Religion

i don't have a PhD, i have a few experiences which justify my belief in a glorious slew of supernatural things. so, for the sake of this topic, i'll keep out. . . after i pose the question if i were to ask someone "how do i create a robot"? (or rather "what can i do that will guarantee the creation of a robot of my own design") they would suggest i spend my time working with robots. of course, i could bang a few pieces of steel together and never accomplish anything (which, i believe, is what the church is doing) i need someone to define terms, explain diagrams will those of you who have the details please share: "What have you done to guarantee yourself a …

Atheists revenge. Persecution of theists. This was written in response to a theist crying about non theists attacking theists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_QXpzxj3Dc&feature=player_embedded#! Do you want a free ride to abuse whomever you like? Is reciprocity not fair play? Is fighting brain washing with brainwashing not fair? To suggest that non theist should not fight what is demonstrably evil is to ask good men to do nothing while evil is allowed to grow. Religions have persecuted the non religious and now bitch when thinking people show that faith without facts is for fools and that theists theologies do not hold water. Faith …

On growing up to be, as God says, one of us. Gen. 3 22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, If God were here, he would tell you that if you do not do as shown belowe and conquer God, you will never have an apotheosis and begin to mirror his thinking. That is the only way to know God. You have to grow into God just as Jesus did. Hebr. 5 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Note the word became. Matt. 10 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. …

Would a moral God step up to his responsibilities? God cannot do miracles. If he could, he would. From God’s POV, all here must be perfect. He began in perfection and would not back slide to anything less. That’s scripture. It is to us to see things as he does. From mankind’s POV, all here is not perfection. This contrary and wrong POV is promoted by religion and is generally accepted to some degree by most people. I tend to agree with God even as most do not. From a moral stand point, most will agree, that if one sees a wrong that they can right; they will do the right thing and right the wrong. This is the right thing to do. The fact that there are p…

One reason is that the idea of us "descending from monkeys," as the clergy likes to put it, seems demeaning and denigrating. It seems to deny our role and importance in the universe. Another is that without faith, we are led to believe our existence is without purpose. Without faith, we lack a moral foundation. There are others, but these perhaps play the most central role. Anyone whose faith is based upon these questionable issues is encouraged to state they are. I suggest we go one at a time, however. Lets do this completely and effectively.

i have been reading over some religious idea's covered by most theologians and it became self evident i dont belong to any particular religion, however i do have spirituality and self awareness, im willing to overlook all the fallacy's of religion to see what is meant behind the metaphors and such but i dont believe in any particular being as god, this brings me to my conundrum, imagination, what is it?, where did it come from?, is it the force that made us evolve or is it just the force that helps us prosper once were alive? after all these questions are answered i think every believer in god needs to ask himself or herself a single question to fully overstand the existe…

A and E could not know love without eating of the TOK. There are many discussions centered around the story of Eden regardless of whether you read it literally, as allegory, figurative or myth. Some believe that Satan lied, some that God lied. Some see it as man’s fall while others, the Orthodox Jews who wrote the O T, see it as man’s elevation. Some think becoming as Gods is good, Jews, some not. Christians. Some give A & E free will yet the first time it is used, God punished them. A & E are supposed to be autonomous yet cannot know they are without doing their will instead of the will of God. Some see the punishments and original si…

Is it as the Bible says, "God came to bring not peace but a sword?" Has anyone ever seen that sword? It must exist if the Bible says God came to bring it. So where is it? I know that is picky, but the fact is that that is what is meant by "taking it literally." Also, what did God mean by the many references to "Babylon?" Did that mean Rome, the "Anti-Christ" of just the city of Babylon? And if the Bible is supposed to be "The Infallable Word of God," why does He have Moses describing his own death and burial? Why does He tell us to "play with snakes" and "speak in tongues, "drink wine" and "wash each others feet?" Do you do all these things? If you don't…

Some science philosophers have speculated that religion is "hard wired" in us (a dumb way of saying we have a "religious instinct"). Does anyone believe that? I don't. Other ones speculated that religion is just a means the rich used to control the masses. That seems to me they regard it as a sort of parastic phenomenon. For a human trait that has characterized the human race for well over 40,000 years, that just doesn't seem to be an adequate explanation. What do the rest of you think?

Can, and does God change? Many seem to think that when scripture says that God is immortal and perfect, it means that God never changes his mind on anything and that his perfection is complete. They use the following basic definition. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfect Scripture seems to contradict this definition. It shows a N T Jesus that must learn and an O T God who changes thanks to repenting. In the real world, all things seem to evolve. Is God a never changing stagnant pool of information or does he evolve the same as all other life? If he was perfect and complete for millennia in the beginning, why would he suddenly fee…

Social theorists sometimes refer to East Asian Marxism as a "secular religion." What reason could social sciernce academics have for referring to it that way? Even more interesting is that even "Secular Huanism" can also be referred to as a secular religion. Could it be because both are ideologies and have to be qualified by the word "secular" to distinguish them from the ancient "spirit" believing ones? In other words, it would seem that the only difference between East Asian Marxism and Christianity, for example, is that the older one is based on "spiritism" while the "secular" one is not. If that is the only difference, what is it they all have in common t…

I was zipping through the internet this morning and came across an item explaining the Science of God. Must have been dozens of headings, but this guy lays it on the line and makes sense. As an agnostic, I am caught up in a virtual conundrum. While I am a firm believer in science, the presenter scares hell out of me. And since he doesn't come across as a Jim Swaggart or Jim Baker bible thumping type fornicator, I tend to lean toward his reasoning. The man has principal, an education, and delivers a compelling presentation with conviction. Watch it, rationalize and think. How many scientists of today think as he does, but are reluctant to confess it? http://video.goog…

Theists. Does this do anything to you consciousness? I direct this question more to literalists and fundamentals who read the Bible literally. Others of course are welcome to comment. Let me point out that I think of the Bible as a book of wisdom that it is a consolidation of many of the older religions of that day and is a good book to help us seek God by analyzing the old myths. If read literally, the reader will miss out on the rather wonderful thinking stimulated by it and miss the purpose that the book was put together point to. I do not disrespect it but have little respect for literal readers for that reason. They end up idol worshiping a book of myths. …

Why does every major religion, or at least most major religions, require the belief in a soul? Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. all speak of a soul in they religious texts etc. I don't believe in a soul. There is no evidence for their existence. They have no purpose other than spiritual and as far as I know there is no way to check for their existence without dying and staying dead. Without belief in a soul there is no punishment after death because there is nothing to ascend/descend/to be reincarnated etc. Do you believe in a soul? Why? If not, why? Why do all these religious require belief in a soul/ all speak of souls in the reli…

A & E. A natural death or murdered by God? A friend has a child with a peanut allergy. He keeps the life saving medicine in his home. He commanded his son not to eat peanuts but one day his son did. On noticing the situation, he quickly administered the drug. He recognized that the fright and discomfort to his child was punishment enough in and of itself and did not administer any other consequences. Not to his recovering child nor his siblings who had been with the child. He mentioned, in jest, that if God would have been of like mind, the world would never have been cursed by God and all of us would not have had death and original sin imposed on us. …

I have no idea if there is a certain name to this argument/idea. But surely it's been discussed before. Omniscient is used in this context: Knowing everything there is to know about anything and everyone from any point in time in any context. My question is, if you have an omniscient entity, do you have ANY free will whatsoever? If this entity knows what choices I'll make before they are even presented to me, do I really have a choice at all? What do you guys think? Answers, links, and rude comments are all welcome and appreciated.

St John's Gospel starts by saying, in the English translation: "In the beginning was the Word". But St John's Gospel was of course originally written in Greek. What it actually said in the original Greek, was: "In the beginning was the Logos". I looked up "Logos" in my Oxford Classical Greek Dictionary. The Dictionary says "Logos" can have the following meanings: "saying, speaking, speech, eloquence, discourse, conversation, talk, word, expression, assertion, principle, maxim, proverb, oracle, promise, order, command, proposal, condition, agreement, stipulation, decision, pretext, fable, news, story, report, legend, prose-writing, history, book, essay, or…

I propose that the simple definition of Faith is: Belief without knowledge. Assumption 1: It is impossible to have faith in that which is known to be true. Assumption 2: It is equally impossible to be wrong about something that is known to be true. Discussion: Many people of all Faiths, claim that they Know that God, or Allah, or Karma, or (insert Deity or deities of your choice) exists. So if they truly Know, does that mean they do not have Faith? The Difference between Faith and Knowledge, an example you can reproduce at home: I can see a pen sitting next to my keyboard. I just picked it up, I can feel it, hear it (it clicks), I can actually…

Why do you follow a genocidal God? Bible God, the un-knowable one, has been described in scriptures by someone claiming to know much of the un-knowable God. How the un-knowable can be know has yet to shown. On reading scriptures, some have concluded that Bible God is quite immoral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1DbcIbHt4&playnext=1&list=PLC76727A34E740D99 I tend to agree based on moral reasons and would like to keep the discussion on morality without going into whether God is real or not. Something that we cannot prove. We can prove though whether we think Bible God acted morally or not. The first followers of Bible God, the Jews, also seem to …

I have read, with interest, other hot topics in this Forum, which comment on the nature of God. I only have my limited knowledge and a paucity of secondary validation, so I may find this post in 'Speculations' if the mods don't like it. I'll take a deep breath and here goes: Most thoughts about God being omnibenevolent (absolutely good) and omnipotent (all powerful) are under the assumption that God adheres to human moral values, thinks, and often behaves like a human being - having a sense of what is 'good', being 'angry' and thinking before acting. However, if a supreme intelligence or Creator has created all atoms in the Universe, to my logic, He cannot be …

Jesus literalist. What would change your mind? Many books on Jesus and Christianity have come out of late questioning the historicity and source of both Jesus and the gospels. Most of these come down on the negative side of Jesus being real or of scripture coming from the apostles. All who believe in Jesus and scripture must read the Bible literally, to some extent. After all, what other book give Jesus historicity or literal existence? None. There is not one historical secular document that I know of that indicates that some miracle working Jesus ever existed. The Bible begins with a talking serpent and other miracles that defy …

Bare with me, I don't see a draft function, so I will have to post and edit a few times to get the links in. I have been fasting since Friday, and will fly to Washington DC to protest the Tea Party and the Republican resistance to raising taxes to pay for the wars they started, while insisting we manage the national debt crisis by taking money from seniors. We all pay into Social Security and our monthly checks depend on how much we put in. This is separate from income taxes to pay government expenses, and those who got us into wars and keep us us in them, should not be able to break the deal our government made with hard working citizens. The Tea Party is hypocr…

As the bible tells some activities of Jesus and many other people along the years, I would like to know some documented activities from the apostles; as seems they did not write about themselves or other apostles. Any help there ?

Here is a short game/quiz to see if your beliefs about god(s) contain certain contradictions. I got a perfect score. How'd you do?

Faith without works and proof is false faith. Scriptures, on the issue of works, contradict each other. Some scriptures and Christian sects push the notion that faith alone in God is all that is required to earn heaven. Some scriptures indicate that without works, living the theology and applying it to reality, that whatever faith we claim to have is useless and that those souls are lost. The notion of being part of a community where individuals looked out for each other and shared whatever it had was the key and the only reason Christianity became the religion that it is today. I mean this in the sense or size only. In reality, Christianity no longer base…