The Bible Taught us a lot of Astronomy

a reply to: FearYourMind

That's the point though... the holy spirit, or "walking with Christ" are crutches that only hold people back from their true individualism.

Fine if you used scripture to help build a moral framework with which to live by, but there comes a point where you have to put aside the crutches, and walk on your own.

You can learn a lot more outside the umbrella of religions.

a reply to: puzzlesphere

Why can't you understand that that's YOUR OPINION? I have accepted the fact that we have different opinions, but you are now the one trying force your beliefs on others. Do you not recognize this? I'm fine with what you believe. It's not my life. Are you trying to convince me or yourself?

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

In a past existence, this one time, at band camp, actually Amsterdam, i consumed some mescaline and MDMA and came across what i can only describe as the all thing. Some kind of luminous blue, multi faceted(Possibly dimensional) changing shaped object that pretty much reveled the secrets of the universe/multiverse and then removed them all seemingly in the same moment.

Blakes poem

"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

Would be rather an apt description of the experience. Pretty much the most spiritual experience i have ever had.

Dont get me wrong im settled down with two kids these days, and not one to dabble with dubious substances anymore, but i have to say that experience did indeed, seem to me anyway, to expand my mind and open up the possibility that there is something out there, or in there as the case may be.

a reply to: randyvs

Like I said Randy at the very least what the Bible describes is being burned alive. The fire is never quenched, it is everlasting fire according to Jesus, there is weeping and wailing.

Now even if its interpreted as being burned to death and then no longer existing at all that's still heinously evil for God to do although not quite as evil as the eternal torment spoken of for those that worship the beast in Revelations (which you did not address).

a reply to: andy06shake

When I used to go to church as a kid there was a big emphasis put on speaking in "tongues" and a lot of pressure on us to seek the Holy Spirit so that we could do it to (such is the bizarre nature of Pentecostal belief). Eventually I learned to speak in tongues myself but as I grew older I found that experiences which were contra to my Christian upbringing could cause me to speak in tongues. Seeing an amazingly beautiful woman, listening to secular music, etc.

Such "spiritual" feelings and experiences are part of nearly every culture and may have evolutionary origins.

I can remember events during my New Age phase that seemed spiritually important, including a supposed "message from the Universe" as well as a list of my supposed past-lives I wrote out off the top of my head.

Needless to say none of these experiences convinced me anything supernatural was really going on, just weird brain activity. Religion, to me, is best as a distracting fantasy, kinda like when I imagine who would win if the Terminator fought Captain America.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

What is there to address? And what if that fire is the only
way to put their souls to rest? What if you just aren't as
brainy as you think you are? I'll go with Jesus, thanks.
But that's where the better money goes.
You do what you want. After all, you've been around as a
mere mortal for at the most forty, fifty years. Plenty of time
to convince yourself you've smoked it all, so to speak.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

It does not need to be supernatural through, just beyond the realms of our understanding.

What was it Arthur C. Clarke said "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". If there is any truth to be had from our religious text as to an omnipotent creator that phrase seems rather applicable to me anyway.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

I also was raised in a church that speaks in tongues. I never got to that point, but saw some miracles. My wife is American Indian and she was raised the same as well. Different cultures have different ways of getting in touch with their spirituality, but the spirit is real. I've seen them before. Good and evil.

I use to have these seizures when I was a child all the way up to age 14 when my dad got saved. During one of my episodes he sat on me to keep me from running around and trying to jump out windows, which I was blacked out at the time like a possession, and he read Psalm 91. I immediately snapped out of it and it hasn't happened again since.

This use to happen once or twice a year. Whatever was causing this didn't like that scripture or the power of the Holy Spirit my father had with him and the entity never returned. This is after doctors tried everything and I was even put in a hospital for a night to monitor my brain as a child, but nothing was wrong and they couldn't figure it out.

I saw demons as a child as well and my mother would hear them calling my name out in the house with just the two of us in there. Those episodes were the scariest experiences of my life. I could be sitting down getting ready to be beheaded and not be as scared as I was when those episodes occurred.

a reply to: randyvs

I'm not set in my ways and I try very much to keep an open mind. I tend to look at what the text says and what actual historians and Biblical scholars have to say - except for where it comes to my moral judgment of God as a character that's based on human empathy and a very simple definition of good and evil.

You say you trust Jesus but that requires trusting the Gospels to accurately report on Jesus. That is something I don't do and couldn't convince myself to do because of the research I've done into when the Gospels were written and how the early Church evolved.

Also, I'm not even thirty yet

a reply to: FearYourMind

I was absolutely terrified of demonic possession as a kid and had a few of what I thought at the time were "demonic" encounters. I thought my house was haunted. Funny that the older I got the less anything weird or "paranormal" happened, I think the main result is that I now saw the obvious reasons for why things happened. A door that slammed shut on its own because someone downstairs went outside and sucked the air through the house. A dog outside barking was distorted by a window fan into a hellhound, etc. I was no longer superstitious and afraid, my understanding of the world increased and also my understanding that the human mind is flawed and even a healthy mind can hallucinate or self-deceive.

I'm glad to hear your epilepsy went away. I find it strange that you claim it was a miracle though. There are lot's of things that can cause seizures, even food allergies. Plus it involves the assumption that God allowed a demon to afflict you to begin with, which makes no sense for a loving and all knowing all powerful God to do.

a reply to: andy06shake

There could be any number of super-advanced beings out there in the Cosmos.

We just don't know.

I feel it's safe to say our ancient deities are fictional though, given what we know about those mythologies, how they came about, how they changed, etc.

If there is a god out there something tells me it would be insulted by being called a god, because we'd be lumping it in with all the false gods of our past. I found this ironic even as a Christian because everyone around me just called God God.

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

Also, I'm not even thirty yet

You lucky dog!

a reply to: Titen-Sxull

The thing is I didn't have epilepsy. The doctors didn't know what it was. My brother said he saw a skeleton at my door one night. Also, I use to see a man in a Abe Lincoln top hat who looked evil. He would play with my toys and I would yell at him. Years later, when I was 16, my buddy was spending the night at my house and went to the kitchen at 2am to eat.

He opened the refrigerator and saw that man sitting in the kitchen smiling at him. I never told him about the man before, so it confirmed to me that this thing was real. Also, my wife saw him in our kitchen one night and asked me the next morning if I was cooking in the middle of the night.

She described the same guy. My grandmother also saw him. She said she saw this guy a couple of times and knew when I would be home because he would appear and wait for me. She is Icelandic, so they are very spiritual and it didn't even scare her for some reason.

So, basically I know for a fact spirits are real. My buddy never spent the night at my house again and he basically lived there for months. I've never seen him so scared. He slept on the floor of my bedroom that night. Ruined my jerk session. lol.

a reply to: FearYourMind

I would venture to say that before the so called bible was written that astronomy was already in use, at least, the people of this planet were not sitting around waiting for the bible to teach them about the Universe and all the glory that entails.

The number of stars is not countless, but it is not ever going to be accurate because as we speak there are 1000's more stars being born every second.

originally posted by: FearYourMind

God is referring to the four corners of the Earth (North, South, East, West).

The "ends" of the Earth, if you read the scriptures before it, refers to the end of the world.

The line is referring to the diameter.

Nope. The Bible says the Earth has edges:

Job 38:13
...that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

^^ to shake the wicked off the edges of the Earth.

The diametre doesn't make sense also: if God says the Earth was round it would have talked of circumference, going 'around' it and not across it.

Also, how do you explain the verse that says the Earth has pillars?

a reply to: FearYourMind

Well what ever the entity in the kitchen is it does not seem to be malevolent, heck if its smiling at people it may only require a little company. Can i ask how old is the house in which you live? Sounds interesting!

Also if you seen demons as a child, what did they look like? And how did you know they were demons, im just wondering if the christian up bring you received(Me to by the way) possibly influenced your perception?

originally posted by: FearYourMind
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Just because your interpretation of these scriptures are different than mine doesn't mean the Bible didn't teach us anything about astronomy. I don't see how you can deny it. It is pretty clear to me that they were aware the Earth was round, floated in space and was in a expanding universe. You can interpret it however you want. That doesn't negate anything.

There is no such thing as differing interpretations in science. That is why you are wrong. You are trying to pretend like you can selectively interpret the bible to say that it agrees with science. Science doesn't work that way. Either something IS or it ISN'T science. It's not up to the reader to decide this.

originally posted by: FearYourMind
I would also suggest reading the article I provided that goes into detail about these scriptures.

Source

I don't have to read it. I already read your OP. Plus I've seen this argument before on ATS. This isn't my first rodeo.

originally posted by: FearYourMind

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: FearYourMind

originally posted by: Titen-Sxull
a reply to: FearYourMind

Human beings evolved together so yes, in a sense there was a "mass appearance" of humanity. That's because individuals do not evolve, populations do. At no point in human history were there ever just two humans.

I'm having trouble putting into words how absurdly ignorant you'd have to be of how we got here and how nature, biology, Cosmology and evolution work to say things like this...

Yes, because scientific theory has been proven wrong over and over again. So the face palm has been in the face of scientist more than any other.

Unless you're just trolling.

Yet, you rely only on scientific theory to back these claims. Not facts.

These two sentences alone deserve another Picard face palm picture... Especially coming from someone who earlier in the thread bragged about having E=MC^2 tattooed on his leg.

Yes, because scientific theory has been proven wrong over and over again. So the face palm has been in the face of scientist more than any other.

Meanwhile, religion has NEVER been right in the face of scientific evidence.

originally posted by: FearYourMind

originally posted by: Agartha
a reply to: FearYourMind

I'm sorry but the Bible does imply the Earth is flat.

The Earth has four corners:

Revelation 7:1
After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, aholding the four winds of the earth, bthat the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.

The Earth has edges:

Job 38:13
That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, And the wicked be shaken out of it?

The line is marked across it (flat) instead of 'around it' (spherical):

Job 38:44
Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

God is referring to the four corners of the Earth (North, South, East, West).

I'm curious where on the planet you believe the "East and West corners of the Earth" exist.