Do you believe in God?

[Morgan]

Teekahty, I agree on a lot of points you have made in this thread. From my own experience of being told to blindly follow the Catholic church in it's teachings led me to be somewhat circumspect. My question to you is, what caused your cynicism?

I know I felt that if I treat people as I want to be treated: with dignity, respect, generosity and kindness, I feel I've discharged my duty to God (or whatever it/he/she is) and I am free to live my life as I see fit. I don't feel I need the guidance of anyone else to say whether I'm to be judged good or bad. And I don't believe that in the grand scheme of things we are guided by God to this end.

I would like to believe as trip said we are free to enjoy and wonder all about our world and our lives.

[CJWolf]

what are the contradictions you've found ... i'm curious ...

[Keiser]

Originally posted by teekahty
My belief is this , even if the bible is all bunk , it is still a good outline for life , the golden rule , the ten commandments , all of it , so where is the risk to believe in and honor God , if I am wrong in the end . I am buried , but if the people who do not love and honor God are wrong ....... i think i would rather not risk it. by the way my cynicsm comes from bad religous expierences just like almost everyone else . I am somewhat intelligent , (my opinion) and I have figured out some things as I have grown up , and to me it seems the more people have to tell you or show you how religous they are the less it is true .

Nice Teek!!

[Keiser]

Originally posted by teekahty
My belief is this , even if the bible is all bunk , it is still a good outline for life , the golden rule , the ten commandments , all of it , so where is the risk to believe in and honor God , if I am wrong in the end . I am buried , but if the people who do not love and honor God are wrong ....... i think i would rather not risk it. by the way my cynicsm comes from bad religous expierences just like almost everyone else . I am somewhat intelligent , (my opinion) and I have figured out some things as I have grown up , and to me it seems the more people have to tell you or show you how religous they are the less it is true .

Teek if you don't mind, i'm gonna print and frame this.

[bigpimpc]

Originally posted by teekahty
My belief is this , even if the bible is all bunk , it is still a good outline for life , the golden rule , the ten commandments , all of it , so where is the risk to believe in and honor God , if I am wrong in the end . I am buried , but if the people who do not love and honor God are wrong ....... i think i would rather not risk it. by the way my cynicsm comes from bad religous expierences just like almost everyone else . I am somewhat intelligent , (my opinion) and I have figured out some things as I have grown up , and to me it seems the more people have to tell you or show you how religous they are the less it is true .

Totally agree!

as far as science goes... I dosen't explain everything yet you believe it...

[Got Gear?]

Originally posted by teekahty
GG I think that you have proven the existence of God in this thread , and i will explain , You mention that you were raised in a completely god free enviroment yet you still studied christianity , you know why? you knew that there was something out there , every child born anywhere knows the existence of God without ever having to be taught , as a matter of fact it may be better if they are not taught , because i believe very strongly in god , ( I witnessed the birth of my daughters and I had no doubt) but I do not believe in organized religion at all . I believe it does more harm to Gods name than good

Interesting theory Teek.

I'm not sure if I agree or not. I studied religion because I wanted to know what all the flack was about. I was tired of not knowing who this "Noah" guy was that everyone always talks about.. I guess I wasn't willing to be like my parents and ignore religion. I wanted to know what it was I wasn't believeing in..

Now wether that was some cosmic urge, a soul looking for answers, or my own curiosity.. I guess I'll never know.

[3Vandoo]

Originally posted by Hollywood
Ouch. That was uncool.

After witnessing three genocides,
I told him to fuck off!

[3Vandoo]

Originally posted by IntensityX
Bro you can't blame God for that,as individuals we and we alone are responsible for our own actions not God,when we kill someone it is not God that does it,it is us that does it not him,to blame the higher power for our own faults and actions is saying that we can't take responsibility for our own doings,we as a society always blame others for our own faults and we as a society need to stop blaming others and start taking responsibilites for ourselves.It is so easy to blame God for the problems of today,that is because we are afraid to admit that it is our own fault for the problems we have and we need to stop and think about ourselves,what our lives mean and stop blaming crap on others,whether it be God or someone else.

And yes I do believe in God.

Eat,Learn,Train,Grow
IntensityX

If God is all powerfull then tell me why he's allowing this.
actually I am sure we are in hell!

[Morgan]

Originally posted by teekahty
My belief is this , even if the bible is all bunk , it is still a good outline for life , the golden rule , the ten commandments , all of it , so where is the risk to believe in and honor God , if I am wrong in the end . I am buried , but if the people who do not love and honor God are wrong ....... i think i would rather not risk it. by the way my cynicism comes from bad religious experiences just like almost everyone else . I am somewhat intelligent , (my opinion) and I have figured out some things as I have grown up , and to me it seems the more people have to tell you or show you how religious they are the less it is true .

I think everyone on this thread would agree that we all need some type of guidelines/rules/laws to follow in our day to day lives. How we discharge those obligations to our fellow man and how we label that obligation (God/religion/Jesus/biology/faith) should be less important than how we have lived our lives and treated other human beings.

In the long run, is it really so desperately important to label something?

[Got Gear?]

Originally posted by CJWolf
what are the contradictions you've found ... i'm curious ...

Well I don't have the pages bookmarked or the phrases memorized, so this is going to be pretty damn general.

1) Animal sacrifice. Particularly goats.. This was a daily occurance. God would become angry if you didn't do this. Yet nowadays most christians consider animal sacrifice a sin.

2) Incest. The bible says it's bad, yet some biblical characters commited incest with no wrath from god.

3) Slavery. There's a phrase where god literaly tells a biblical leader to do a task and get some slaves from some city to help the process.

Maybe these arn't contradictions within the bible. But they do contradict todays vision of christianity.

[3Vandoo]

Religion = the control of the masses

Human as usual not able to understand what was around them, said it was magic and gods, then the monotheism god arrived and science is taking the lead.

So if God exist, who created God was he there at the beginning why he created the universe, what was before the universe
so if God has a creator who created his creator and who created the creator of the creator of God so therefore who created the creator of the creator of the creator of the creator of God.

Shit, that kind of talks is for the long boring night when you tired, and you are drunk or taking some weeds!

[3Vandoo]

Originally posted by Got Gear?
Well I don't have the pages bookmarked or the phrases memorized, so this is going to be pretty damn general.

1) Animal sacrifice. Particularly goats.. This was a daily occurance. God would become angry if you didn't do this. Yet nowadays most christians consider animal sacrifice a sin.

2) Incest. The bible says it's bad, yet some biblical characters commited incest with no wrath from god.

3) Slavery. There's a phrase where god literaly tells a biblical leader to do a task and get some slaves from some city to help the process.

Maybe these arn't contradictions within the bible. But they do contradict todays vision of christianity.

Dont believe the bible it was humanmade, and who says it is really from God.

I will believe the saint writing when I will see God in front of me handling me the writings, and maybe then I will think im on drugs or abducted by conspirating aliens

[Tinfish]

Originally posted by Got Gear?
Well I don't have the pages bookmarked or the phrases memorized, so this is going to be pretty damn general.

1) Animal sacrifice. Particularly goats.. This was a daily occurance. God would become angry if you didn't do this. Yet nowadays most christians consider animal sacrifice a sin.

I think animal sacrifice was a means of measuring dedication. Animals were very valuable and by sacrificing an animal showed faith and dedication to the act.

2) Incest. The bible says it's bad, yet some biblical characters commited incest with no wrath from god..

How do we know they received no wrath from God? Maybe the wrath came after their death? The bible is a history of the lives of ancient people, not their lives in the afterlife.

3) Slavery. There's a phrase where god literaly tells a biblical leader to do a task and get some slaves from some city to help the process

I think it is important to realize that the word 'slave' has changed throughout time. We all know what we THINK the word slave means in our day and age, but maybe 2000-3000 years ago, a slave wasnt as bad of thing as we think? Maybe "slave=labor worker"?

Maybe these arn't contradictions within the bible. But they do contradict todays vision of christianity.

These are just my $.02

[TKO]

Re: Do you believe in God?

Originally posted by Got Gear?
I'm very confused in the subject.

My parents are athiest and I was raised in a completely "God Free" environment.

Still, I was and am a curious individual. So I've somewhat "studied" christianity. Not alot.. just went to church the odd time and spent many hours just reading the bible. There's actually some interesting stories and stuff in there. (Alot of dry stuff too).

I guess I've learnt enough to go from confuseing me.. to REALLY confusing me.

I mean... the world around us is amazing. It's hard to believe it all "Just happened". However, christianity and the bible often don't make sence to me.. the bible flat out contradicts itself in a few places. Seems christianity is only willing to listen to the passages that they choose..

So I'm kinda stuck in the middle..

Whats up Man...

Try the Q'uran, you won't find ANY contradictions there...There is not a question you can have that is not answered in this Holy Book....If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Got Gear?]

Originally posted by Tinfish
I think animal sacrifice was a means of measuring dedication. Animals were very valuable and by sacrificing an animal showed faith and dedication to the act.

The weight of the act may have changed. But the fact remains, god wanted the blood of animals. Is god really that vain that he wants you to sacrifice animals or your possesions just to prove your devotion? Isn't he already supposed to know that sort of thing?

How do we know they received no wrath from God? Maybe the wrath came after their death? The bible is a history of the lives of ancient people, not their lives in the afterlife.

Good point. I can't remember the story very clearly. But God was aware of the act and corresponded with the character afterwards as if he was one of gods "favored"

I think it is important to realize that the word 'slave' has changed throughout time. We all know what we THINK the word slave means in our day and age, but maybe 2000-3000 years ago, a slave wasnt as bad of thing as we think? Maybe "slave=labor worker"?

The meaning hasn't changed: To force someone to work against their will. God was very clear on this.. he didn't say "get some labourers". True, this was pretty commonplace back then and nobody would have given it more than a passing thought... but the fact still remains. God told him to caputre some people and make them into slaves.


But Vandoo has a good point. The bible was written by humans.. so it's subject to error. But why do these religions hold some of it as scripture, yet ignore other parts? They are guessing at what god wants at this point..