‘No doubt you can quote me chapter and verse on that. Please be kind enough to do so. And doesn’t that imply that knowledge of Christ and the bible is not needed if you are true to your heart and conscience? Are you a Calvinist by any chance?’

Of course I can quote chapter and verse, you’re not implying that I’m making things up, are you?

‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;’ Hebrews 10 v 16 KJV

‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:’ Romans 1 vv 19, 20 KJV

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another; Romans 2 vv 14, 15

Matthew Henry’s commentary is most appropriate on the verses from Romans 1:18-25; The apostle begins to show that all mankind need the salvation of the gospel, because none could obtain the favour of God, or escape his wrath by their own works. For no man can plead that he has fulfilled all his obligations to God and to his neighbour; nor can any truly say that he has fully acted up to the light afforded him. The cause of that sinfulness is holding the truth in unrighteousness. All, more or less, do what they know to be wrong, and omit what they know to be right, so that the plea of ignorance cannot be allowed from any. Our Creator’s invisible power and Godhead are so clearly shown in the works he has made, that even idolaters and wicked Gentiles are left without excuse. They foolishly followed idolatry; and rational creatures changed the worship of the glorious Creator, for that of brutes, reptiles, and senseless images. They wandered from God, till all traces of true religion must have been lost, had not the revelation of the gospel prevented it. For whatever may be pretended, as to the sufficiency of man’s reason to discover Divine truth and moral obligation, or to govern the practice aright, facts cannot be denied. And these plainly show that men have dishonoured God by the most absurd idolatries and superstitions; and have degraded themselves by the vilest affections and most abominable deeds.

I am not a Calvinist, I’m a Christian, I keep telling you that. BTW you appear to have a faulty understanding of Calvinism if you think it allows room for a man to reject Christ and still be saved.

It is not the case that the success of Christianity was due to Constantine’s politically expedient acceptance of it. How did a Roman Emperor know about the religion you seem to consider an insignificant desert cult from faraway lands? Because Christianity was already turning the world upside down (Acts 17 v 6 KJV), in many different countries of the world, hundreds of years before Constantine was even born.

God does not demand worship on pain of death, He demands justice for crimes committed. Men are not doomed because they are not in the Church Choir, they are doomed for failing to repent of their lying, cheating, stealing, killing etc. Failing to give God His dues is just one more crime men commit, not the sole reason for the trouble they face.

If truth is anything, it must be eternal. What was essential truth yesterday must be so today as well, or it is not truth, it would then be only a flexible, malleable, relative thing which is not fit for man nor beast. It is a good thing that truth is ancient, for obvious reasons and the world would be a better place if more people followed ‘ancient’ truths.

I did not call those who disagree with me troublemakers, you are being a naughty boy in saying that I did. I said that those persons who call themselves Christian and are clearly no such thing are troublemakers. These are the people who demand rewrites and edits of God’s words to make them more acceptable to themselves, when they should realise that it is they who need ‘editing’ in order to become acceptable to God.

I did not want your opinion on what a quasar IS, I wanted to know how you explain the bizarre readings given by Red Shift when observing them, particularly now you have rejected the idea of secondary radiation as a cause.

The question of the integrity of my mental faculties is not one I care to debate, mad-men scarcely realise that they are so and any denials from me will likely lead to calls of ‘See, you’re doing it now’. Suffice it to say that I am unaware of a person suffering from schizophrenia who devoted their lives to doing good, to helping others, to being as selfless as the Apostles were, or their great leader. I know of plenty of mentally ill persons who forgot to take their tablets and then knifed a little old lady. Either Peter and Paul (et al) always took their tablets or they were not mad.

Any wounds you may have inflicted are merely superficial, the blows only glancing. No licking required. As you appear keen on quotes on military leaders, try this one;

‘Veni, vidi, vici.’ Julius Caesar 47 BC (Guess what the ‘C’ stands for!)

There are those, including an occasional correspondent of Stewart’s, who say, usually sarcastically, that those to whom God talks are these days known as ’schizophrenics’.

I don’t say that, and I don’t find the remark in the slightest amusing. There are many things we don’t understand and one thing that we certainly don’t undertand is the type of thinking that occurs in the minds of those labelled ’schizophrenics’. We say we can treat it with chemicals that will make people ‘normal’ again. But are we just removing their specialness? I don’t know. We say that schizophrenia is actually a chemical disorder of the brain, that it’s really a very boring condition where the same type of nonsense comes out time and again about your thoughts being controlled or hearing voices in your head, and not always divine voices; sometimes profane voices.

I don’t know if hearing God is a sign of a mental disorder or if it’s the rest of us who don’t hear God who are disordered. I don’t believe anybody else knows either.

I still don’t believe in the God of the Abrahamic tradtion though, just in case you think I’m lodging a late appeal.

Stewart, my thanks. You are a true democrat who believes in free speech, as your tolerance shows.

And quasars. You asked me what I know about quasars. Thank you for your patience. My understanding of them is that they are objects of the very early universe – perhaps all galaxies went through a quasar phase. Ours certainly has a suepermassive balck hole at its centre which would be consisent with that hypothosis Or, perhaps they were early species of galaxy, now extinct. The only ones we can see now are billions of light-years away and so are probably long gone, unlike Lonnie Donnegan, who is only recently gone. I regret his passing.

I believe others argue differently about quasars – what is it you call people who disagree with you about matters of faith? – oh yes – ‘troublemakers.’ I see no reason – yet – to agree with them. If a compelling reason comes my way I shall reconsider, like a good scientist.

No doubt you can quote me chapter and verse on that. Please be kind enough to do so. And doesn’t that imply that knowledge of Christ and the bible is not needed if you are true to your heart and conscience? Are you a Calvinist by any chance?

Christianity was a thought of as a sect once. It became an established religion at the command of Constantine I. I know that you, English, care nothing for established churches but my guess, and I freely call it such, is that without Constantine you or I would know as much about Christians as we do about the followers of Mithra.

Those who oppose science tend to trot out the same questions time after time, as though they somehow have a Joker which will trump all other argument. (Hat-tip to English Viking).

God can do what He likes. OK. I accept that if God is there that must be true of Him. I can ask why though He demands our worship on pain of damnation. That sounds like coercion, vanity, and brainwashing to me, the kind of things that humans do.

I say again: you see the world through ancient eyes – eyes struggling to comprehend that which is beyond
their understanding, but which is not beyond ours.

‘There is no need for you to finish your course there as well.’

Those I take as the words of a true Christian. I mean that as a compliment, just in case anyone should doubt.

Why do I answer your questions, but you seem to skip most of mine?

‘Medicine is science. You mean it gets quicker results. And that’s all you mean.’

No It’s not. I mean that the results of medicine can be accurately evaluated, theory is very thin on the ground, facts and figures and proof abound, most unlike the ridiculous idea that, for example, even if the Universe were 13.7 billion years old, we would have a way of accurately measuring such a colossal time/distance and that that finding could in any way be verified.

‘There are of course people who believe in the tenets of very recently founded churches. I won’t name them here. They are famously litigious and I wouldn’t want to get Stewart into bother. I don’t think them any more or less unusual than Creationists.’

What’s that got to with the price of fish? Does this mean that I am therefore incorrect in my faith in Christ and His Word? Surely it is further evidence of the stupidity of modern man that he be sucked into fads and cults, just as the Bible predict he will be. Matthew 24 KJV.
BTW I’m not a creationist, I’m a Christian.

‘I’d say they were written by intelligent, imaginative, fearful people who were scared, with good reason, of lightning, floods and bad weather and had no understanding of where these phenomena came from apart from what their imaginations could conjure.’

I guess your opinion is all well and good until you consider that the writers of these Scriptures do not claim to have been influenced by the ‘lightning god’ or the ‘earthquake’ god. Some claim to have had direct, verbal communication with THE God, like Moses, Isaiah and Elijah. They claim their writings are not their own, but were written whilst under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. To try to ascribe pagan ideas to the Scriptures of Almighty God is proof that you are ill-informed on Christian doctrine.

‘Few ancient texts can survive the urge to edit and adjust of those who see in them a means to power.’

You are absolutely correct Sir, that the Bible did so is just another indication of it’s uniqueness and superiority.

‘PS what about all those demands to believe or else? Are the aboriginal peoples of the pre 1492 Americas damned because they did not know Christ and put their faith in Him? To say nothing of the fate of a few billions alive today.’

Those who oppose God tend to trot out the same questions time after time, as though they somehow have a Joker which will trump all other argument. You seem to have a great deal of pre-supposed ideas about God, like He has to be this, or that, or the other, otherwise his is non-existent. God can do as He chooses with His own creation, the book of Hebrews teaches this fact. God does not HAVE to ‘be nice’, He does not HAVE to save, He does not HAVE to share His Heaven with those responsible for the death of His Son. That He is not capricious is good news for us, but He can be whatever He wants, whenever He wants to be it, without prior reference to me or thee. He could have, if He had so chosen, damned every last one of us. Those who wilfully reject the promptings of the Holy Spirit to repent, to confess their sins, to accept Christ, will perish. This has always been the case. Those who are ignorant of the full truth of the Gospel through no fault of their own, e.g. Red Indians (am I allowed to call them that nowadays?) or Aztecs or Incas have, according to the Bible, the testimony of creation and the Law of God that is written in their hearts and in their consciences. If they choose to disobey these things, they too are to perish. God will always judge the hearts of men, which thing controls their thoughts, words and deeds.

There is no doubt, either in my mind or in the Scriptures, that Hell will be very full indeed.

There is no need for you to finish your course there as well.

Medicine is science. You mean it gets quicker results. And that’s all you mean.

There are of course people who believe in the tenets of very recently founded churches. I won’t name them here. They art famously litigious and I wouldn’t want to get Stewart into bother. I don’t think them any more or less unusual than Creationists.

‘…must be ancient when they claim to have been written under the inspiration of God’ I’d say they were written by intelligent, imaginative, fearful paper who were scared, with good reason, of lightning, floods and bad weather and had no understanding of where these phenomena came from apart from what their imaginations could conjure. They had all experienced the power and anger of greater beings early in their lives and known fear of those beings. It was by no means illogical for them to come to believe that there was a greater being still. So you see the world through their eyes and call their ideas the Word of God.

Few ancient texts can survive the urge to edit and adjust of those who see in them a means to power. Stewart is interested in cosnpiracies. I don’t doubt that Constantine I was an utterly ruthless character who would back any conspiracy that would increase his power. Human nature.

Send four and sixpence, we’re going to a dance.

PS what about all those demands to believe or else? Are the aboriginal peoples of the pre 1492 Americas damned
because they did not know Christ and put their faith in Him? To say nothing of the fate of a few billions alive today.

Just posted my last reply and see you have raised the Carbon Dating thing.

It is not so that we know the ages of the Scriptures from carbon dating. We know because we can correlate the events written of in the Bible with the simply enormous amount of corroborating evidence from the hostile sources such as Tacitus and Josephus, from Kings referred to and the dates of their reign, from military campaigns recorded, that a lot of things written are not pre-historic, from the linguistic styles employed by the writers, their syntax and dialect, the type of writing instruments and the kind of ink.

Carbon dating is as unreliable at guessing the age of an object as Red Shift is at measuring it’s distance and they both deteriorate in accuracy very significantly the greater the age or distance recorded.

I was not talking of the branch of science known as medicine. I was talking about the attempts of science to describe the origins of the universe. The reason that medicine has progressed is because we do KNOW (as much as is possible in the strictest sense of the word) which treatments work and which ones don’t. The failures in medicine lead to the death of the body, which, understandably, tends to lead to extremely thorough investigations of the facts and constant improvement. I can measure if a person is dead or alive, blind or seeing, improving or deteriorating. I cannot measure the distance of remote galaxies, I do not know the mass of the planets or their gravitational force. I have to guess them, and guessing is most certainly what the vast majority of this branch of science is. That guesses are built on top of someone else guess means we are likely to be heading ever further from the truth, the exact opposite of medicine. If I were a scientist I would dress those guesses up in arcane language to give the impression that I was both an expert and that non-experts are so ignorant they should just believe, or else. Note the ever increasing hostility toward ‘climate change deniers’ from the scientific community, rather like ‘believe, or else.’

The abject failure of science to provide answers in the same way as medicine can lead to the a far more serious death. The Bible calls it ‘the second death’. We are taught from birth that the death is to be avoided at all costs, that it the worst thing that can happen to a person. This is not true, the ‘death’ of the soul is a fate far worse than death.

As I have previously said, there are serious disagreements between those calling themselves Christian about all sorts of things, including creation. So what? Because two people do not agree, does that make Christ a liar when he refers to creation literally? Would you allow me to call myself a scientist and then put forward the idea that science is splintered because I do not agree with it? I am not worthy of the name ’scientist’, nor are a lot of troublemakers who call themselves ‘Christian’.

The opinions of men are worthless. I must know God’s opinion on a matter, and He wrote them down for us to refer to.

You have no scientific (because I know you’re fond of science) reason to suppose the Scriptures have been altered. There is no evidence of tampering until very recently (around the late 1970’s) when it became fashionable to omit parts of scripture and blatantly change the meanings of words in trendy, liberal versions of the Bible. These versions do not correlate to the originals and are untrustworthy. That my belief in ancient texts should be questioned is strange. You would think me a very unusual man if I were to declare that I put my faith in scriptures that were written last week. You see how you frame your language to paint me ignorant, perhaps a little primitive or backward, because I have a belief in writings which, most obviously, must be ancient when they claim to have been written under the inspiration of God and concern the very beginning of our race and planet? You could do no worse if you patted me on the head and whisper to the others in the room, as though I cannot hear you, ‘as long as he’s happy.’ You are straying into an area in which I am far more proficient than inter-stellar physics so you might need to buy a few more lances.

PS What about those Quasars?

How do you know how ancient ancient scriptures are? Let me guess… they’ve been… carbon-dated!

Har har.