without the Spirit. The living and the dead. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 NASB. This whole world and even some claiming Christ are a comprehensive testament to just how true this is
This will of course be viewed by them as a convenient escape from what is in their minds overwhelming evidence of ANYTHING except the truth of the gospel of the Christ. That’s exactly what they should be expected to do. To which they respond with “yeah, well all your provin to me is just how fulla shit you people really are” and around we go.
The new birth is not accomplished by enhanced understanding. It’s accomplished by a resurrection from the walking dead.
[quote]Makavali wrote:
[quote]ron22 wrote:
There’s just so much going on in such intricate and perfect order[/quote]
Are you talking about the human body?
Really?
lol[/quote]
Yea, why wouldn’t I be. Read a medical physio textbook and tell me you don’t come away from that amazed. Or read a biochem text and tell me that the ridiculous number of processes that continuously occur inside you, letting you breathe, make and use energy, etc, aren’t impressive. And unless you’re dying or have some underlying illness, things tend to work pretty well.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
This depends on how “blind” is defined in this context.
CS Lewis once said something like “I don’t believe the Christian gospel because I can see it, but because by it I see everything else” That is exactly correct.
I gotta be honest. I don’t generally waste my time trying to convince unbelievers with “evidence” because that proceeds on the erroneous assumption that the things of God can be reduced to a data set equally accessible to those with and without the Spirit. The living and the dead. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 NASB. This whole world and even some claiming Christ are a comprehensive testament to just how true this is
[/quote]
Love it. Totally agree. I try not to convince unbelievers as well but there are more and more people in my field that I have met, that have turned out to be some of the strongest believers I have ever met. They have only helped make my faith stronger.
The 2,000 threads about christianity just ain’t enough huh?
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
The 2,000 threads about christianity just ain’t enough huh?[/quote]
You are more than welcome to either participate or not and I will be first in line protesting if they moderate any of your posts.
[quote]ron22 wrote:
<<< Love it. Totally agree. I try not to convince unbelievers as well but there are more and more people in my field that I have met, that have turned out to be some of the strongest believers I have ever met. They have only helped make my faith stronger.[/quote]
There are 2 species of man in the world since the fulfillment of the law in Christ. Those who by free grace(this cannot be emphasized enough) have been born again into the life and mind of the resurrected Son of God and those who have not and remain for the moment dead in trespasses and sins.
To the former every single last speck of data possible from the movement of sub atomic particles to the majesty of the intelligent moral agency of the image of God in man having been created male and female. Everything, Screams the plainly self evident truth that He is and we are His children having been redeemed from death to life.
To the latter every single last speck of data screams one of a thousand derivative versions of anything but that. It is their nature inherited from the first Adam. A nature it must never be forgotten we still share in our old self.
Of course we shouldn’t shrink from claiming all facts including scientific ones for the God who brought them into existence. However, attempting to argue them into belief with detailed debate does not usually bear fruit for 2 main reasons. First and most importantly is what I said in my first post. They cannot hear it. Second they usually (but certainly not always) have more expertise on the topic at hand and in that arena are better at it than we are. At least among the educated this is often true.
Also, it very easily degenerates into a campaign to win the debate and self righteously ridicule the opponent. God has not called us to win arguments. He’s called us to win souls and the 2 are very often not the same thing. People are not nearly as impressed by what you know as they are by how you live even if they don’t consciously realize it. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 NASB The testimony of a loving sanctified life bows to no argument.
Don’t mind me. I can get carried away very easily. I would have been (should have been) in prison or dead or both if not for the unfathomable love and mercy shown me by a holy God who had every right to leave me in the destruction of my own sin.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
The 2,000 threads about christianity just ain’t enough huh?[/quote]
There can never be enough.
I’m still trying to figure out why dying a horrible death on a cross is some admirable thing. Dying for the sins of strangers? Fuck 'em! They made their choices. Why let 'em off the hook?
Unselfishness, especially for random evil strangers, is wrong. It is especially NOT moral.
[quote]ron22 wrote:
[quote]Makavali wrote:
[quote]ron22 wrote:
There’s just so much going on in such intricate and perfect order[/quote]
Are you talking about the human body?
Really?
lol[/quote]
Yea, why wouldn’t I be. Read a medical physio textbook and tell me you don’t come away from that amazed. Or read a biochem text and tell me that the ridiculous number of processes that continuously occur inside you, letting you breathe, make and use energy, etc, aren’t impressive. And unless you’re dying or have some underlying illness, things tend to work pretty well.[/quote]
Rose tinted glasses much? The human body is impressive, but far from perfect.
[quote]Also, it very easily degenerates into a campaign to win the debate and self righteously ridicule the opponent. God has not called us to win arguments. He’s called us to win souls and the 2 are very often not the same thing. People are not nearly as impressed by what you know as they are by how you live even if they don’t consciously realize it. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 NASB The testimony of a loving sanctified life bows to no argument.
[/quote]
I don’t post often, but this is a great post. I am a christian, but I see and hear so many “believers” that seem to only want to win arguments at whatever the cost that they only serve to turn people further away from God.
Christians fail to consider that it is possible that the world is not so spectacularly complex but that we are fucking retarded. 98% of our dna is chimp after all.
[quote]ron22 wrote:
[quote]Makavali wrote:
[quote]ron22 wrote:
There’s just so much going on in such intricate and perfect order[/quote]
Are you talking about the human body?
Really?
lol[/quote]
Yea, why wouldn’t I be. Read a medical physio textbook and tell me you don’t come away from that amazed. Or read a biochem text and tell me that the ridiculous number of processes that continuously occur inside you, letting you breathe, make and use energy, etc, aren’t impressive. And unless you’re dying or have some underlying illness, things tend to work pretty well.[/quote]
No one is saying it isn’t impressive. It is, clearly. Doesn’t mean some conception of a higher being made it though.
[quote]ron22 wrote:
There’s just so much going on in such intricate and perfect order that it’s hard for me to think that life happend by chance.[/quote]
So if your God (The Christian one I presume) didn’t create it then it could only have happened by chance?
[quote]thefederalist wrote:
Christians fail to consider that it is possible that the world is not so spectacularly complex but that we are fucking retarded. 98% of our dna is chimp after all. [/quote]
85% is cow
[quote]thefederalist wrote:
Christians fail to consider that it is possible that the world is not so spectacularly complex but that we are fucking retarded. 98% of our dna is chimp after all. [/quote]
I would expect nothing more from a retarded chimp such as yourself.
Go wander back to your porn and leave the heavy thinking to others more qualified.
[quote]thefederalist wrote:
Christians fail to consider that it is possible that the world is not so spectacularly complex but that we are fucking retarded. 98% of our dna is chimp after all. [/quote]
Christians, by which I mean members of the invisible church of Christ throughout all ages, those who have been truly regenerated into new creatures, as opposed to those who name the name of Jesus with their lips but display no evidence of a transformed life.
Those Christians fail to consider anything that does not fully comport with the living Word of God in their hearts testifying to the written word of God in their hands.
See, that’s the blank starry eyed ultra subjective self deluded brainwashing you’ve heard so much about. I will of course contend that it is actually the only genuine objectivity there is or ever has been. You will disagree and thus we arrive at our eternal impasse.