"Can a bartender be a christian?"

Yes.

[/discussion]

What, you want more? Ok: Eireland, Italy, France, Poland, etc, are largely christian (50% or more) and are well know for alcohol consumption and production.

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And now to drag this thread into an idiotic argument that is horrendously off topic, as is traditional.

"1)  There is [a] God.  The universe just works better that way as there is some order and laws"

Ironically enough one of the reasons behind my "abandoning" Christianity was that the universe didn't make sense with a God in it.

"2) Humans, myself included, are "sinful".  We do bad things and even when I tried not to I couldn't for any given period of time be "pure""

Newborn babies? Infants? Children? They seem pretty pure, and that is before they know what right and wrong is. Like it or not the only way to achieve purity in this world is to cut yourself off from it completely, but then of course you get into the argument of how pure can you really be without temptation?

"3) There is "need" for some external assistance to not do "bad things""

I find this implication insulting.
I don't go out of my way to not murder people, or to not rape Japanese girls, because of some "external assistance", I choose to not murder people because I know I could not handle being responsible for such an action, not because I've been threatened with being anally raped by elephants for an eternity after I die.
Not by coercion, by choice, k?

"4) If God is pure then the "bad things" that I've done deserve punishment."

My point is this: Why does someone or something else's "purity" factor into wether or not you take responsibility for your actions, omission of actions, and the results thereof? If there was no heaven or hell would you simply rape and murder regardless of the pleadings of a dying jew 2000 years ago?

"-> Jesus paid for my sins according to Christianity so I'll stick with Christianity."

My great grandfather died for his country, duty and family, so should I take up arms and kill [tree] and jews? Sorry to cause offence but you have to admit that when put like that it does sound very stupid.

Everyone seems to be forgetting communion/Jesus saying "Drink wine, everybody!"

> paul valter pihlo wrote:
> Everyone seems to be forgetting that only irrational people listen to 2000yr old half-dead zombie space gods<

The last time I heard voices... well... the end result involved a needle full of powerful antipsychotic and a strict two year medication regime.

In my opinion, it isn't the rules of religion one should worry about.  Every religion has one basic element, one reason why those religions were founded in the first place, but most no longer truly hold, and that's faith.  Think about it.  The one true faith is faith itself, whether this is faith in nature, in Jesus, God, Karma, Destiny, Yourself, etc., as long as you have it, then you can't go wrong in life.

The sin comes in using to excess

I dunno anybody who thinks Christ was a corpse aniimated by magical means, ie, if you threw salt on him or said his full name backwards you could drop the Resurrected Christ in his tracks. He is God and came back as God, is our point. Occultism is just another form of materialism and has no allowance for absolute Divinity in its system of symbology or vocabulary.

More importantly, could a ninja be a bartender?

"could a ninja be a bartender?"

Yes.

he could only work at a stealth bar though, such that you wouldn't know he jsut served you a drink.

Also why stop at a lack of faith? Why not believe in a lack of anything?

Life has no meaning...