Michael Flynn: We should be a nation of One Religion

[K Graham]

Ajax isn't a Christian because he doesn't really care what the Bible says.

In his mind Brietbart > Bible.

1. GOD’S PEOPLE ARE INSTRUCTED NOT TO OPPRESS IMMIGRANTS.
Exodus 22:21 – “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”

Exodus 23:9 – “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

2. GOD’S PEOPLE ARE TO TREAT IMMIGRANTS JUST LIKE CITIZENS.
Leviticus 19:33,34 – “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

Deuteronomy 23:16 – “Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.”

Ezekiel 47:22,23 – “You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign LORD.”

3. GOD’S PEOPLE ARE TO LOVE AND HELP FOREIGNERS AS THEY WOULD THEIR OWN POOR BROTHER.
Leviticus 25:35-37 – “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit.”

Deuteronomy 10:18,19 – “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

4. GOD EXPECTS HIS PEOPLE TO SHOW JUSTICE TO FOREIGNERS.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15,17 – “Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin… Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.”

Zechariah 7:10 – “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”

5. THOSE WHO SEEK TO WITHHOLD JUSTICE FROM FOREIGNERS ARE TO BE CURSED.
Deuteronomy 27:19 – “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

Malachi 3:5 – “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.”

6. GOD EQUATES OPPRESSING FOREIGNERS WITH MISTREATING ORPHANS AND WIDOWS.
Ezekiel 22:7 – “In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow.”

Zechariah 7:10 – “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”

Psalm 146:9 – “The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”

7. GOD EQUATES OPPRESSING FOREIGNERS WITH THE SHEDDING OF INNOCENT BLOOD AND IDOLATRY.
Jeremiah 7:6 – “if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm.”

Jeremiah 22:3 – “This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”

These verses make it abundantly clear that God’s view towards the foreigner is markedly different than that projected by American Evangelicals.

Perhaps the most absurd Evangelical argument made against embracing illegal immigrants is made by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association.

[Some Schmo]

A classic argument against atheism is that without God no one would feel the need to do good, and we'd just rape and kill with reckless abandon as our natural selves take over because in the mind of an atheist there would be no eternal consequences.

Eternal consequences shouldn't concern anyone as much as temporal consequences, since the temporal ones tend to have a direct impact on our lives, and all.

I'll never understand favoring an imagined "next" life over the one we know we have... unless the one we have really sucks, I guess.

I think that's kinda where Ajax's mind was heading when he asked you that dumb question as if it were some philosophical mystery how atheists could even have a conscience.

Perhaps. I don't trust ajax to ask honest questions, so I'm not sure what motivates him (other than fear, misinformation and irrational hatred).

I think it's laughable he'd expect me to answer a question of his, considering the dozens of questions of mine he's ignored. And that's pretending he's here for serious conversation.

[Gunnar]

If you actually openly espouse and try to live up to the biblical principles that KG just listed, Trumpist conservatives will accuse you of being a Godless Communist.

[Some Schmo]

If you actually openly espouse and try to live up to the biblical principles that KG just listed, Trumpist conservatives will accuse you of being a Godless Communist.

Well, in their defense, that's only because Jesus was a godless communist.

[ajax18]

As Dawkins pointed out, the reason people can identify what's good and bad in the Bible is that they are naturally endowed with a sense of right and wrong.

That was my question Schmo. What naturally endows people with a sense of right and wrong?

[K Graham]

As Dawkins pointed out, the reason people can identify what's good and bad in the Bible is that they are naturally endowed with a sense of right and wrong.

That was my question Schmo. What naturally endows people with a sense of right and wrong?

Who cares? Whatever it is, you don't have it. Which says plenty about your "faith."

[canpakes]

As Dawkins pointed out, the reason people can identify what's good and bad in the Bible is that they are naturally endowed with a sense of right and wrong.

That was my question Schmo. What naturally endows people with a sense of right and wrong?

Instinct, common sense and reason.

Folks learned cooperative behavior, some of which can be interpreted as helping or respecting others, because it ensured the survival of themselves within their group. Sometimes, self-interest is enhanced through an interest in others that benefits both parties. Pretty straightforward, yes?

Now, what is it about Jesus Christ that informs conscience in a way that instinct, common sense and reason cannot?

Remember your comment about dodging questions? Are you going to keep dodging this one?

[Some Schmo]

That was my question Schmo. What naturally endows people with a sense of right and wrong?

Who cares? Whatever it is, you don't have it. Which says plenty about your "faith."

I do think just about everyone is born with it, but many are taught (indirectly) to ignore it. My guess is that ajax is in that bucket.

On the other hand, he could be a psychopath and has only a theoretical notion of what a conscience is. That would explain glomming it onto religion.

[ajax18]

Now, what is it about Jesus Christ that informs conscience in a way that instinct, common sense and reason cannot?

If a conscience is nothing more than the brain one is born with and how it was educated, how does that individual have free will to choose between right and wrong?

[canpakes]

Now, what is it about Jesus Christ that informs conscience in a way that instinct, common sense and reason cannot?

If a conscience is nothing more than the brain one is born with and how it was educated, how does that individual have free will to choose between right and wrong?

The same way that an individual has the free will to lift their finger.

Are you going to answer my earlier question, or just keep dodging with a half dozen more of your own?