Part 2 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

I will apologise if you do the same if you retract in calling me a liar, in the mean time the fact is your position is in support of terrorism, wickedness and evil.

Yes witches are true, I don't believe drowning of innocent or harmless witches, witches should be treated like any individuals if they commit any crimes such as killing of a person in the name of their witch craft. How about you do you believe in witches and do you support their practice?

I explain why I worship Go, why God is good, why God had to do and punish humanity you refuse to accept all that and insist that God is wrong and evil you said it your self those people that God punish in the flood were innocent this mean that God was the evil one, unless you are now changing your mind. are you?

Let us make this clear that you claim that witches are evil your words not mind. Do you believe all witches are evil? If you do then in your position what would you do, would you drown them?

Base on the accepted definition:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft
In anthropological terminology, a "witch" differs from a sorcerer in that they do not use physical tools or actions to curse; their maleficium is perceived as extending from some intangible inner quality, and the person may be unaware that they are a "witch", or may have been convinced of their own evil nature by the suggestion of others. This definition was pioneered in a study of central African magical beliefs by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, who cautioned that it might not correspond with normal English usage.

Historians of European witchcraft have found the anthropological definition difficult to apply to European and British witchcraft, where "witches" could equally use (or be accused of using) physical techniques, as well as some who really had attempted to cause harm by thought alone.

As in anthropology, European witchcraft is seen by historians as an ideology for explaining misfortune; however, this ideology manifested in diverse ways. Reasons for accusations of witchcraft fall into four general categories:

A person was caught in the act of positive or negative sorcery
A well-meaning sorcerer or healer lost their clients' or the authorities' trust
A person did nothing more than gain the enmity of their neighbours
A person was reputed to be a witch and surrounded with an aura of witch-beliefs or Occultism

Éva Pócs in turn identifies three varieties of witch in popular belief:
The "neighbourhood witch" or "social witch": a witch who curses a neighbour following some conflict.
The "magical" or "sorcerer" witch: either a professional healer, sorcerer, seer or midwife, or a person who has through magic increased her fortune to the perceived detriment of a neighbouring household; due to neighbourly or community rivalries and the ambiguity between positive and negative magic, such individuals can become labelled as witches.
The "supernatural" or "night" witch: portrayed in court narratives as a demon appearing in visions and dreams.
"Neighbourhood witches" are the product of neighbourhood tensions, and are found only in self-sufficient serf village communities where the inhabitants largely rely on each other. Such accusations follow the breaking of some social norm, such as the failure to return a borrowed item, and any person part of the normal social exchange could potentially fall under suspicion. Claims of "sorcerer" witches and "supernatural" witches could arise out of social tensions, but not exclusively; the supernatural witch in particular often had nothing to do with communal conflict, but expressed tensions between the human and supernatural worlds; and in Eastern and Southeastern Europe such supernatural witches became an ideology explaining calamities that befell entire communities.

 

Ok, sorry, too busy lately in answering questions, here it is:

There were scattered civilization in the 3000 - 2000 BC population worldwide at that time is not as we imagine to be tolday, population were sctattered with tribes, villages or city states numbering by 500, 1000, 5000 or the most 10,000. And thanks to modern science we have learn those civilization had a very harsh life style they practice all sorts of human sacrifice that include sacrificing babies, killing the weak, head hunting, cannibalism, wars, slavery and most of all ethnic cleansing, it was survival of the fittest.

Those place that you mention, Sumaria, Egypt, China, India, Australia, Pacific rim, America (Mayans, Incas etc.) etc. all were reveal to us by science that life was not a paradise it was wars, wars, and wars ethnic cleansing etc.

At the same time science have also reveal it was not all chaos there was also some progress such as the invention of bronze and iron, pottery, wheels, irrigation, pyramid buidling etc. and most of the great structures such as pyramids, stone henge were all build to honour some sort of god or gods.

God chose Noah and eventually He will make a covenant with Noah (on that particular period 2400 BC?), Abraham and then to Isaac that their lineage will be in charge of spreading the word and reveal to he world the True One God.

Other region have also the same writings that claim to have experience a great flooding in their own region. Science all agree that there was a great flood worldwide they make that claim base on fossils and other artefacts they discover the only thing is they did not claim that those flooding were the flooding as written in the Bible or other ancient manuscript.

Church fathers have done extensive research in fact the church were at that time the most educated such research that include science and try to correlate what is being discover with the Bible.

Here is a hypothesis:
God chose Noah and his family in that region (Middle East, Turkey, Mesopotamia region) that is a huge region to survive. The Bible was written concentrating on the people and history of Israel. So when God was speaking he directed His attention to Noah but at the same time He generalise the whole world. It is a possibility that there were other creatures including humans that were save or survive through the power of the Holy Spirit, some humans from other regions survive just like Noah was spare and represent that region others from Central America, North America, Pacific Rim, Australia and Europe small or isolated individuals survive. Creatures adopted to the new environment and God shelter them, the ark symbolises God's great mercy when He instructed Noah to save every animals including bugs and insects.
We know that Noah could not reach as far as Australia, China etc. so in those regions it is a possibility that a few individuals were save. Remember, just like science have no definite answers only hypothesis and theories in certain degree Christianity is the same with the Bible acting as a blue print or road map a starting point as to where to start.

There are several theories and research, the researching of the actual time line that what is mention in the Bible is not equivalent to human time; example: a day maybe = to a thousand or million years. But what is being discover is the accuracy of the Bible, many biblical sites have been unearth such as Sodom and Gomorrah, Jericho, the artefacts found in the Red Sea at the spot where Moses parted the sea, science is now able to hypothesis how Moses could have parted the red sea.

The Catholic church has the most extensive R&D in the past and up to today.

 

Wow ... Im impressed ! This is the first time I have ever received an answer other than (Magic) from a person holding creationist views.

As you state here:

Not only is it possible .. it is the only possibility as there is no other way to explain the continuity of human and animal life. Civilization in these places did not abruptly end .. it continued on through the period of the supposed global flood to this day.

All the science ice cores, geology, volcano eruptions .. also support the no flood history.

Given that the Bible states that "everything was wiped out" .. does it not follow that not everything in the Bible comes from God ? and that the humans that wrote the Bible made some errors ?

 

Once again, the city of Troy also existed, but that does not mean there was a pantheon of Greek Gods who engaged in an epic battle at the city.

 

Yet, as you claim sin = evil. He left noah and his family, sinners, to repopulate the earth. How did God expect the outcome to be different the 2nd time?

 

Maybe you should remember that our Christian cowboy prez went to war in iraq because God told him to.

 

Not to mention God knows each and every one of us. He knew us before we were us. So he had to know if Abraham was loyal.

New International Version (©1984)
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

 

R&D source into what?

The Church has no dogmatic views one way or another. Huge floods were common in ancient Mesopotamia, so the Noah story could well have a basis in fact (see, for instance, the colossal flood) in antiquity.
http://catholicexchange.com/what-does-the-church-teach-about-noahs-ark/

RC doesn't believe the global flood is true.

 

One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa

 

Yes, Troy did existed before it was thought it was just a fable but after modern science were able to unearth and locate ancient Troy it became fact. The gods of the Greeks can possibly be the angels:

Genesis 6:2-5
2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive[a] with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Greek mythology seem to be about the fallen angels that is why so many gods these gods are the fallen angels all taking and claiming to be some form of god or gods, seizing earth when they are not supposed to do. Remember war was not created by God it was by Lucifer the first known war or battle happen in the Heavens and after Lucifer was defeated hell was came about and the wars was brought to earth.

 

If the RC does not believe in a global flooding it will be contradicting its own Bible.

http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Noe_%28Noah%29

Noe had announced the impending judgment and had exhorted to repentance (II Pet., ii, 5), but no heed was given to his words (Matt., xxiv, 37 sqq.; Luke xvii, 26, 27; I Pet., iii, 20)

In terms of science; http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Science_and_the_Church

Science and the Church.—The words "science" and "Church" are here understood in the following sense: Science is not taken in the restricted meaning of natural sciences, but in the general one given to the word by Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. Aristotle defines science as a sure and evident knowledge obtained from demonstrations. This is identical with St. Thomas's definition of science as the knowledge of things from their causes. In this sense science comprises the entire curriculum of university studies. Church, in connection with science, theoretically means any Church that claims authority in matters of doctrine and teaching; practically, however, only the Catholic Church is in question, on account of her universality and her claim of power to exercise this authority. The relation between the two is here treated under the two heads SCIENCE and CHURCH.

I don't know how much time, effort you have this Catholic website has so far the most extensive materials that can answer all your questions.

 

Bush is a Christian just like there are more than 30,000 Protestant Christian sects all claiming there own. What Bush claim he is doing it in the name of the Christian God is his own personal distorted view that is why the Catholic church did not share or support his view point.

 

Hope, and it did made a difference it stop the massive wickedness and evil that was happening at that time it also made the world recognize that being evil does not pay (crime does not pay), God, the True One God finally made His point and Satan had to change his strategy, yes we still have evil and wars and it is up to men to defeat evil and if it comes to that point that evil will triumph God will once again intervene. Remember, Satan has been and is intervening while God has left everything in the hands of men it is a one sided war in favour of Satan what is keeping evil from winning is the few good men who have found the strength, faith and courage to fight back and hold evil off from corrupting this world or universe once more.

 

that sort of bumph ain't helping you.

 

Yep, your God is also too feeble to simply destroy Satan, we get it.

 

It maybe a bump for you, the fact still remain evil is for real. Only God can counter check humans and evil.

 

Hardly feeble, if my God is feeble you won't be here now, this world will be rid of all humans maybe that is not a bad idea? That is why God have made the promise that the final judgement day will happen and you will get your wish, my feeble God will settle everything once and for all and all those who supported evil will go to hell so while there is still time repent and don't say God didn't warn you or God didn't gave you sufficient time (thousand of year allowance).

Just like before they refuse to listen to the warnings the same is happening again.

Noe had announced the impending judgment and had exhorted to repentance (II Pet., ii, 5), but no heed was given to his words (Matt., xxiv, 37 sqq.; Luke xvii, 26, 27; I Pet., iii, 20)

 

Do you believe Christians deserve to be crucified or fed to wild beast?

 

Uh...

Once again showing your ignorance of theology I see. There was no war in heaven ever mentioned in The Bible until The Book of Revelation.

 

Your God lets his most evil creation run free and corrupt his other creations? Yes, he either cant defeat Satan or doesnt care about us.

 

Mathew 7:15-19
15“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.16“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?17“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.18“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.20“So then, you will know them by their fruits.

What do you think this passage means?

 

a useful caveat for the organic orchardist?

seriously, it's gobbledigook. it's like asking what "trololololo" means. or "if you are naughty, you are naughty".

 

You just said nothing mention in the Bible and yet you just refer to the Book of Revelation. Now we know who is the ignorant.

 

Your evil friend (if I mat say so since you refer God to be my God) chose to be evil, God didn't made him evil. It was your evil friend or evil god that started evil not my God. God can defeat Satan and he does care for us that is why He send His only Son to be crucified, to experience human pain, to deliver the message personally God is allowing us and Satan enough time to change, to understand pure good, that is why God has promise the final day will come when Satan and all evil will be defeated.

As many men have exploited and misuse God, they have take the name of the Lord in vain for their own selfish ambition they have wage wars in the name of God. At the same time the True God gave hope, solace and peace to thousands who are and have been persecuted, victimize and oppress by these wars.

 

Evil is wrap in something good, example: pitch sales person they will never reveal anything negative about their products even though clearly it is a defective product. Or, Satan temptation to Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge, Satan made it appear nothing wrong to touch the fruit of knowledge because Eve's intention was to know more about God and Satan told Eve that will happen even though God instruction was not to touch it. Satan successfully cloak evil in something good.

Satan tried to use the same on Jesus, tempting Jesus to use His power to proof He is God and to use it to control the world. It didn't work, so now we have seen how Satan has change strategy it has now created a parallel god and religion using the name of Jesus Christ and pretending to worship him or honour him.