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Really? You haven't learned the difference between the colloquial use of the word and the Scientific definition?
From Wiki:
A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Such fact-supported theories are not "guesses" but reliable accounts of the real world.
You mean the science that each week discovers they were wrong the week before???
OUTSTANDING! Science routinely seeks to expand and alter if necessary. After all, we're only human. As opposed to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which you are an apologist for, that makes predictions for the end of days and waits for one of those predictions to fail before claiming to receive new light via God on the batphone. After all, they're only divinely inspired humans.
OUTSTANDING! Science routinely seeks to expand and alter if necessary. After all, we're only human. As opposed to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which you are an apologist for, that makes predictions for the end of days and waits for one of those predictions to fail before claiming to receive new light via God on the batphone. After all, they're only divinely inspired humans.
These JW frauds cannot be exposed too often. Their hubris is an affront to God and His Holy Spirit of agape. The barbaric beliefs about the War God Jehovah have corrupted Christ's Gospel far too long.
Really? You haven't learned the difference between the colloquial use of the word and the Scientific definition?
From Wiki:
A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Such fact-supported theories are not "guesses" but reliable accounts of the real world.
Ok maybe I should have used hypothesis instead. Are you saying science never uses hypothesis?
Ok maybe I should have used hypothesis instead. Are you saying science never uses hypothesis?
I'm no scientist but it's my understanding that every theory begins with a hypothesis.
A hypothesis is much closer to the colloquial understanding of the word "theory." It's the wondering if such n' such could be proven true or false by doing ....
Yeah, they've been saying that for oh...about 1899 years now.
They didn't understand Revelation until these last days came. The real teachers that belong to Jesus, understand it well. The 7 headed beast and two horned beast had to be in place --they have been for quite awhile now.
Did you see the video of the Jordanian pilot burning to death? You need to watch it then come back and tell me he deserves to still be burning.
And get this: the UK Daily Mail reports that ISIS heavily sedated the pilot so he would not scream as he burned and sure enough, if you watch the video you will hear that he doesn't utter a peep, although he thrashes about pretty fiercely. I wonder if we'll be able to count on God to give us a never-ending injection of spiritual morphine for our everlasting torment thrashing about in the lake of Fire. If eternal torment is true as fundamentalists claim it is then it can be said that even ISIS is more merciful than God.
I'm fairly new here and a recent convert to Atheist. Before becoming an Atheist, I struggled with the doctrine of ET. I discovered that ET was not biblical, yet, I'm shocked at how many pastors and Christians believe this doctrine to be biblical and even worse, reasonable. I cringe when I here Christians say that another human should burn in hell for eternity. I found the bible to clearly support annihilation.
My question is: Do you believe in ET and do you consider it just punishment? If so, have you really considered what that means?
Millions of Christians do not believe in hell based on the Bible. People who believe in eternal torment can obviously provide counterpoints. However, to state that the opposing view to hell is unbiblical is clearly dogma.
The Bible explains the condition of the dead. There is no immortal soul that survives death thus nothing to torment eternally in hell fire.
Genesis 3:19, "for dust you are and dust you will return."
Ecclesiastes 3:19, "for there is an outcome for humans and an outcome for animals; they all have the same outcome. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit. So man has no superiority over animals, for everything is futile."
Ecclesiastes 9:5, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten."
Ancient Jews unlike their contemporary counterparts believed the rich, poor, famous, infamous, righteous and wicked all ended up in the same "abode" "state" or "place" at death.
Jesus was a Jew and his thoughts would be in line with the thoughts of Jews in general as above. His thoughts about death are found in John 11:11 with the resurrection of Lazarus. He described death like sleep (not literally sleep but like sleep). Compare Matthew 9:24.
So what about Mark 9:47:48 doesn't it teach hell fire? Let's look at a typical Bible translation:
KJV, "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
However, other Bible translations that use the word "hell" as a footnote include "Gehenna" which was the original word used in the early Koine Greek copies of the Bible. Why is that important? Jesus's audience was Jewish and they understood what Gehenna meant. Gehenna was a literal garbage dump of Jerusalem in which everything was incinerated by constant fires. People were not thrown alive into those fires but the bodies of dead criminals whose crime was such that they were deemed unfit for a traditional burial were disposed of. What's the result of incineration? What's the result of cremation? I think the Jews got the picture and it wasn't that anything somehow eternally survived in raging fires to be tormented.
Consider this article appearing in the Catholic publication titled: "The evangelism of Mark. Linguistic Analysis and Exegetical Commentary."
Mark 9:48 is explained as follows according to this comment found in a Catholic publication El evangelio de Marcos. Análisis lingüístico y comentario exegético, Volume II: “[The] phrase is taken from Isaiah (66,24). There the prophet shows the two ways corpses were usually destroyed: putrefaction and incineration . . . The juxtaposition in the text of maggots and fire reinforces the idea of destruction. . . . Both destructive forces are described as permanent (‘is not quenched, does not die’): there is simply no way to escape them. In this image, the only survivors are the maggot and the fire—not man—and they both annihilate anything that falls within their power. Hence, this is not a description of everlasting torment, but one of total destruction which, as it prevents resurrection from occurring, is tantamount to final death. [Fire] is, then, a symbol of annihilation.”
The apostle John himself in Revelation 20:14 clearly tells us the "lake of fire" is not a literal place. "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death."
If it was a place of eternal torment what sense would it make to throw death and hades in there? Death and hades aren't people. Death and hades can't experience punishment. Rather,these are conditions that God will annihilate (see Revelation 21:3,4) in other words be no more.
And get this: the UK Daily Mail reports that ISIS heavily sedated the pilot so he would not scream as he burned and sure enough, if you watch the video you will hear that he doesn't utter a peep, although he thrashes about pretty fiercely. I wonder if we'll be able to count on God to give us a never-ending injection of spiritual morphine for our everlasting torment thrashing about in the lake of Fire. If eternal torment is true as fundamentalists claim it is then it can be said that even ISIS is more merciful than God.
I hope so, thankfully he did not feel the brunt of the pain. The fact that Christianity is numb to this subject speaks volumes to the hipocracy of their religion.
Millions of Christians do not believe in hell based on the Bible. People who believe in eternal torment can obviously provide counterpoints. However, to state that the opposing view to hell is unbiblical is clearly dogma.
The Bible explains the condition of the dead. There is no immortal soul that survives death thus nothing to torment eternally in hell fire.
Genesis 3:19, "for dust you are and dust you will return."
Ecclesiastes 3:19, "for there is an outcome for humans and an outcome for animals; they all have the same outcome. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit. So man has no superiority over animals, for everything is futile."
Ecclesiastes 9:5, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten."
Ancient Jews unlike their contemporary counterparts believed the rich, poor, famous, infamous, righteous and wicked all ended up in the same "abode" "state" or "place" at death.
Jesus was a Jew and his thoughts would be in line with the thoughts of Jews in general as above. His thoughts about death are found in John 11:11 with the resurrection of Lazarus. He described death like sleep (not literally sleep but like sleep). Compare Matthew 9:24.
So what about Mark 9:47:48 doesn't it teach hell fire? Let's look at a typical Bible translation:
KJV, "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
However, other Bible translations that use the word "hell" as a footnote include "Gehenna" which was the original word used in the early Koine Greek copies of the Bible. Why is that important? Jesus's audience was Jewish and they understood what Gehenna meant. Gehenna was a literal garbage dump of Jerusalem in which everything was incinerated by constant fires. People were not thrown alive into those fires but the bodies of dead criminals whose crime was such that they were deemed unfit for a traditional burial were disposed of. What's the result of incineration? What's the result of cremation? I think the Jews got the picture and it wasn't that anything somehow eternally survived in raging fires to be tormented.
Consider this article appearing in the Catholic publication titled: "The evangelism of Mark. Linguistic Analysis and Exegetical Commentary."
Mark 9:48 is explained as follows according to this comment found in a Catholic publication El evangelio de Marcos. Análisis lingüístico y comentario exegético, Volume II: “[The] phrase is taken from Isaiah (66,24). There the prophet shows the two ways corpses were usually destroyed: putrefaction and incineration . . . The juxtaposition in the text of maggots and fire reinforces the idea of destruction. . . . Both destructive forces are described as permanent (‘is not quenched, does not die’): there is simply no way to escape them. In this image, the only survivors are the maggot and the fire—not man—and they both annihilate anything that falls within their power. Hence, this is not a description of everlasting torment, but one of total destruction which, as it prevents resurrection from occurring, is tantamount to final death. [Fire] is, then, a symbol of annihilation.”
The apostle John himself in Revelation 20:14 clearly tells us the "lake of fire" is not a literal place. "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death."
If it was a place of eternal torment what sense would it make to throw death and hades in there? Death and hades aren't people. Death and hades can't experience punishment. Rather,these are conditions that God will annihilate (see Revelation 21:3,4) in other words be no more.
Knowing this prompted me to remain a Christian a bit longer. I eventually became atheist because I could not reconcile with many other biblical scriptures.
Currently, I'm comfortable with the bible being a book of Jewish fiction. My beef with bible believers is the cultist following of these absurdities.
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