Imagine you’re in a conversation and somebody asks you why you are a follower of Jesus. What would you say? For most of us, the very prospect of that situation unfolding is enough to make us break out in a cold sweat. The last thing in the world we want to do is to be asked a question about our faith that we potentially can’t answer. And yet, we are called to be able to give a response. Let’s talk today about the apostle Peter’s counsel on giving an answer and some practical steps we can take to be able to do just that.
Giving An Answer
We are a people given to fear. We fear all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons. Go look up a list of phobias sometime. You won’t be able to pronounce most of them, but the definitions will at least amuse you. Some of them seem like they have at least some sort of a rational justification for them like a fear of snakes (herpetophobia) or heights (acrophobia). Others seem just silly like a fear of the number 4 (tetraphobia) or the color yellow (xanthophobia). Then there are some that seem like someone just made them up entirely so they could create a long, impossible to pronounce word like hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia which, of course, is the fear of the number 666 (which, in case you were interested, my spell checker actually caught and flagged as being misspelled; not because it is a random jumble of letters, but because I swapped and “e” for an “a”). Most of those fears, though, are pretty niche. I don’t know of many people who suffer from arachibutyrophobia, the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth. But there are some fears that are common and which have plagued humanity from time immemorial like death.
Well, as followers of Jesus and because of His resurrection from the dead, death isn’t something we have to fear anymore. Paul made as much clear in 1 Corinthians 15. Yet while that one fear is effectively neutralized by a healthy faith, there’s actually another fear that rises up to take its place in many of our hearts and minds. This fear can be paralyzing enough that it can keep us from doing one of the clearest and most important jobs we are given to do in the Scriptures. I couldn’t find a technical term for the phobia, but it’s common enough it should probably have one. For many of us the very thought of this situation is enough to make us break out in a cold sweat. We will do just about anything we can to avoid it. Any guesses on what it is yet? I’m talking about the terrifying experience of being asked a question about our faith.
Being asked a question about our faith can be one of the more terrifying things we can experience as followers of Jesus. The reasons for this are many, but they mostly boil down to a couple of things. The first is that we may not know the answer, meaning we could be attacked for not knowing the answer. We’re afraid of a skeptic thinking (and perhaps even telling us) we’re dumb because we don’t know the answer to one question or another. And then, if we can’t answer, maybe they don’t come around to faith and now look at what we’ve done. We’ve failed to make a convert when given the chance. For shame! The other thing we fear is that if we don’t know the answer, maybe that’s because there isn’t an answer. And if there isn’t an answer, maybe our faith isn’t as strong as we think it is. Maybe we don’t actually have as good of a reason to believe as we thought we did. Now, in addition to not knowing the answer to one question or another, we’re facing a crisis of faith as well.
My friends: none of this should be the case. In spite of clever and often deceptive framings that are popular today among secular skeptics, we have the most rational set of beliefs in the world. The idea not only that God exists, but that He is the way we describe Him to be are eminently reasonable propositions to support. We have every reason for confidence that Jesus is who He said He is and that placing our faith in Him makes sense. It makes so much sense, in fact, that telling someone else they should do the same is not just something we should strive to do merely because Jesus commanded it, but because it’s true and it’s unloving to not share something true with someone who believes something that is false. The challenge that we are facing here, though, is that the world around us mostly doesn’t agree with us. They don’t agree, and they’re not much interested in our holding, expressing, or sharing it with anyone else. And, in most places around the world, they have the power and position to attempt to prohibit our doing that entirely, or at least to make our efforts to do it as inconvenient, uncomfortable, and even costly as they can.
Well, not many people enjoy seeking out conflict, and we definitely don’t much care for inconvenience. The prospect of losing those things just for letting people know we follow Jesus and that they should do the same isn’t all that encouraging of a thought. So, we fear it. We fear the unknowns associated with it. We even fear the knowns that can be associated with it. What are we supposed to do about this?
We start by knowing we’re in pretty good company in all of this. This is a tension followers of Jesus have been wrestling with for a very long time. In fact, it is a tension that one of Jesus’ closest early followers addressed in his letter to believers who were living in a cultural situation with which ours is increasingly familiar. If you have a copy of the Scriptures with you this morning, find your way with me to the letter we call 1 Peter. It’s right near the back of the New Testament. If you were to try to find the single most relevant document in the whole of the Scriptures in terms of the way it speaks to our current cultural situation, you’d be hard pressed to do better than 1 Peter. In the case of our conversation this morning, it speaks right to the challenge of publicly following Jesus and even sharing our faith in the midst of a culture that doesn’t.
The whole letter is about how to follow Jesus faithfully in the midst of a culture that doesn’t. More than even that, though, it’s about following Jesus faithfully in the midst of a culture that is willing to punish you in some form or fashion for doing so. What are a bunch of followers of Jesus supposed to do in a situation like that? That’s what Peter endeavors to clarify over the course of his short letter. It boils down to a fairly simple idea: they are to live out the holiness of God in their conduct with and toward all the people around them. And, if this results in pushback and persecution, then so be it. God Himself in Christ was using their faithfulness to build something strong and permanent in this world. While the world may crash against them in its attempts to push them away from faith, if they stood firm in their faith and faithful application of the character of Christ, the world was ultimately going to fail in its efforts.
Right in the middle of the letter, after walking his readers through some examples of different areas where believers might have the opportunity to live out the character of Christ with people who didn’t embrace such a character, Peter starts to draw some initial conclusions for his readers. Look at this with me starting 1 Peter 3:8. He says, “Finally…” Whenever an author says, “finally,” you know he’s wrapping up a series of arguments and getting on to his conclusions. In this case, the line of argument Peter is concluding goes back to 1 Peter 2:12 where he encourages the believers to, “conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.” Notice the “when” there. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are going to be slandered as an evildoer by people who don’t believe in God. Our challenge is to conduct ourselves in such a way that the charge is laughably inaccurate. Peter goes beyond just that, though. He says these critics will glorify God on the day He visits. Why would they do that? Because they believe in Him and accept Him for who He is. Why would they do that? Because they’ve seen your good works and been convinced by them that the God you worship must really be worthy of their own devotion.
Back in chapter 3:8, Peter finishes this line of argument with some general advice. “Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.” He goes on to quote from Psalm 34 which we talked about in here a few weeks ago.
Coming out of this, Peter offers a challenge, wraps that challenge in a bit of realism, and then doubles down on the challenge. This is what is of particular interest for us this morning. Look with me starting again in v. 13: “Who then will harm you if you are devoted to what is good?” That’s a simple enough question. Peter’s audience, though, no doubt had an answer. Many of them knew the answer to this question very directly. They had experienced their neighbors and former friends and even family members treating them with contempt and derision because of their commitment to what is good. They had been questioned by government officials or perhaps made to pay some kind of an economic cost for standing on an understanding of what is good that differed from their neighbors. They knew very well who would harm them for their devotion to what was good. Lots of people would do that.
Peter understood this. Look at what he says next: “But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed.” He goes on to quote from the prophet Isaiah: “Do not fear what they fear or be intimidated…” That line from Isaiah comes in the context of the prophet’s offering encouragement to the Israelites to remain faithful to the Lord in the face of the swiftly advancing and terrifying Assyrian army. He was telling the people to not be like all the other peoples around them or even fellow Israelites who sought protection and hope in all kinds of things other than God. The prophet was telling them to put all of their hope in God and His ability to deliver them from destruction.
Peter was telling his readers—and us through them—that when the culture threatens us with some sort of persecution for our commitment to righteousness, we should not fear. He’s doing a little more even than just that, though. He’s telling us that part of what motivates that persecution on their part is fear. Fear of what? All kinds of things. Being different, angering the gods or more generally the powers that be, a dropping of the ball of civic responsibility that will result in everyone’s life getting harder, and so on and so forth. Yet because we serve a God who can handle all of those kinds of things and because we are members of a kingdom that is not of this world, we don’t have to worry about or fear any of those things.
Instead, look at what Peter tells us to do. “‘Do not fear what they fear or be intimidated,’ but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Yes, Peter acknowledges, you might face pushback and persecution for your efforts to live out of the character of Christ in the world around you. There will be some people who won’t like that, and who will not like it to a sufficient degree that they are willing to make your life difficult for being committed to it. At the very least they’ll make fun of you and tell you you’re nuts and ask you questions whose answer you don’t know and tell you you’re stupid and totally unreasonable in your faith when you can’t. Do it anyway, and be prepared when you do to explain why. Even when the world doesn’t like it, don’t ever keep your faith to yourself.
Of course, how we do this matters. A lot. I had a guy come on my college campus one time who was committed to giving an answer to anyone who asked a reason for the hope that he had. Unfortunately, he was a jerk about it who attracted questions by bawling out everyone who came near him for being horrible people and moral degenerates. He didn’t see many people start to follow Jesus because of his efforts. In fact, our campus ministry had to do damage control for weeks after his visit. Rather than advancing the Gospel in any way, he set Gospel work on that campus back several months because of his visit. He got v. 15 right, but he forgot all about v. 16.
“Yet do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused [remember when Peter said “when they slander you”?], those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” Even when the world doesn’t like it, don’t ever keep your faith to yourself. Just make sure your sharing it happens in the same way Jesus did. Oh, Jesus could be tough at times. But He consistently reserved that face for religious people who thought they knew better than God how to be in a right relationship with Him. With unbelievers or people who believed wrongly about God because they had never been taught what was right, with the “sinners” of His day, Jesus was consistently compassionate and kind. He was gentle and humble. He was respectful and patient. If somebody hates on you because you’re a jerk to them, that’s on you. If they hate on you in spite of your being gentle and respectful in all your ways, other people are going to notice that. And when they do, they just might ask you about it. Even when the world doesn’t like it, don’t ever keep your faith to yourself.
Okay, but this whole fear thing we talked about before is still there. What are we supposed to do about that? How do we get over that? Well, a little practice never hurt anyone, but I think there’s more than that we can do to follow Peter’s counsel here. In fact, I think there are two things in particular that you can do in order to keep Peter’s command here. The first is to consider your own story. This one shouldn’t be all that hard. It is your story, after all. Here’s how you do that. You sit with this question until you answer it: Why is it that you follow Jesus? And before you even try to start to answer this way, throw out any version of “because my parents did.” I don’t care why your parents followed Jesus. I want to know why you follow Jesus. Why are you following Him instead of following someone or something else? What is it that made you want to commit your life to Him in the first place?
And listen, that may be an uncomfortable question if you’ve never thought about it before. I suspect that for some of you that’s the case. That could be a scary thought. You’ve never really considered why you follow Jesus. You just grew up in church and your whole family structure was one where following Him was assumed and you never questioned that. You just went with it. Sure, you’ve had a moment or two where you wondered a bit whether living some other kind of way would make more sense, but you brushed those thoughts aside fairly quickly and got back to doing the only thing you ever really knew. Here’s the thing, though, if you don’t know why you follow Jesus, you can’t give an answer for the reason for the hope that you have to someone who asks. And rest assured that, “I just always have,” is neither a compelling or a convincing answer. Why is it that you follow Jesus? If you can’t answer that, it’s time to get to a place where you can. And if you can’t answer because you aren’t really following Jesus at all, then today is a great day to fix that too. The world may not like your answer if you have one; in fact, it probably won’t. Give it anyway. The world needs to hear it. Even when the world doesn’t like it, don’t ever keep your faith to yourself.
Here’s the second thing. You need to learn what some of the arguments and evidence for the Christian faith are. It’s always okay to not know the answer to a particular question. There’s never anything wrong with that. You can’t study every topic and you aren’t going to remember every answer. But a lack of effort is not an acceptable reason to not know an answer. At some point, if you actively have conversations about Jesus—and you should be actively having conversations about Jesus when the opportunities present themselves…and if you make that a point of prayer, the opportunities will present themselves because God will answer that prayer—someone is going to ask you a hard question about the faith. But here’s the thing: no one is asking novel questions about the faith these days. They’ve all been asked before and answered before. What’s more, the answers are recorded in convenient places for you to be able to look them up and learn them for yourself. That means none of the questions you might be asked need to be scary. And you’re not alone in this. I can help you with it. That’s quite literally what I’m here for. Don’t miss out on tapping the resources that I can help you access. And again, it’s okay to say, “I don’t know, but here’s why I believe anyway,” and point them back to your own story…which is why it’s so important to know that.
Now, is this going to take a bit of work on your part? Sure it will. But isn’t a little bit of work so that you are more prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope that you have in such a way that just may convince a questioning skeptic to follow Jesus worth it? It is, after all, what Jesus and Peter both commanded us to do. Even when the world doesn’t like it, don’t ever keep your faith to yourself. And the world isn’t going to like it. Do it anyway. Even when the world doesn’t like it, don’t ever keep your faith to yourself.
The Nexus 
Rational beliefs? 😂
I’m sorry, but the belief that a first century human blood sacrifice somehow makes things right with your god, Yahweh ( for which you have zero evidence) has to be one of most mind-numbing irrational beliefs around.
This irrationality is compounded by the vile notion that failure to believe in this ridiculous claim and that of the Bible character Jesus of Nazareth being our ‘savior’ ( sic) and only path to eternal bliss in Heaven will result in being damned to eternal torment in Hell.
And it doesn’t help that, once again, you use a possibly forged text to try to further your argument.
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As we’ve talked about before, you reject the starting premise. Of course the rest of it isn’t going to make any sense to you. There’s a reason Paul said the Gospel is foolishness to those who don’t believe. And get ready, because I’m going to be preaching from 2 Peter in a couple of weeks. You’ll love that one ;-). But, your strident and amused disagreement is duly noted.
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If the starting premise has no evidential basis on what grounds must it be accepted, faith?
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Well, as we’ve talked about, you define evidence on explicitly empirical terms. That’s a worldview decision. There are other kinds of evidence including philosophical evidence and the evidence of experience that you reject because of your priori commitment to materialism. But, yes, of course, faith plays a significant role. After all, as Paul made expressly clear, faith is ultimately the thing that saves us. A salvation based at all on things we do isn’t salvation at all.
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So your primary go to is faith even when you are faced with solid scientific evidence that demonstrates any number of your faith based beliefs to be categorically and unequivocally wrong.
As you no doubt consider your faith is strong, would you drink from a bottle labeled poison?
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At the point that I encounter “solid scientific evidence that demonstrates any number of [my] faith based beliefs to be categorically and unequivocally wrong,” I’ll give secularism some more thought. I have yet to encounter any. You’ve presented a number of scientific arguments and pieces of apparent evidence that you find convincing, but you have yet to present anything that meets those criteria so far as I am concerned. Meanwhile, you have all but refused to engage with any philosophical evidence except to wave science at it like it’s a magic wand (which is, ironically, the way you like to characterize faith for Christians…meaning you do what you have often accused me of, you simply point your faith in a different direction), and you categorically refuse to accept the evidence of experience because of your previously identified worldview commitments.
Your second question is just silly, so I’m not going to bother with that one.
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The DNA evidence from the human genome project which categorically and unequivocally refutes the take of Adam and Eve
The same unequivocal evidence that refutes Noah and his global flood arev two perfect examples if solid scientific evidence.
As I have come toil know you as a reasonably intelligent person ( within the limited sphere of the internet) the only reasons for such blatent denial would be.
A. You are a science denying, indoctrinated YEC leaning Bible literalist. ( which, come to think of it would then negate my belief you are reasonably intelligent )
Or
B. You are simply a bald faced liar.
If you refuse to engage my second question do I take it you feel the same about( handling serpents) snake bites and you acknowledge the long ending to Mark is a forgery?
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Sure, you conclude whatever you feel like you need to conclude there. As for the rest of that, we have once again already talked about it before.
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Well, which is it?
Of course either answer could mean you are telling lies. Bit of a conundrum, then.
Hmmm…
Do you agree with any of the YEC position?
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I’ll let you decide which is the best path through that morass.
I agree that God created the whole thing, but not much else that’s immediately coming to mind. I’m okay with an actual Adam and Eve (I know, go ahead and shake your head), but I suspect that how we (and by “we” I mean conservative Christians) are often led to imagine it may not be how it really was. I’m much more of the mindset that while the creation narratives of Genesis 1 and 2 are meant to be taken seriously, they are not to be taken literally at all.
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No head shaking… Laughing my arse off at the way you need to twist the evidence to fit your delusional approach.
I am reminded of the title of the Steely Dan song, Pretzl Logic.
Okay, now I am shaking my head.
When you finally accept reality and deconvert you and I will laugh at these moments and you will wonder what caused you to be so willfully ignorant.
Then I will express some genuine sympathy
Right now…. Not so much.
Things to do. T’ra
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Or, you’ll finally convert, and you and I will laugh at how silly your stubbornness to accepting the truth always was 😉
Enjoy your day. I’ll post on slavery in a little while…hopefully.
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You would likely only get odds so long it wouldn’t be worth the bet.
Furthermore, based on testimony from those adults who did convert ( and some who then deconverted)
it would involve a serious emotional crisis/ trauma for me to abandon basic common sense let alone ditch critical thinking.
But I am interested in WHY you consider I should convert.
Thoughts?
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I already wrote up those reasons long ago. Often it is in the midst of an season of emotional crisis or trauma that we begin thinking the most clearly. Perhaps that’s why such a season final propels so many to final embrace what is true about the world and its workings.
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Severe emotional trauma can destabilize even the most level-headed individual.
This is often cited as the environment that causes religious conversion.
Furthermore, such conversions are almost entirely culturally specific.
Again, the testimonies of deconverts invariably support this.
Evidence of the claims made by religions or their proponents never, ever feature in religious conversion.
So, no thoughts on why I should convert?
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You are once again relying on the feedback of the tiny minority of customers who had a bad experience at the coffee shop and accepting their feedback as normative instead of the huge majority who give it rave reviews. Your perspective is warped by this. It’s understandably warped, but it’s warped all the same.
Remind me when you left for Europe. I’ll scroll back and find where I gave you reasons then and repost them.
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We left for Europe on the 10th May.
Rave reviews has nothing to do with evidence or lack thereof regarding claims of believers.
One only has to consider the reasons for conversion of someone such a Francis Collins and his death anxiety.
Fear is part of this.
Deconversions invariably revolve around lack of evidence or the realization that all, the religious bluster is just that vacuous bluster.
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I’ll scroll back and see if I can find that comment.
And, no, rave reviews don’t necessarily count as evidence, but the evidence from experience is something worth considering. It is something to which you actually give a great deal of credibility when it suits your purposes. Why else do you so consistently cite the deconversion stories you have heard? That’s all evidence of experience, and you take it pretty much hook, line, and sinker. Why take only the evidence of experience that fits your narrative while rejecting the great deal more evidence of experience that doesn’t? That doesn’t seem to be a problem with the evidence so much as the one who is doing the interpreting of it.
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Personal experience of converts invariably involves claims surrounding the supernatural. That is not evidence, but simply an unsubstantiated claim.
These are without exception underpinned by some form of emotional issue/trauma, even if that emotional issue is nothing more than a need for companionship.
I have read a couple of stories about conversions from blokes who attended church because they were attracted to a girl. Sex! Who would have guessed, right? 🤦
The evidential claims of Christianity come afterwards, and more so when a crisis of faith rears it’s head. Which, I have been told, invariably happens to most if not all of you at one time or another.
Deconversion testimonies I have read/ heard tend to be pretty much the opposite of the above. Including following one’s partner OUT of the faith! (Church)
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What specific philosophical evidence?
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The moral argument and the Kalam cosmological argument are two examples.
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Kakam has been refuted more times than I can recall.
What moral argument?
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I have yet to see a convincing refutation of the Kalam argument. Do you have an example of something that began to exist without a cause? And the existence of objective moral beliefs demands an external source for those moral beliefs.
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Neither require an external source.
You have evidence your god, Yahweh is the cause you cling to?
Morality?
Evolution. Straightforward. And the evidence shows this.
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It’s philosophical evidence, not empirical. That’s the point. The existence of God is the best and most reasonable explanation for the existence of the universe. We have never postulated another cause that makes more sense than that. Universal fine tuning is another philosophical argument (rooted in scientific observations). And, no, evolution is a laughably bad explanation for the existence of objective morality.
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“The existence of God is the best and most reasonable explanation for the existence of the universe.”
Now THAT is funny.
Can you honestly imagine the Lake Tiberius Pedestrian creating the universe?
Even the most whacked out LSD mind of the weirdest Sci fi writer could not come up with such an idea.
However, the delusional and wilfully ignorant Christian mind will come up with any old garbage.
Religions are pretty much all like this.
Morality.
https://www.frontiersin.org
Does morality come from evolution?
Morality was selected by evolution in our human ancestors in order to promote cooperation and smooth social interactions. Developmental psychologists have demonstrated that some building blocks of morality are in place very early in development [3].09 Mar 2016
And there are plenty more sites that say pretty much the same thing.
Sorry old sport, but with your goddidit nonsense your are basically peeing in the wind and the wind just changed. Here comes the blowback.
Oh, and please, don’t ever suggest you are not a science denier.
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Do you have a better explanation beyond, “I don’t know?” And if you don’t know, then why for reasons beyond a worldview commitment to materialism do you rule out a Creator? You see, this question ultimately comes down to philosophy and worldview, not empirical evidence. Perhaps you will remain content adopting a posture of ignorance and declaring it noble, but that’s not enough for most people. That ignorance can’t grant us purpose beyond what we make up for ourselves and people need purpose. The Christian worldview simply provides better answers (and truer answers) to the big questions of life than secularism can.
If your “Lake Tiberius Pedestrian” was God incarnate, then of course He could have.
Your link just took me to a main page with not a word on it about morality or evolution. Give that one another go if there’s something there you’d like me to read.
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So if you have no evidence then you are as much out in the boondocks as “I don’t know.”
In fact you are drowning because you have to demonstrate with EVIDENCE that this creator is the Lake Tiberius Pedestrian and instant viticulturist, Jesus of Nowhere.
The Christian Worldview provides diddly squat when it comes to purpose and is simply a revolting ideology based on a carrot and stick mentality. Worship me or spend eternity being tortured in Hell. Sick, sick, sick.
Yes IF….
And if my grandmother had balls she would have been my granddad.
Good grief!
🤦
Morality was selected by evolution in our human ancestors in order to promote cooperation and smooth social interactions. Developmental psychologists have demonstrated that some building blocks of morality are in place very early in development [3].09 Mar 2016
https://www.frontiersin.org › articles
Our Brains are Wired for Morality: Evolution, Development, and …
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You’re funny when you get all ranty.
The funny thing to me is that you don’t have any of what you would accept as evidence either. Which means, we’re back to worldview and philosophical assumptions.
Your persistently caricatured understanding of the Christian worldview to the side, this all just comes across like you’re deflecting.
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Hey, I’m perfectly okay saying I don’t know. It is honest and I really like honest. Saying “I don’t know” also means I have nothing to hide and no need to make stuff up or lie through my teeth.
And guess what? You don’t know either, but you claim you do, if only tacitly and that is a blatent lie.
And you didn’t have the decency to apologize over your outrageous comment regarding morality.
What purpose does the Christian Worldview provide?
Zip.
As for caricature…
It might be a caricature but ostensibly it is accurate: It goes like this…
Believe in a first century human blood sacrifice or spend eternity being tortured in Hell.
You don’t like the caricature? Too bad.
Tell me exactly which part of my description is incorrect and WHY ?
Aah.. But you won’t will you? Much easier to make up some pithy excuse and hand wave.
Let me tell you something, bluffing with rubbish cards takes balls.
You, on the other hand, are bluffing with no cards and that, Jonathan is simply bloody stupid.
Just acknowledge faith is all you have. Period.
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Which outrageous comment regarding morality?
What I find amusing here is that you are demonstrating such outrage and apparent offense about a set of beliefs you don’t even accept. To be offended by something you don’t even believe in takes a lot of effort. Why do you give it? As I have explained time and time again, you reject the foundational premise (that God exists). As a result, nothing that follows is going to make sense. Once you accept the foundational premise, everything else falls logically into place. There’s no reason to get all worked up about details that follow from a starting point when you reject the starting point.
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I don’t accept much of the Bible. However, the fact you and millions do and have used it to commit allow to be committed heinous acts throughout history, and still use it to corrupt minors and tacitly persecute non believers seems like pretty good reasons to push back against such vile doctrine don’t you think?
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Was that the outrageous comment regarding morality?
People have used all sorts of means to justify heinous acts throughout history. When someone wants to do something terrible, they are going to be able to find a reason to justify it. Neither Stalin nor Mao nor Hitler needed Christianity to justify the hundreds of millions of lives they were responsible for ending. Stalin and Mao were explicitly atheistic in their thinking. If you are just working in terms of sheer body count, atheism still holds the pole position. I don’t think that’s a terribly fruitful argument either way, though. Christianity and the Christian Scriptures haven’t proven a more fruitful source for that than anything else.
There are plenty of ideas that do a whole lot more to “corrupt minors” around today than Christianity does. Of course, even arguing that depends on what you mean by “corrupting” in the first place. Whose moral vision are you using to craft that particular definition? Why that vision? Where did it come from? What is the ultimate source of those ideas?
Christian doctrine itself isn’t vile at all. It’s logical if you accept the starting premise that God as He is described in the Scriptures exists. People have taken Scripture, lifted it from its context or otherwise made it say things it never could have meant in the first place, and used that to justify all sorts of awful things. That’s not a problem with the Scriptures so much as it is a problem with the people who are misinterpreting and misapplying it.
We should absolutely push back against all kinds of vile behavior. But we have to carefully track down what its source really is. When you get down to brass tacks, historical, Orthodox, biblical Christian doctrine is rarely near the heart of the problem.
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Re: Outrageous comment:
Your ridiculous assertion human morality is not because of evolution. THAT outrageous comment.
The Numbers Game? Really?
Yes, folks it’s that time again. Time to play… Christians v Atheists! Who murdered the most? Fun for all the family.
🤦
“Pole position”
You believe your god, Yahweh exterminated all life on planet earth bar one incestuous family and a bunch of animals.
Christian Doctrine:
The foundational claim of Christianity is that humans are born sinners, are required to confess these sins, and if they wish eternal life must believe that the bible character Jesus of Nazareth who was executed for sedition but is believed to be the necessary blood sacrifice for the redemption of sins and the gateway to eternal life in heaven. Failure to acknowledge this will see all non – believers doomed to Hell to be tortured for eternity ( No reprieve).
To inculcate such a vile and completely unsubstantiated belief into children is tantamount to abuse and is known to cause sever trauma in certain individuals.
Religion is not the heart of the problem.
However, it is most certainly a large part of it and the evidence, historical and current, fully bears this out.
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And, by the way, you said you don’t accept much of the Bible. Which parts do you accept?
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There are certain historical and archaeological aspects, including certain individuals that are borne out by evidence.
In the main though it is historical fiction and geopolitical foundation myth.
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Oh, and when you’re done replying to this comment maybe you will relook at the chattel slavery reply I made?
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https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2016.00003
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Thanks. I’ll read this as soon as I can.
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Have you finished your reply on slavery in Leviticus yet?
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I’ll assure you I’ll post it when I do. It’s just 5:45 in the morning here.
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Lazy bones! Up and at ’em, Tiger!
Time waits for Noone according to the Stones.
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Getting breakfast and a kid off to camp. I’ll get to the office and finally be able to sit down and write about slavery in the next couple of hours.
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Slave to the job, eh?
Camp? Boy / Girl scout?
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Basketball
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Not a sport I am partial to. Your kid a Lakers fan?
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Doesn’t really have a pro team. We’re in Charlotte, though, so probably the Hornets before anyone else. Too bad they’re awful. We’re more college basketball fans (because I am). Kansas is our team. I’m pretty impressed with him. I was always awful at basketball.
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As I was at soccer.
My position was left back.
Usually left back in the dressing room.
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That sounds like me at both baseball and basketball. I was halfway decent at volleyball and a pretty good runner, but music was always my jam.
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