Welcome to Gaia! ::

Believe it or not, I was actually quite devout at one time, and prayed and went to church and all that jazz. From my own experience, while it is comforting in some sense to believe that the big guy is listening to you, I have never in my entire life had anyone reply back. While you may not feel that you're talking to nothing, you may as well talk to a tree because I think you'll probably get more of a response out of the plant than you will out of a higher being, unless you're either crazy or a prophet.

I suppose it's a matter of semantics about whether Jesus truly was a god made flesh or the son of a god. One can argue that there is some god in al of us, and that in Jesus it was moreso, and that it was merely an act of humility to ask people to worship the god in heaven rather than the god on the ground.

What I meant about the evil and making people lose the free will to be evil was thus: the two choices were to either create a species that would never be evil (thereby removing free will) or to create a species that has free will and has the potential to become either evil or good. In this case, the second choice was picked, and people became evil in that time (with the exception of Noah). Because of this, all the evil people were removed from the picture. In essence, this is the same as the first choice, except that in the first choice you end up with more good people than you do in the second choice. Of course, the point of this is to create people who choose to be good, and so it realy doesn't matter how many times you have to knock off the bad ones to get the ones you want. An idle thought on my part, they pop up from time to time.

As for divine judgement, isn't that what hell was made for? To punish those who choose evil over good? If divine judgement really existed, murderers and rapists and sinners all over the world would be punished immediately, smote off by his awesome power. But they aren't. It is up to man to judge his fellow man, as long as they roam on this planet. How many children and babes died in the flood? Do you think they truly were wicked at heart, even those that had only lived for but a few days? Corruption doesn't pass through genes, that much I'm sure of. It is unjust to punish someone for circumstances that they are born into, and it is unjust to punish someone if they have done no wrong. I would truly believe in god's almighty judgement and power if I would see it for myself, but as far as we know, mankind is still responsible for mankind's punishment, unless you want to go into a tangent about how we are all his tools, and he acts in mysterious ways to acheive his own judgement in goals. If that is the case, there is absolutely no way to prove whether his judgement exists or not, as it is up to interpretation at that point.

Also, the judgement itself is not clearcut. If someone lives a moral and unstanding life, just and peaceful in every way except for the one fact that they did not believe in a Christian god, does that make them evil? For those that kill in the name of gods, are they considered just? The Bible says much, and to interpret all of it literally and absolutely would be a vastly different society than we would have today, meaning that people obviously felt uncomfortable with the ideas presented in it.

The Tower of Babel bit makes sense if you think about it like that. There was a directive, and they chose not to follow it, so he makes them follow it. Fair enough, although I'm not sure if it was the best decision. We've certainly been fruitful and increased in number, filling the earth and subduing her, ruling over the fish and birds and every other living creature that moves on the ground. So much so, in fact, that I'm not sure if the earth can take much more.

Yeah sometimes bad things happen! Why? Don't know. But the King James Bible says "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." The Living Bible says "And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans (ROMANS 8:28.)

So when bad things happen, they happen for a reason and that you will have learned something good or something good will come out of it. Right? confused Because He did say all things!

Maybe I'm being stupid right now, but I see a difference between believeing in God and believing in the bible.
Personally, I believe neither. And I cannot stand the people who claim they believe every single word in the bible after interpreting it in this strange random way.

I personally believe the Bible was written to make people feel guilty about not working as hard as they can... Like it was made up by rich people who wanted teh poor ones to work for them. But as time passed, odd details were added to the story and people forgot it was made up to keep people working. -_-

This idea of mine basically came up when my best friend's parents started hating me. They are racist, homophobic and Christian. And I'm gay, black and an atheist. And I knocked my best friend up. sweatdrop
So every time they disagree with me they quote something from teh Bible (or they claim it comes from the Bible, I don't know) and say it explains why I'm wrong and they're right.
So yeah, these ******** being so close to me makes me wonder why I'm replying to this because I'm considering all Christians to be like they are. Which I shouldn't. >.>

I agree with you completely I was christian when I was'nt so smart I thought hey my mom has a genious IQ and she's christian so that must mean god is real. But now I side more in the middle like an Athiest (I'm aware I'm probably spelling that wrong). I dont have any proof god is real and I dont have any proof that he's not real. Right now to me he's just some old dude that walked on Earth for a short time like all of us. He lived then he died by mortal people and if he's all powerful why should he have to die to save us? Why couldnt he live and save us?

During the Enlightenment, many of the philosophes of France propagated a new philosophy known as Deism.
Followers of this religion believe that God created the earth and everything on it, but then left it to its own devices, and thus came vice, wars, and the ills of the world, from God's neglect and the earth's creatures' natures.

My personal theory (Which I haven't put all that much time and effort into) is that, if there's a god, we're probably not the only world he created. In fact, we're probably not even that important, really. It's like a game to god.

Reminds me of a computer game I used to have as a kid - it let you design a world map, and populate it with animals and plants you designed. And it had a handy little Disasters toolbar, with things like "Smite", "Flood", "Comet", "Plague", etc. on it. It was actually a pretty cool game. But no matter how much I told myself that with this world, I'd be nice...I always ended up using the Disaster toolbar.

So. It may be entirely possible that we're just some super-advanced game, and that everything that we believe is programmed into us, to make the game more realistic. (Like the Sims, but way better.) That there is someone up there, but they're damn capricous at best, and aren't really all that inclined to love or cherish us at all. Which means that religion's come about - if you follow this little pet theory of mine - as a byproduct of human nature.

Why? Because everyone's scared of what they don't understand. And everyone needs to think that somehow, things will turn out right. And when everyone around you's dying of the plague, or you're suddenly reminded just how vulnerable you really are because the country next door got hit by a tsunami and several million people died - it's reassuring to be able to think "It's ok. There is someone, who cares, who will make sure that things eventually turn out right." The belief, more than the thing they believe in, helps.

Anyway. Much longer and more rambly than I wanted. Apologies. >.<

I myself am not Christian, right off the bat. I am a Kemetic Orthodox, a true believer in the faith of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, so this is comming from a different state of faith than most are used to. The Gods and Goddesses are more concerned with the wellbeing of our souls, and many times we must be faced with problems in order to try and show something to us. However, the Gods and Goddesses are not the ones to blame because of human emotions and biased hatereds are rampant upon the earth. I myself am persecueted for my religious beliefs. Do I blame the Gods for it? No! Only a fool throws blame around to them without looking at first themselves and at those around them. The Gods and Goddesses do not control our emotions. Though They may need for us to do something, it is never forced upon our wills. Hence the meaning of 'free will', a concept that exists in all religions that I am aware of, and I am aware of many. I agree with hawk on his statement: Intollerance is what drives us to hate and war, and this is proven throughout history and even today. If the people of this world are to ever stop fighting amongst each other, they need to learn tolerance: tolerance of race, tolerance of religion, tolerance of gender and tolerance of culture.