Posted on 09/12/2006 10:08:39 AM PDT by Mark Felton
It was Jesus, Himself who said it is hard for a rich man to get into heaven. I think He knows a lot more about who gets into heaven than we do.
Atheists like to believe they are an expanding group and are the new enlightened ones and the latest product of evolution.
The problem is that they are wrong on all acounts. they are a growing number, but only in wealthier socialist nations where they are taught that the supreme power belongs to the state and not God (atheism is a mandatory precondition for socialism to prosper).
However worldwide Christianity and other God worshipping religions are actually growing as a percentage of poulation.
It is actually the case that the knowledge of God is the latest advancement of evolution and that mans civilization did not begin until God entered the picture (perhaps 10-20k years ago) as the Bible indicates.
Atheism pre-existed knowledge of God and is also common to all other animals. It is a statistical throwback not an dvancement. Atheistic societies have never led to an advance in civilization, it has led to mass-murdering dictators (Stalin, Mao, etc...) and failed societies.
It is always fun to hoist the atheists by their own evolutionary "petards".
To put it in their terms ---> Evolution gave us God; --->God gave us civilization.
The reason for the apparently same level of accuracy is that going to the next level is extremely expensive and t adds very little to the utility of the study.
The method of calculating the accuracy with 95% confidence is a simple formula and it is well known.
And that is why they all have about the same level of accuracy, and the same level of confidence.
And why do you think so many FReepers don't find polls of more value? Every time someone posts a "FReep this poll" it's to skew the results.
Interesting. Sorry that Baylor didn't describe the God I have come to know. Glad they didn't call me.
As a catholic, I'd pretty much agree with your post...but not exactly, of course! IMHO, God is as close as thought, but allows us to pretend he is distant as the furtherist bit of stardust, loving, but not of the pat you on the head and tell you I'm ok, you're ok type. Truly interested in our transformation into the holy people we can be, he, at the same time, like the Father in the story of the prodigal son, will allow us to go our own way, but never gives up on us. His ways, purposes and goals are not necessarily ours, and we are often guilty of trying to keep him in a box of our own construction. He, IMHO, is far more interested in our spiritual transformation than in our happiness, wealth, health or any of those other goals people work towards and want...although these are not inappropriate. He is not just a source of power, he IS, in ways none of us can quite conprehend, but at the same time, he knows intimately what it is like to wear human flesh, to be hungry, frightened, in need, in a body driven by human chemicals, and understands the very depths of pain. He is God, I am not, blessed be his holy name. For me, personally, his most important face is Emmanuel, God-With-Us, not an abstract, but someone who walks with us, suffers with us, speaks with us, and in his hands, if we say yes, he will turn us into the souls we were meant to be, lanterns filled with his light, tools of his using, part of his own body.
Not sure where that puts me on that scale, but there it is.
Thanks for the ping. The geographical distribution of images of God is interesting. The finding that more people in the midwest believe in the benevolent image of God suggests that God smiles on "flyover country" -- which doesn't surprise me.
The One True God appears different to everybody because we are all different and put here for different purposes.
Nontheless, He is the same God.
For most people I think that is true, but still also believe that some terrorists have gotten caught up by Satan and are following his perversions and not the One, True God.
Amen.
If Mainline Protestants are only 22.1% & Evangelicals make up 33.6% of all Protestants, why are the Mainlines considered the mainstream of Protestant Christianity in this country?
yes, the Islamic cultists do not have a relationshi-p with the true God. They are followers of a man, Mohamed, who tells them which God to worship and how to qworship. Mohamed was a warrior who spread his religion by viiolent, brutal force.
Islam is a death cult, the Muslims worhip a murderer and their God must be Satan.
If they wonder why their civilization has been deprived of abundance and happiness it is only because of the money coming from Christian nations that they propser at all. And what they sell, oil, was placed there by the true God. The Muslims have done nothing at all to reap that wealth.
This is one of th major reason that Muslims hate the West. Christianity and Judaism is far far more superior than their own faith which has left them living in squalor *most of them> and intellectually void.
Nonetheless, they believe that their God is the God of Abraham, and the God of the Christians as well...
And people who have professed the Christian faith have, at various times in history, been as barbaric, like the time a bunch of crusaders landed in Acre and attacked the Arabs there, thinking they were Moslems, but they were Arab Christians...
All this goes to show you is that the proof is in the walk, not the talk.
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