pherguvsel

30) Science, I can accept. It's all those pesky little unsupported assumptions that some people tend to sweep under the carpet that I have a problem with. 31) Funny how many people make this claim without the evidence to back it up.

pherguvsel

20+21) Actually, if Adam hadn't sinned, then there wouldn't be any death, disease, or disasters. 22) Again, you conjecture something about me without knowing me. 23) On the contrary, I would think anyone who did something like that would be unfit as pastor or for any other church leadership position. 24) I might know less about certain subjects in these areas (since probably no one could possibly know everything), but generally, I would say I knew more. 25) Actually, I think everyone to a certain extent (some more than others) is influenced by the (and he's not mine, by the way) devil. 26) Simply because there are multiple truth claims doesn't mean that all of them all wrong, just that essentially contradictory ones cannot all be right. Nor does the purity or simplicity of a belief doesn't prohibit the possibility that there might be those that twist it for their own purposes, whether intentionally or unintentionally. 27) I don't hate anyone, Christian or non-Christian, but instead hope that all can find the same joy I've found. 28) Oddly enough, I can't ever remember my pastor doing anything like that.

pherguvsel

10) Could you please show the source for your statistics here or did you just make them up? 11) What I constantly challenge is the (possibly faulty) assumptions of respected scientists who weren't there when the Earth was formed, especially since many of them admit to materialistic bias. 12) Actually, I just laugh that people STILL believe in spontaneous generation. 13) On the contrary, I believe they will spend an eternity in Hell for sinning against God and refusing to repent. 14) No, I believe that one must be born again because of one's own sins. 15) Then why are YOU dwelling on the devil, who YOU claim is in the mind of fundamentalists? 16) Actually, that alone has had little influence on my beliefs (and you appear to confusing Fundamentalists with Charismatics here, anyway). 17) No one's giving me any particular reason why I shouldn't. 18) If it happens to be true, then there's nothing arrogant or vain about it. And until someone finds a planet which actually does have (human) life on it, then it's merely conjecture to say that such exists. 19) Name one.

pherguvsel

1) Never done this. 2) Have yet to see anyone come up with another workable solution as to what the ancient Israelites could have done. 3) Swords can be also for protection. 4) Considering that you've never met me, how can you know whether I've objected or not? 5) Then you're for censorship of history? 6) I've never believed that atheists couldn't be moral, rather that if people are nothing more than their material components and simply just another animal, than there's no compelling reason for them to be any more moral than any other animal. As far as being "kept under control by... God", since when? 7) Sorry, doesn't describe me at all. 8) While I'll concede the last sentence, most such holy days were added much later. However, there's no indication in the Bible that Mary was raped. Finally, almost all the alleged similarities are either given no source from the original non-Christian texts, turn out to be be false (especially the "virgin births" from mothers who weren't virgins and non-resurrections), or happen to be highly common among religions (such as "good supreme being" and "lesser or equal evil being"). 9) While the word "elohim" in Genesis 1:1 is plural, the word for "created" is singular.