Originally posted by AcolyteThis is terrifying, I'm amazed this is even legal... mind you, there's no regulating the internet... I especially love the balanced, considered and thoughtful expose on Hinduism, truly the work of a mind blinded to their own prejudice
We should worry about those closer to home first. Take a look at: www.jesus-is-lord.com
Originally posted by aquitaneI agree - I understood that a major tenet of Christianity is respect for your fellow people. I really don't see how denouncing Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism as false religions really lives up to Christianity
I took a look at that site and, as a Christian, I was apalled. For those who do not know a lot about Jesus and his teachings, that is definetly not what Christianity is all about.
~Tara
Is it any wonder that religion is the cause of most wars? I have an insight into this mind-set that might be of use. I was raised as a Mormon. (Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints) It is a typical religion in one sense, but extremely atypical in another. The basic tenet of the mormons is that all religions are false (except them) and that only by being a holder of the melchezedic priesthood can one work toward becoming a god. Or as they say... "As man is now, God once was. As God is now, man may become." I was brainwashed as a child, as all mormons are. The method is straight out of 1984. Isolate the child and use peer pressure and domination by authority figures to repeat over and over "I know this is the one true church." and "that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God." Children at the age of three are put into these peer groups and isolated from parents and all but their teacher, then (later) reinforced in settings with their parents to the tune of about 8 hours a week in church settings. In addition there is "kneeling family prayer" morning, noon and night in the home. There is "family home evening" every monday night where each member is expected to "bare testimony" that they know "this is the only true church". There is prayer at every meal. Each child takes their turn, enforcing the mindset. Each child is expected to stand and "bare testimony" to the entire congregation by the time they are 8 years old. If they have not done so, they risk being shunned as they would not be eligible for baptism. Until you have been through this kind of brainwashing, you can't know how difficult it is to break away.
When I was 3 years old, (1950) there were about 1 million mormons. I leave it to you the reader to research how many there are in the world now. I frankly am too sickened by the prospect to inquire.
I am now a good practicing athiest but I will always carry with me the scars from years of torment and pain that breaking away from this cult cost me. The good news is, that in breaking away from the brainwashing, I was forced to look at religion in general. Guess what? There are no gods,devils, easter bunnies, tooth fairies, demons, ghosts or spirits. You live, you die. End of story. Better make the most of the ONE LIFE THAT YOU KNOW YOU HAVE. If your ethos is dictated by fear of punishment (hell) or desire for reward (eternal life), then your morality is anchored in myth, not reality, and your moral account is empty and bankrupt.
Buckle up everyone, because your good friend Sean here is about to take you on another mindbending ride of....(tadah!) SELF EVALUATION and LEARNING! Yes boys and girls, it can be done! You too may read such ancient texts as the Bible and make your own intelligent discernment about it! Might some of you be curios as to what 'ol Sean has found from his biblical studies? Heck if I care! Here the sermon anyway!
Is hell punishment? No you idiot! God doesn't want to punish you! Let's begin back in Genesis. Yeah, way back in the day. We done goofed it guys! God gave us a perfect world and free will, and eventually we blew it. I say eventually because it is never stated how old Adam and Eve were when they sinned. Think about it. Anyway, the ramifications of their disobedience were not unlike that of Lucifer. We fell from the light....partially. As beings, we sin. Have you not sinned? Know anyone who hasn't? That's what I thought. Now, because God LOVES us as his creation in his own image he kicked us out of Eden. For why you ask? We ate from the tree of "The Knowledge of Good and Evil", hence we have ever since known evil and been able to do it. Also in Eden was the "Tree of Life". Death is a blessing. It is because out lives end that we may be judged and NOT be condemned. Remember that in a minute here.
I said Hell is not a punishment right? That's because it is WHERE WE BELONG! You think you don't deserve to go to hell? I DARE you to count how many times in your life you have sinned. Finding the task slightly difficult? Now consider the word "sin" is synonymous with "defying God". Now tell me again how you have "earned" you spot in Heaven. Cry me a river if you like and shout of your "good deeds", but the truth is you should ALWAYS have been doing what is right and NEVER have defied God. I absolutely DARE you to look deep in your heart, look yourself in the mirror and say, "I know better than my maker what I should be doing." If you can do this, by God your are a selfish little sinner now aren't you? You want to do what you want to do FOR YOUR OWN BENEFIT despite what it can do to others. And you tell me this is something the almighty should condone?
Here comes the split people have a real trouble with. Old Testament vs. New Testament. The Old Testament chronicles the life and times of people before Christ. Yeah, you knew that already. What some people have a hard time grasping is that these people were judged differently than after Christ. They were judged in the keeping of Gods laws. No, this does not mean you had to be sinless to go to heaven. They were JUDGED. What was in their hearts was what mattered. People often look upon the acts of God in the Old Testament as harsh, but I tell you truly that it was not harsh. Everything God did was out of love and for OUR OWN GOOD. Take and point you have some kind of a problem with, look at it honestly, and tell me that it was unjust. Again, the honest and reflective reader will not be able to do this. Every portion of the texts is there to teach you something. Take Abraham for example. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son on an alter to God (God had previosly promised Abraham that his son would be a father of many nations). Read the texts yourself. God did NOT have Abraham sacrifice his son, but blessed him for his obedience. This is as it always is. A thing may seem bad, and you may wonder why God is having it to be so, but it ALWAYS ends up with God working it for YOUR GREATER GOOD! It is our mortal perception that clouds our evaluation of Gods works. Read a book or two of the old testament, and you will see that a perception of God doing something "harsh" is in actuality an incomplete evaluation based on a portion of the story, and not the results. You must also bear in mind that these people were judged by what they had to work with, which is not the entirety of the modern day doctrine (after Christ).
The New Testament is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE BIBLE! It is within these pages that the way to salvation is found for all of us AD people. Everything has been leading up to this point. Christ himself said that he did not come to change the law, but rather to fullfill it. A brief synopsis of who Christ is and what he did:
Christ IS God. Because we inherit the sin of our fathers, God became man in the flesh through a virgin (Mary). Why? As I have stated earlier, it is impossible for anyone to lead a sinless life. IMPOSSIBLE. That is why God made himself a man, so that a man could walk through this world WITHOUT SINNING! Thus is what Jesus did. Jesus Christ lived out the whole of his life without so much as one sin. Not one sinful thought, not one little misdeed, NONE! What does this mean? It means that the laws that bound us were broken! When we should be judged for our sins, God sees Christ in our place. A sinless man. Thusly are we cleansed. Read the New Testament and see why we Christians call this the miracle of miracles. If ever there was a person to tempt, it was Christ. Christ suffered more temptation than any man ever had or ever will, and he didn't budge. As you will recall, God himself was FULLY present in Christ. This God suffered this for us. Christ was both FULLY man and FULLY God. Thusly, you hear he paid the price for our sins.
What does it take to "accept" Christ? It is the sheer simplicity of this that astounds. You don't have to DO anything at all. Nothing you do makes one dot of difference. Clean out your ears and hear me. JUST QUIT DENYING IT! It's a done deal. You're saved. God has the most amazing gift of all time for you. He's holding it out to you. Quit telling him, "No thanks. I can do better without it." That's all. Just accept that Jesus was God in the flesh, who lived a sinless life and thusly paid the price for your sins. Accept that it is so. Nothing more is needed. Batteries included, no assembly required.
I didn't post this to try to preach. Everyone is responsible for their own fate. I'm not even going to try to tell you that this is the truth. I beleive it is so. You make your own judgement. I wrote this because there is a lot of distortion in the "Christian" church nowadays. Many churchs preach what is NOT in scripture or they try to add on to it. This is the truth of what the Bible says as best as I have been able to read it. The key there is that I READ it. Don't just keep going to church on letting other people intrepret the Bible for you. Read it youself. Quit trustin others judgement and judge what the message is for yourself. If you are going to base your spiritual life upon the Bible, trust in God and yourself enough to make your own judgements. I hope that through this post Christians who read it may get another prespective from what they may or may not have been hearing. For your discerning reader, I would be happy to point all of my conclusions out in scripture for you. Again, the only way to know is to learn, and to learn you have to read it for yourself.
For those of you non-Christians, I would like to say that I do not mean to fill such a large space to promote my own beliefs. I respect your beliefs, I just disagree. I hope this has given YOU a different idea of what Christianity is all about. Christianity is not the actions of its followers (or "would be" followers, as the case is more than you may think). Much harm is, has, and will be done in this world "in the name of God". Whatever God that is, you better learn just what that God condones first before you blame the religion. There's a whole lot of "bootleg" religion in this world.
Whatever you beliefs, I wish everyone well in this adventure we call life and our search for truth therein. I wish you luck, and may we all find God by the truth in our hearts.
Peace be with you all,
Sean
Originally posted by OmnislashWere it not for the last few paragraphs, I would have thought that was a quote from the website. 🙁 No sermons, please.
Crap! Sorry everyone! I hadn't realized I had ranted on for THAT long! I'll try to keep the sermon MUCH shorter next time, or atleast break it up a bit! 😀
As you said though, the key to Christianity, more than any other religion I know of, is faith. Faith doesn't mean that you are convinced of something by rational argument, it means you assume it, and model your whole thought process around it being true. In other words, you can't teach someone to become a Christian, you have to coax them into it out of a combination of fear (hell) and desire (heaven), and then make the doctrine a completely ingrained response by ritual and repetition. From the point-of-view of another religion, you have to tempt them into it.
Regardless of the truth or otherwise of any religion, however, it seems that, because of the way our brains work, it takes far more again for someone to leave the religion. I am currently an atheist, but I imagine that if I truly converted to Christianiity, I would die a Christian, regardless of whether I was empowered by Jesus or not.
Originally posted by OmnislashGood post Omnislash - even though I'm not a Christian myself.
Buckle up everyone, because your good friend Sean here is about to take you on another mindbending ride of....(tadah!) SELF EVALUATION and LEARNING! Yes boys and girls, it can be done! You too may read such ancient texts as the Bible and make your own intelligent discernment about it! Might some of you be curios as to what 'ol Sean has found from his bibl ...[text shortened]... Peace be with you all,
Sean
As for atheism, is that not just based on faith too? Or can you disprove the existence of God Acolyte?
Mick 🙂
Originally posted by AcolyteBeggin your pardon sir, but did you know your response is very similar to what other aethists and agnostics have said to me? I truly mean NO disrespect, but I find it common that those who don't believe in God are quick to try to knock down any religion, especially Christianity. The purpose of my post is not to try to change WHAT you think, but rather that if anyone is to read the Bible that they do so in an honest manner. There is WAY too much that is accepted as what the Bible says because someone ( priest, friend, etc. ) said it was so, and very little individual reading that is done so without bias. As I have offered what I believe it says, I EMPLORE you not to take it as truth unless you can back it up with scripture. I can back up my statements for my own purposes, but I INSIST upon self judgement.
Were it not for the last few paragraphs, I would have thought that was a quote from the website. 🙁 No sermons, please.
As you said though, the key to Christianity, more than any other religion I know of, is faith. Faith doesn't mean ...[text shortened]... ian, regardless of whether I was empowered by Jesus or not.
As you mentioned, some so-called "Christians" would try to push you into the faith. These "Bible Thumpers" do so much harm to my religion it almost makes me want to pull my hair out. I'm very sorry if that has ever happened to you, and I ask you not to throw all of us in with their lot. I know they think they are "bringing souls to God", but they are just as much decievers as the dark one. The truth is not really truth unless it comes from within as well as without. I can offer what I have found to be true FOR ME, nothing more. If anyone would like to discuss the scriptures or ANY other principle of "truth", then I would be happy to do so. I am not above learning, and I hope no else here thinks they are either. 🙂
Originally posted by mikadoAcolyte does not need to disprove the existence of god. The burden of proof lies with the christian, they are the ones who are making the claim that god exists. If you would have me believe that there is something (god) rather than nothing, then you must provide proof of your claim. The christian, of course, has never been able to provide anything that would amount to verifiable proof to bolster his shaky claim, so he retreats into faith. The christian's faith means that he is going to believe in the existance of his god as a fact, even though he lacks any proof whatsoever to indicate that things are as he claims.
Good post Omnislash - even though I'm not a Christian myself.
As for atheism, is that not just based on faith too? Or can you disprove the existence of God Acolyte?
Mick 🙂
Acolyte stated that Christianity is a matter of faith and that he is an atheist. To my mind atheism is equally a matter of faith as religious belief. An atheist believes that there is no god, but is just as incapable of proving that position as a Christian is of proving the existence of God.
Mick 🙂
Originally posted by mikadoathiests don't need to prove anything.
Acolyte stated that Christianity is a matter of faith and that he is an atheist. To my mind atheism is equally a matter of faith as religious belief. An atheist believes that there is no god, but is just as incapable of proving that position as a Christian is of proving the existence of God.
Mick 🙂
it's like me saying there is an invisible pixi on my shoulder. i'm sure you'll agree that if i made this claim, then claimed your position (that there isn't one sitting on my shoulder) is an act of faith, you would think i'm a loony.
any religious people who don't feel the need to try to push people to their way of thinking (as omnislash seems to be) have a healthy attitude though.