Btw, here's something I ran across: United States statisticians David Barrett and Todd Johnson count one in three of the world's 6.28 billion humans as Christians (2.1 billion). One in five (1.3 billion) are Muslims; 13.5 percent are Hindus (849 million); and 5.9 percent are Buddhists (371 million). Almost 15 percent (938 million) are non-religious and atheists, but their annual growth rates of 0.8 and 0.2 percent lag well behind the world's population growth rate of 1.2 percent.
>I was justified in saying that Christianity >is experiencing explosive growth. Ok, so my hypothetical trading account which is returning static or perhaps even declining numbers is experiencing "exploding growth" because I made a couple of really great trades yesterday that made a ton of money (of course my other account holdings fell enough to offset those two trades, but that's ok...EXPLODING GROWTH!!!!!). No more positive reenforcement. Your thought processes on this matter clearly suck. You have been unable to touch my assertion that *Christianity* (not sliced and diced into sections and subsections) is NOT currently experiencing "explosive growth", but is rather pretty much static. All of your "southern hemisphere exploding" etc. reasoning is as useful in the debate as is my trading example above. >I was unjustified in saying that Christianity is the >fastest growing religion on the planet. And this is a demonstration of how frustrating it is to debate with you. YOU NEVER EVEN SAID THAT!. You twist and squirm and slice and dice trying to come up with explosive christian growth that doesn't exist overall and then you concede a point that was never in question in the debate. You are amazing. JB
you are confusing the general with the specific: some - many - Jews do indeed believe in "one g-d". what all Jews do NOT believe is that belief in one g-d is necessary for anybody to live a moral life or to achieve righteousness. damir00 ________________________________________________ IMO Evangelicals do not believe that you have to believe in one God to have a moral and righteous life.(somewhat depending on your definition of righteous) Anyone can live a moral and righteous life. Period. To me the Bible is like the owners manual of your car. You were made in a certain way and if you violate some of those design features there will be consequences here and now not in eternity. I have stated before that if you commit murder here and now then chances are you will have to pay here and now.
I don't think you've taken the time to look through what I posted. Only YOUR researcher says that Christianity is flat or declining. Noone that I came across did. Think about it: there are 90 million new Chrisitians in Communist China that weren't there a few decades ago. Do you think that growth is going to stop?!? Same thing with Korea, Latin America, Africa and other parts of Asia. Your researcher is assuming this growth suddenly stops! I say that's ridiculous. Any reasonable growth estimate will assume continued growth in these regions and - wa la! - you have continued explosive growth! Now please explain to me what is wrong with my reasoning instead of falsely accusing me like stu!
I think it's nothing but sour grapes on the part of your more liberal researcher. He sees virtually flat growth among the atheists and tries to twist the numbers for the religious communites as well!
All of your "southern hemisphere exploding" etc. reasoning is as useful in the debate as is my trading example above. turok _______________________________________________ However that is one of the major things that make up the differences between the two schools of thought in the Christian community. I certainly don't dispute your Ralph Winter conclusions or concur with them, we just don't know positively which is correct. I know how hard it is in even one country let alone globally.
Now that is plain silly. Just why the hell would that insult you !! They SHARE the same core God of the old testement. If there is another God of the old testament perhaps you may enlighten me to what that is, apart from another new spin off of an original God idea, I know of none. They share a load of core religious history! I didn't TELL you to, or even suggest you should, accept christian as a part of judaism. So what's the point in suggesting I did. It's easy to read on here what you have just said is nonsense. But it might have been a little more prudent to ask me first off what I meant by the term rather than assuming you knew what I meant. You have not so far been able to follow my drift in context to anything I have been talking of. Arguing that Judeo Christian is a legitimate description has no connection to the matter ofmy statement It is the religionist who demands one true God, no arguments... I dont see why. Jewish Christo might be more relative to the order of things, but I do not see any reason you have yet put forward as to why Judeo christian should not be a term suitable for expressing two faiths connected historically . But this still has nothing to to with the substantiation or rebuttal of my statement. It is altogether a separate matter . I am confusing no such things for the very good reason I did not say that,... read again. I stated clearly my definition for religionist as those who expresses devotion to a deity. I did not say whether it was necessary to do that for a moral life or for any other reason. The very fact that a religionist manifests devotion to a deity makes them a religionist. Nothing else..morallity, decency not in question ....expresses devotion to a deity, that's all. I really do think you have a big unconnect here with "some - many - Jews do indeed believe in "one g-d" .....and ....."what all Jews do NOT believe is that belief in one g-d is necessary for anybody to live a moral life or to achieve righteousness. I never asked you to make that comparison so why did you ?? Right so a Jew can be a religionist, fine. "Judaism is not a "religion" "... may well make no sense, I never even said it was a religion, but you have, then it is your own no-sense... not mine! Look , I never said Jews tell others what to believe . I said It is the religionist who demands one true God.. the religionist expresses devotion to a deity,... now you will tell me Jews who are religionists (those who expresses devotion to a deity) do not believe in one true deity G_d or God or whatever? What?? really?? Is it taht I used the word demands that is bothering you. Do you need me to define the context I used the word ? The remainder of my quote was addressed in context to the christian religionists of which I was referring to anyway re Doubters Christ and sin thing. Nothing hard to understand about this, so what's to be offended about ??... already! No I am not defining religionists as any such thing but what I was referring to, in contaxt with, was the Christ and sin thingy. But now you are drifting toward what I said (hooray) and the context within which I said it. All of the billions and billions are within that category IF THEY EXPRESS DEVOTION TO A DEITY then they are religionist. Religionists BELIEVE in one God otherwise it is not A DIETY No that's what I think you are doing , stating what the subset definitions are yourself , then saying I stated them. For example... Why should I fit my argument to match a broad definition, when I have made a valid and legitimate specific definition??? If you had bothered to enter the argument I was putting to Doubter you would have seen I was referring to a specific X'ian assertion he had made. Just why the bloddy hell should the word religionist uspset anyone??? Is it that you do not like to be considered as one, or is that you are not a religionist? But how would that upset you. If it does, are you sure you should be entering into such conversations in the first place !!
I'm sorry I don't have more time. We will get back to this but I have to catch a plane to Baltimore. As a simple demonstration of how spastic your debating style is, I will leave you with two of your own quotes from the last few hours. These quote diametrically oppose each other. First, your quote from a few hours ago regarding the numbers that I produced: Shoe: >First of all on Turok's side of the argument is David >Barrett, arguably the most respected Christian researcher >in this area, who projects lower overall growth rates >for Christianity. And now your quote from a few minutes ago: >I think it's nothing but sour grapes on the part of your >more liberal researcher. He sees virtually flat growth >among the atheists and tries to twist the numbers for >the religious communites as well! A few hours ago, in your own words David Barrett was one of the most respected Christian researchers in his field. Now a few hours later he is nothing but a "liberal researcher" who for reasons of "sour grapes" is "twisting the numbers". My what a switch. Forget for a moment whose numbers are right or wrong. YOU has some very real reality problems my friend. JB
LOL, you did the Lunar Event.... kiss me shoe .... and where exactly did I ever say you were a liar ??? If I did then I owe you an apology as I try never to call anyone a liar. If I didn't, but simply pointed out how you were wrong about Genesis being "scientifically correct" (don't even go there again ) and Water and Morowitz and .... you owe an apology to me.