God

[FCAWarrior]

Is anyone here a christian?

[Space]

I am a beleiver of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and I'm proud to be one. This belief has changed my life for the better. I recommend you try Him too, He will give you peace, hope and joy, and fill the craving in your soul. Nothing else will. (especially not other so-called religion)

[WaldoMcFroog]

Praise his noodly appendage!

[mibn2cweus]

Grow up!

 You who believe you are evil, that was your first evil deed.  To believe this is to excuse yourself from the effort to be good.
 Responsibility for your own life and for your actions is not a choice.  It is an inescapable fact of existence.  Your only choice is to acknowledge this fact and to act accordingly. 
 The primary function of theism is to create the existence of a creator to blame for that which you lack.  The choice to accept responsibility for your own existence.  This is the key to the door of adulthood.  To deny this is to surrender yourself to be less than a child whose primary goal is to learn to be an adult.
 Those of you who harbor the belief that humankind is essentially evil are too eager to cast your self-loathing upon us all.  If you choose to believe that all others are as evil as yourself then it is no wonder you lack the decency and self-respect to leave those of us who don't alone.  Do first unto yourself what you would do onto others. 
 It is your right (even though your wrong) to choose to believe the cackling of those who damn you for seeking to appreciate the value of your existence.  It is however not your right to inflict your choice on those of us who choose not to believe that evil should be the normal standard of existence.
 The only good anyone has to give must first be created within and of themselves.  I value nothing else you have to offer.  If you should ever decide to start being good, a good first step would be to leave the rest of us alone.

[mibn2cweus]

P.S.  What's God doing in the 'Science' topic? Why not try the 'History & Myths' topic?

[FCAWarrior]

sorry, I ran out oof time the other day so here's the answers to the other questions.

8. absolutely. If you ever ahve a question about daily struggles, relationships or any other of that type of thing, you can find an answer in the bible.

9. If you don't have God's help, you won't really get through things. You'll say you are fine but you are really aching. Only God can truly get you thruogh sruggles.

10.Sin is anything that doesn,t please God. You knew when you were a kid the things that you could and couldn't do. it's the same in your spiritAL LIFE.

11. We ahve to show God tha we are really sincere about our decisions. he's not going to make us be christians, and he won't give you salvation unless you ask for it.

12. God is our perfect father. He doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he does expect us to try. When you beocme a christian, you make a lifelong decision to honor God.

13.yeah, you will fail everyday. but God will forgive you. it's a given that you are going to do some kind of sin everyday. As a christian, my goal every day is to please God. as long as we focus on that. we will be successful.

[mibn2cweus]

Is anyone here a scientist?  Scientist don't take anyones word for it, not Einstien's, not 'God's and certainly not yours.  Where's the dinosaur?  Chapter&Verse please. 

[SuperPigeon]

God in my opinion is just a state of mind created so people who needed comfort in the world had it. personally I think that there are too many contradicting ideas in the Bible. For example: Everyone is equal only if they beleive in God. That isnt an exact quote but its still in their just padded out with lots of stories about some nice bloke who probably was a doctor. However I do believe their is something. It just seems too random for a planet to just appear but it doesn't have to be a god or God just a higher form e.g. a more intellectual alien race.

To conclude I have no idea whether God exists doesn't if its an alien or any other conclusion about everything. I'm only 14 going 15 for Gods sake.

[FCAWarrior]

The dinosaur isn't in the Bible. Well it might be, I'm not sure. i said earlier that any problem or struggle you're going through, there is an answer in the Bible.

[simont]

Dinosaurs are mentioned in the bible.  Try Job and Isaiah. 

Obviously, they are called by more archaic names than dinosaur eg. behemoth and leviathan as the term dinosaur is a victorian word and the bible was written jsut a wee bit before queen victoria.

However, at the end of the day, you either believe or don't believe. There aint nothing you can say to convince someone who is down and out prepared to defend his/her disbelief.  Its only conviction by the holy spirit that can do that.

Jesus didn't defend himself on calvary, and God doesn't need us to defend him either.  he will go on existing whether or not you believe, and believe one day you will, in this life or the next.  Therefore, to follow by example, I don't need to defend myself either. God is my God and I am his child who, hopefully in whom he is well pleased. 

[mibn2cweus]

1 Thessalonians 5:21
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Here's my problem or struggle:  We are here.  The world is here.  This is self-evident.  How everything got here is a question for science.  The simple answer is cause and effect.  If aliens did it, where did they come from?  If 'God' did it, where did he come from?  A necessary precondition for intellegence is a living, thinking, concious being.  Try it!

[MargeB]

I'm not sure I ever understand the relevance of 'God will go on existing whether or not you believe.' Of what use is any information at all outside my ability to intelligize it? I can only come to know that which is knowable.

It would be like me saying: you shouldn't go on a bus, because there is a huge danger there, but you will never affect you and you will never be aware of its presence.

Things are only worth discussing ultimately from a human perspective, because that is the only perspective we are ever going to have.

[blinkyblinky]

You people seem to know so much. Where do you get all your certainties from? You guys must be so smart. Me? I'm just a tiny creature groping around in the dark...

[simont]

it is exactly like that bus.

There is a danger on the bus.  you tell me not to go on it, or something terrible will happen.  But even if I do not believe you, or if I close my eyes, or disagree with you, it will not change the one truth that there is a danger on the bus. I would have three choices, I can get on the bus and find out myself by then the terrible thing would have happened; I can ignore you and just not think about it again, and not get on the bus; or I can say, ok, tell me about this danger, I want to understand it.  I choose number 3, at which point you say:  here is the information I have about the danger, you mingtn't understand it all in this life time but here are a few basic rules, if you live by them as best you can, but most of all, just DON'T GET ON THE BUS, you will be safe. I still have three choices,  can either believe you and read your book, or I can get on the bus, or I can do neither.  Either way, the danger has existed, but how much worse will the danger be if I had known, but done nothing?

I challenge you to dare to believe in the danger.  You will understand it once you have asked to understand it.

[WaldoMcFroog]

To extend this metaphor still further...

What if someone is just telling you that if you get on the bus something bad will happen because they are seeking to influence your behaviour in certain ways, not because there actually is anything to fear on the bus?

You say it is a truth the bus contains a danger. I say it's someone telling you there's a danger on the bus. Prove I'm the one lying...

[mimififi]

If we read the information pack and believe what it has to say and stay off the bus, and follow other rules in the handbook that relate to a good conduct of living, a good moral code, things such as love your neighbour, don't covet anyones ass etc etc, and there turns out to be no danger on that bus, we have lost nothing, but have got fit hearts for being moral and riding bicycles;

If there is a danger on the bus and we get on because we (in a toddler, kind of tantrum way) just want to see for ourselves the danger so we can know for sure, then we are up a certain creek minus any kind of rowing implements.

I'm not a gambling person, but if someone said I shouldn't get on a bus or I might die, and I knew there were several million people around the world who believed the same thing about that bus and that it had been believed by several millions of people down the ages, I'd get myself to the nearest travel information centre and find out all I could about that bus from people who did know.....

[MargeB]

That's right. 1 billion people getting on the bus can't be wrong.

Apart from the billion getting on the other bus who insist their bus is the only one, and the billion getting on yet another who insist theirs is the only one.

No offence, but it is utterly weak on the one hand, and defenceless, if history has taught us anything, to think something is worth believing simply because millions of other people say it is right. What about Hitler and the nazis? Millions were convinced of something clearly wrong because they all believed the others couldn't possibly be wrong in so great a number.

[mimififi]

I'm not sure of your analogy with  the holocaust:  People were too afraid to do anything as they were living in a reign of terror.  I would question your use of this as an analogy, some may find it offensive, including myself (mimifif may be my user name, but it is short for Miriam - a name popular amoung the jews - not that you knew that, I'm just saying, the holocaust is an emotional topic, it should be referred to with care and respect, I like to maintain a certain etiquette, even when debating.)

admittedly, there are several 'buses' and the basis for different religions is perhaps a question for a seperate forum.  i can see why it is difficult to accept one religion in the face of so many. (although christianity is one of the oldest, even older than Islam.)

Lastly, I would say, that religion, is a difficult one, and I do not see myself as religious.  You can be religious about washing the car, or only have fish n' chips on a friday night.  Religion is sometimes the cause of the problems we have today, people who follow the religion, worship the people rather than God, follow the bureacracy rather than the Bible etc etc.

I do not believe in a religion, I believe in God.

P.S  Sorry, about the POP about the Holocaust, I know you were merely using it as an example, just a raw nerve, y'know.  Sorry.

[brachiopod]

I could choose to ignore what they tell me, that the bus is dangerous, and so I ride upon it and get to work on time.

I could also choose to believe what I am told, and avoid the bus altogether. And get run over by the f**ker at the next crossing.

[MargeB]

Yeah, it's not really an analogy about the holocaust at all, its evidence which psychology seeks to explain. Are all German people evil? Or were they? Doubt it very much. If Hitler had set up the same system in France/UK if the territory had been similar, would the UK or french citizens helped in the gas chambers? Yes. Very likely.

Since the 60's social psychology has been extremely heavily interested in the basic social and individual mechanisms that allow such distortions and blind obedience to occur. Many are now robustly established as part and parcel of the human mind.

My (strong) contention is that it is these predispositions that are the best explanation for the fast propagation and tenacity of religion; not because they are true!

When a proselytizer tries to convince me to believe because soooo many Christians can't be wrong, I think he's simply outlining the mechanism by which he himself comes to 'believe' something irrespective of its veracity.

[mibn2cweus]

I believe in the danger. . . of believing what you choose to believe as opposed to what actually is, (which cannot be chosen but must be changed through action if it is to become something other than what it is).  There are many ways to choose what one wishes to believe.  One can accept, without thorough and rigorous examination, what others say to be true as true simply to avoid the effort of determining whether it is indeed true.  One may accept what other say is true to be true to appease them or to avoid conflict.
One may accept something is true for the meantime with the intent of eventually examining its merits at a latter date.  However those who expect you to accept something as true prior to this process are usually wrong themselves or may have a purpose, not in your best interest, in making you believe something that isn�t true. 
 How many suicide bombers who believe they are going to pick cherries when they die, does it take to question the validity of what you believe?  This is just one case where believing in something that isn�t true may be harmful not only to those who hold that belief but to others as well.