I'm prepared to be flamed and for this thread, but I just want to get it out there. I am Christian and I'm proud of it.

I went rough times in my life and I realized that I was a broken. But He picked up the pieces and showed me that there is a reason that we're here and there is a reason for this life.

I'm interested to meet some others out there who might feel the same way or are interested in learning more about God and who He is. My hope is that through this a discipleship group could be formed and that there would be a vibrant Christian community within the poker community.

Flame on.

The LORD is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

For those of you who are believers, but don't want to post in this thread, feel free to message me. For those of you who are not believers, but aren't looking to simply be antagonistic, feel free to message me.

I'm glad religion helped you but expand on this a bit.

Did he speak to you? How did he help you? What did he tell you about the reason for your life? Why Jesus and not Allah or Zeus or Krishna or some God we don't know the name of that answered you?

Also, have you looked into evolution and the present scientific theories about our Universe?

God bless bro, Jesus is the Truth!!!

pm me anytime

I have. I happen to be a bio major at a pretty prestigious university and took pretty extensive courses on Developmental Biology and Bio Diversity (both pretty heavy in evolution).

Does God and evolution necessarily have to be at odds with one another?

No, god, the idea is not at odds with science but the christian god is

And I want to hear ur thoughts for my first post here. More details so we can understand u better

You wouldn't think so, but the more prolific theists on this forum seem to believe that the TOE is an atheistic conspiracy to turn people away from god.

I Googled "Christian poker" and didn't come up with much**, but here are two links fwiw:
http://www.christianpoker.net/index.html
http://christian-poker.net/

The plus side, I suppose, is that it wouldn't take much to become the pre-eminent Christian poker community on the internet.

**And also a rather lengthy article that says playing poker is a sin.
The Christian and Poker – What should we do?

This part was pretty funny but then I'm not a Christian:

Folks, this thread will not be turning into a creationist debate, especially since the OP isn't even a creationist. Keep it respectful and relevant to the OP, this isn't the thread for lolatheism.

I'll respond to the first post in a little while. I'm in class currently and can't really give you a coherent and thought out response as it will necessarily be a longer one.

May I ask what your reason for thinking that the Christian God is at odds with science? I'm not sure I can agree with that.

Evilsteve - thanks for the links to interesting and thoughtful articles. i like the one on Christians and Poker, also. I skimmed through it just now and it looks good.

You studied science and bible. You should know.

Does the Adam/Eve story make sense if you know about evolution?

Does the world being ~6000 yrs old make sense if you look at the fossils?

Does it make sense to you that this earth was created in 7 days?

Does it make sense that a God who is actually a son of God takes a human form but was born to a virgin and can turn water into wine? Or rises from the dead? If he took human form with divine powers, does the words "sacrificed his son for us" or "suffered on the crucifix for our sins" make any sense?

No, they don't. Try studying evolution without Wilson, Dobzhansky or Mendel's contributions.

Good idea on the group. I hope you get your own site going so the theists have another place to go.

I'd argue that believing in a Christian God is at odds with a scientific approach to forming beliefs. Do you disagree with that as well?

I do not disagree with your statement, but you're mixing words here. believing in a Christian God and having faith is different than using a scientific approach to prove something. I did not say that I could prove to you God exists. I wish I could. It would make things a lot easier.

Do you believe the bible is the word of god?

That is to say, what is written in the bible is inerrant?

I have just started reading the bible, have you read the bible, as in every word cover to cover?

I have not read the Bible cover to cover. I would like to attempt this soon.

I do believe the Bible is inerrant. I believe that any misinterpretations would be due to a limitation of the translation from the original text and/or limitations of the original Greek/Hebrew language.

Why hasn't god updated his flyer to match the much different reality for man compared to 2,000 years ago?

Fair point but in that case how can you be sure this.

"The LORD is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4"

Isn't misquoted or not correct at all? Surely if you are going to take the bits that makes sense to you as fact/gospel truth, then surely every word written there in is also gospel/fact?

You cant say this is the word of god and in the same breath say, oh that oh well thats a mistranslation/interpretation. It should be all or nothing or you're doing nothing but cheery picking.

Also, as you have started this thread, could you tell us what you were before? Your religious background and upbringing.

Was you completely undecided or a total atheists or another religion?

As someone else asked, why Christianity?

I think it's you who's mixing words here. Nothing in my post mentions proof. You seem to think the scientific approach is about proving stuff, but that's not true. Not even the best theories can usually be proven. That word is best reserved for theorems, not theories.

This just blows my mind. And you are not the first Christian I have heard say this. How can you possibly claim a belief system based on a book you haven't read? You are basically saying that you believe because it is what you were told to believe. If you truly believed it was the word of God, a way in which he was reaching out to communicate directly to you, don't you think you would of made time to read it by now?

Do you think that you would be a Christian had you been born in Pakistan or China?

Why should it?

Historically faith has been through hearing. It was by hearing for a lot longer than it was by reading for many people.

Great that you turned up good, but can you prove that it was a Christian GOD that helped you ? And how do you know it was him?


Is that what you want, or expect to happen?

Hi OP, would just like to ask you a question about being a Christian. Hope you don't mind.

Please explain your current view on Gods that are no longer believed in.
(i.e. Egyptian, Greek, Nordic)

If you don't believe in their Gods, please explain why.

Thanks