Religious vs. Atheist "converters"

[Zguy28]

What do you see more? Atheist billboard adverts or church signs, crosses, etc?

Not what I was saying...but okay.

 

[sk8enscars]

We don't need someone to tell us to care about others. We just do it.

We? Okay then, as a Christian, WE don't shove our religion down other people's throats.

I'm making more of an observation more than anything.

I was putting all the other stuff aside. My point is, any decent person would try to help another person, religion aside. If a restaurant served tainted food, most of us would feel a moral obligation to share that with others to keep them from harm. Likewise, religious people feel that if they know something, and their religion tells them to share, then they should. Atheists do not have anything apart from basic morals and values to share. There's no atheist "belief" that needs to be shared is there?

 

[Toxick]

So what were you saying then?

I think he was saying that there are examples of Atheistic proselytizing to be found.





Or that most of us can safely say: "I've been given (or listened) to atheist info."


(See the poll at the top of the page)

 

[mAlice]

Well there is that whole billboard fiasco...

Now, why would you call that a fiasco?

 

[mAlice]

We? Okay then, as a Christian, WE don't shove our religion down other people's throats.

I'm making more of an observation more than anything.

I was putting all the other stuff aside. My point is, any decent person would try to help another person, religion aside. If a restaurant served tainted food, most of us would feel a moral obligation to share that with others to keep them from harm. Likewise, religious people feel that if they know something, and their religion tells them to share, then they should. Atheists do not have anything apart from basic morals and values to share. There's no atheist "belief" that needs to be shared is there?

That's a matter of opinion. I think there's a lot to share regarding the history of christianity, and how christianity came to be.

 

[sk8enscars]

That's a matter of opinion. I think there's a lot to share regarding the history of christianity, and how christianity came to be.

What is a matter of opinion? What does the history of Christianity have to do with anything I've written about?

 

[Toxick]

Well if you read it in context (see below) thats not what he was saying

I read it context the first time.

Are billboards knocking on your door? No.
Are they accosting you on the street? Not exactly.

But they are a form of proselytizing. Do you not agree?


Do you think that because Christians do it more often than atheists do, that makes Christians #######s, but atheists OK. Or is it just the fact that you agree with one and not the other that makes Christians #######s, and atheists OK?

Now, why would you call that a fiasco?

As for the word "fiasco", there was a bit of a backlash/reaction... was there not? (Whether you agree with the backlash or not is irrelevant to the fact that there was one.)

 

[mAlice]

As for the word "fiasco", there was a bit of a backlash/reaction... was there not? (Whether you agree with the backlash or not is irrelevant to the fact that there was one.)

This does not sound like a "fiasco" to me...

Quoting Nonno's article..."An overflow audience of more than 100 had showed up for their most recent public symposium, and the board members discussed whether it was time to find a larger place.

And now parents were coming out of the woodwork asking for family-oriented programs where they could meet like-minded nonbelievers."

Atheist group has foothold in S. Carolina

Atheists and agnostics in South Carolina say they have met a friendlier reception than they expected in the heart of the Southern Bible Belt.
Members expected to be barraged with e-mails denouncing them. But most of the e-mails were grateful
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/us/27atheist.html?em

The problem was not that the group, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, had attracted an outpouring of hostility. It was the opposite....
More than ever, America’s atheists are linking up and speaking out — even here in South Carolina, home to Bob Jones University, blue laws and a legislature that last year unanimously approved a Christian license plate embossed with a cross, a stained glass window and the words “I Believe” (a move blocked by a judge and now headed for trial).

They are connecting on the Internet, holding meet-ups in bars, advertising on billboards and buses, volunteering at food pantries and picking up roadside trash, earning atheist groups recognition on adopt-a-highway signs.

Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.

Ten national organizations that variously identify themselves as atheists, humanists, freethinkers and others who go without God have recently united to form the Secular Coalition for America, of which Mr. Silverman is president. These groups, once rivals, are now pooling resources to lobby in Washington for separation of church and state.

A wave of donations, some in the millions of dollars, has enabled the hiring of more paid professional organizers, said Fred Edwords, a longtime atheist leader who just started his own umbrella group, the United Coalition of Reason, which plans to spawn 20 local groups around the country in the next year.


I'm not aware of any backlash. If you mean christians were put off by it...I guess if you call that backlash.

 

[Zguy28]

I read it context the first time.

Are billboards knocking on your door? No.
Are they accosting you on the street? Not exactly.

But they are a form of proselytizing. Do you not agree?


Do you think that because Christians do it more often than atheists do, that makes Christians #######s, but atheists OK. Or is it just the fact that you agree with one and not the other that makes Christians #######s, and atheists OK?


As for the word "fiasco", there was a bit of a backlash/reaction... was there not? (Whether you agree with the backlash or not is irrelevant to the fact that there was one.)

Exactly. Thank you. That's all I meant.

Its really basically the same thing as the sign I saw in Leonardtown saying "Longing for something? God is longing for you." that was put up by St. Aloysius. Or other marquis signs for churches.

The quantity is not relevant to what I said. Its existence is.

 

[Zguy28]

This does not sound like a "fiasco" to me...

I'm not aware of any backlash. If you mean christians were put off by it...I guess if you call that backlash.

Atheist billboard in Capitol stirs a storm

 

[mAlice]

Atheist billboard in Capitol stirs a storm

I don't see that as a backlash. I doesn't appear to have had a negative impact on the group it was aimed at.

 

[pixiegirl]

Considering that the foundational teaching of Christianity is to make disciples (AKA the Great Commission)...I disagree with you.

Christians (at least the one's I know at Leonardtown Baptist Church) share their faith out of obedience to what Jesus taught and out of love for people who are outside of God's Kingdom.

That's just biblical Christianity. I'm sorry you don't see it that way.

WRONG. That would not be a foundational teaching of Christianity, that would be a foundational teaching of certain organized religions.

 

[toppick08]

WRONG. That would not be a foundational teaching of Christianity, that would be a foundational teaching of certain organized religions.

notice siggy..


missing from the poll,...I am a believer.........and you believe what you want to................ I never tried to sway a soul.

 

[Kain99]

WRONG. That would not be a foundational teaching of Christianity, that would be a foundational teaching of certain organized religions.

Pixie trys, really really hard!!!!

 

[itsbob]

Considering that the foundational teaching of Christianity is to make disciples (AKA the Great Commission)...I disagree with you.

Christians (at least the one's I know at Leonardtown Baptist Church) share their faith out of obedience to what Jesus taught and out of love for people who are outside of God's Kingdom.

That's just biblical Christianity. I'm sorry you don't see it that way.

You're a loving Baptist?

SO tell me, how do you feel about Mormons, and 7th Days??

Has your church taught you everything there is to know about THEIR church??

 

[Zguy28]

WRONG. That would not be a foundational teaching of Christianity, that would be a foundational teaching of certain organized religions.

Um...no.

Jesus commanded His disciples to go and make disciples. That was His Missio Dei.

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

~ Luke 19:10

Hmm...let's see, that's the founder speaking.

Here's another from Jesus where He instructs His disciples to follow His Missio Dei:

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

~Matthew 28:16-20 Emphasis mine

Its not certain organized sects or denominations of Christianity. Its every one. Its "the Way" as in "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." In a word, its foundational, because the Founder left it with us.

But it is much more than that also. For instance Jesus taught that kindness and charity and compassion should flow out from those who follow Him as disciples:

18A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

19"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 20You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"

21"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

26Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"

27Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"

29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

~ Luke 18:18-30


Then the Lord's brother James the Apostle echoes it:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

~James 1:27

And so does the Apostle Paul:

"But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God."

~ 1 Tim 5:4


And that is our "organized" religion.

 

[pixiegirl]

Um...no.

Jesus commanded His disciples to go and make disciples. That was His Missio Dei.

~ Luke 19:10

Hmm...let's see, that's the founder speaking.

Here's another from Jesus where He instructs His disciples to follow His Missio Dei:


~Matthew 28:16-20 Emphasis mine

Its not certain organized sects or denominations of Christianity. Its every one. Its "the Way" as in "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." In a word, its foundational, because the Founder left it with us.

But it is much more than that also. For instance Jesus taught that kindness and charity and compassion should flow out from those who follow Him as disciples:


~ Luke 18:18-30


Then the Lord's brother James the Apostle echoes it:


~James 1:27

And so does the Apostle Paul:

~ 1 Tim 5:4


And that is our "organized" religion.

A requirement of Christianity is belief in Jesus NOT belief in the bible word for word.

 

[pixiegirl]

Pixie trys, really really hard!!!!

There's no "try" about it. Until God himself comes knocking on my door telling me that I need to push my beliefs onto other people I will not. Nor will I damn anyone else for not believing the same things I do.

 

[Zguy28]

You're a loving Baptist?

SO tell me, how do you feel about Mormons, and 7th Days??

Has your church taught you everything there is to know about THEIR church??

Studying the Scripture through self-study and group-study as well as personal research on other faiths has taught me many things. Including the old axiom "In essentials unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."

Check out chapter six from the book Reasons for Faith by Norman Geisler.

It talks about these biblical "essentials" for salvation that are held by the orthodox (lower case o ) church.

Hence I believe Mormons are in error because they believe baptism by immersion is necessary for salvation.

We believe that while human works are necessary— including exercising faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, receiving the sacraments or ordinances of salvation and rendering Christian service to our neighbors — they are not sufficient for salvation (2 Nephi 25:23; Moroni 10:32).

taken from an address to the Harvard Divinity School in March 2001 by Robert L. Millet, former dean of religious education at Brigham Young University.
What Mormons Believe About Jesus Christ - LDS Newsroom

To be honest, there website is very vague. I do not find that they adequately flesh out their beliefs and instead ask you to pray about it, which in itself is fine, if you know what to ask God about!

7th day Adventists? I know several. I believe them to be Christians as far as I know. I disagree with their doctrine on the Sabbath. Other than that, I haven't really studied them too much.

 

[Zguy28]

There's no "try" about it. Until God himself comes knocking on my door telling me that I need to push my beliefs onto other people I will not.

How was His visit? Because its obvious either you are lying or He dropped by.

Nor will I damn anyone else for not believing the same things I do.

The word "WRONG" in caps above certainly seems to contradict you.