LoP Guest  Wrote:

The difference between Christians and unbelievers is like children who trust their parents and those who don't. The Christian child trusts that his parents know more than he does and that they love him. So when his parents tell him not to do certain things, such as, for example, play with fire, the Christian child trusts their wisdom and avoids playing with fire no matter how fascinating the flames may appear. The unbelieving child does not trust its parents and decides that such lovely bright flames can't hurt him so he tries to catch a flame, and gets burned.

You see, there are some things which children do not, and cannot understand at their early stage of life, but they are wise to trust their parents instructions. In the same way, adult Christians and unbelievers do not, and cannot understand at our mortal human stage, but we are wise to trust God's superior wisdom and heed His instructions to us.

When the children have grown into adults they then see and understand why their parents forbade them to do certain things, and realize how right and good their parents were in their care of them. The same will happen when human beings move beyond this mortal clay and into "spiritual adults" who can see and understand through the light of their souls that God was right, and that it was good to heed His wise instructions.

Unbelievers need to realize the futility of trying to understand the Infinite Mind of God with their finite mortal mind.

So...following your "logic" here. What do you say about santa claus, the easter bunny or the tooth fairy? You should trust in your parents' wisdom right? So by your logic, again, if you trust your parents' wisdom you would literally be running around waiting for santa to bring you your pay raise. Parents and especially the church are not the authority, or full of wisdom for that matter. If you don't question anything, you are sheeple...and ignorant sheeple at that.

LoP Guest  Wrote:

The difference between Christians and unbelievers is like children who trust their parents and those who don't. The Christian child trusts that his parents know more than he does and that they love him. So when his parents tell him not to do certain things, such as, for example, play with fire, the Christian child trusts their wisdom and avoids playing with fire no matter how fascinating the flames may appear. The unbelieving child does not trust its parents and decides that such lovely bright flames can't hurt him so he tries to catch a flame, and gets burned.

You see, there are some things which children do not, and cannot understand at their early stage of life, but they are wise to trust their parents instructions. In the same way, adult Christians and unbelievers do not, and cannot understand at our mortal human stage, but we are wise to trust God's superior wisdom and heed His instructions to us.

When the children have grown into adults they then see and understand why their parents forbade them to do certain things, and realize how right and good their parents were in their care of them. The same will happen when human beings move beyond this mortal clay and into "spiritual adults" who can see and understand through the light of their souls that God was right, and that it was good to heed His wise instructions.

Unbelievers need to realize the futility of trying to understand the Infinite Mind of God with their finite mortal mind.

So...following your "logic" here. What do you say about santa claus, the easter bunny or the tooth fairy? You should trust in your parents' wisdom right? So by your logic, again, if you trust your parents' wisdom you would literally be running around waiting for santa to bring you your pay raise. Parents and especially the church are not the authority, or full of wisdom for that matter. If you don't question anything, you are sheeple...and ignorant sheeple at that.

akhenaten  Wrote:

LoP Guest  Wrote:

The difference between Christians and unbelievers is like children who trust their parents and those who don't. The Christian child trusts that his parents know more than he does and that they love him. So when his parents tell him not to do certain things, such as, for example, play with fire, the Christian child trusts their wisdom and avoids playing with fire no matter how fascinating the flames may appear. The unbelieving child does not trust its parents and decides that such lovely bright flames can't hurt him so he tries to catch a flame, and gets burned.

You see, there are some things which children do not, and cannot understand at their early stage of life, but they are wise to trust their parents instructions. In the same way, adult Christians and unbelievers do not, and cannot understand at our mortal human stage, but we are wise to trust God's superior wisdom and heed His instructions to us.

When the children have grown into adults they then see and understand why their parents forbade them to do certain things, and realize how right and good their parents were in their care of them. The same will happen when human beings move beyond this mortal clay and into "spiritual adults" who can see and understand through the light of their souls that God was right, and that it was good to heed His wise instructions.

Unbelievers need to realize the futility of trying to understand the Infinite Mind of God with their finite mortal mind.

So...following your "logic" here. What do you say about santa claus, the easter bunny or the tooth fairy? You should trust in your parents' wisdom right? So by your logic, again, if you trust your parents' wisdom you would literally be running around waiting for santa to bring you your pay raise. Parents and especially the church are not the authority, or full of wisdom for that matter. If you don't question anything, you are sheeple...and ignorant sheeple at that.

I don't agree with the guest's analogy, but think that you have raised an interesting response.

Parents try their best to protect their children from harm and also (hopefully) teach them that being good has its rewards...Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy...it should be positive reinforcement for good behavior.

But, the reason I don't agree with the guest's analogy is that most man-made organized religious beliefs teach that God will kill you or punish you for eternity if you don't read the bible, if you don't attend church services or if you don't follow some other man-made construct.

What type of loving parent would totally disown a child because the child didn't listen to them or decided to believe something different than what the parent believes? Geez that just sounds so dysfunctional and controlling.

Why would God who loves us unconditionally ever turn away from us just because we don't practice Christianity? So all the other people all over the world are doomed to eternal suffering because God only wants us to believe in Christianity? Sorry, not buying it.

Seek God's grace and love in yourself, seek God's glory in the world around you...watch a sunrise, a sunset, watch your children playing and laughing. We don't need man-made organized revealed religion to be loved by God, we just need to ask for God's grace and love.