Dear Is Mise,

Church, like many other words, has more than one meaning. Of course one can ignore the other meanings and say it means such and such as you have done. In Webster's New International Dictionary the word, church, is listed as a noun, adjective and verb. As a noun it has six definitions including subdivisions of those definitions. e. g. 1: a building set apart for public esp. Christian worship as a: the principal house of a parish b: a house of worship in Great Britain for members of the established or formerly established church as distinguished from those of nonconformists and Roman Catholics - compare CHAPEL. The word has five more definitions as a noun.

The particular meaning of the word, church, that is applicable depends on the context in which it is used.

One thing I do not take much notice of atheists and their uneducated views of Christ and his teachings. The blind leading the blind. Following Christ is about character, attitude, motivation, justice action, and insight and wisdom.

The term "church" in the New Testament in Greek is ekklesia and merely means people meeting.

That’s an ad hominem fallacy, Josephus.

<<One thing I do not take much notice of atheists and their uneducated views of Christ and his teachings.>>

You forget that many atheists used to be Christians, and that some of us spent years studying the Bible. Does your Pastor not hold Bible study groups? Apparently not. Either that, or you’re not going to them.

<<Following Christ is about character, attitude, motivation, justice action, and insight and wisdom.>>

Following Christ is about many different things to many different people. The Christian Right have a pretty screwed up version of what it means to follow Christ, for starters.

Josephus.

The atheist sees themselves as only a human.

The religious are so egotistical, they think they have this divine God who is obsessively interested in them.
You believe the divine God has your interests at heart, well according to you God controls and made nature.

You go out into the wilderness without all your city protections for 6months, nature will
Put an end to you very quickly.

Without mankinds discoveries in medicine, it would be like the old days, where many never made it past childhood diseases and the,life expectancy was about 30years
Shows how special God thinks mankind is. When left at the mercy of his creation. It is only mankind longing to be special that thinks there is a God .

Atheists at least merely see themselves as human beings unloved and unprotected by some deity.

CHEERFUL,
You forget the highest intelligence made man in his image. That makes him the highest intelligence created. It is this man that has changed his world for better; and it is this man that has created havoc in this World.

You say,"Atheists at least merely see themselves as human beings unloved and unprotected by some deity." As I thought unloved and insecure!

God is expressed in the pure character, caring behaviour and wisdom we show in our lives. God is not distant He is eminent in the reality of life. It is just that most persons are essentially self centred and some rebellious. However Know this, you are loved by the one who created the Universe, and you are not alone.

This is the Equivocation fallacy, Josephus.

<<As I thought unloved and insecure!>>

I don’t think CHERFUL’s use of the word ‘unprotected’ was meant to imply ‘anxious’ and ‘lacking confidence’.

<<[God] is eminent in the reality of life. It is just that most persons are essentially self centred and some rebellious.>>

The “reality of life” is not evidence for a god, and one cannot rebel against something for which there is no reliable evidence.

There also is nothing self-centered about believing that the billions of galaxies in the universe were not created purely with us in mind. Indeed, the opposite is true: it is arrogant and self-centred to believe that we are the centre and the purpose of the universe.

Theism is self-centred arrogance. Atheism requires humility.