Atheists: Time to Come Out of the Closet!

That's not your definition? The one from the Bible? You reject that one? So in your world being a career criminal is a different class of sin, one that casts them out from the community of Christians. Where in the Bible does it talk about different classes of sin? You should perhaps worry about yourself. You haven't exactly been a font of truth and consistency. Your tactics are lie, deflect, counterattack - you haven't tried truth yet. You're calling Biblical verse Romans 3:23-25 unbiblical? Gee, dueling Bible verses. Who ever would have guessed that could ever happen? Romans 3:23-25 or 2 Corinthians 5:10? Decisions, decisions. Yet fearing God is just a figure of speech. As I explained in an earlier post, it doesn't mean actual fear. The God of the NT is a God of love who doesn't rule through fire and brimestone. You must be an OT Catholic. There you go, using deflection again. Apparently we can't paraphrase you to refer to something you said earlier, only quote you word for word, else you'll call us liars. What a wonderful Christian you are. What you originally said about all career criminals and serial killers being atheists was wrong. Somehow you've decided in your own unCatholic mind that there are some types of sins that remove you from Christianity. You're going against your own religion, mentioned even in the Lord's Prayer, about forgiving those who sin against us. There's nothing in the Bible about not forgiving the sin of being a career criminal or a serial killer. How many times do you have to be reminded of the no true Scotsman fallacy?Religiously, you have lost your way. You're not preaching love. You're preaching hate.--Percy

Unfortunately, not all Cathloics are God-fearing - some of them don't even believe in God or practise the Catholic faith. A lot of "Catholics" identify as such simply bcoz they were baptised Catholic as infants. The Bible suggests there's more to it than that:"work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12);"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt 10:28);"And if you invoke as Father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile (1Peter 1:17). Any Catholic who doesn't genuinely fear the One who has the power to send them to hell for eternity is a fool.
Do you think a "Catholic" Italian Mafioso fears God? Of course not - they don't even believe in God - they're atheists masquerading as Catholics. I agree. However, a Catholic who leads a life of unrepentant crime (a career criminal) is a "Catholic" in name only.​Catholics are sinners, just like everyone else. The crime rate amongst Catholics is no worse than in the wider community.​Firstly, all my posts should be thought of as gifts.Secondly, I admit I did err in asserting that only atheists become career criminals or serial killers. I wish to retract that statement and replace it with this: Only atheists and agnostics become career criminals or serial killers.

Hi Paul, What reality are you talking about?Reality is you get hungry. If you eat food the hungry goes away.
Reality is you have to sleep.
Reality is that every sunrise you see means you are 1 day older.
Reality is that one day you will be dead.
Then what?But you also believe in your personal view of reality.Reality is the Universe exists. You don't have a clue as to how it began to exist.
You have touted the BBT as how the universe began to exist in a ball of fire that was very very very hot at Planck time it was 100 million trillion trillion kelvins. Thats 180 million trillion trillion degrees Fahrenheit.Where did all the energy that was required to produce that fire ball come from?
Was it something the size of a point?
Or was it the size of a pea?There are two suns in the universe that are larger than our sun. One by 1700 times and another 1800 times. Then there are smaller ones. 1. 1500, 1. 900,
1. 530, 1. 145 times larger than our sun.Reality is those suns alone would require a lot of energy. But when you add all the matter in the universe including the millions of stars you would need an infinite amount of energy.Where did that infinite amount of energy come from?You want me to believe that amount of energy was located in something the size of a pea or smaller.If there was no space, no time, no vacuum where could that pea exist in order to expand?The reality you live in is preposterous making it unbelievableIf I miss represented anything feel free to correct me as my memory is getting worse as the years go by.God Bless,

We don't know, yet. Does that mean it never happened?That energy was known in this universe at 10^-43 seconds. Where/how it manifest into our universe we don't know. But it was there and had to either flow from some prior reservoir or spontaneously developed from some unknown mechanism.We don't know. What we do know is that our evidence shows strongly that this was the case. The CMB anisotropies and analysis of the acoustic oscillations imprinted on the early hot quark plasma leave no doubt that our models of the early universe are viable and this energy was there. All of it.As for size? Who cares? Whether the universe was once the size of a golf ball, a pea or an atom doesn't tell us how it came to be. Most probably it was all those at some time. But the one thing we did not find in the evidence was any majikal spook directing the show. If the universe is infinite then yes the energy systems of the universe could also be infinite. We don't know.One interesting thing you may want to research, Reverend, is the fact that the energy budget, all the ins and outs of all energy exchanges we can see, the total energy of this universe, is zero. Reverend, please, I'm not trying to get you to believe anything. You believe enough stuff already, most of that false. I am giving you the universe as the evidence the universe itself has presented us. No spooky overlords doing anything. And, yet, the evidence we have shows that preposterous reality to be actual. Fact. That presents you a major problem. Reality says you are wrong about your creed and you cannot show that reality to be in error. Your spooks are not real and you cannot show otherwise.

As Billy Martin once said in a commercial, "I feel very strongly both ways." The Bible is the same. Whatever position you want to argue, the Bible has a passage for you. Both the North and South used the Bible to support their respective positions on slavery.Most Christian religions today preach a God of love, not of fear, but you're free to preach a God of fear if that's the way you see it. And you can have your own views of who qualifies as a Christian or as a Catholic, but many don't see it the same way you do. I can see where someone who believed in a God of fear would believe this.

2 Corinthians 11:11-15:

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For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

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--Percy

In 1Cor 5:9-13, Paul instructs the Church to judge unrepentant sinners and expel them from the Christian community if necessary (obviously, the sin(s) in question would have to be very serious).In the Catholic Church, this recourse is called Excommunication - a Catholic is officially expelled from the Church and is no longer considered a Catholic."I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men; not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But rather I wrote[f] to you not to associate with any one who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”" (1Cor 5:9-13) 1John 5:16-17 says there are sins that are "deadly" and sins that are "not deadly".In Catholicism, "deadly" sins are called Mortal sins; sins that are "not deadly" are called Venial sins."If any one sees his brother committing what is not a deadly sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not deadly. There is sin which is deadly; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not deadly." (1John 5:16-17) Hardly. What is your interpretation of that passage? Sounds to me like you've misunderstood it. Protestant theology produces lots of "dueling" (sic) verses (ie, verses that are contradictory) - that's what crap theology does; it makes a mess of the Scriptures. Give an idiot the Bible to read and the result will be idiot theology.If you see a conflict between Romans 3:23-25 and 2 Corinthians 5:10, that means you've misinterpreted them.Scripture cannot contradict Scripture (oh, unless you're a Protestant). Besides the Excommunication verse (1Cor 5:9-13) mentioned above, there's Matt 7:21-23, where Jesus disowns certain Christians due to their sins.
In Rev 2, Jesus threatens to "remove" the church at Ephesus due to its sinful works.And then there's John 2:3-6, which says a Christian who doesn't keep God's commandments doesn't "know" Christ, is a "liar" and "the truth is not in him" - in other words, he's not a Christian. Quick - go tell the Pope!! LOL.

Hi Paul, That is a definite possibility. At least not as you envision it taking place.Something took place because the universe exists. According to the BBT it was not there.But at T=O There was no time, no space, no energy, no universe, which means there was an absence of the existence of anything.Where would a prior reservoir come from or an unknown mechanism. There was an absence of existence. I will agree that in the beginning there was a light source that produced the CMB.
I will also agree that in the beginning all the energy that was required to furnish the heavens and earth was present. I will also add that the stuff science calls Dark Energy was there in the beginning and was necessary to hold the universe together. And you did not find out who or what provided the energy required to produce this universe either.The energy had to be provided as it did not exist in non existence. Scientist currently believe that the universe is not infinite, but finite and constantly expanding. The zero-energy universe hypothesis says that is so.But to get the zero energy universe to match the observed universe there has to be huge negative energy reservoirs . It is assumed that these reservoirs are Dark Matter.Assumptions is not evidence. Sure you are as you would like for me to believe like you do. And that is OK. I got the same universe and the evidence it provided. You don't think that the universe beginning to exist with no source for the energy to construct it is kind of spooky.
I think it is preposterous . The CMB says there was a lot of light in the universe in the past. Fact.
The universe is expanding. Fact.
The universe exists. Fact.
Science does not have a clue where the energy came from to form everything in the universe. Fact.
Science does not have an answer for how the universe could begin to exist when there was non existence. Fact.When science gets the answer to the source of the energy and how the universe could begin to exist when there was non existence they can get my attention. What problem is that? What creed are you talking about?
I have never tried to show reality to be in error. I do believe science to be in error about the creation of the universe. And I believe you are in error along with them.Now there are some things I believe about the universe and how it began to exist.
I believe in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Whenever that was, nobody knows when that was. Science has no answer they just know the universe exists and they can study it.
God supplied all the energy required to form everything in the universe and to hold it together until He is ready for it to melt with fervent heat. Science has no answer for the source of energy.
I believe there was a light period that lasted from the beginning until darkness was created. That light period and the following period of darkness was said to be Day One. Science discovered the left over light from the first light period and call it the CMB.
I believe the earth was inhabited during that light period, raised families, built cities, and all of them died in that single light period. Science has the oldest human at 160,000 years. Since I only know it was a long time ago I will go with science on this one. I don't have any spooks. I do have a living God and you cannot prove that He does not exist.God Bless,

Medieval Catholics like you are hilarious, you have to invent sins to be punished for. There are no Catholics in heaven - not a single one. Have you ever deliberately revelled Dredge? Ever emulated?There's a bigger list here, just in case you've missed confessing any. Don't want you to get caught out. Gotta love that missing mass on Sunday is right there next to murder.List of Mortal Sins Every Catholic Should Know – St. Mary of the Seven Dolors

You're just making my case for me. Every religion has its own set of beliefs and interpretations of scription, many that stand in stark contradiction to the beliefs and interpretations of other religions. Protestants and Catholics both believe the other have misinterpreted the Bible. Sunni and Shia Muslims both believe the other have misinterpreted the Quran. Vaishnavist and Shaivist Hindus both believe the other have misinterpreted the Vedas.You think you've found the one, right and true religion in Catholicism. Adherents of other religions believe the same about their own religion. Who is right? No one. No need. I think his boss already knows.--Percy