Are these verses of the Bible implemented by Christians?

[Compassionist]

Christians have been around for about 2000 years and there are currently around 2.3 billion Christians on Earth.

Are these verses of the Bible implemented by Christians at present? Have they been implemented throughout the last 2000 years Christians have been around? If they are not implemented, why are they not implemented by Christians? After all, Christians claim to hold the Bible as the Word of God. Perhaps YOU can help me understand?

Galatians 5:14
The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself."

Matthew 5:40-42
If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and dont turn away from those who want to borrow.

Matthew 5:44
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 6:19
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Luke 14:33
Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.

Matthew 19:21-24
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, 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."

Matthew 19:28-29
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Matthew 13:22
The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Phillippians 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Acts 2:44-45
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

[samuelbb7]

If my wife changed her mind I would be a total vegetarian for religious reasons instead of partial now. By raising I am a meat eating, hunter who has killed his share of different animals. My Father was a great hunter, fisher and alcoholic. I do not hunt or fish nor drink alcohol since I became a Christian over thirty years ago.

I read the ten creation stories. I agree nine are myths with animals and multiple gods. I do not agree Genesis has two stories. In the Hebrew pattern repeated over and over in the Bible a story of point is made then the writer goes back and expands on it giving more detail.

Your statistic on 5 out of six pregnancy aborting sounds out of whack to me. But both agree the world has much evil and hopelessness in it. But I have hope based on my belief and understanding about GOD. I will try to help and do my best for others. You state you do this and for that I applaud you. But many who do not belive in GOD and many who say they do but do not really live or follow are not as kind or as caring as you. The philosophy you follow gives no reason to do good.

Yes there are many languages. I once had a discussion with an atheist who said that we can never understand GOD because each and all the languages make it impossible to do so.

I belive in causality also. The great first cause is GOD. The reason for all the evil is because of our poor choice and Satan. But the cause for my hope is the life, death and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST.

[Compassionist]

If my wife changed her mind I would be a total vegetarian for religious reasons instead of partial now. By raising I am a meat eating, hunter who has killed his share of different animals. My Father was a great hunter, fisher and alcoholic. I do not hunt or fish nor drink alcohol since I became a Christian over thirty years ago.

I read the ten creation stories. I agree nine are myths with animals and multiple gods. I do not agree Genesis has two stories. In the Hebrew pattern repeated over and over in the Bible a story of point is made then the writer goes back and expands on it giving more detail.

Your statistic on 5 out of six pregnancy aborting sounds out of whack to me. But both agree the world has much evil and hopelessness in it. But I have hope based on my belief and understanding about GOD. I will try to help and do my best for others. You state you do this and for that I applaud you. But many who do not belive in GOD and many who say they do but do not really live or follow are not as kind or as caring as you. The philosophy you follow gives no reason to do good.

Yes there are many languages. I once had a discussion with an atheist who said that we can never understand GOD because each and all the languages make it impossible to do so.

I belive in causality also. The great first cause is GOD. The reason for all the evil is because of our poor choice and Satan. But the cause for my hope is the life, death and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST.

My philosophy is compassion. I act with compassion towards humans and other animals because it decreases suffering. Life is full of suffering and compassion relieves suffering. That's the only reason I am a compassionist. I don't see how you figure that my philosophy gives no reason to do good. Of course, as Shakespeare said, 'Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so.' I don't think in terms of good and bad. People have thought different things good and bad in different places and times.

Your belief is internally inconsistent. I think you believe what you believe because you derive comfort from it. I can understand that and I certainly don't judge you. I judge no one. Not even those who raped me and tortured me. We are all prisoners of causality. We are not free. We do not have free will or free choice. Genes, environments, nutrients and expriences dictate who we are and our thoughts and feelings and choices.

There are spiders that eat their mum as soon as they hatch. They do this because of causality. Not because they are bad or good.

You claim that God is the first cause. Why is Brahma of Hinduism not the first cause?

From what I gather of quantum mechanics, positive and negative quanta arises spontaneously out of vacuum and annihilate each other. Doesn't this negate the requirement of a creator?

Besides, saying that the omniverse (because it seems that there are probably many dimensions and many universes) requires a creator just compounds the problem of why does anything exist? Why does the creator exist? Why did the creator create the omniverse? Why is life so unjust? There is nothing fair about who lives how and who dies how.

Creating a human-god chimera called Jesus who would be the sacrificial scapegoat sounds more like fabrication by people who traditionally believed in the concept of scapegoatism i.e. sacrificing animals to atone for sins. Why doesn't the omnipotent deity simply save all living things right now? Why not prevent all the suffering over billions of years by not 'creating' life in the first place?

Evidence and logic does not lead to belief in religions, wishful and inconsistent thinking does.

[samuelbb7]

Dear Compassionist

I am sorry that very bad things happened to you. But you state in your philosophy that there is no bad or good. Just Causality. If that is true then you would find the GOD of the Bible no different then Shiva or Kali. You would not compare him to Brahma.

Your compassion is based on what you feel not upon the logic of your position.

True GOD could have chosen not to make us in the first place. So do you wish you had never been born?

[ablessedman50]

quote="Compassionist"]http://www.livescience.com/history/top1 ... signs.html

Please review the 10 creation myths listed in the above weblink. The genesis account is not true. Life is a horrific and unfair rat race where the able survive and reproduce and the unable die out.

The Bible claims that God is love. Exactly how is God being loving when 5 out of 6 pregnancies naturally abort? Exactly how is God being loving when 11 million children die of poverty every year? Exactly how is God being loving when millions die of natural disasters? Exactly how is God being loving when 99.99% of all living things to ever live on Earth have already become extinct?

I am sure your wife understands the difference between your love for her and your love for cheesecake even when you use the same word 'love' for both. The context makes the meaning clear. Besides, English is not the only language on Earth. There are over 600 languages and many of them have different words to express love for wife versus love for food.

Yes, people do awful things. So do other living things. The question is why do they do what they do. My studied answer is causality. All things happen according to causality. I became a vegan because vegans have lower environmental impact and veganism prevents suffering of animals. I have donated half of my gross annual income my entire earning life because I want to share with those who don't have enough. If you had my genes, environments, nutrients and experiences you would be me - if a dog had my genes, environments, nutrients and experiences it would be me and live as I do. I prefer the taste of vanilla ice-cream and my wife prefers the taste of chocolate ice-cream - we don't choose our preferences - we merely experience them. You claim that living things have free will. Please demonstrate it. Since you are so free why don't you start thinking in Bengali right now? You can't - not unless you have previously learned Bengali through your experience. Causality rules.

My point is simple. If God created living things - the various vagaries of living things e.g. killing each other for food or power or status or mate - God is liable for the actions of his creation. God's alleged omnipotence makes God omniculpable.[/quote]

God gave Adam & Eve a perfect world. There was only one rule. Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
They did & turned rule of this world over to Satan. We as mankind have been born into a naturally evil world & have the task of teaching our children Good.
Blaming God for all the evil in the world is a cop out. Something that children do instead of taking responsibility for it ourselves.

God did give us freewill, but he can see the future & everything we will do so therefor can give us guidelines & direction to help us with choices.

I read many times of people using the guidelines for Slavery as if God is condoning it, not so, he seen in advance what we were going to do & gave us guide lines to treat them fairly. It doesn't mean he condones it!!! Just one example of many things misunderstood by unbelievers who try & discredit Gods word...

[samuelbb7]

Howdy ablessedman50

Good points. Welcome.

[Compassionist]

God gave Adam & Eve a perfect world. There was only one rule. Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
They did & turned rule of this world over to Satan. We as mankind have been born into a naturally evil world & have the task of teaching our children Good.
Blaming God for all the evil in the world is a cop out. Something that children do instead of taking responsibility for it ourselves.

God did give us freewill, but he can see the future & everything we will do so therefor can give us guidelines & direction to help us with choices.

I read many times of people using the guidelines for Slavery as if God is condoning it, not so, he seen in advance what we were going to do & gave us guide lines to treat them fairly. It doesn't mean he condones it!!! Just one example of many things misunderstood by unbelievers who try & discredit Gods word...

You are talking about a self-contradictory story in the Bible. Your claim that God gave people and other living things a perfect world is not evidence based. Precisely how can anyone have free will? If you can prove to me that I have free will, I will give you whatever you want!

[Compassionist]

Dear Compassionist

I am sorry that very bad things happened to you. But you state in your philosophy that there is no bad or good. Just Causality. If that is true then you would find the GOD of the Bible no different then Shiva or Kali. You would not compare him to Brahma.

Your compassion is based on what you feel not upon the logic of your position.

True GOD could have chosen not to make us in the first place. So do you wish you had never been born?

If I could have prevented by conception, I would have. My compassion is based on logic. Here is the logical flow:

Premise 1: Living things suffer.
Premise 2: Compassion eases suffering.
Conclusion: Act compassionately to ease suffering.

"Good" and "bad" are arbitrary labels. There is nothing arbitrary about pain. Being tortured is painful. Compassionate action would be stopping the torture and providing pain killers and treatment.

I don't understand why I can't compare the Biblical God with Brahma or the Quranic Allah or any other deities of any other religions.

I do not blame those who were cruel to me. I realise that if I had their genes, environments, nutrients and experiences I would be them and live as they have done and continue to do. I judge no one. How can anyone truly judge anyone? Of course, most people live with the assumption that they could have been treated better by someone else or they could have treated someone else better. However, this assumption is not evidence based. Things happen the way they do because at the time and place of the happening, that is the only way they could have happened. Causality rules.

If Pol Pot or Adolf Hitler or Mohondas Gandhi or Idi Amin or John Lennon or Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela or my dead brother or my dead friends or my dead uncles or the 9/11 hijackers or George Bush Jr. or Queen Elizabeth II or Osama bin Laden or YOU had my genes, environments, nutrients and experiences, you would be typing these words exactly where and when I am. It is inevitable. Causality rules.

If God or Allah or Om or Whatsit really exists and is really omnipotent, we would all have been omnipotent because when everyone is omnipotent, no one suffers. Omnipotence of all ensures that everything remains in balance. The fact that things are so out of balance is evidence that there is no omnipotent higher power in charge of life and the omniverse. There is only the infinite flux of energy which dances according to causality. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it always is, it merely changes form according to causality.

[samuelbb7]

So Compassionist

You say you do not have free will so you cannot make choices. Everything you say is predestined by casuality therefore you have no independence of thought. Since you have no independence of thought you cannot make a decision. Since you cannot make a decision you cannot have free will. So like the insect you are not a truly thinking being. Neither you or ants have free will.

So what good would arguing with an ant do? Since you like the ant have no free will what good would disagreeing with you do?

[Goat]

So Compassionist

You say you do not have free will so you cannot make choices. Everything you say is predestined by casuality therefore you have no independence of thought. Since you have no independence of thought you cannot make a decision. Since you cannot make a decision you cannot have free will. So like the insect you are not a truly thinking being. Neither you or ants have free will.

So what good would arguing with an ant do? Since you like the ant have no free will what good would disagreeing with you do?

The problem I have with the entire 'free will' vs 'predestintation/determinism' is that I don't see how it can be tested, one way or another.

[samuelbb7]

Very good point Goat. I remeber reading about a Greek philosopher who stated that he was the only person who really existed and all others were just products of his imagination. The only that could prove he was wrong would be for him to die and others to keep on existing. But that could not offer any proof to him since he would no longer be around to argue the point with.