Why the Blasphemy Challenge is invalid.

[tothesea]

I know a lot of you blasphemy happy atheists have gotten a lot of joy out of taking the blasphemy challenge, which is the so-called unforgivable sin against God.  Now why anyone who professes unbelief in God would specifically want to do something which would offend that God, or His believers, whatever the reason, is clearly a logically inconsistent person.  Truly, what atheism is these days is not so much against the idea of God but anti-Christian in reality.  That is neither here nor there, however.  If you actually read the bible you would see that, especially in pauls letters, it is outlined what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit actually is.  That is this:

"Hebrews: "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance" (6:4-6a)"

Anyone who blasphemies against the Holy Spirit in ignorance could potentially be forgiven, which means anyone who was not baptized with the Holy Spirit did not commit an unforgivable sin by denying Him.  It is only those who once were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and later on backslid and rejected Him, who can never be redeemed.  They have been so thoroughly corrupted by this act, making unclean what God had blessed and made sacred, that there is no trace left of purity in themselves. 

Since the blasphemy challenge, which supports the Devils work, is okay with Atheists, how about you try the opposite:

Introducing the Sanctity Challenge!

To take the sanctity challenge, simply say these words with sincerity:

"I renounce Satan and all of his works"
"Though I have no proof of Gods existence, and do not understand the ways of His believers, I am open to receiving revelation of Gods existence from Him personally.  I ask now in sincerity for revelation from you, God, to enlighten me to your existence and to guide me into all truth."

Do you have the courage to take that challenge?  Knock and the door will open.  Your move.

tothesea

[Dante]

Tried it. The door's still closed. Weird, huh?

[frofrodajimmyboy]

It is only those who once were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and later on backslid and rejected Him, who can never be redeemed. 

I should probably mention that a majority of the people here would fit that description.

[Ashe]

To take the sanctity challenge, simply say these words with sincerity:

"I renounce Satan and all of his works"
"Though I have no proof of Gods existence, and do not understand the ways of His believers, I am open to receiving revelation of Gods existence from Him personally.  I ask now in sincerity for revelation from you, God, to enlighten me to your existence and to guide me into all truth."

Do you have the courage to take that challenge?  Knock and the door will open.  Your move.

Done. Now what?
Is there a specific Bible book I should read now, too, or what? What happens next?

[Hatter23]

I get a lot of joy out of mocking that which is ludicrous and treated with great solemnity. I didn't think it challenging.

Your sanctity challenge, I cannot say with sincerity that which is ludicrous, so I cannot meet it. Before you judge me, please take the challenge of worshipping the flying spaghetti monster for two weeks...you know, with sincerity.

[truehyuga]

So the Blasphemy challenge is invalid if you weren't baptized a Christian? Because that is practically everyone here, and the majority of U.S. Atheists, at least.
Also:

 Now why anyone who professes unbelief in God would specifically want to do something which would offend that God, or His believers, whatever the reason, is clearly a logically inconsistent person.

If you payed attention, you'd notice that the Blasphemy challenge originated to poke fun at the fact that, according to your Holy Text, rapists, murderers, liars and thieves could be forgiven and gain eternal salvation, whilst those who made fun of a shiny dove (Holy Spirit) were damned forever.

I'll give you a 2/10, best I can do.

[Asmoday]

What makes you think that the atheists who were once Christians have not already asked for that in full sincerity while they were still Christians?

What makes you think that the atheists, who never were Christians in the first place, have not sincerely searched if the Christian religion might be the real thing?


You still cling to your little idea that all atheists are closet satanists or at least somewhere deep inside "know" that God is real. You are one of those Christians who just can't grasp the concept of someone sincerely reading the bible in search for answers and when the last page is turned asking "What the f**k?! Who in their right mind can believe this?!" instead of doing what you did and drop to the knees and yell "Praise Jesus!" with tears in the eyes.

Sorry to disappoint, but to me neither God nor Satan are any more real than Voldemort, Darth Vader or Sky Net. I have already looked at Christianity and read the bible "with an open mind" (as Christians ask us atheists ever so often) and when I was done with it I found the "holy book" to be a collection of errors, bronze age superstitions and utterly despicable primitive moral values.

So when I was sincerely considering if the Christian god was real or not, why was there no revelation? So either God was not interested in me being a believer and spiritually saved, or there simply is no God, no divine enlightenment, no nothing.

(I'm willing to bet that if there's going to be response to this at all it will be the good old no-true-scotsman telling me and everybody else in here that we may have searched before but that we actually have not been really really really sincere in searching for God because if we had been, of course we would be good Christians now.  Any takers? )

[One Above All]

Why is this preaching topic here?

[velkyn]

I know a lot of you blasphemy happy atheists have gotten a lot of joy out of taking the blasphemy challenge, which is the so-called unforgivable sin against God.  Now why anyone who professes unbelief in God would specifically want to do something which would offend that God, or His believers, whatever the reason, is clearly a logically inconsistent person.

Being that I'm an atheist, specifically sayign that "God is imaginary." or "I deny the existence of the holy ghost." is ridicule and demonstrates how much I do not believe in any fear-inducing deity.    

 

Truly, what atheism is these days is not so much against the idea of God but anti-Christian in reality.  That is neither here nor there, however.

If it is "neither here nor there, why mention it? Why make a baseless claim and then say it doesn't matter?  

If you actually read the bible you would see that, especially in pauls letters, it is outlined what blasphemy against the Holy Spirit actually is.

Sigh.  I have actually read the bible, a couple of times.  Let's look at your verses.

"Hebrews: "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance" (6:4-6a)"

If someone has been enlightened by this magical stuff, how can they fall away? Is it so unimpressive? Also, how is it that anyone can "recruxify" Jesus by simply saying he doesn't exist, when having no evidence that he has?

And if people can accept and reject God, what does that say about the claims by Paul that God picks and chooses who beleives on a whim, in Romans 9? I haven't seen any thing like a heavenly gift, reading the bible, or even when I prayed for it.  Why not? Am I still safe since God hasn't bothered showing me the special stuff?  

Anyone who blasphemies against the Holy Spirit in ignorance could potentially be forgiven, which means anyone who was not baptized with the Holy Spirit did not commit an unforgivable sin by denying Him.  It is only those who once were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and later on backslid and rejected Him, who can never be redeemed.  They have been so thoroughly corrupted by this act, making unclean what God had blessed and made sacred, that there is no trace left of purity in themselves.  

A claim which always amuses me because it underlines how harmful missionaries could be if any of this nonsense was real.

Since the blasphemy challenge, which supports the Devils work, is okay with Atheists, how about you try the opposite:
Introducing the Sanctity Challenge!
To take the sanctity challenge, simply say these words with sincerity:
"I renounce Satan and all of his works"
"Though I have no proof of Gods existence, and do not understand the ways of His believers, I am open to receiving revelation of Gods existence from Him personally.  I ask now in sincerity for revelation from you, God, to enlighten me to your existence and to guide me into all truth."
Do you have the courage to take that challenge?  Knock and the door will open.  Your move.

Okay, took the challenge a long time ago when I was in the process of losing my faith. I prayed to God for help keeping it intact.  And look where it got me. You see, inthesea, your magic spells don't work.  I can say the spell with all of the conviction of a child and it still doesn't work. You'll of course just say that I wasn't sincere "enough", just like Linus in the pumpkin patch.  Your god is as imaginary as the Great Pumpkin.  
 

[Hatter23]

I found the "holy book" to be a collection of errors, bronze age superstitions and utterly despicable primitive moral values.

to be fair it also contained some nice moral lessons that one could have picked up by watching Sesame Street, but Sesame Street is superior in that there weren't atrocities and errors mixed in, plus you get to pick up on some basic math and english.

Really, If you want to weigh the moral and real world value: Sesame Street is far more advanced and valuable than the Bible. Praise be to Grover.

[truehyuga]

You still cling to your little idea that all atheists are closet satanists or at least somewhere deep inside "know" that God is real. You are one of those Christians who just can't grasp the concept of someone sincerely reading the bible in search for answers and when the last page is turned asking "What the fuck?! Who in their right mind can believe this?!" instead of doing what you did and drop to the knees and yell "Praise Jesus!" with tears in the eyes.

Don't paint the OP wrongly! It isn't that he/she read the Bible through and then dropped to his/her knees and yelled "Praise Jesus!".
The OP probably just never read it through. 

[TopolX]

What if someone happens to view Satan as a valid and respectable deity? Why would they want to piss him off to see if your so-called God will enlighten them?

Anyhoo you want my move, how about Dead Hand1[1] to God1, checkmate  (I blame Asmoday for mentioning SkyNet)

1.	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand_(nuclear_war)

[Alzael]

Ok. In the name of fairness I took the Sanctity Challenge. After repeating it several times the end result is that I still think Jesus was a prat, and god is still a foul-tempered bully. The only noticeable effect is that Satan tweeted me and told me if I keep this up we're no longer BFF's.

Seriously how weak is your gods message if people can be strayed away from it so easily? Especially since if your theology is true then Satan is at best on the second string team of cosmic entities. Maybe the fact that there are so many multitudes who don't believe in your gods message should be a sign that perhaps your god isn't real. Or at the very least he kind of sucks.

[Don_Quixote]

"I renounce Satan and all of his works"
"Though I have no proof of Gods existence, and do not understand the ways of His believers, I am open to receiving revelation of Gods existence from Him personally.  I ask now in sincerity for revelation from you, God, to enlighten me to your existence and to guide me into all truth."

Do you have the courage to take that challenge?  Knock and the door will open.  Your move.

tothesea

I renounce Pink Unicorns and all of his works. Though I have no proof of magical-bridge-under-the-sea-of-chocolate-candy, and do not understand the ways of his believers, I am open to receiving revelation of magical-bridge-under-the-sea-of-chocolate-candy existence from him personally. I ask now in sincerity for revelation from you, mighty chocolate, to enlighten me to your existence and to guide me into all truth.

*buys a chocolate bar* It works! the magical bridge exists. Your move.

[blahsphemer]

I know a lot of you blasphemy happy atheists have gotten a lot of joy out of taking the blasphemy challenge, which is the so-called unforgivable sin against God. 

Howdy tothesea
why don't you try this
"Though I have no proof of the Flying Spaghetti Monster existence, and do not understand the ways of His believers, I am open to receiving revelation of Flying Spaghetti Monster existence from Him personally.  I ask now in sincerity for revelation from you, Flying Spaghetti Monster, to enlighten me to your existence and to guide me into all truth."

Do you have the courage to take that challenge tothesea?  Knock and the door will open.  Your move tothesea.
HAIL RAMEN AND PASS THE PASTA!

[pingnak]

Well, at least Christians don't kill you for apostasy... at least they haven't done much of that lately, which is an improvement over past generations of that religion of 'forgiveness'.

Why isn't the brave, brave Christian afraid of his own lack of faith in Islam? 

They make all the same promises and threats as the christians do.  They are just as certain that Christians are hell-bound.

Yet SOMEHOW we aren't given the advice to kowtow to BOTH religions.

Never mind the lack of spiritual growth and icky negative karma you accumulate from not studying some of the eastern religions.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all religions of hate and fear, worshiping false 'gods' and spreading terror of imaginary things (i.e. mental illness) everywhere.  I reject them all, and every other religion as well.

Your 'gods' are nothing more than a figment of your diseased imagination.  Religion is nothing more than a disgusting form of mental leprosy.

Your 'gods' and their prophets are laughable things that even children should mock.  Especially children.

FORCING children to fear your imaginary terrors is child abuse.

[voodoo child]

Is there anyway for Christians to be arrested for serving bullshit on golden platters?

Tothesea,
I am so happy my father never read the bible to me as a child, I finally understood why in my twenties. Catholic nuns hung him over a Well for cutting the toes off his shoes because they were too small for him.
It took a Canadian premier to apologise in place of the pope, for the wrong that was handed to the indigenous people of this country. really it should have been the pope himself.

 When my parents split I was sent to institutions that were religious in nature, I had already been introduced to dinosaur bones well before hand.

So the first few pages of the bible seemed like bullshit to me. But I read on, not because I wanted to but because I was forced too.

You call it blasphemy, we call it fiction, badly written fiction. I was not born into religion but many members on this site were. take the time to listen to them, instead of making up threats from an unknown. who's Satan, are we talking about expensive bed spreads?

In the last two hundred years or so people have learned to see past the bullshit. Why cant you?       

[Grimm]

*sigh*  Tothesea, why do you assume I never believed?  That all of us didn't?  Your default position is that we were never exposed to the Truth.

I was.  I don't believe it's true in the slightest.  I prayed that, and it didn't work.  Why do you suppose that is?

[Demophon]

What is funny tothesea, is that you're an atheist too and you don't realize it.

Please, for the love of Thor, just dismiss one more god and then you'll see the truth.

[Ashe]

Nobody cares. Please go away and stop posting videos.

[Ambassador Pony]

Seconded.

SA, has anyone come out in support of you in that matter? Why do you think you're above the entire community here, when they tell you to cut it the fuck out?

You have a simple choice. Make it now. Others or yourself.

Reported. 

[Operator_020]

spiritualatheist,

You are on thin ice.  If you hope to avoid the ER, do not make me trash any more idiotic videos. 

happy posting
020

[plethora]

"I renounce Satan and all of his works"
"Though I have no proof of Gods existence, and do not understand the ways of His believers, I am open to receiving revelation of Gods existence from Him personally.  I ask now in sincerity for revelation from you, God, to enlighten me to your existence and to guide me into all truth."

Your right! It works! I said these words and immediately Quetzalcoatl revealed himself to me! The feathered serpant has told me that he has created mankind and has sacrificed himself to do so. In order to return the favor, I must sacrifice some virgins to him.

Thank you tothesea for helping me see the light. Praise Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpant.


Disclaimer: The above post is intended to show that the sanctity challenge proposed by tothesea can apply to any of the +10000 deities ever documented and worshipped by humankind. I am in fact, still an atheist and will not actually be sacrificing any virgins.

[Ashe]

^ I've seen the light, too, brother! Thank you for opening my eyes!

[luckyace]

...Truly, what atheism is these days is not so much against the idea of God but anti-Christian in reality...

No. Just, no.

[Operator_011]

This topic has been temporarily suspended until tothesea addresses the pertinent question in this thread.

Sorry for the disruption, members. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.


Eleven.

[Operator_011]

tothesea's answered the question in the other thread, sort of, but is now in the ER so this topic has been unlocked.


Thanks for your patience.

[cheezisgoooood]

I am not anti-christian.  I have hundreds of friends on facebook and only two are openly atheist.  The rest are all christian.  I am however anti-christianity.  I hate Christianity and I am glad that it is losing steam in the face of the scientific evidence piling against it.  I am also anti-Islam but not anti-Muslim.  I am anti-Judaism but not anti-Jew.

I would never crucify any person just because of their beliefs anymore than I would because of their political views or their favorite color.  However, if given the chance I would drive a stake right through the heart of any ideology that presumed absolute moral or legal authority over anyone without evidence or logic to support it.

[Emily]

^^Yup.

I don't really mind what people believe in, and I like to see people to express their beliefs openly, whether it's about their faith, their opinions of sexual orientation, politics, whatever; however I also believe that once someone says something openly it's open to criticism. That is kind of what atheism is. If a christian openly claims there is a god then he/she is setting themselves up for an atheist to say, 'Prove it', or whatever. That's not being anti-christian. Anti-Christian would be someone saying, "oh, you believe in the Christian god. I want nothing to do with you", and I have many Christian friends, and 2 sisters a mother and father and a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins that I still talk to who are Christian. No one is protected from having their view challenged by the opposition. That's one point of this forum. To discuss and debate with theists about their belief.

I am Anti-Christianity, among the other religion and people that proclaim the existence of their person god.