God
- Thread starter matt182
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But Lei, that's the one of premises of being a Christian-you abstain from certain indulgences that a vast majority of the population embraces or views as just the normality of life. Just like any organization, club, or job, religion (Christianity in this context) has certain guidelines one should adhere to. I'm not sure if it's a bad thing-no drunkness, no orgies, not having sex with somone other than your wife, no murder, no rape, no greed, having compassion and kindness for your neighbor and strangers, no divorce except under certain conditions, etc...
I don't see these things as necessarily a bad way to shape one's life.
I'm not sure if you can exclude faith and religion and be genuine-if you have no religion you have no reason to have faith and if you have no faith then religion is pointless.
Not if yer Buddhisssssssst 
Evo, the examples you listed are totally fine...but when you use the excuse of "not being of the world" to shun education, relatively good people (me), and just about anything OTHER than your religion, then I have problems. It's happened [ing] to some that I used to be close to.
I agree that religion is most commonly inseperable from faith and vice-versa, that isn't a real big problem I have. THe problem I have with many religions I see is organization. In my specific case, a handful of God's handpicked people run the entire religion. These people are identified with tenuous methods at best. That's not the point. The point is, these mouthpeices for God basically tell everyone what to believe and how to live their lives. So to anyone looking in from the outside, all these people have complete and total faith in the words these select few are saying. That's totally fine if you have faith in God. But have changes not been made? Hasn't your practice changed from 10 years ago to now? What about all those other people? Will they face eternal damnation? How about in another 10 years? Surely these people are PEOPLE and are therefore falliable. I don't care if God is speaking through them.
I believe in people. I believe people can be good, and people can be bad. I believe people will BE good and BE bad at some point in their lives. I believe that people cannot manage God without ****ing God up, in a sense.
Evo, the examples you listed are totally fine...but when you use the excuse of "not being of the world" to shun education, relatively good people (me), and just about anything OTHER than your religion, then I have problems. It's happened [ing] to some that I used to be close to.
I agree that religion is most commonly inseperable from faith and vice-versa, that isn't a real big problem I have. THe problem I have with many religions I see is organization. In my specific case, a handful of God's handpicked people run the entire religion. These people are identified with tenuous methods at best. That's not the point. The point is, these mouthpeices for God basically tell everyone what to believe and how to live their lives. So to anyone looking in from the outside, all these people have complete and total faith in the words these select few are saying. That's totally fine if you have faith in God. But have changes not been made? Hasn't your practice changed from 10 years ago to now? What about all those other people? Will they face eternal damnation? How about in another 10 years? Surely these people are PEOPLE and are therefore falliable. I don't care if God is speaking through them.
I believe in people. I believe people can be good, and people can be bad. I believe people will BE good and BE bad at some point in their lives. I believe that people cannot manage God without ****ing God up, in a sense.
I feel like I have to explain my reasoning because I agreed lmao
I felt that example was "the easy way out" because the particular poster seemed to be using others' rhertoric to explain his faith. And it wasn't even the relatively best rhetoric to base your entire life's work on. If you're going to believe in something that seems so important, figure out your reasoning. No one else can or should do it for you.
still know one has asked me why god neglected the aboriginies and indians, and do you beleive in dinosours, what was the point of them. The people who wrote the bible and thus about god had no clue about these points because they didnt have the knowledge of what we have now. Im sure if god was true at least he could have told these other races about him, doesnt this sound like god was just made up by a certain part of the world, just like the others.
What makes your god the real one anyway,
It just so happens to be you were born into a christian family brought up beleiving in god, if you were born an aboriginie you would have beleived in the serpentine, if you were born back in the day in Greece - zues etc.
What makes your god the real one anyway,
It just so happens to be you were born into a christian family brought up beleiving in god, if you were born an aboriginie you would have beleived in the serpentine, if you were born back in the day in Greece - zues etc.
If you don't believe in God then what is the point in humanity?
I believe God created us to have fellowship with Him.
2 Corinthians 6:16, John 10:10, John 3:16
Have you ever thought about the futility of life if there is no God?
I believe God created us to have fellowship with Him.
2 Corinthians 6:16, John 10:10, John 3:16
Have you ever thought about the futility of life if there is no God?
I'm afraid there isn't. God, if he exists, is eternal and therefore he exists outside of time and therefore he sees our death at the same time as our birth, he sees the whole of time as one singularity. Therefore God can see my actions that are in the future as I see them.
As Einstein seems to carry a lot of weight in this discussion you might like to know that he was a determinist who doubted the existence of free will
Free will - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That's what Beer was invented for
You have hit on a good point though, have you never thought that the Bible was created to stop people thinking like this? To give them a sense of purpose and a reason to behave themselves?
If you were a powerful man thousands of years ago with thousands of slaves how do you prevent them from trying to kill or rob you? The answer is you give them the bible and let them beleive that if they stay in line and do as they're told they will go to heaven and never die.
The Bible has been keeping slaves in check for thousands of years now by telling them that they are first in line to go to heaven because they are poor. Although it's also been a good way to justify terrible wars as well along the way.
That's what Beer was invented for
You have hit on a good point though, have you never thought that the Bible was created to stop people thinking like this? To give them a sense of purpose and a reason to behave themselves?
If you were a powerful man thousands of years ago with thousands of slaves how do you prevent them from trying to kill or rob you? The answer is you give them the bible and let them beleive that if they stay in line and do as they're told they will go to heaven and never die.
The Bible has been keeping slaves in check for thousands of years now by telling them that they are first in line to go to heaven because they are poor. Although it's also been a good way to justify terrible wars as well along the way.
so true.......
Again, if God had controll over everybody in the world, we would all be holding hands in a giant circle singing kumbayya ( no idea how to spell that) But its just not like that. God just doesnt neglect certain people.
And God told one person about his religion, Jesus. He didnt tell anybody about his religion, Jesus did. If Jesus had a plane back then, im sure he would have told other races.
Im not quite sure there is only one God anyway. I believe that two most realistic Gods are the Christian God and the Muslim God. I think all the Greek Gods are a bunch of made up crap
Why? there is no more proof for the Christian god then there is for the Greek gods. There is nothing that holds the Christian god above that of zues and so on.
So why dismiss them when they are in the same boat as the Christian god?
Not if yer Buddhisssssssst
Evo, the examples you listed are totally fine...but when you use the excuse of "not being of the world" to shun education, relatively good people (me), and just about anything OTHER than your religion, then I have problems. It's happened [ing] to some that I used to be close to.
I agree with you. I think nothing should exclude one in educating themselves. This is what made the invention of the printing press so great-the masses could now have a Bible of their own and were able now to defend themselves against the clergy that outright lied and manipulated the verses for their own fun and gain.
And any good teacher, preacher, and etc should encourage their students to persue knowledge and not take things at simple face value.
As Ghandi said-I love your Christ but not your Christians.
This is why Christ commanded the disciples to go out and spread the message.
Precisely. If YOU or ME had a stick. We are talking about our creator, all knowing, all powerful Lord here afterall. If you create a world, design everything 'perfectly' then you do not get the result we have so far gotten. Wars, suffering etc etc.
The Christian God and the Muslim God are the same. The 1st five books of the Bible and 1st five books of the Torah are the same=Pentatuch.
Christ is the biggest differentiation as savior vs prophet between the two religions.
"Originally Posted by CCR
If you were a powerful man thousands of years ago with thousands of slaves how do you prevent them from trying to kill or rob you? The answer is you give them the bible and let them beleive that if they stay in line and do as they're told they will go to heaven and never die."
So what you are saying is taht the Bible and God are made up so that people will "behave themselves?" I'm sorry, but I COMPLETELY disagree with that.
Look, as a Christian, I find it difficult to explain my faith/religion/beliefs to people who do not accept that there might be a God in existence. Bottom line is this: We won't know the truth until we die. I for one believe that I will go to Heaven, meet my Lord and Savior and see my mom and grandmother again. Is that a way to get thru the worst times of my life? Maybe, but I choose to believe that there IS a God, that HE had a hand in creating each one of us, and that we are here to learn about Him so that when we die, we can sit with Him in Heaven.
I also believe that you don't have to go to church on a regular basis in order to have a relationship with Christ. Only that is the best way, aside from reading/studying the Bible on your own, to develop and build that relationship. It needs to be nurtured, just like any other relationship.
(BTW, I would like to hear some PROOf, some undeniable proof, that God doesn't exist....not sure you can find much...)
If you were a powerful man thousands of years ago with thousands of slaves how do you prevent them from trying to kill or rob you? The answer is you give them the bible and let them beleive that if they stay in line and do as they're told they will go to heaven and never die."
So what you are saying is taht the Bible and God are made up so that people will "behave themselves?" I'm sorry, but I COMPLETELY disagree with that.
Look, as a Christian, I find it difficult to explain my faith/religion/beliefs to people who do not accept that there might be a God in existence. Bottom line is this: We won't know the truth until we die. I for one believe that I will go to Heaven, meet my Lord and Savior and see my mom and grandmother again. Is that a way to get thru the worst times of my life? Maybe, but I choose to believe that there IS a God, that HE had a hand in creating each one of us, and that we are here to learn about Him so that when we die, we can sit with Him in Heaven.
I also believe that you don't have to go to church on a regular basis in order to have a relationship with Christ. Only that is the best way, aside from reading/studying the Bible on your own, to develop and build that relationship. It needs to be nurtured, just like any other relationship.
(BTW, I would like to hear some PROOf, some undeniable proof, that God doesn't exist....not sure you can find much...)
Remember, we are not trying to prove or disprove one another beliefs here.
Some humor
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.
Woody Allen