I’ve been heavily into Flash for a few years and just discovered your site, which will now be a project for a few nights. Wonderful stuff!

I also appreciate your profession of Christ.

We know that man was created in the likeness of God. I find that Flash allows me to express a characteristic of that likeness. The stage is my universe. I add, subtract, make rules, and break rules. I can create whatever I want, and then I rest. Just like the Lord Jesus. The world was his stage. All things in nature were subject to him. Even with all that power he lowered himself, took my place, and atoned for my failures that I might rest in his work, and not be trapped in a constant state of condemnation.

I know and understand why people view Christianity as a prison that a system of men have created to gain power over the individual, and no doubt this does exist in any organizational structure. It wasn’t until I personally experienced who Jesus Christ was and meant on my OWN that I found out that it was a profound freedom, and not a prison. It was freedom from my narcissistic attitudes, from judging people by various social statuses, from hating the guy in the car in front just because he’s in my way. I have found peace in him.

Thanks again for your help; it’s so refreshing to stumble upon such a bright spot in the dark internet.

Your first argument goes something like “Christianity has been responsible for massive amounts of bloodshed, therefore it is bad and cannot be true.” The problem is that the bloodshed you describe is completely inconsistent with true Biblical Christianity. Never judge a philosophy by its abuse. Would you apply the same logic to science? People have done some horrible things in the name of science, so would you conclude that science is therefore bad and false? Of course not! Judge a philosophy by its own merits, not by its abusers. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus prescribe murder. If you can show me an example, I’ll shave my head. Oh, wait. Too late.

Sure, people who claim adherence to Christianity aren’t immune from committing terrible crimes, but if you look at the historical facts you’ll find that bloodshed committed in the name of Christianity pales in comparison to bloodshed committed by anti-religionists and atheists. It’s not even close. In the 5 Crusades, 2 inquisitions, and all the witch trials that used “Christianity” to excuse evil, there were tens of thousands of deaths. Tragic. Horrible. But let’s take a look at the anti-religionists and atheists: China under Mao Tse Tung, 26.3 million Chinese slaughtered. According the Walker Report, 63.7 million over the whole period of time of the Communist revolution in China. Solzhenitsyn says the Soviet Union put to death 66.7 million people. Kampuchea destroyed one third of their entire population of eight million Cambodians. The Chinese at two different times in medieval history, somewhere in the vicinity of 35 million and 40 million people.

And then there’s the incredible record of heroic acts, amazing contributions to society, and rich benevolence that the world has consistently experienced in the name of true Christianity. Imagine if Christianity had never existed – would the world really be a better, less violent place? Ask yourself this question: if you’re walking down a dark alley at night and see 10 men walking toward you, would you be more or less fearful if you knew they had just come from a Bible study?

So when you scrutinize the “bloodshed” argument, I think it falls apart pretty quickly. For a great article on this, check out http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5527

Another argument you bring up is self-contradictions in the Bible. I’d love to hear a specific example. I have yet to hear a single alleged contradiction that holds up under scrutiny. Most people haven’t bothered to do the research or even read the Bible.

As for the Bible being written by flawed men, you’re right – we’re all flawed. But it doesn’t seem reasonable to argue “it was written by men, and men are flawed, therefore their writings are flawed and cannot be trusted.” Otherwise you’d have to disbelieve all history books, science publications, newspapers, etc. As the reader, your job is to assess its credibility. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that shows the Bible to be a reliable source of historical data and scores of detractors have tried to find some fatal flaw to no avail. In fact, I know of many who have set out to disprove the Bible only to be convinced along the way of its truthfulness and they ended up putting their faith in Christ. So the fact that humans are flawed doesn’t automatically disprove the Bible. In fact, I think that’s why God worked so many miracles – it was testimony that the message didn’t originate with men.

I think it’s wise of you to avoid believing everything someone claims came from God. Plenty of people and organizations claim to speak for God, but when you look at the evidence, they’re a bunch of frauds. That doesn’t mean all such claims are false, though. It’s like me walking up to you, introducing myself as Jack Doyle and you saying “oh, you can’t possibly be Jack Doyle. 15 other people have walked up to me claiming to be Jack Doyle.” Look at the evidence, not just the claims.

Ultimately it boils down to who you believe Christ is. Everything hinges on that one question. Look at the evidence. Ask yourself what explanation makes the most sense. Did he exist? Was he who he said he was? Why or why not? And is it really the most logical/reasonable thing to believe that there is no God; that life came from non-life and mankind just popped into existence from random collisions of molecules even though there is absolutely no evidence to support that whatsoever? When you see the incredible design of even the simplest creature and consider their irreducibly complex systems, does it take more faith to believe it was randomly created from non-life and somehow had a fully-functional reproductive system too despite a complete lack of evidence, or that there is an intelligent designer for which there is evidence all around you (including the Bible)?

If you’re anything like I was, your objections to God aren’t really based on logic and reason – they have more to do with fear, anger, or misunderstanding. Maybe you feel threatened by the idea that God exists and actually cares. But I assure you, he can be known. Nothing could be more important or rewarding. The stakes are certainly high.

I hope you don’t mind me challenging the arguments a bit. If you’re interested in continuing the dialog, I’d welcome that. I don’t have all the answers, but I sure enjoy kicking the topic around and exploring the merits of various ideas.

I am extremely surprised when I see those whom I consider intellectually knowledgeable supporting the inevitable downfall of humanity that is religion. Religion does not support peace, especially Christianity which has been the basis for a literally countless bloodshed and war.

Even if a being of infinite intelligence whom as existed for all of eternity created us here on this earth, I don’t believe he could have been stupid enough to write something as self-contradicting as the bible.

I also do not believe that a being with such knowledge would expect us to spend our entire lives following the written words of other foolish men(bible) and then cast us into fire for not believing the words of another human being. We all know that most human beings can not be trusted and I’m not about to trust one that claims he talked to god.

All Christians are either liars or lying to them self, I was forced into Christianity as a child. Of course I followed and loved this so called ‘god’ as a child, until my intellectual mind reached a level that it was able to process the facts of his ‘existence’ for myself. In church I would see many pastors and other individuals standing up claiming to be speaking the words of god, spouting nonsense.

You can not talk to god and even if a god does exist it most definitely is not in the manner we have manufactured through history.

If a man down the street came up to your door and told you he wrote a book and it was the words of god himself it is very unlikely that you would fall into such a foolish trap during this day in age. However, at the time the bible was written humanity was at such a fragile part of our evolution that many followed the ideas of these misguided power-driven human beings.

For the record, I’m agnostic. Which means I don’t believe there is a way to accurately prove or disprove that existence of a god. I can however guarantee you that no currently manufactured god exists. It’s simply hundreds of years of human gullibility.

Not sure why, but had to speak my 2 cents on the matter I hope that it does not offend you as I am merely attempting to enlighten the world in hopes that we do not continue on our world’s current path indefinitely.

Thanks for this project – it’s the best AS3 Tweening engine available and I like your attitude to sharing it; without any of the basking in reflected glory we see from other Flash “Gurus” who open source their work.

Keep it up – donation to follow!

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that
people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we
must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”