'Sincere' seekers. . .
Farrell Till jftill@midwest.net
Tue, 15 Sep 1998 15:41:32 -0700 (00905917292, 2.2.32.19980915224132.0087b7f0@midwest.net)
At 12:41 PM 9/15/98 -0400, Ronie Mooney wrote:
> In closing, I would like to comment on the complaint that the atheists are
>unneccessarily harsh and derogatory toward the position they are "attacking".
>Although I try to avoid insinuations innuendoes , I can see that sometimes a
>more direct attack can be effective. It is doing no worse than what christians
>used to do to unbelievers for hundreds of years, only what they did was usually
>far worse, death, imprisonment or ostracism. The person should never be
attacked
>but the belief is fair game. A skeptic would fare no better on a predominantly
>christian group than what an inerrantist does on this group. Anyway, Ron, I
>hope this helps you better understand WHY atheists, skeptics and freethinkers
>are sometimes evangelical in their beliefs.
TILL
On the point that Dave has made here, consider Stephen's concluding remarks
in his speech before the council of Jewish leaders:
>Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always
resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
>52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have
slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye
have been now the betrayers and murderers:
>53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not
kept it.
>
Or what about this speech attributed to Jesus?
>Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make
clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of
extortion and excess.
>26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and
platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
>27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto
whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within
full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
>28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are
full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
>29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the
tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
>30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have
been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
>31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of
them which killed the prophets.
>32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
>33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation
of hell?
>
What skeptic or atheist on this list has ever directed language this harsh
at Christian opponents?
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net