You have no proof that there's a heaven, that's one of the main problems.Christianity appeared and the Middle East and spread in Europe profoundly.
Taking into consideration the severe years of inquisition I may suppose that Europe should be far more "Christian" than the USA...
Americans tend to follow the traditions and the belief of Christianity a lot more than the rest of Western civilization. How can this be?
Ironically, it is because the wall of separation between Church and State left the door wide open for more emotionally evocative forms of Christianity to develop and seduce the less genteel populations.
Now that is an interesting statement. I haven't heard this theory before.
So you would suggest that Mark 12:31 "love your neighbor as yourself" was written after the 'wall of separation between Church and State'?
How exactly do you defend that claim?Without God, no one gets sent to hell. So if God is so good why I he sending people to burn in hell in the first place?Nothing flows from God that does not have a human as a middle-man. People just have to be good to each other for this world to be a good place to live, why give credit to a God that stubbornly hides from the rational?My reason is somewhat circular, in that I believe America is more Christian because there are a vast number of us that still believe blessings flow from God, not government.
"good" implies a moral standard. Morals, implies a moral law. Law implies absolute truth.
Without G-d..... there is no "good". It's just your opinion of what is 'good', verses some other person's view of what is 'good'.
That doesn't work. Anything can be "good", if it's just up to your opinion. Slavery is "good" if man determines what is good.
That's not how Christians think about it.
To a Christian, we were driving a speeding car towards the Grand Canyon. Except, we didn't know there was a Grand Canyon.
G-d is like the police officer trying to stop us from driving over the cliff. He's not trying to pull us over to condemn us, even though it may feel like it. He's trying to stop us from destroying ourselves driving off the edge into the Grand Canyon.
This is why we call it "being saved". All of us have already condemned ourselves.
Romans chapter 2 says that the non-believers may not know the law, and yet they in their heart know right from wrong, and thus are a law to themselves. Verse 15 of Chapter 2, says that even the pagans know they violate their own laws, and condemn themselves.
People get this white throne judgement really mixed up, and think that G-d is going to sit up there, and point his fingers at people. Not true. G-d is going to call other people as witness against you. Your friends. Your family. Your spouse or 'partner' (whatever they call screwing around these days). Your co-workers. Your boss. And even your own memory, and perjury isn't going to be an option.
We that are real Christians, we know we were condemned. And deserved whatever punishment to come.
Again, that's why we call it "being saved". G-d isn't sending us... he's saving us from where we were going.
And while it may seem like a great idea to just get rid of G-d, and then we don't have to worry about any of this.... there's another side. Like... what's the point of all this? Just to work every day of your life, grow old, and die, and have the total summery of your life, as a "-" A dash between two dates, on a bit of white rock in the middle of a grassy field.
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Without G-d... that's it for you. That's your entire life, wrapped up on a rock, that no one remembers or cares about.
Life is hard. Life is unfair. Life is painful.
I for one, am happy that there is a Heaven. When all you see of me, is a stone in a grassy field, I'll be having a party in Heaven. Can't wait honestly. Looking forward to it.
You do if you believe that the Bible is the word of God and not the word written by man.