Ponder,

<<Why the obsessive attention to a belief system? Does Christianity relate to facts and truths, or is it just a fantasy of faith?>>

Out of your and my beliefs will flow actions. Christianity is based on facts & truths. The Apostle Paul made that clear:

'If Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins' (1 Corinthians 15:14-16).

Without the fact of Jesus Christ's resurrection, preaching for Christ is useless, as is Christian faith.

That's why it's important to understand the faith of anyone, whether atheist, pantheist or theist. All such world views impact on what we do in life.

Lets talk about 'Christian peer pressure'.

From the time you're in the baby seat you're off to church.

Do you believe in God they ask?

If you say "No" or "I don't know" they say "Don't you want to go to heaven?" and "You don't want to go to hell do you?"
[Soliciting a response]

So you say "Yes" just to shut them up, but that doesn't help things;
Because once you say that, they start carving out all the intricate beliefs for you.

"Well if you're a real Christian then you must believe in this and that and this and this, and this - otherwise you're going to hell."

"You can't listen to that, It's devil music, you'll go to hell"
"You can't look at that female, you're a sodomite and you're going to hell"
"You can't wear that it's immodest, you'll go to hell"
"You can't be associating with those people, you'll go to hell"

Or they'll manipulate you with scripture,

"Obviously if you believe in God and Jesus that you must believe everything in the bible is correct as it's the word of God".

"You must believe that God parted the sea and Jesus fed an thousands with a single loaf of bread;
If not, you lack faith and are going to hell"

It's just one big psy-op of manipulation and control, from cradle to the grave.

Armchair Critic,

<<It's just one big psy-op of manipulation and control, from cradle to the grave.>>

Your last post presented a Strawman Fallacy of misrepresentation of Christianity, http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/169/Strawman-Fallacy. You gave a plethora of your points of antagonism to Christianity. You changed biblical Christianity to your misrepresented version of the argument of my article.

Why do you refuse to deal with the content of my article? Your reply here is fallacious reasoning. We can't have a rational discussion when you do this.

Now let's get back to a point I made in the article: Religion and politics don't mix. Is this a true or false statement? Please give reasons for either view.

OzSpen states that:

"Without the fact of Jesus Christ's resurrection, preaching for Christ is useless, as is Christian faith.

That's why it's important to understand the faith of anyone, whether atheist, pantheist or theist. All such world views impact on what we do in life."

That claim supports the reasoning that faith is the essence of religions.
If you cannot believe in the concept of resurrection, then as OzSpen suggests, 'preaching for Christ is useless'.

Why allow critical outcomes to depend on faith, instead of fact?

Ponder,

<<That claim supports the reasoning that faith is the essence of religions.
If you cannot believe in the concept of resurrection, then as OzSpen suggests, 'preaching for Christ is useless'.>>

I said nothing whatsoever about ''the concept of resurrection". That's your invention. The issue of historical, bodily resurrection in Christianity is one in which:

+ The resurrection accounts in the New Testament (NT) list 12 different appearances of Christ after his resurrection.

+ They were not hallucinations because they happened in various situations to a number of different people. There is no such thing as a 'group hallucination'.

+ They were physical and tangible evidence because Jesus' actions included eating and speaking with the disciples, touching his side and hands.

Yes, he was immortal (or trans-physical) but he existed bodily on earth until his Ascension.

However, these appearances were physical and tangible in nature, as evidenced by Christ's actions (e.g., eating with the disciples and suggesting that they touch his side and his hands). His resurrected body, though immortal, was undoubtedly a physical body.

<<Why allow critical outcomes to depend on faith, instead of fact?>>

My faith is founded on fact, not on what you consider faith is.

Emeritus professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, Dr Paul L. Maier, concludes:

‘If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable, according to the canons of historical research, to conclude that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has yet been discovered in literary sources, epigraphy, or archaeology that would disprove this statement.’

Dr John Warwick Montgomery, theologian and Christian apologist, comments: ‘It passes the bounds of credibility that the early Christians could have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who might easily have refuted it simply by producing the body of Jesus’.

how anyone who believes in something from nothing, order from chaos, laws from no Law Maker can critise faith is hypocrisy, dumb and irrational. No wonder so many gullible have adopted the gw religion in order to want to look morally superior to others. The world view of god deniers simply lead to the murder of the unborn babies hidden by skin, gross immorality, self righteousness and arrogance. To think that Jesus Christ still chose to die for man in his arrogance is astounding. To reject that kind of love and forgiveness is literally unforgiveable.