Christianity and You!

[Spirultima]

Christianity does not make one blind, but rather offers a different way to see.

I don't see it that way, i see it as this: "listen to what we tell you, and don't argue, we know everything because god guides us" Rather then find out for myself. I can only be sure of the truth, if its me who discovers the truth, rather then just being told it.

(Note: it sounds like I'm demeaning Christianity, but i was using an extreme to get a point across, there was no offense intended)

 

[Xender90]

{

{Christianity does not make one blind, but rather offers a different way to see.
}

I don't see it that way, i see it as this: "listen to what we tell you, and don't argue, we know everything because god guides us" Rather then find out for myself. I can only be sure of the truth, if its me who discovers the truth, rather then just being told it.

(Note: it sounds like I'm demeaning Christianity, but i was using an extreme to get a point across, there was no offense intended)
}

I can see why you would see it that way, I think a lot of Christians believe that the more people they convert to Christianity to the better. However I think "listen to what we tell you, and don't argue, we know everything because god guides us" technique is not the way to go about it. I think that if Christians started really living like Christians then more people would see the quality of Christianity.

 

[tsb247]

Christianity does not make one blind, but rather offers a different way to see.

I don't see it that way, i see it as this: "listen to what we tell you, and don't argue, we know everything because god guides us" Rather then find out for myself. I can only be sure of the truth, if its me who discovers the truth, rather then just being told it.

(Note: it sounds like I'm demeaning Christianity, but i was using an extreme to get a point across, there was no offense intended)

None taken.

I can see how some see it that way, and it is easy to get that impression. The trouble is that when most people are exposed to Christianity, they see the more rigid and unflexible side of it. I've been do quite a few churches of several different denominations, and I see things that I do not agree with from time to time.

My particular church always encouraged us to think for ourselves. Sure, they preached that we should take scripture to heart and learn from it (and generally not to take all of it literally), but we were also taught that it is natural to question what the Bible tells us, and it is in fact a very human trait to do so. We never had the, "Sit down, shut up, and do what God tells you," attitude, but rather the, "What can we learn from this?" mentality.

In fact, Christianity is often misunderstood in this way. It should not be a blind following. One can still question something and believe in it. That's where the faith comes from. The people who think they know it all simply have no faith, and the ones telling people who do not believe that they are going to hell aren't doing themselves (or their faith) any favors.

 

[tsb247]

Heres something for you Christians/catholics. Acient writtings that are dated to 10,000 years befor the offical founding of judism were the Sumarians. They had their own creation of life thories. They were a polythismic people and the belived in 12+ gods the main ones were An, Enki, and Ki but went as another name but i can't quite remember what it is. It went that An created the city of dennus or land of the gods. he created 2 other gods Ki and Enki ki a woman was god of the earth while Enki was god of the sea or all water.
One year the farmers crops were dry so they went to Enki. He masterbated his seman into a small stream increasing its size indefenly giving the farmers their water. But he had one rule he said " No one is to drink from this river". Ki on the other hand wanted a child so she enpregnated herself with the river's water. she gave birth to Enlil god of the winds. Enki became angry and had sex with Enlil she gave birth to Nanna god of the moon. Enki also had sex with her.
By now Ki noticed a pattern with Enki's actions. Ki took Nanna's child, Utu, and trapped her in a lodge when Enki had sex with her. Ki then gathered seman from her thighs and planted then in the ground Enki came to eat the plants but Ki had put a curse upon them so for each of the plants the Enki comsumned one of his organs ceased to work. Utu convinced Ki to cure him though so Ki and An had seven child gods one for every plant. Ki to those organs replaced them for Enki's cursed ones. This is how their gods were established.
Back to the actual Sumarians they were the first people in all of history (befor the jewish people) to be literate. the invented writing but their spoken language was whiped out by the Babalonians or the beginging jews/christans. This is only part of their creaor story but I have read what has been found and translated and it is many key things that relate to the adam and eve story with the whole peice of eden. In case you haven't realised I'm a strong feeling atheist. I find it halarios when people find that out. But to me ,this being 10,000 years older than jewish and hebrew writings, is much more interesting and belivable than the whole god felt lonley and made a buch of sh*t to fill it up. Rember this is off the top of my head for more go to wikipedia or read the writtings of Kramer.

So you're saying that a bunch of 10,000 year old gods screwing ancient Sumerian farmers and housewives is more believable? Interesting, maybe, but believable???

Of course there are parallels between Biblical writings and ancient Sumerian texts. Hell, the epic of Gilgamesh can be almost directly related to the story of Noah and the ark. Give that one a read sometime... It's quite interesting.

 

[Spirultima]

None taken.

I can see how some see it that way, and it is easy to get that impression. The trouble is that when most people are exposed to Christianity, they see the more rigid and inflexible side of it. I've been do quite a few churches of several different denominations, and I see things that I do not agree with from time to time.

My particular church always encouraged us to think for ourselves. Sure, they preached that we should take scripture to heart and learn from it (and generally not to take all of it literally), but we were also taught that it is natural to question what the Bible tells us, and it is in fact a very human trait to do so. We never had the, "Sit down, shut up, and do what God tells you," attitude, but rather the, "What can we learn from this?" mentality.

In fact, Christianity is often misunderstood in this way. It should not be a blind following. One can still question something and believe in it. That's where the faith comes from. The people who think they know it all simply have no faith, and the ones telling people who do not believe that they are going to hell aren't doing themselves (or their faith) any favors.

Another reason for my doubt with any religion is that about 95% of an religions original teachings are changed, like in the case of the Muslims, prophet Mohammad said that Allah would repair the body after death (i could be wrong about this, there are several different accounts on this part, others say judgment, others just say "when the day comes") during during judgment, (this part is my main objection) but if the body is too damaged, Allah wouldn't be able to repair it and then you have these sects. of the Muslims saying after self-sacrifice paradise awaits, but i believe Allah would have far to much trouble with the pieces left from the human remains after an explosion. Prophet Mohammad also said that women and men are equal, that isn't the case today.

The church sounds like quite a bit more intelligent then some I've visited. It sounds like your in a position similar to mine when it comes to (in my case) religion (in your case Christianity), you question it, as do i, but in your case you have faith at the same time.

People who "know it all" are just really the fools. But the hell bit, i don't believe I'm going to either side of the afterlife.

 

[The_Shinigamer]

How can you claim your people are persecuted when they run 90% of the world and ARE the persecutors? Just curious...

 

[gabdewulf]

The chinese military is connected to christianity because christianity is the largest growing religion in china. Iran has actually talked about the eastern christian threat.

Even in christianity, beyond the intial ten commandents, morality is up to the individual.

The problem of blaming the devil in christianity is that god is all knowing. God knew, when he created the devil, the supposed evils the devil would do. The problem is god and christians do the evil. Did the devil make the great flood that supposedly wiped world of all but one family of 2nd generation of inbreeders (Adam, Eve, and thier three sons were the 1st)? Did god know when he made man that the inquistion, crusades, and holocaust would happend due to his creation? What did heaven do to stop these? You can't explain any divine beings as being all knowing with the power to change things and all good and not stopping the extreme evils that happend continue to happend in our history. Divinly good beings would have the infinite patience to teach us in a effective way.

Sides according to you, the devil has a witness, he's being punished in hell not running around causing Shenanigans.

If there is a divine being, it either has to not care like a force of nature (gravity, rain, etc.) or has its own goals.

 

[LewsTherin]

I think that the main problem is people take God as something that can be understood.

A few seconds thought at the enormity and complexity of creation quickly shows the foolishness of this train of thought.

 

[Spirultima]

I think that the main problem is people take God as something that can be understood.

A few seconds thought at the enormity and complexity of creation quickly shows the foolishness of this train of thought.

Humans question everything, that is one of our ultimate weapons, and so obvious we question our roots, and god is the most simple answer, dividing the people who will want to further there knowledge from those who just want an answer they can understand.