Is there free will in heaven?

[mrnoodle]

Not really. If you were actually warning me, sure. But the only thing you're warning me about is looking stupid in front of people who don't share my beliefs. In their eyes, I crossed that line long ago anyway. Oh, look, a bible verse:

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. - J.C.

Going in, I knew that the majority of people would think I was full of shit. If I didn't believe something strongly, would I deliberately open myself to ridicule? It'd be way easier to jump on the anti-christian bandwagon. I had 30 years of practice, I'm as good at it as you are.

as i said before, i find it appalling that people who's opinions I normally respect......break down and fall back on "faith" as their argument. faith is not an argument. faith is believing something that you can't prove. While I can;t prove them wrong. my position is at least as valid as theirs. why can;t we just say " i dunno?"
neither of you two have said ...hey, yeah, your idea is just as good as mine. I've repeated that several times now. respect me, and i'll respect you.

Why is faith a "fall-back"? It's not a step below intellectual thought, nor is it exclusive of it. They compliment each other. Try looking at the whole concept with an open mind instead of coloring your investigation with childhood disappointments and anger at "the church".
Incidentally, the Vatican has done more damage to the message of Christ than any other single entity in the history of the world, IMO.
I guess the reason we can't meet in the middle on this, LJ, is that there is no middle to it. All belief systems are not equal. If I feel something is wrong, I can't say it's right. That being said, I don't think you are less of a person for believing what you believe. I think you are probably more intelligent than I am (no sarcasm). Your argument makes more sense than mine does, from a humanist's standpoint. But that's just it, I'm not a humanist. I'm a Christian. Humanists can't ever see worship as more than a quaint hobby (you can do whatever, just don't scare the horses), and believers can't ever see it as less than the meaning of life. Just the way it is, I guess.