Do you really believe that crap?
And how do you know that your faith is the correct one?
Did you read what I said about how faith in Christ is about loving others and denying other-hurting selfishness?
You tell me, honestly, is that wrong? Is something that helps makes someone who needs it more loving wrong? I admit the ideas are distorted by human institutions, but the concept of loving others at the expense of self and letting God be the one in you that does can be very beneficial.
I believe that religion has its place. And its place is far too high on peoples agenda.
Agreed, religion is a big problem, particularly when it takes the place of faith in Christ (as outlined above).
But once you use religion to, say, stop a child from having a life saving operation or blood transfusion, then religion is evil and is holding mankind back.
No doubt man… no doubt.
What i am is none of your fucking business.
unless you plan on killing people in the name of your beliefs, you are right.
I think that religion has become so completely perverted and misused that there is only rare positives that come from it.
There are ways of measuring this sort of thing using psychology and scientific observation. It turns out that modern faith in Christ, instead of faith in a religious sect, is a rare phenomenon, so you may well be right.
But that doesn’t men that has to be the way it is.
Our human minds are far too small to properly describe it.
this phenomenon is often referred to as the ‘holy otherness’ of God. Part of the appeal of faith in Christ is that it allows for a faith that makes God personal to humans, through Jesus, despite being so amazingly incomprehensible that God might as well be a flying spaghetti monster.
Jesus is an anthropomorphism of the sun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus :
the vast majority of scholars in the study of biblical history believe that the existence of Jesus as a historical figure can be established using documentary and other evidence
Selfishness is a natural imperative and has no moral implications.
I do need to specify: other hurting, selfish-greed, selfish-lust and selfish-pride. I don’t know how you define ‘moral implications’ but when selfishness is hurting others or at least making it less likely you will care for those that need it, I call it wrong;
Man's concept of selfishness necessarily derives from self-awareness AND social interaction. A baby has neither…
This is what I said; except we are arguing over what selfish means and I did need to specify my boundaries better. Other-hurting selfishness is something a baby doesn’t know about and therefore cannot be healed to be ‘immoral’ for.
Except "faith doesn't make logical sense" doesn't make sense.
Clearly I think that my faith makes a lot of sense, from a functional stand point: But God as a human who died is foolishness to the logician.
there are wrong and right views
There are different vessels on this earth and if someone is a vessel for one thing and someone is a vessel for another is it my place to tell that vessel it is wrong for not being like me? I think better is to explain why I like being me and if the other vessel is inclined to chance, it can, if it isn’t then I’m not the creator to judge.
Also the statement that Jesus "didn't come for the people that don't need him"
That’s just what Jesus said, right man? If someone feels they are 100% moral and don’t have to worry about what they do that isn’t someone Jesus is here for: right? Jesus is for the broken clay pots, not the ones with their cracks covered over with wax and paint.
But yea: the theoretical assumptions of our two points of view clearly diverge and I respect your disagreement because I don’t honestly know what’s right in that regard; Heady discussions to often take the place of loving ones.
On the other hand, if a believer (gonna say Christians here) Id have to go to church and close my eyes and make pretend and listen to another man try and give me a guilt trip.
Guild trip… that is so wrong… If it’s unintentional, from say talking about what is right and you feeling guilty, that’s one thing. But Jesus is here for people who already feel guilty, giving them a way up and out.
If you start your argument that there is a God, then anything can be done...
If God is the definition of right then God can never be wrong. If God contradicts himself God would therefore not be God because God will have contradicted what God said.
he can even microwave a burrito so hot that he cannot eat it.
exactly, but he cannot then eat said burrito because he is always right and there for put that limitation on his power.
When I say ‘impossible’ I don’t mean for God, though, I mean for us to explain logically…
the OP's post is difficult to discuss because he jumps beyond a basic metaphysical language into rhetoric.
um… I meant it to be a funny, though potentially insightful, parody of H2G2.
Why would a god allow for regionality.
I am as I am because of what I have experienced, To change the world from what I have experienced is to create someone that is not me, but some other bloke with a different set of experiences… and I like me and you better than a theoretical other set of conditions that would have lead to a different world.
Now, notice how I didn’t speak out against anyone? All I can tell you about is my experience; I am not qualified to comment on other’s experiences.
The question isn’t religion; the question is: do we side with God against our other hurting selfish desires?
If you do, then I have good news for you: Faith in Christ can give you the grace you need to do that.
The next postulate that I have problems with is that of Hell
If I cut a branch off of a tree because it is rotting and will kill the tree am I punishing the branch or saving the tree? When God does away with everything that isn’t part of Christ (other loving) then everything else will be gone, which is sad because I like reality, but good because we’ll have a better reality.
Lately I have begun to postulate that if a creater god exists the universal concept of good and evil must be very different than the human understanding of such.
The bible says about as much; The problem though is how we deal with our lives now, and following the self-denying other-loving path is what we know to be right: do that and you will at least not have the wrong motives. In my life I’ve found that selfishness provides my life unless my behavior comes from faith in Christ.
I see no reason that if a soul exists it should be exclusive to humans, or even animals.
Fish gata swim, bird gata eat. The essential existence of other things isn’t in jeopardy, it is all natural: our awareness of others and self allows for faith that goes beyond our animal/tribal mind-set and denies self for others we don’t know.