I meant while Jesus was alive. Those are all great questions, but I don't think there are any definitive answers, other than choices that we make as far as how to go about it.  Some believe the Bible is the inerrant literal word of God, others believe it was written by people inspired by God, and ot...

Sure, I wasn't trying to completely lay out his teachings or the writings of the Gospel in one sentence - that would be impossible.  According to many stories, he also healed people in a miraculous sort of way, which I didn't mention. And, there's a lot of difficulty even in trying to sort out what ...

Well, a google search will find a lot of sources about the differences. To me, probably one of the biggest is that Paul seems to be the beginning of the idea that Jesus died for our sins, and that it's important to believe that. The teachings of Jesus seem to be more about how to live a good life, t...

I agree that much mainstream theology seems more "Paulian" than "Christian"  :) That's why I go back to the Gospels, to get as close as possible to Christ's actual message and teaching, and even then it's not as close as many believe, and not completely satisfying. But, it seems ...

Well, I give the Gospels a lot more weight than the rest of the NT - Paul never met Jesus, for example. If you look at Jesus' preaching, you find a lot of beautiful stuff about how to live a good life, be closer to God (in some cases, become like God), and parables about how God is a loving Father. ...

Well, if you understand the Bible as having been written by human beings, over many years, and representing their understanding of God and the relationship between God and humanity, it's a little easier to make some sense of it. Earlier texts, like the Old Testament, represent an understanding that ...

If God makes the choice and people are powerless, then the issue of why some people get saved and others are eternally damned raises it's ugly head again, and is very hard to comprehend. It makes a little bit more sense if people have the choice, and then there are consequences for making that choic...

Well, I was just really trying to separate the two in order to have a clear conversation, so that it didn't get derailed. I think the idea of a citizen's dividend is interesting, but not my first choice about how to deal with poverty/income inequality in this country, regardless of immigration polic...

Well, of course they're linked.

But, my point is/was that a citizen's dividend doesn't imply a loose immigration policy, and so if one is opposed to the latter, that's fine, but it's not the same thing as being opposed to the former.

One can support or oppose either of those or both of them.

That's moving the discussion from a citizen's dividend to immigration policies.

A country could decide to implement the first while maintaining strict immigration standards - Denmark is very good to citizens and it's very hard to immigrate there.

Well, I can think of a number of objections. Some might find it odd to give everybody money, when many of the recipients don't need it, preferring to help people who need help rather than everybody.  Others might dislike the lack of requirements to receive the money, so that anybody (even lazy bums)...

Well, I think your first statement is too simplistic. There are some radical "Islamists" who by no means represent Islam in a broad sense who want to attack us.  Percentage-wise, they're a very small group of followers of Islam, most of whom have no interest in a "holy war" with ...

What would you suggest?

he is weasel wording the term own , ..as in.. they don't want to own the means of production... they just want control over every aspect of it ! (except responsibility) in his own words They are defenders of the welfare state. They want more taxes on the rich. They want more regulation of the econo...

Yes, it's complex.

And that makes it hard to sort out and deal with in an effective way.

But, even if our misdeeds aren't a main cause of the problem (I don't know if that's true or not), we could still improve how we operate, which would be a good thing.

It's important to use words correctly. The definition of socialism is that the means of production are owned by the government, or collectively by the people.  It's a "stage" on the road from capitalism to communism, according to Marx and Marxists. Far too many things are called "soci...

It seems crazy to ignore the role that our military operations in other countries plays in creating anti-American sentiment. Its not just military policy the whole of our political, economic (and military) interactions have been ham-handed, not finding a large percentage of people who hate the US be...

Sanders is also quite popular, and for a similar reason, I believe. I've long thought it would be interesting to split into the "conservative" USA and the "liberal" USA so that each group could pursue their policies/plans without interference.  At the very least, I'd like to see ...

Interesting thread.

I agree that there's a lot of overlap on some of these issues, and it would be great if the left and right could get together on them and exert some real political pressure.

There was some discussion that Elizabeth Warren might appeal to a broad group like that.

Well, there's a question about whether or not the universe as a whole can/should be considered an "isolated system".  And, your version of the 2nd law is a bit simplistic, I think, and local areas like the Earth are clearly not isolated systems, so it's quite possible for entropy to decrea...

Well, if somebody gives you a kick in the head, you wouldn't call that a gift, even if they don't expect to be repaid for it.  The word gift implies a positive attribute. So, yes, saying that everything comes from God, without any sort of value judgment would be a better way to say it, from my persp...

No problem.

Good luck with that - I'll be interested to see where you wind up.

I asked if you believed suffering was a gift from God, and you answered with how you have come to accept suffering, even though it's unpleasant. That's not a direct answer. If you believe suffering is a gift from God, how is it a gift?  Why is it good? Greg, you have a whole list of different belief...

Greg, a quick glance at your charts shows that although you speak of a "warm" deism that believes in an involved deity, you block that part red in your later comparison. Seems to me that a warm deism would cover all of your bases as well. Of course, calling something "wrong" beca...

Well, not really. It sounds as if you weren't feeling fulfilled at various other churches, and felt more so at LCMS churches. That happens to a lot of people in different ways, I'm sure.  And, the things that are satisfying to some aren't to others. If you create a circular, self-referential set of ...