1) In this, two definitions of the word ‘believe’ are used. One being “do you ACCEPT it as true” and the other being “do you THINK/PERCIEVE it as true”. The 2nd mans response can be taken as he FULLY agrees with the sentence because he’s agreeing with the two different definitions of the word ‘believe’:

A) He can’t “believe” such an obvious fact is written on the board, because (to him) it’s common knowledge that
B) only an idiot would ‘accept it as true’, the statement on the board

2) Yes, there is an error ‘in’ the actual title of the book, but there may be an error ‘in’ the actual book. This statement can’t be taken as true since the statement leaves the reader with the option to pick which definition of the word to use. I.e: ‘Laws’ of nature, ‘Laws’ of the government$

3) Again, word play. ‘No cat’ in the first premise can be taken as two things:
A) ‘No cat’ (a name of a deformed animal with 8 tails) has 8 tails

or

B) No cat (no actual cat in existence) has 8 tails

The second premise can mean:
A) ‘A cat’ (a name of another deformed animal with nine tails) has one more tail then ‘no cat’ (name of first animal)

or

B) a cat (a single cat) has one more tail then no cat (zero cats)

So for

“a cat has nine tails” to be true, one would have to disregard the double meaning of the word ‘cat’ and ‘no’..but one can’t, so it makes the whole thing false..

*shrugs*… I dunno, I’m just talking out my ass. Email me please with the answer. I would like to know

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Your blog post caused a minor stir in the blogosphere. As you know, your post is currently at 1,400+ comments. I’ve read that post many times, and am fairly familiar with your story.

I have many thoughts about your post, some positive, some negative. I plan to do a series of posts in response to your twenty reasons. Feel free to follow them and to comment.

In response to your comment here, I recognize that, yes, many groups think that they have the “True Gospel” but you might perhaps revisit what I said when I wrote that the gospel isn’t ours it’s Christ’s, and so we are all prone to wonder from it. It’s foreign to us all. It goes against our nature and the self-justifying operation of the world. So I don’t claim to have some corner on it, but I can still point out people who are promoting things that are contrary to it.

Thanks again for your comment.

The first thing I’ll say is your basis for the article is everything that is wrong with Christianity. All Christians think their version of Christianity is the “True Gospel” and everyone else is wrong. When the countless denominations can’t even agree with each other, it doesn’t say much for the validity of the Bible or the God Christians worship.

Like myself, you will continue to see people leave the church. I was a passionately devoted follower of Jesus my entire life. Not a false or surface Christian. I lived by faith every day and with every breath.

The Bible is what started my de-conversion. I could no longer rationalize the obvious flaws in the theology, ancient texts, and prophesy of the Bible. Through science and technology, I believe we know far too much to put faith in a primitive book that is full of false folklore. Thus my faith died. It was very difficult at first, but surprisingly I now find life much more fulfilling than I did as a Christian. I’m still a moral person, I just believe in one less god than I used to. The lack of belief in an afterlife makes me truly appreciate every day I have on earth to love my wife and watch my children grow.

With that said, to each his own. If your religious faith gives you fulfillment, I’m not here to talk you out of it.

Perhaps you didn’t really read the post or didn’t finish reading it, otherwise you would know that:

1) I am not worried.

2) I am clearly confident in the power of Christ to lead his church, and that there is nothing anyone can do to destroy it.

To quote:

We have to trust that Christ is Lord of his church. One can neither build nor destroy what is truly his church. He has promised to build his church, and he has promised that no other power will prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). These promises free me to acknowledge what is coming without fret. Christ knows far better than I what to do with his church and how she’ll survive so I’ll leave it to him. We can’t look at a false religion in decline and use it as a reason to wonder if the promises of Christ are true. They are. We may even see Christ carrying out an aspect of that promise when a perversion of the church collapses.

Maybe you don’t like my view that the empire of Evangelical Christianity is going to crumble because you think that this means that I’m saying God is weak somehow. But my view neither implies nor entails that God is weak. There’s no promise in Scripture that Christianity will be a huge infrastructure of power and money. And there’s no promise that Evangelicalism (or Fundamentalism) will continue to exist. Please tell me what purpose or promise of God you have in mind that conflicts with my claims.

So perhaps you can find a criticism that confronts what I actually said. Otherwise, I’m simply dismissing this as pure misunderstanding of what I clearly stated.

I did perhaps overstate my attitude. I shouldn’t say I was offended — at least not in any deep way. I am a little sensitive toward the accusation that I am against certain ideas simply because they came from Baptists. People have accused me of this before with great seriousness, and I disagree with the claim. I enjoy a good jab as much as anyone. So I certainly need to be able to take a few.

Now what about Luke 13, and the idea that every event is a call to repentance?

I apologize if I have offended you. My last point was merely a joke, which I thought was clear by the fact that I called it a false dichotomy and left a smiley face.

For a guy who likes to dish out little jabs (see your first paragraph of your first response to me), I did not think you would mind. My intention was never to offend.

We have many common interests including apologetics and philosophy. I am going to bookmark your site. I look forward to reading more.

All the best in Jesus,

http://www.blogginbaldguy.wordpress.com
http://www.reformeddevotions.wordpress.com