Top products from r/dankchristianmemes

not worth the effort

here is a great reference guide on information analysis. hope it helps =)

Imo, NIV cuts out a lot of rather inconvenient language that doesn't jive with modern Christianity and King James uses overly grand language for the sake of majestic effect. While there's nothing inherently wrong with either one, I prefer a translation that aims to have the most historically accurate reading. I use NRSV because it's the most academically focused translation but uses standard English and notates whenever important words have debated meanings or when names have important connotations (e.g. the roots of Elohim or YHWH) or there's notable shifts in narrative, contradictory messages, etc. My copy also has accessible scholarly essays giving historical context and extensive footnotes focusing on how readers contemporaneous to the books' writing would have interpreted the material. Here's an amazon link for 14 dollars :)

https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/0195289609/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1525813943&sr=8-2&keywords=oxford+annotated+nrsv

I wish you would've put a question mark at the end, because then I could've assumed that you weren't being condescending (correct me if I'm wrong, I hope you aren't trying to be condescending).

So here is the thing - God wrote his law into nature. We know it intuitively. We just don't follow it because we think we know better. This is true if you are in the Bible belt or some isolated tribe in the amazon. People tend to be pretty comfortable living this way, because that little pang of conscience we get when we sin gets smaller and ^smaller ^and ^^smaller. What people don't get about heaven and hell though is that for those who are comfortable in their sins, whether they be sexual promiscuity, or greed, or arrogance, or whatever, heaven is a very unpleasant place. Without some pretty major, invasive transformation, no one would enjoy being there, because the lies we tell ourselves about how we are good people become painfully obvious. Every time in the Bible that someone apprehends God in his glory, they fall down in stark terror. We need to be cleansed in order to enjoy the pleasures of God.

So, every day, that isolated tribesman has a choice. Does he live a life of moral perfection? Or does he compare himself against others, decide he's not that bad, and live life for himself? Invariably he chooses to do the latter, and every time that is a choice against the salvation that you say he is doomed to miss. But here is the thing - he wouldn't want that salvation. None of us do. The conversion from nonchristian to saint in heaven is very long and painful, and there isn't a single person who would want to arrive at that destination if asked about it before that process is started.

CS Lewis (author of the Narnia series) wrote a fascinating thought experiment on this subject, called The Great Divorce.

I’m no philosopher, and wouldn’t be able to articulate it as well as others have. If you truly care, there is a wide variety of literature on the subject.

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/kenan-malik-on-morality-without-god/

http://ebooks.bharathuniv.ac.in/gdlc1/gdlc4/Arts_and_Science_Books/arts/philosophy/Books/Elements%20of%20Moral%20Philosophy.pdf

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Morality-Introduction-Ethics-Bernard-Williams/dp/0521457297

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/052143971X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_yewmAbY8W8TGR

My non-abstinent friends seemed to like this one

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V2P36CR/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=i+love+virginity&qid=1562962278&s=apparel&sr=1-1

No, stop being a sell-out for an unbelieving world. Watch this or study the message of Abraham to learn what the Christian faith requires—it requires you to become an absolute singularity unconcerned with the public. If God finds it fitting for your message to achieve universal approval, He’ll take care of it on his end.

This isn't a theory but my own collection of several independent sources. Books I would recommend include The Orthodox Corruption of Sciprture and various gnostic texts available online.

I just can't be bothered writing you a wikipedia article, simply because you don't have the required background knowledge to follow my meaning.

Why not read a book instead? This one is interesting enough.

Dude these are my favorite. I buy them as a snack. You can get them on Amazon

NT Wright: “am I a joke to you?”


https://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Hope-Rethinking-Resurrection-Mission/dp/0061551821

Holy Bible: Stock Car Racing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0310948630/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_422kDbHDM0NZJ

It's real, I want one!

I see your bet and raise you

Asia, mostly. https://www.amazon.com/Lamb-Gospel-According-Christs-Childhood/dp/0380813815

It's an allegory for a psychedelic

Actually, that's a real thing....https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Teen-Bible-Regrets-Promise/dp/0718001648/ref=pd_sim_14_1/130-6717820-5028337?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0718001648&pd_rd_r=74DZ2HNETFND3V3TFAFA&pd_rd_w=KXXdj&pd_rd_wg=4nlb9&psc=1&refRID=74DZ2HNETFND3V3TFAFA

Matthew 7:7

The reviews are a total riot.
https://www.amazon.com/Helping-Retarded-Know-H-R-Hahn/product-reviews/0570063507

Josephus wasn't a contemporary of any of the first Christians. He was born 4 years after the alleged Jesus allegedly died. It's all secondhand, a pastiche of the legends. Look up 'Nailed' by David Fitzgerald, Jesus' historicity is by no means established.

Tell them that it is wrong and explain how it hurts them and their perspective of relationships. As a Christian (who struggles with it) I believe that lust/porn/masturbation is sin. BUT YOU MUST NOT demonize the sin or them. It is a very difficult thing to struggle with (especially in our culture) but you must not demonize it. Nearly everyone struggles/has struggled with it before.

The main issue with the way abstinence only education is that they don't know how to respond. They don't know how sex works on a physical, mental or spiritual level aside from, "Wait until marriage." They don't know how far they can take it without sinning and they don't even know how far they can take without doing something stupid. You can't tell someone (who is a human being designed for sex) that they mustn't even look the wrong way at someone or they'll go to hell. I'd recommend a book "Every young man's battle. It's a book (from a Christian perspective) of how to deal with that stuff. It's a very real and relate-able book that has many good ideas and techniques even if you aren't Christian. Both the authors struggled with lust/porn/masturbation/pre-marital sex but eventually left it behind.

TL;DR Explain how it's wrong but never ever demonize them or the issue. It's not the end of the world. Good luck buddy.

Ha, thanks!

I'm familiar with the debate you speak of -- but this is a different, very real, very stupid debate from people who believe Jesus didn't exist. Like I said, they're pretty much antivaxxers: they latch on to bits of misinformation which they use to argue a fringe position, and wage war on anyone who dares disagree. They've also taken over a lot of the atheist community. Here's a debate where Bart Ehrman (a Bible scholar I really like) debates mythicist Robert Price. Ehrman also wrote a whole book refuting the hypothesis. Here's another massive resource refuting mythicism from redditor and historian u/timoneill.