The GOP Has Been HIJACKED!

[Eric the Green]

(05-30-2016, 07:06 AM)radind Wrote: I posted a few sites just to make the point that there are other points of view( not all from red states) and did not expect agreement. The reason that I reference barn.org is that they do surveys  and their definition is OK ( I don’t agree 100%, but the key is the surveys that barna conducts). 
This type discussion is best done in person and I this we have exhausted any value for this forum. Probably better to move to private messages or abandon discussion. 

I have never found that in-person discussions with authoritarian Christians works out any better than those on-line. It is up to people themselves to look into reality beyond what a book or expert says. Truth is within, as Jesus says. Merely obeying authorities does not get you to your own experience of truth.

Quote:I will conclude with the following.

[quote]

John 3:16
… "This famous vs. 16, which Luther called "the gospel in miniature," is not content with declaring the measure of the divine love; it asserts its outcome on the plane of history. Yet the result of the Incarnation is not an arbitrary fiat in the sphere of redemption. It confronts men with a moral dilemma. Faced with the alternatives, life or perdition, man has himself the responsibility of the choice that determines his destiny. Faith is the activity of the whole personality. It is not merely intellectual but moral in its nature. The antithesis to faith is not doubt but disobedience (vs. 36). God's purpose in the mission of his Son is not to condemn but to save (vs. 17); yet the reaction of men to this revelation of light determines their end (vs. 18), for it is a man's essential character that is brought under judgment (vs. 19). The test of that character is its attitude to light. The doer of worthless actions dreads and avoids the light for fear of exposure (vs. 20). He who does what is true—an O.T. expression, meaning to act with regard to reality rather than to pretense and display (cf. I John 1:6)—welcomes the light for the opportunity of proving that his deeds have been prompted and empowered by God (vs. 21; cf. Eph. 5:13;…)”…
       Interpreter's Bible, The - Exegesis -

These are not the same as the very specific superstitions laid down as standards by Barna.

Polls I have read say that "belief in God" is upheld by about 90% of the people. Evangelicals are certainly upholders of a Biblical worldview, even if they don't hold 100% to all the superstitions that Barna lists. The Christian worldview is still widely held, and "secularists" want religious freedom. It is projection to claim that secularists are going to take away religious freedom from Christians. It is some Christians who want to do that; not secularists. Just because YOU guys might do that, does not mean that we liberals would do that. Secularism means upholding the First Amendment.

Quote:Suggested Christian sources if anyone is interested:

Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox, William Lane Craig
http://www.rzim.eu/biography-john-lennox

http://www.reasonablefaith.org/william-lane-craig

Why Belief in God is a Rational Position

http://straighttalkwithclaudiak.com/why-...-position/

Why Belief in God is a Rational Position

… "The Kalam Cosmological Argument was started by a medieval Christian named Philoponus and was developed by Muslims. Apologists and philosophers William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland made it popular.”…

Belief in God is as rational as non-belief. But in our new age, alternatives to these two authoritarian, traditional views are open to us.