Religion Questions??

[themanishere]

Maybe this is off topic, but I thought I'd put this out there...

I do not believe in a 'higher power' in the sense many of you are stuck on. I do not believe for one second there is such a thing as a transcendental God 'in the heavens'. Don't get me wrong, I think spirituality is great, but it has to start and end with you as a person, not 'God'.

I'm not religious (although I'm 'Catholic'), but from my perspective, 'God' is more of a collective ideal of spirituality among people. More of a concept than an identity.

People should not be pointing to the sky when they 'thank God'. They should be looking or pointing to their hearts, although that would be looked upon as selfish or pompous in society.

Spirituality in terms of introspective reflection and motivation is what I believe. The power of reflection/thought indeed is the 'higher power'. People just don't realize that power, they think they need 'God in the clouds' for that. (If you haven't caught the differences I have put forth in what 'God' is in my opinion, you should stop reading here.)

Moreover, life is fleeting. To truly understand things, we need to interpret those fleeting experiences in relation to each other, other people, and the situation/idea. The main aspect is we experience things as fleeting, aside from any higher reason or control outside of that. To suppose anything different, in this case in the form of a higher power outside of our world, would say we could be independent of experiences and their effects in the dimension of time, which is obviously not possible. To further suggest a correlation between our world and a 'supernatural' existence after life is rather illogical in the sense of either world having an effect on the other. We will never 'know' that other world if it does exist, so to blindly believe in something like that is foolish and short-sighted in my opinion. If we ever did know that world, religion wouldn't be religion.

As such, many religions essentially reject the evident concept of transience when it comes to faith and things like death (i.e. that people live on in heaven or another world). Therefore, how can we accept and understand the objective nature of our lives in time through religion when it says transience is not really so in the end?

Perhaps it can be said that such impermanence in life prompts us to want constancy in our beliefs as a concept. But as I pointed out, that wouldn't really work unless the belief is one based on acceptance and understanding of transience. The only constant in life actually is impermanence itself.

Many people just don't want to accept that this is it, this is our world where we live and die in process. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm not trying to bash religion or anything, I'm just debating concepts and ideas and their benefits and fallacies.

Believe what you want to believe.

Thanks if you read it.

[maccards44]

If you are sincerely repentant, acknowledge your sin, and either have or do accept that Jesus is the son of God, then God will extend his grace to you.

That's what I thought, and a major issue I have with the idea of heaven and religion. If someone like Hitler is sincerely repentant he gets into heaven.
If he "feels really bad" he gets to live forever with God.
Just my opinion but I think that has to have been misunderstood or mistranslated along the line somewhere.

[fdgowin]

I think Hitler is out, as suicide is an unpardonable sin. Why? Because you can't ask for forgiveness after you commit the murder!

[fdgowin]

A lot of people ask Christians "Why is Jesus the only way to get to heaven?" That's what He told us in John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Hope that helps.

[maccards44]

A lot of people ask Christians "Why is Jesus the only way to get to heaven?" That's what He told us in John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Hope that helps.

No offense intended but no that does not help me in any way.
Earlier in the thread one "expert" posts that god says you have to these very specific & concrete things to get into heaven... "accept jesus as your personal savior...ask forgiveness for your sins" and then you go and post the passage that these ideas are based on...and it's ANYTHING but specific & concrete.

Saying that "No one comes to the Father except through me." is NOT the same thing as saying that you have to, "accept jesus as your personal savior & ask forgiveness for your sins."

That's what I was driving at earlier - who is making that leap from what is written in the bible to what we are actually instructed to do? What are thier motivations? Who are they?

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." IS VAGUE

[ensbergcollector]

No offense intended but no that does not help me in any way.
Earlier in the thread one "expert" posts that god says you have to these very specific & concrete things to get into heaven... "accept jesus as your personal savior...ask forgiveness for your sins" and then you go and post the passage that these ideas are based on...and it's ANYTHING but specific & concrete.

Saying that "No one comes to the Father except through me." is NOT the same thing as saying that you have to, "accept jesus as your personal savior & ask forgiveness for your sins."

That's what I was driving at earlier - who is making that leap from what is written in the bible to what we are actually instructed to do? What are thier motivations? Who are they?

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." IS VAGUE

hopefully tomorrow I will have the time to address this. I hope to be able to answer all of those questions.

[JayJagFan]

What is your view of ghosts?

[Yanksfan396]

Which came first: Adam and Eve or dinosaurs?

[fdgowin]

Which came first: Adam and Eve or dinosaurs?

That's an easy one -

20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

The dinosaurs. Adam & Eve were created later in the day.

[slate187]

So for my curiosity how many of you believe Women have one less rib then men?