It's ok. The larger monkeys will freeze to death when winter arrives.

Is it possible that things exist that you don't know about?

Here's the meaning of life: We're given free will. This place is a test to determine whether we'll give that free will back to God or use it for our own wants. If God were to intervene and control everything, we wouldn't have free will.

God doesn't choose not to see the future. The bible is full of (fulfilled and as-yet unfulfilled) prophecy.

Is it possible that there are things in this universe (and outside of it) that exist, yet are unknowable, or even haven't been discovered yet?

I'm a chrsitian and found your arguments interesting.

I'd like to point out that the Bible is full of historical accounts of God intervening directly in human history in ways that were obvious to everyone. Unfortunately for us, they're all in ancient times. And many non-christians of course question the truth of everything in the bible (in spite of a 100% prophecy success rate).

God doesn't intervene in such overt ways now for a number of reasons. But stay tuned. If we are indeed living in the end times as most christians believe, God will shortly be forced to intervene in a war against Israel in order to prevent a defenseless Israel from being crushed. We're not sure exactly how it's supposed to happen, but it is supposed to be spectacular, resulting in the death of (iirc) 7/8 of the people in the invading armies.

Before we discovered...say... other galaxies. Did they not exist anyway? There was up until that point no scientific evidence that they or anything like them existed. Did they *poof* into existence when we suddenly found evidence? Or did they exist throughout the entirety of our ignorance?

What's more close-minded, assuming that everything you know is all that exists, or that there are possibilities in the universe (and outside of it) that are more amazing than your mind could comprehend?

I'm not familiar with the guy in question, and maybe he really is a nut, however...

So am I. Although I suspect the actual story of creation is not entirely understood by christians and completely misunderstood by non-christians.

I don't understand antisemitism. There's a lot of christians (Mel Gibson comes to mind) who seem to hate jews, but claim to be followers of christ, who was a jew... I don't get it.

This one is politically charged. Are you claiming that anyone who suggests an alternate story to the official government story is somehow insane? What if the alternate story is right and the government is lying? Do you believe everything your government tells you? Anyone who has taken and understood physics 101 can see that something was seriously wrong with the official story of the building 7 collapse. And where's the plane wreckage in PA and at the pentagon? How does a 757 fit through a 16ft diameter hole and not leave the wings outside the building? I'm not sure what really happened on 9/11. But I'm convinced that the government story is a (laughably poor) lie.

Now the bit about how the moon landings were faked... I've examined their evidence. And what it looks like to me is that a lot of the photos were doctored, like a 70s version of photoshop, which is what I think they're latching on to. But I seriously doubt the landings were faked.

And JFK? Government lying.

It's our responsibility to not take "official stories" as fact without examining the evidence ourselves. Critical thinking is important and necessary.

This is entirely possible. Do you have proof one way or the other? What if I told you that in the book of revelations in the bible, it describes a one-world religion that will be forced on everyone (including atheists) to go along with the one-world government, and the description for that one-world religion perfectly fits (what will likely be the remnants of) the roman catholic church? Is this really that impossible? The pope already seems to be abandoning some christian values while embracing ecumenism. And if pedophiles can get into the church, why not satanists? Maybe the word "satanist" is too sensational and it's really something more subtle. There seems to be a lot of "luciferian" religious teaching around these days disguised as the new age movement or "many ways to get to God". Maybe this is what he's talking about?

Because some of it may actually be true, and because we're not sheep?

When it comes to such surveys, are you kind of knowledgeable, sort of knowledgeable, almost knowledgeable, sometimes knowledgeable, or not very knowledgeable?

God is a super-dimensional being. That is, God operates outside of our space-time while still having access to it. This is why he's everywhere and always. And eternity makes a lot more sense in that context. It also allows for God to not be affected by formal logic or science or the laws of physics. Yet in this world, we're bound by all these things. This world, these laws, this universe, they're God's creation. And because of that, he has complete control over all of it.

In my opinion, this is what non-christians who practice the religion of science* are missing. They think all that there is and all that can be stops at the edge of our known universe, and anything that goes beyond our universe, or even their understanding of our universe is simply impossible. Tell me again who's narrow-minded?

With God, all things are possible.

* To me, science is the study of God's creation. And there's nothing wrong with that. I even have a science degree. However, it's important that we not allow science to become a religion and a replacement for God.

So maybe it's not so stupid. For the cost of a few korans, he gets the word out about his views on islam while also showing the world how peaceful the Religion of Peace actually is.

Maybe the reason they think he's a muslim is because he's tried to appear that way to muslims, while also doing and saying things that make christians think he's not a christian, in spite of what he tells people.

I'm not so sure about that. Spreading the gospel isn't just about love, peace, happiness, and salvation. You're supposed to also give a warning about the eternity in hell for those who do not repent. I believe there's way too much of a warm fuzzy feeling in the world today about islam. Muslims are trying to spin their religion as a religion of peace, when the koran is very clear that they should kill anyone who doesn't convert. (it even gives clear instructions for how to behead someone) When political correctness is on their side, people may start to believe the propaganda. This could result in people who are on the fence converting to islam. As christians, we need to be telling as many people as possible that islam is a demonic creation and leads to condemnation. Anything that we can do that reveals the true nature of christianity and islam can only help our cause.

Burning a stack of korans is very provocative. And you can tell who they really are by watching their reaction. As others have pointed out, merely the suggestion that he might do this leads a multitude of muslims to actually burn bibles and other similar acts. I'm surprised muslims haven't burned actual christians over this yet. Jesus didn't stand outside the temple and tell people how nice he was about his dealings with money, then hope people would draw their own conclusions about the money changers inside. He actually went inside and did something provocative. So to me, this is just as provocative and effective as a fire and brimstone sermon. We need to preach the nice feel-good things about the gospel while also talking about the things no one seems to want to talk about. Jesus did both. So should we.

The difference between christianity and islam is that when a christian acts out in violence, he's disobeying the ideology of his religion. When a muslim acts out in violence, he's following the ideology of his religion.

Christianity is the real religion of peace. Islam is demonic creation.

When my wife and I first got married, she was an awful cook. I mean, it was really bad, like she was trying to kill me and collect the life insurance. So one night, I analyzed her cooking technique. I discovered that for her, the stove was a boolean device. That is, it was either on (10) or off (0). All those numbers in between 0 and 10 were there for decoration. Luckily my wife was really smart, getting As in organic chemistry for example. So i started speaking a different language.

Cooking is all about heat transfer. Heat will conduct from the outside of food to the inside of food (microwaves aside) at the same rate, depending on the substance. If you turn the heat up, it won't simply cook faster. The outside will burn before enough heat has transferred to the inside. This was enough for her to have an epiphany, suddenly realizing what all those numbers between 0 and 10 were for.

It's more like this: Group A thinks bla. I say, "I'm from group A and we don't think bla." Someone else comes in and says, "You said you're from group A which means you're brainwashed."

I could argue that non-christians have been brainwashed by this society and the point would be just as valid.

There's a problem with your thinking. A non-christian says that christians think this or that. Then a christian suggests that they're wrong. Then you say that my response is brainwashed nonsense. I'm a member of the group he was talking about. Doesn't it make sense to ask a member of the group what they think rather than jumping to conclusions?

I can tell you that you can't group christians together into a large group and say that they're all this way or that way. We have all of the problems that non-christians have. Some of us are smart, and some not so smart. Some have money and some are destitute. Some educated and some not. So you can't look at christians and conclude that they made the decision they made based on education or intelligence. It must be something else.

Would it surprise you to know that i got married in the same government building where you pay speeding tickets? The bible gives some guidelines on how to behave. And the end result is that it's really just normal behavior that almost everyone else does, just within marriage. The church has no idea what we do, why, or how often. They don't ask and we don't volunteer the information. Not much control there.

I can tell you that most christians *don't* want a theocracy, although most people here on slashdot seem to think otherwise. We also dislike islam as much as anyone else. There are certain things we'd like stopped, abortion for example, not because we're trying to force our religion on others, but because we look at it as no different from bumping off grandma for example when it gets too expensive to care for her. I'm willing to bet there are a lot of non-christians who are also against abortion. But we never hear about them in these discussions.

We have a set of beliefs. And these beliefs are supposed to be respected in civilized society. When was the last time someone called Islam or Buddhism a superstition?

As for power lust, I believe that the catholic church used to behave like an imperialist monarchy. But those days are long-gone. And no protestant church has ever behaved in that manner. So where's the power lust? It's certainly not here today. I'm free to leave my church whenever I like with no repercussions.

Advancing to where? I would argue that we are indeed a roadblock on the advancement to destruction. Stay tuned... Watch what happens when the roadblock is removed.

Here's what's going to happen: We're all going to vanish. They'll lie and cook up some crazy reason why we're gone. Then things will get bad... really bad. You'll have one last chance over the course of 7 years if you manage live through it. If you refuse, you'll spend eternity regretting your actions.

I would encourage you to be open-minded about christianity. Why would so many people choose to become christians? Does it really make sense that they're all stupid? You've expressed some of the same misinformed attitudes that many express here on slashdot. Instead of being a sheep and repeating what the world tells you to, why not investigate it for yourself? Visit a few churches and ask to make an appointment with a pastor to talk about it. Give them an opportunity to explain it to you better than I could. If you're going to decide that it's not true, at least decide for yourself after doing your own research. Otherwise, you're just a sheep. I think you'll find that you stand to gain far more than you could ever lose.