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Originally posted by Alec Eiffel
If atheism is a religion than I guess bald is a hair color.
Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
The reason there are so many Christians...are militant, evangelical type religons who require converts, and both religons have conqured and coverted their herds by the sword.
Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Christianity....bigger simply because they increase their numbers through preaching, conquest, enslavement, ect.
Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Has little to do with "true faith"
Originally posted by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
I only just noticed this: Christians (especially the born again variety) are nothing if not dilligent.
Originally posted by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
So many thorough, well-researched posts in this thread (and in many others)! I wish I had that much free time...
I'm not being facetious, either, although it must be said that their arguments tend to be (always are?) circular, i.e. "the bible is true because the bible says this & that".
Originally posted by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
Often quick to take offense, too,
Originally posted by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
so let me say that I have the utmost respect for their (and everyone else's) beliefs.
I have made it a point to investigate and understand differnt faiths in order to press upon myself a standard of understanding and tolerance. This is however something that I have not heard about nor have knowledge of. What can you say that would explain it so that this kid in the back of class who was talking during the lesson can learn the lesson and pass the test so to speak?
Originally posted by drbryankkruta
my response to this is there in your heart you have something telling you should I do this it doesn't feel right this is commonly referred to as a conscience, I prefer to think of it as hints from God and when I feel with out dought that I did my best and I dont regret my actions or feel hesitation that I have my answer, only you and God through these subtle communications can tell if you are right, not man nor religious structure, my guess is if you dought yourself you have realized a tugging at you and dought of your actions. Then search out another path and when it feels right you know you have it, but note you will never get to a point when you dont feel dought cause you are imperfect as I am and we are not expected nor created to be more than we are creatures of trial and error never reaching perfecting until it is bestowed apon us by God.
Originally posted by drbryankkruta
Very good that mean you have the drive to meet the expextations God has of you, but realized you are imperfect and need God's help this is exactly what God expects, he want your love your faith and yes your calls for help he wants to be needed that's the whole point.
Originally posted by drbryankkruta
you have a point but ask yourself do you think in your heart we exist because of God or by accident and then all the sudden GOD came about to dominate us, or even if you are alive by some act do you not belief some sort of parent had to be in order to concieve your creation.
Originally posted by drbryankkruta
Not at all transend in this context is to say the feelings for God you have transend or go beyond your primal instinct to cause harm in order to get what you want, you transend by taking the faith and love for God you have and following his laws, which tell you dont rely on those intincts to resolve issues rely on God and his word and go beyond that which you where created with the flaw of violence and hate.
Originally posted by drbryankkruta
I would say to you search those feelings that I told you about before do you feel as if when you do something right in your heart that comfort and warming sensation of praise and security from God. This is again only something your heart can answer , but let me ask you this if God didnt care then why where you given the instinct to realize right and wrong and love and hate,
Originally posted by drbryankkruta
its because he cares if you love him back in return and he wishes to give you a way to feel even if through these primitive feelings of right and wrong that concience we all percieve and react from and the actions of concious decision to go with the feelings of Love and Faith despite others opinions, this is the love and caring he gave us it is simply free will with his guidence to show you how to interprete your choices as right or wrong, love or hate.
Originally posted by Azeari of the Radiant Eye
Saint, you've managed to do two things I've never seen a serious Christian accomplish: you made me laugh, and you didn't annoy me!
And I've done something new: given a Way Above to a Christian!
Long may you post, and I shall look forward to further discussions...
Originally posted by York Rite91
It's simple , the One True faith is ..."Blind Faith " because No one knows which faith is "true".. no matter how much you rant and rave ,no one can prove through history ( not HIStory) which is the real "so called" religion, so accept what you want to believe and just believe with all your heart or dont believe anything....
Originally posted by thelibra
Perhaps. Perhaps God wants my love, my calls for help, and desires to be needed. Alternately, God may not care one way or the other. God may not even know that I exist! For anyone to claim certainty in this area is arrogantly claiming to know the mind of God. So why lead a spiritual life, honoring The Powers That Be? That is something everyone must answer for themselves. For me, leading a spiritual life brings me comfort, hope, and gives me the strength I need when I need it most.
All this and more I have asked myself many times over the last two decades, and will continue to ask myself for the rest of this life. I believe that there is a God. I believe that God has a Plan. Currently that is all I am certain of. I do not know if that plan is to our benefit, or if It created us, we created It, or we both came into being independantly.
Symantics aside, who is to say they truly know God's laws? We, as humans, attribute certain ideals we, on a societal level, hold to be "Divine Law", but does this actually make it so? I can say that there are laws to the trees, and place them above humanity as the ultimate concept of a spiritual life, as they coexist harmoniously with so many levels of the ecosystem. But does that truly make my ideas those of the trees'? How does a tree think? Does a tree think? God is such an alien entity; not in the flying saucer sense, but rather in the completely unknowable sense. How can finite beings like ourselves have the audacity to say that our limited concepts of the supreme being even come close to the truth? Because someone else told us that God told someone else to "write this down", hundreds of years ago? I cannot take fourth-hand 'knowledge', poorly translated and later cut, edited, revised for political agenda, and interpreted by someone else as anything approaching the real truth. I can hope to achieve some higher understanding of the world around me, and hope to one day be blessed enough to touch the mind of God, but one should not speak of God's Laws as if they actually know them.
Or perhaps it is because I know, in my heart, that I did what I felt to be the right thing to do. Good feelings, and a sense of right and wrong do not come exclusively from God. They include concepts to which we have been conditioned during our formative years, and personal experience of the consequences of our actions.
I'm not really sure what this last part meant. If I understand you correctly, then you appear to be saying that God tweaks our emotions and conscience to guide us through what is right and wrong. To this I would say it is possible, but not definite. Right and Wrong are not instinctual, they are learned systems of judgement (see my response to the first half of this paragraph). A baby is not born with the inherent sense that biting it's fellow infants, or stealing their toys, is wrong. They gain that knowledge through a combination of positive and negative reinforcement. This is why I believe that most people should not breed, as they have neither the knowledge, nor desire to properly train their offspring, and instead expect others, including God, to do it for them.