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15

First of all, the assertion that "With God, all things are possible" is valid and scriptural. Matthew 19:26 (NIV) 26  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” However, it would be a mistake to assume that God's omnipotence means he can act against his nature. Hebrews tells us: ...


14

Mainstream Christianity - Catholicism, Orthodox, and the various Protestant denominations, God doesn't have a form. He is spirit, omnipresent, and not confined to a single place. He doesn't have a form. (Although He could manifest one and speak through it, such as a burning bush...) Of course, when He came to earth as Christ (as mainstream Christianity ...


8

Does God have no shape or form? Objection 1 The book of Genesis uses these words to describe man's creation “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. (Genesis 1:26 NIV) therefore, God must look like man. Objection 2 Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of God has appeared as moving flames, columns of fire and burning bushes. Columns ...


8

First, define a Christian ;p It actually isn't as simple as you'd think - for example, consider the definition this site uses: As far as the scope of this site is concerned, any group that identifies themselves as Christian are to be considered on-topic and allowed to label themselves Christian. You would perhaps need to ask the author, but "cultural ...


7

You are not the first person in history to make such observations. One person who articulated it well is the late Clive Staples: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." -- C.S. Lewis Another man, circa the same erra and place, who argued emphatically that ...


6

Caleb mentions some great names. C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterston are good theologian philosophers who, I think, argue a strong rational support of Christianity. Cornelius Van Til is another good one, who, I believe, argues that apart from God, there is no rational basis for rationality. This kind of gets to Andrew Leach's comment; I don't disagree ...


6

Its not necessary for a person to have a religion to have good moral codes. Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) was a Babylonian King who gave one of the First Law in the World. The law was very similar the Mosaic Law, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth". Exodus 21:24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, ...


5

I have not heard any Christian claim this in any academic setting. The most Christians usually say about morality in this context is that without a transcendent law giver no absolute morality can be derived and that without one we are left with either a regress into subjectivity or a complete denial of morality. Or in other words if God is dead than all ...


5

You're not going to find one answer on this. To some, the existence of God is self-evident, to others it's not. Then you get into "what does self-evident mean". Some of those who say God is self-evident claim so because the complexity of creation screams "an intelligent designer made me". But that's not self-evident, it's evidence from creation. ...


5

Lucretius was certainly thinking along the same lines as secular science, yes, with some primitive hints of what later became evolution: Fear holds dominion over mortality Only because, seeing in land and sky So much the cause whereof no wise they know, Men think Divinities are working there. Meantime, when once we know from nothing still ...


4

Christians can and do support a "rational code of ethics". It's how we can form any kind of moral judgement about situations that the bible doesn't explicitly address. The bible doesn't specifically address abortion anywhere, but Christians everywhere take some stance on when a potential human life becomes a human life. Yes, some will say they arrived at ...


4

"Is it anti Christian" is a Truth question. Answering in such a way as to avoid that... From a doctrinal or even denominational perspective, the answer is "no". Do some Christians think this way? Yes. The author of the article does, however, quite accurately describe the mindset of certain types of individuals within more conservative, fundemantalist ...


3

St. Thomas Aquinas addresses this directly in the Summa. Article 6. Whether in God there are any accidents? I answer that, From all we have said, it is clear there can be no accident in God. First, because a subject is compared to its accidents as potentiality to actuality; for a subject is in some sense made actual by its accidents. But ...


3

Romans 1 From a Christian perspective, yes, the existence of God is self-evidence. Paul teaches in the book of Romans about this: (I understand that atheists may take offense to this, but none is intended. This is just the teaching of the Bible.) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by ...


2

I think the answer is implied in this command: You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. (Exodus 20:4, NIV) When we imagine God to have a form we make an idol in our mind, when we carve this image into wood or stone then we make that idol visible. The reason why ...


2

When Jesus says "with God all things are possible" , he means all things that exist or or is possible to exist or is possible to happen. All other things do not exist, has not existed or will not happen. So instead of saying that it is not possible for God to be not strong enough to lift any stone in this Universe, it will be simpler and equally logical ...


2

I really actually know very few Christians who think like this. At most they would argue that any moral code without religious implications is ultimately egoist. This would be to say that moral decisions that seem altruist or selfless are actually, even in a roundabout way, self-serving. This is more philosophical, though, and really any more discussion on ...


2

We need to remember that our human reasoning is flawed. This is because we are fallen beings--not only is our mind much less than perfect due to God's curse on creation in Genesis 3, but we are also sinful, which often corrupts our thinking patterns. Paul warned in Colossians 2: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after ...


2

Because "good" is either a transcendent qualifier or a personal one. If it is a personal one, then it becomes meaningless, as everyone would be perfectly "good" by their own personal moral codes. If, on the other hand, it is a transcendent one, then that "good" is measured against a higher standard. The contention is that without religion, people don't ...


1

No, Christians do not believe in ethical relativism. I'd first like to address the slavery comment in your question. You said: God was not able to provide a moral code that slavery was evil, but using reason man was able to arrive to that conclusion. It's quite a jump to say that God did not provide such a moral code, all the way to saying that ...


1

I know this is more of an argument than an answer, but the question that you asked is based more on stereotype than mainstream belief within the church. I don't blame you because it's actually very common, especially in an age like today where the one-in-a-million weirdo can actually be heard by millions online. Though you might not be interested in ...


1

In my study, I have noticed a heavy Calvinist influence on Lutheranism. In fact, Lutheranism is basically medieval Catholicism, which stresses that the sovereignty of God is absolute over all that is. Guess what? That is the exact first point to Calvinism. Calvinism logically explorers the idea that the sovereignty of God is absolute. The result is ...


1

The divine energy of Eastern Orthodox theology defines the divine 'essence' as an abstract definition of what 'God is', while the 'energy' is the ‘working-energy’ of what God does. The western theological meaning of ‘essence’ includes ‘working energy’ in the definition already. For anybody familiar with programming terms, Eastern Orthodox sort of splits God ...


1

There can be no accidents in God but God has created life so that accidents exist for every member of creation. The reason why no accidents can occur in God is already couched in your question, I presume rhetorically. Nothing in God is truly contingent upon the existence of something else. As God alone is infinite, all that he is is without boundary or ...


1

"Evolution" has a number of different meanings depending on who you ask (or which definition is convenient at the time!) But the simplest answer is no - it is not simply a modern version of Epicureanism. When "Evolution" is used to describe a philosophy, it is generally describing the atheistic, naturalistic philosophy which holds that all creatures ...



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