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 Evangelicals are expected to account for about 40% of the Republican vote on Tuesday's primary in Florida.
January 28th, 2012
02:00 AM ET
Florida Evangelicals a different breed of voter than brethren in Iowa, South CarolinaBy John Sepulvado, CNN (CNN) - Conservative Christian activist Ralph Reed has called the Bible Belt home for decades, but he grew up in Miami in the 1970s, when the city was emerging as a diverse megalopolis. Among his middle school friends were Jews, Catholics and Methodists. Then, at age 15, Reed's family relocated to the sleepy mountain town of Toccoa, Georgia, so his dad, a doctor, could take a better-paying job. “It was very conservative,” says Reed, who now lives outside Atlanta. “At first – as would be true of any 15-year-old – I didn’t like it. I think it was a culture shock.” Ultimately, the mostly evangelical residents of Toccoa shaped Reed’s faith, helping lead him to Jesus in his 20s. But in terms of his faith-based organizing, the well-known activist drew more on his experiences in hyper-diverse Miami. "Later on in life, when I became a leader in the Christian Coalition, I had a greater appreciation [for] ethnic and religious diversification,” Reed says. That could be good news for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor is looking to regain momentum from chief rival Newt Gingrich, after the former speaker’s upset in South Carolina, in Florida’s Tuesday primary. There are signs that Florida’s evangelical voters may be more forgiving of Romney’s past social liberalism than their Iowa and South Carolina brethren – and more willing to support a Mormon candidate. “I think Romney could do well in Florida,” Reed says. A more centrist evangelicalism As a percentage of GOP voters, there are fewer evangelicals in Florida compared to South Carolina and Iowa, where Rick Santorum won the presidential caucuses, according to CNN exit polls from 2008. In that year, evangelicals accounted for 40% of Republican primary voters in Florida, compared to 60% in the Iowa caucuses and South Carolina primaries. And compared to those other early primary states, Florida is much more religiously diverse. In the 2008 primary there, Catholics were nearly a third of the Republican vote, with other kinds of Christians, Jews and those with no religious affiliation each claiming a chunk of the vote. Still, evangelical Christians claim a bigger share of the Florida Republican vote than any other religious tradition. There also are signs they may be more tolerant of a Mormon candidate than born-again Christians in the Bible Belt and Midwest. In the South Carolina primary, Romney claimed 22% of the evangelical vote, compared to 44% for Gingrich, according to CNN exit polls. Florida’s evangelicals are “more open” to the idea of a Mormon in the White House, according to Orlando area pastor Joel C. Hunter. “Our nature, of being a fairly mobile state, with a lot of tourism and a lot of transcultural and transnational interaction really makes us boundary spanning, rather than sticking to our own affinity groups,” Hunter says. He leads a congregation of 15,000 at Northland, a Church Distributed, a nondenominational megachurch of the kind that are more popular in Florida than in Iowa or South Carolina. “For any independent church, you’re going to be open – necessarily open – to non-ready made boundaries, open to other religious groups,” Hunter says. “You’ll be more likely to partner with groups that aren’t necessarily like your own.” The pastor cites his church’s partnerships with local synagogues and mosques to help local homeless children. For Hunter, teaming up with different religious traditions follows the example of Jesus. “Jesus talked to the people, the religious leaders others wouldn’t talk to,” he says. “As an evangelical, I should be ready to talk to a lot of people that aren’t like myself, because that’s what I see in the life of Christ, and I’m looking to build relationships.” Mark I. Pinsky, the Florida-based author of "A Jew Among Evangelicals," says there are other key differences between evangelicals in Florida and those in Iowa and South Carolina. “In Iowa,” Pinsky says, “they tend to be rural and older. In South Carolina, they tend to be more fundamentalist, and more likely to be affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention,” a denomination that isn’t shy about pointing out theological differences with Mormonism. Pinsky says Florida evangelicals, especially in the central part of the state, are more likely to have Mormons as neighbors, compared to their brethren in South Carolina and Iowa. “Nondenominational evangelicals are less likely to demonize someone who is a real person,” Pinsky says. Less Preaching, More Teaching Even in smaller Baptist churches in Florida’s Panhandle, there are “notable differences” with Christians in more historically evangelical parts of the country, according to pastor Curtis Clark. “There’s still a lot of yelling from the pulpit in South Carolina,” says Clark, who leads a congregation of 2,500 at Thomasville Road Baptist Church in Tallahassee. Clark says his congregation is split between Republicans and Democrats, that almost all the adults have college degrees and that the parishioners want to be led, not yelled at. “I try and teach, try and encourage,” Clark says. “Florida evangelicals are a little bit more educated, and have a broader experience.” Census figures from 2010 show Florida has a slightly greater share of college graduates than South Carolina. Both the Romney and Gingrich campaigns are reaching out to evangelicals to quell concerns about their candidacies. Both campaigns held conference calls with influential conservative religious leaders last week, discussing religion, personal and policy decisions. Many evangelicals have expressed concern about Romney’s past support for abortion rights and gay rights and over Gingrich’s failed marriages. But Romney doesn’t need to win big among evangelicals to take Florida, Reed says. Because evangelicals make up a smaller portion of Republican voters, Reed says Romney only needs to win a sizeable share of their support. “If Romney gets a third of evangelical voters” Reed says, “he wins the primary.” While Romney skipped meeting with some evangelical leaders in South Carolina, including officials at Bob Jones University, his campaign has started more aggressively courting pastors and religious community networks in Florida. The campaign has participated in multiple conference calls with religious leaders and activists. “In part, I think [the Romney campaign is] more open to outreach by virtue of the Florida demographic,” Reed says. That suggests the Romney camp suspects Florida’s evangelicals will be more open to his candidacy than other evangelicals in the primary states so far.
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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How Did God Tell The Story Of Creation To Moses?
Was Moses, perhaps, in a trance, like Buddha?
Or did it come to him gradually, over many years, like the Q'uran did for Mohammad?
Could it have been revealed to Moses as he gazed into a hat, like Joseph Smith?
Or was it perhaps a prophetic vision, like that of Oral Roberts, who saw a 900 foot Jesus, demanding in detail that Oral raise 1,000,000 dollars for Oral Roberts University, or else Jesus would take Oral's life?
Or, just maybe, was the story borrowed from the Babylonians, who were a clear influence over the Canaanites (Israel's Promised Land)?
Centuries before Moses could have lived, according to Biblical dating and genealogy, The Enuma Elish presented a divine Trinity (Apsu, Tiamat and Mummu)
From them, came Lahmu and Lahamn (Earth without form and mixing with the waters)
Ansher and Kishar (horizons of sky and sea)
Anu (Heavens) and Ea (Earth)
Marduk (a type of Jesus) came God/Man – Created mankind and natural law.
It goes on and on, with representations that are clearly the sources and inspiration behind the Mosaic stories.
Just how much are we to overlook common-sense?
indeed!
wow, that really is interesting. do you teach?
Bunch of Hippo-Critters
To those who care to know.. The USA has always been a capitalistic country with underlying socialism, we do really care for each other. In fact the USA is the largest donor to helping those in need, far more than all religions combined. In fact many, if not most, religious organizations that claim to help others use our tax dollar in doing so. Catholic Charities is operated predominately by our tax dollar (called grant money).
Yes, the USA made of all religions and atheists too. In the end, it is people who do good works, not religion. Religion steal the good work of men and claim it for themselves.
Ah, a DIFFERENT type of whacko.
My eyes are drawn to the kid behind the guy in the pic, looking bored and taking a drink behind this crazy guy, like he's not impressed with how he made the room all spinny like that. Just keep drinkin', lil Billy, just keeeeep drinkin...
That is the dude's kid. He is holding Dad's beer while his Dad "Get's Happy". Not embarrassing at all. Note Dad's beer bracelet on his left wrist. First we speak in tongues, then it's Miller time!
Ralph Reed is a bigoted piece of s^&t
Why do you say that? He is a good Christian.
Nah, he is just a mediocre Christian.
like a good Nazi?
My how convenient to forgive the Morman Aliens and NOt our current Commander & Chief! President Obama ......I have had just about enough of the so called Christianity Conservative American Tea Party Right Wing Radicals who say they are an example to Christ! and then bash the president with Racial slurrs for the last 3 years......SICKO's!
Morman Aliens – please expand on that.
Just like you are bashing the people you don't agree with?
Kolob is a star or planet described in Mormon scripture. Reference to Kolob is found in the Book of Abraham, a work published by Latter Day Saint (LDS) prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. According to this work, Kolob is the heavenly body nearest to the throne or residence of God. While the Book of Abraham refers to Kolob as a "star",[1] it also refers to planets as stars,[2] and therefore, some LDS commentators consider Kolob to be a planet.[3] Other Latter Day Saints (commonly referred to as Mormons)
So bashing the president is ok by Christain beliefs? GET LOST
I see, aliens from Kolob. Mitt Romney is one of these?
George – so christians get a free pass to be as bigoted and racist as they want, because anyone that calls them on it is "bashing christians."
That is truly, truly, handy. A universal "get out of jail free card", you can't criticize me for criticizing someone else, because the you're as bad as I am, and I don't have to pay attention to you.
Dear Florida Evangelicals,
A 21st century prayer just for you:
The Apostles' Creed 2011: (updated by yours truly and based on the studies of historians and theologians of the past 200 years)
Should I believe in a god whose existence cannot be proven
and said god if he/she/it exists resides in an unproven,
human-created, spirit state of bliss called heaven??
I believe there was a 1st century CE, Jewish, simple,
preacher-man who was conceived by a Jewish carpenter
named Joseph living in Nazareth and born of a young Jewish
girl named Mary. (Some say he was a mamzer.)
Jesus was summarily crucified for being a temple rabble-rouser by
the Roman troops in Jerusalem serving under Pontius Pilate,
He was buried in an unmarked grave and still lies
a-mouldering in the ground somewhere outside of
Jerusalem.
Said Jesus' story was embellished and "mythicized" by
many semi-fiction writers. A descent into Hell, a bodily resurrection
and ascension stories were promulgated to compete with the
Caesar myths. Said stories were so popular that they
grew into a religion known today as Catholicism/Christianity
and featuring dark-age, daily wine to blood and bread to body rituals
called the eucharistic sacrifice of the non-atoning Jesus.
Amen
(some of the references used in the update)
o 1. Historical Jesus Theories, earlychristianwritings.com/theories.htm – the names of many of the contemporary historical Jesus scholars and the ti-tles of their over 100 books on the subject.
o
2. Early Christian Writings, earlychristianwritings.com/
– a list of early Christian doc-uments to include the year of publication–
30-60 CE Passion Narrative
40-80 Lost Sayings Gospel Q
50-60 1 Thessalonians
50-60 Philippians
50-60 Galatians
50-60 1 Corinthians
50-60 2 Corinthians
50-60 Romans
50-60 Philemon
50-80 Colossians
50-90 Signs Gospel
50-95 Book of Hebrews
50-120 Didache
50-140 Gospel of Thomas
50-140 Oxyrhynchus 1224 Gospel
50-200 Sophia of Jesus Christ
65-80 Gospel of Mark
70-100 Epistle of James
70-120 Egerton Gospel
70-160 Gospel of Peter
70-160 Secret Mark
70-200 Fayyum Fragment
70-200 Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
73-200 Mara Bar Serapion
80-100 2 Thessalonians
80-100 Ephesians
80-100 Gospel of Matthew
80-110 1 Peter
80-120 Epistle of Barnabas
80-130 Gospel of Luke
80-130 Acts of the Apostles
80-140 1 Clement
80-150 Gospel of the Egyptians
80-150 Gospel of the Hebrews
80-250 Christian Sibyllines
90-95 Apocalypse of John
90-120 Gospel of John
90-120 1 John
90-120 2 John
90-120 3 John
90-120 Epistle of Jude
93 Flavius Josephus
100-150 1 Timothy
100-150 2 Timothy
100-150 T-itus
100-150 Apocalypse of Peter
100-150 Secret Book of James
100-150 Preaching of Peter
100-160 Gospel of the Ebionites
100-160 Gospel of the Nazoreans
100-160 Shepherd of Hermas
100-160 2 Peter
3. Historical Jesus Studies, faithfutures.org/HJstudies.html,
– "an extensive and constantly expanding literature on historical research into the person and cultural context of Jesus of Nazareth"
4. Jesus Database, faithfutures.org/JDB/intro.html–"The JESUS DATABASE is an online annotated inventory of the traditions concerning the life and teachings of Jesus that have survived from the first three centuries of the Common Era. It includes both canonical and extra-canonical materials, and is not limited to the traditions found within the Christian New Testament."
5. Josephus on Jesus mtio.com/articles/bissar24.htm
6. The Jesus Seminar, mystae.com/restricted/reflections/messiah/seminar.html#Criteria
7. Writing the New Testament- mystae.com/restricted/reflections/messiah/testament.html
8. Health and Healing in the Land of Israel By Joe Zias
joezias.com/HealthHealingLandIsrael.htm
9. Economics in First Century Palestine, K.C. Hanson and D. E. Oakman, Palestine in the Time of Jesus, Fortress Press, 1998.
@Reality-time to update that old piffle with the truth.
Look to the scriptures and seek knowledge and understanding.
He is waiting for reality to strike him out of his delusions.Will ya help him out?
Heaven is a place in Hell.
A place where Angels and Demons dwell.
The bell rings, the Devil Swings and on God’s throne he begins to dwell.
Looking through space and time the duality of the immortals shine.
The singing begins and the song is one of the infinite.
Universes are sung, Galaxies too.
Stars and planets and me and you.
But we can hear the singing not.
For we are here on this planet caught.
The web we weave to cry and deceive.
Robs us of our own immortal lot.
I will do anything and everything God / Jesus tells me to do. I am still waiting, but when they talk to me I will listen.
You've already been spoken to. You just won't listen. There is none so blind as those who will not see.
a long wait, huh?
It was already written in Gods word, the Holy Bible, you may get a special revelation but it is not likely. For obedience to God try reading what He has already instructed you.
@George: No I haven't. And if you are referring to the Bible that is just silly.
@Come on: I am not holding my breath.
@ An IT
The Bible is not God's word.
None so blind as those who will not see? Dumb. There is nothing to see. It's mythology dorkus. No different than Zeus and Athena or Thor or Isis and Orsiris. All you religious folk are sad.
over 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone. More planets than stars, with our planet the newest. The likelihood of other worlds way ahead of ours, just makes sense.
I can envision aliens coming here about 2,000 years ago saying, "Want to play the jesus joke here too?"
@blondie
Christians find folks like you sad.
@Come On
You go ahead and believe in your aliens, and I'll believe the Truth.
Christianity: One woman's lie about an affair that got seriously out of hand.
@ Come on, be honest for a change.. exactly. Your post is pure common sense yet George answers "You go ahead and believe in your aliens, and I'll believe the Truth." OMG LOL!!
@Come on, LOL!!
What makes christians so sure they're right and all of the other religions in the world are wrong?
And please don't insult youself or my intelligence with "faith."
keep in mind that if the christians here were instead born in the ME, they'd likely be muslim today. They hate that truth.
because christians are the most bigoted, self righteous people on earth, and also perhaps the most ignorant. The failure to grasp the reality of religion depending location and therefore it is arbitrary seems to be one out of desperation and hopelessness. Acting certain about the most uncertain thing to mankind is laughable. As far as faith goes, it is a concept created to help justify everything that doesn't make sense about what they believe in and make them feel better about being delusional. believing in your heart does not make something true. I can believe in my heart that pigs fly, but pigs will never fly. Faith is a dangerous concept because people confuse faith for fact. Faith does not equal fact. Faith is a copout. Blocking out logic and rationale on account of their own weak minded beliefs is what makes them religious. And taking your children to church is a whole other story in itself. Allow your children to form their own opinion instead of forcing your beliefs down their throats. Regardless if your intentions are good, it is not right to force them to believe something. That is what we in the real world refer to as brainwash. Relgion is the cancer of society disguising itself as a positive thing. People won't make the effort to educate themselves, let alone think outside the box to begin with. It is a sad state of affairs.
"Born again" people tend to have a "past." The Christian religion panders to the weakness of human nature. That's why these people are attracted to the Christian religion. The worst people make good Christians. This isn't always a bad thing but it explains why there are so many dysfunctional people in the movement. Religion in this country is a mile wide and an inch deep.
"What makes christians so sure they're right and all of the other religions in the world are wrong?"
The Bible which has been proven time and time to be true. Even in our day. It said that there would be people like you in the end times.
George –
I sure hope you don't wear clothing of more than one fabric, and that you've got your stones for the next stoning? Oh, wait, damned secular government won't let you stone people. Well, I'm sure you'll fix that once we have a "christian" government.
While we're talking, who did Cain and Able do their begetting with if Eve was the only woman? Did they actually do it with their mother? Or maybe it was an uncredited sister.
And yet again, CNN tosses another softball to the hate-theists so they can vent their bigotry.
CNN: They report and you decide not to watch.
you are after one sided reporting? Christians do that to their children.
Nice way to describe the theists on here .. I'll have to use that sometime.
Keep in mind that Hitler was a devout catholic. (Note: Vatican was never bombed, there are numerous pictures of hitler with the pope, bishops and cardinals, and the pope never stood up against hitler saying he was wrong.)
Not to forget, the Nazis were primarily christian.
So evangelicals are pushing for the 4th Reich
It's all so clear now.
The nazis national socialism was their own atheistic religion with their fuhrer Adolf as the Messiah, Hitler saw himself as the god of the national socialist movement, contrary to your statement he was in fact the worst kind of atheist , one who rises to his own godhood. His use of the Catholic Church was no more sincere than his use of Neville Chamberlain to secure peace in their time.
The catholics hated the Jews back then and so did hitler. Hitler was a devout catholic, quit deflecting.
Next you'll be telling us that two priests helped the Jews.. Yep, two priests out of thousands.
Why is it the religious always have to change their story?
and not to forget the Nazis were christian..
An inconvenient truth .. first, saying atheism is a religion nullifies your statement. second, if they are worshipping hitler as a god they are theists not atheists. Hitler was as much a God as any other God before or since .. he used psychology to control people but actually showed up in public now & then.
You all know very little about national socialism and appear to be content with the lies you are spewing. This is America you can be wrong if you want to be.
Hitler was a conservative.. Wake up please.
Typical American Protestant/Atheist response about Hitler. Hitler was so catholic that is why he killed millions of Polish Catholics in concentration camps. Hitler was so catholic that he clearly planned to assassinate and kidnap Pope Pius XII. If you do not believe me then read the testimonies of Karl Wolff, Erwin von Lahousen, Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven, Rudolf Rahn, John Cornwell, Avvenire d'Italia, and Dan Kurzman. Hitler was so catholic that he did not get married in the church, which if you know anything about authentic Christianity (What you Americans call Catholic), marriage in the church is a major sacrament. Yeah your are right Hitler was Catholic because he took a picture with the Pope, By your ignorant logic anybody that takes a picture with the Pope is now Catholic.
wrong Paulo.. Hitler wanted control of the world.. Kinda like the inquisition by the catholic church all over again. He was a devout catholic, pure and simple.
And quit spreading the catholic churches lies. If he wanted the pope dead, it would have happened in an instant. Get real. Never happened. In fact there are many pics of hitler and the pope, cardinals and bishops. Why do you people try to change history?
Not sure which is worse – a man who thinks that God was once a man and that he too will become a "God" when he dies, OR a guy who has zero morality. They both make Obama look good – and I used to think that Obama was the worst president in history!
This nation needs a true man of God to lead it. Unfortunately, none of the choices that we have offer that option to us. God, help us!
poor leadership is the curse of God on a nation
Why do you need a man of god to lead this country? And which god?
I guess it right, which god you mean. So there it is, the reason that you think a certain god loving man should lead this country, is the exact reason, no god (any god) loving person shouldn't lead, cause it's not objective and prejudiced towards other god lovers.
What's wrong with a logical/sane person leading this country than a religious nut?
did you know that christians have many gods? It's in the bible. '.. in OUR image and likeness.'
They sure are a delusional bunch. Then again, I treat religion as p-or-n and keep it from children until they are 18. At 18 they can choose. Then again the religious don't like that, brainwashing doesn't stick as well if you don't start with children.
You are wrong.............. Separation of church and state. By electing a religious leader you are falling directly into the say way of archaic thinking we are fighting against with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The only difference is that you are advocating Christians and they advocate Muslims. A radical is still a radical regardless of the color or religion. Keep religion and politics separate.
Last Sunday I was walking in the woods & saw BigFoot .. I ran to tell the first person I could find. There was a church service going on, so I told them what I saw .. they all laughed, called me a lunatic then turned back to the guy in the robes with arms raised in the air & continued chanting in unison ... so I ran even faster back to the woods!
you need to wait about a thousand years for all the good stories to be written, well after the fact with all the fantasies, then labeled the bible.
Sounds like the congregation got the better of that one.
@If horses had Gods .. their Gods would be horses "Last Sunday I was walking in the woods & saw BigFoot .. I ran to tell the first person I could find. There was a church service going on, so I told them what I saw .. they all laughed, called me a lunatic then turned back to the guy in the robes with arms raised in the air & continued chanting in unison ... so I ran even faster back to the woods!"
=>if you had a choice, recant your statement that you saw bigfoot, or be tortured to death.. which would you choose?
Chad .. that's why I ran!! I wasn't sure what they were capable of .. it may have been the Westboro Baptist Church!
Well, it's a simple question.
You are obviously trying to draw a parallel between seeing big foot, and seeing Jesus/believing in God.
So, if presented with the question: recant your claimed sighting or be tortured to death, what would you choose?
as you won't answer the question directly, it demonstrates you acknowledge the difference between your bigfoot sighting and the witnesses of Jesus Christ.
ha ha... I don't think the religious nuts would ever 'get' that, even if they do, they would pretend to their death.
thats how the brainwashed behave.
LOL Chad .. If faced with death I would recant the truth like so many have been forced to do over the centuries. I'd ask you the same thing but you cannot recant something (witnessing jesus christ) you've never witnessed. Do you get it now?
@cigarlover6 "ha ha... I don't think the religious nuts would ever 'get' that"
=>early church members, those claiming to have seen a resurrected Christ, were tortured to death.. right?
@cigarlover6 "even if they do, they would pretend to their death.thats how the brainwashed behave."
=>so, you are saying that you would be tortured to death for something that you knew was a lie?
@If horses had Gods .. their Gods would be horses "LOL Chad .. If faced with death I would recant the truth "
=>ah, yes, exactly.
Who would submit to torture for something they knew to be a lie?
and yet
that's exactly what all of those early witnesses did. Most of the disciples were tortured to death for refusing to recant their belief in a risen Christ.
why? Does that make any sense at all?
Yes, Chad .. believers convince themselves that they "know" the truth & think they will get brownie points for God if they stick with their story.. I almost hate to say it, but it's called delusion.
Chad-Brillian retorts as usual! 🙂
No Chad it doesn't make any sense at all. You are aware that the stories of the new testament were written decades to centuries AFTER Jesus died don't you? Ever played the telephone game? These stories were written by humans for human reasons.
@Horsie, if ya didn't know already, life is short and time is too precious to be spent on vitriol when it comes to matters of faith.
Yet Chad, you've witnessed nothing but claim to know the truth after 2k & 5k years! Now that makes no sense at all.
Ya know Reese you're right. I just enjoy the exercise! 😉
@If horses had Gods .. their Gods would be horses "Yes, Chad .. believers convince themselves that they "know" the truth & think they will get brownie points for God if they stick with their story.. I almost hate to say it, but it's called delusion."
=>hmm, lets look at that possibility, you are saying that:
– Jesus claimed to be the son of God and claimed that he would be resurrected from the dead on the third day.
– Jesus was killed for that claim
– Jesus was never resurrected at all
– the disciples felt that they would get brownie points with God by claiming Jesus was resurrected.
now, if they knew that Jesus was never resurrected, they knew at that point that that Jesus was completely delusional. His claims of being the son of God were totally bogus. God had nothing to do with him.
so, why would they think that god would view favorably them saying that Jesus was resurrected? That would have been a heresy.
There were many, many people that claimed to be messiahs at the time. Some achieved followings during their life, but following their death that following quickly died out. It makes sense right? A man claims to be divine, then dies an ignoble death and everyone slinks off to their respective corners. A follower can be deluded by a man claiming to be divine and immune to death, but if he dies, then those claims are exposed as hoaxes.
so, your theory fails, right?
It doesnt make any kind of sense.
@ If horses had Gods .. their Gods would be horses "You are aware that the stories of the new testament were written decades to centuries AFTER Jesus died don't you?"
=>decades, yes. First writings of paul within 20 years of death/resurrection. Certainly hundreds and hundreds of first person witnesses to the events being recorded were present to dispute them. As well, Jewish authorities were ruthlessly persecuting the early church and would have seized on any known misstatement of fact to discredit what they viewed to be a heretical sect.
So, no.. the writings are authentic and unchanged from their present form 2000 years ago to now.
Jewish authorities of the day accused the followers of Christ of grave robbery.. but that fails for the "a person would never die for what they knew to be a lie" reason.
@If horses had Gods .. their Gods would be horses "Yet Chad, you've witnessed nothing but claim to know the truth after 2k & 5k years! Now that makes no sense at all."
=>actually it does, my story is a somewhat common one. I set out to disprove the New Testament.. Thought it would be easy to find all kinds of contradictions and nonsense.. The result was far different than I thought it would be..
thank the Lord
Chad-Thank you, your posts are always illuminating!
Hey, Chard, since you're so big on research, have you found out that RU486 and Plan B are different?
Chad and Reese, sittin' in a tree, K I S S I N G....
Oh, wait. They're the same person. Never mind.
tom tom the pipers son
stole a pig and
wait a minute
they are both the same
which one is the pig?
Oh yeah right the pig has class
Who really knows Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son? Don't you wish you did? She's the biggest part of the
nastiest thing you can do in a hotel room.
I don't think the author makes a credible case in this article.
Science builds worlds while religion destroys it.
God gave science to mankind
Too bad he stopped short of giving common sense to his followers!
just sayin – Copernicus might disagree with you on that. He was theaten with torture for suggesting that the earth wasn't the center of the universe.
Anything that threatens a religion's power over it's people must be stamped out. It's alway been that way, and will always be that way.
@Fair Tax
That's right. And do you know why? It's because it is not a democracy with God. It has nothing to do with religion and power, but right and wrong. God will only accept right. You don't get to vote on that.
George – so Copernicus was "wrong", and that's why the church threatened him.
Well, at least well have Obama for 4 more years while we figure this out.
justlyin'! There you are! When are you going to answer the questions I asked you?
Religion is child abuse.
Christians teach their children that they are going to suffer unspeakable pain in hell when they die.
Then, have their children pray that if they die in their sleep they pray that god will take their soul.
It's like their living Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddie Kruger waiting for them if they fall asleep.
Christianity needs the USA. It's one of the last hold-out countries. But once the population of Muslims grows in North America, as it is now, Christianity will gradually be displaced.
And then we'll have the GOP and Democratic leaders sucking up to the Muslims. It really is quite pathetic.
Christianity, Islam, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. One delusional belief in an invisible sky wizard is no more or less ridiculous than a delusional belief in any other invisible sky wizard.
Is this an ad for jesus?
Yes, PLUS, if you order right now, you'll get 2 Jesi for the price of one. Give one as a gift for Hanauka.
Haha .. I want two "jesi" for the price of one! Nice wordage!
Fair Tax Task Force,
and they'd most likely be touting it as a "free gift" too!