andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> On 5-7-2009 16:19, Warp wrote:
> > andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> >> BTW you forgot 
> >> to shed doubt on the church part. Now we could read it as a confession 
> >> that you are member of a church. ;)
> > 
> >   In fact, I'm not.

> Oh no, you shouldn't say that either. ;)

  It's ok to say it because it doesn't categorize me into anything.

> >   That's a command, not a promise. It commands that people should not
> > divorce. It doesn't promise that people won't want to divorce. If you
> > read the next verses you'll see a direct admission of that: People *do*
> > divorce, even if God has put them together, and that's why some laws were
> > put in place for those occasions.
> > 
> >   If the bible made any kind of promise that people who believe in God
> > won't even divorce, why would there be any need for such laws?

> I can only assume that you contrasting commands and promises relates to 
> some theology that I am not familiar with.

  No. What I'm talking about, and what you seemingly misunderstood from
the "10 questions" video, is that the video presents the question of why
christians divorce even though they have got married before God and people
pray for them. In other words, they are implying that if God existed, he
would not allow believers to get in such bad terms with each other that
they would divorce, and that the fact that christians divorce at the same
rate as non-christians is an indicative that there's no such God.

  This is made even clearer at the end of the video where they give their
own "answer" to the question: Christians divorce at the same rate as anyone
else because there is no God who would stop them.

  But that's petitio principii: They start with the *false* assumption that
christianity or the bible teaches that God stops believers from divorcing
each other. There is no such promise anywhere in the bible, nor is it the
teaching of any mainstrean christian church.

> >   The video asks a very loaded question: "Why do christians get divorced
> > at the same rate as non-christians?" It's a loaded question because it
> > assumes that the bible or christians teach that God doesn't allow christians
> > to divorce.

> Actually He wouldn't. He accepts it reluctantly only when one party has 
> already broken it's vows.

  I think there's a confusion here about the word "allow".

  When I say "allow", I'm talking about what the video is talking about:
That God would actively stop believers from getting into such bad situations
where they want to get divorced. That's what the video is implying.

  When you say "allow" you are talking about law: It's forbidden in the law
for people to divorce. That's not what I nor the video are talking about.

> >   I suppose the correct answer to the question would be: "Because people
> > don't always follow God's will." 

> And that is, I think, the point the guy is trying to make.

  No it isn't. Watch the video more carefully. They are trying to insinuate
that if there was a christian God, he would stop believers from divorcing,
but since christians divorce at the same rate as non-christians, that's an
indicative that there is no God.

  However, that's a false assumption.

> That God forbids it has zero effect on the Christians.

  That only tells us that christans are not perfect. It doesn't tell us
that God doesn't exist, which is what the video is trying to say.

> > The answer the video gives to the question
> > is inconsequential.

> What answer? I didn't see one.

  Did you even watch the video to the end? It's clearly there.

  "Why do christians get divorced at the same rate as non-christians?
Because God is imaginary."

  That answer is a complete non-sequitur.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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