[undecided]

Originally Posted by Rev. Jim Osborne

Undecided,
I think you have failed to understand Pastor Billy-Reuben's point. He was not talking about survival. What he was getting at is to trust in the Bible more than your own empathy and conscience.

There is no difference. Your conscience is an extension of your mind, it is the section of your mind that asks "right or wrong?" before you commit an action. It is the section that says right or wrong after you commit an action, so that you may learn from it and in the future you can do the same, or differently. You are proposing to get rid of your conscience, to eliminate that part of your mind in exchange for your book. As I pointed out, the mind is the human's tool of survival, so how do you propose to survive after you eliminate the mind? Yes you may be alive, but are you really surviving? Are you happy? Seriously happy, not happy as in you're happy because you are following the Bible, and it says that if you follow it you will be happy. Are you productive? Do you wake up to every day thinking that you are going to destroy those who are uninformed, or do you wake up thinking that you will achieve a goal, a productive goal based on free trade. Not necessarily monetary trade, but a trade of goods, mind or ideas. If you violate either happiness or productivity, then you are not really surviving.

Originally Posted by Rev. Jim Osborne

He offered several examples of where his conscience and the Bible conflict.

Yes he did, and he followed the Bible every time. That is what I am against. If your mind agrees with the Bible, then go ahead and follow it, not because it is the Bible, but because you agree with it. But follow your mind, do not blindly do what the Bible says. Above all follow the law of identity. A is A. You cannot blank out any part of reality.

Originally Posted by Rev. Jim Osborne

For example, it "feels" genocide is wrong, to systematically murder men, women, and children because of their ethnicity....but it is actually okay in certain cases because God commands it. What Pastor-Billy Reuben is saying is to ignore those "feelings" (that is just the Devil trying to lead you astray) and put all your faith in the Bible.

No it is not ok. You should not kill people because God tells you to. You should never have to kill a person, but if you do then it should be because they use force against you first. That is the only valid reason to kill a person, according to my mind. You might say that your mind thinks differently, but I have to ask you, is your mind really thinking or is it blindly following a book?

Originally Posted by Rev. Jim Osborne

This makes sense because the Word of God trumps our own conscience. Are you so arrogant to think that you know what is moral and what is not? God created morality and has set the rules. The Bible is a rulebook and for us to question those rules is a sin.

So here you are saying that God trumps our conscience, which is the same as saying that God trumps our mind. If the mind is our tool of survival, then you are saying that God is trying to lead us to death. I do know what is moral, because I am able to depend on my objective mind, and I am proud of it. I accept reality and use logic, the tool of human survival, to decide what is moral. The fact that you have to cite the Bible shows the extent of the destruction of your mind.