How does a heart become pure without Christ?

Exercise.

Yuyutsu

Thank you for your answer. The doctrine we live is certainly more important than the doctrine we claim to believe.

Certainly Jesus did speak the wisest words ever penned. Among those quoted by you was

'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.'

The meek or humble will understand their desperate need of a Saviour.

Tailsman seems very confused about what self righteousness is. Self righteousness is the thought that you are pure enough to be in God's presence on one's own merits. It is those who reject God's mercy and grace that are self righteous not those who accept His.

@ Blue Cross,

I don't care if you think that "Religion is a cancer, and it needs to be excised when it becomes a danger" - what I'd like to know is HOW you plan to destroy my religion? So, what are your plans for the Christians who know more about the atheist worldview than most atheists but still have faith in God? And who decides when religion has become a danger? Will atheism ever become a danger?

Maybe not a good reason, TBC. But a reason nonetheless.

>>Pericles, "It is also a warm and comfortable habit for millions of people who never actively think about it", indeed, but that does not exactly translate into a reason for it.<<

My point was, why pick a fight with essentially harmless people, by planning the "further destruction" of a part of their lives that they value, however slightly, and would therefore feel deprived of?

I suspect that "Neighbours" is also a warm and comfortable habit for millions of people who never actively question why they spend thirty minutes a day watching mindless pap.

But I suggest that is not a good reason to ban it.

>>...it would be more valuable if we did not grant some people special powers to impose themselves in the first place<<

That is exactly what I had in mind, when I suggested we use legal redress against the results of religion, rather than religion itself.

"I am Australian. I am a bedragled refugee from the "Holy" Roman Catholic Church now a proud and very active Atheist. I am very well read in the Bible, Ancient History, Ancient Egypt and the history of the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Church."

Good for you.

However, recent evidence from science (especially from the field of cosmology) such as the Big-Bang seems to suggest the existence of a supreme being rather than naturalism.

The God-Delusion Debate (Dawkins-Lennox)

Both sides seems to have good arguments for their case. They agree on many points about the dangers of faith. John Lennox arguing for theism is pretty good.

The God-Delusion Debate (Dawkins-Lennox)
http://www.fixed-point.org/index.php/video/35-full-length/164-the-dawkins-lennox-debate

FALSEHOODSNOW78,

Atheism isn’t a worldview, so how could Christians know more about it than atheists? And what is it that you claim Christians know about atheism that atheists themselves don’t?

Philip Tang,

<<However, recent evidence from science (especially from the field of cosmology) such as the Big-Bang seems to suggest the existence of a supreme being rather than naturalism.>>

And how exactly does the big bang suggest the existence of a supreme being?