The question is, are you religous?

[Spectre557]

Possumdude, have any further thoughts on this? I'd like to see your point of view on my last few points.

[Atla5]

Well I am not religious, I am a follower of Christ. Religion is a man made attempt to bind themselves with God. Christ hated religion, in fact the zealous, religious Pharisees were the ones who put him on the cross. Here is the basis of what I and many genuine Christians believe and this is the best way to explain it.
-God created us to be with him.
-Our sin separates us from God.
-Sins cannot be removed by good deeds.
-Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.
-Everyone who trusts in Him has eternal life.
-Life that's eternal means we will be with Jesus forever.

Christianity is based on the grace of God. Not our own deeds. PM me if you have any questions.

-Atla5-

[Goatboy]

Am I religious?

Short answer: No

Long answer: I grew up Methodist, going to church every Sunday and saying my prayers at night like a good little boy. I never really knew why I did it other than that my parents told me to. This continued on until I was about 16, when I realized something. Every time I prayed, it was as if I was talking to myself. I never saw any change in circumstances result from my praying. When I was baptized, I did not feel the light I was told I would feel. I felt cold and wet. Being a good Christian, I simply reasoned that I was not being a good enough Christian. So now instead of just praying at night, I prayed about everything. Give me courage to do this speech. Grant me the wisdom to do well on this test. Help my dying grandmother get better...

Nothing worked. Prayers went unanswered. I never felt the guidance I had expected. I found that when I would debate atheists at my school, I not only felt like I was being fake, but I also started to see things from their point of view. Then it happened. I stopped believing. I didn't sit down one day and have a big revelation about life, suddenly realizing there is no God. I wouldn't even say I stopped believing. The truth is, I don't think I really believed in the first place...

So where am I now? I do not believe God exists. I do not try to rationalize by saying I am Agnostic so it will be easy to switch later if I want or so I don't have to offend anyone. I am an Atheist. I believe in science, logic, and reason over superstitions and faith. Does this mean I could never believe? No. If I actually saw God appear in front of me, I would get an MRI. If that was clean, I'd maybe consider that there is a God and possibly even convert one day. The simple truth is, I don't know. None of us can say for sure, with 100% certainty that there is or is not a God. I can say, however that I do not believe in a God.

As a last note, I'd like to clear one thing up. I do not hate Christians. I do not hate Muslims. I do not hate Jews, Satanists, Voodooists, Buddhists, Taoists, or any other religion*. I have a certain respect for religious people because it takes a lot of stones to do some of the things they do in the name of faith (i.e. being burned at the stake, stoned to death, etc.).

*Except Scientology. Fuck that shit.

[sanddbox]

Don't diss scientology. L Ron Hubbard is fucking brilliant. He came up with the easiest way to make money without having to work much.

[Goatboy]

Don't diss scientology. L Ron Hubbard is fucking brilliant. He came up with the easiest way to make money without having to work much.

Scientology is as much a religion as Microsoft is.

[sanddbox]

Don't diss scientology. L Ron Hubbard is fucking brilliant. He came up with the easiest way to make money without having to work much.

Scientology is as much a religion as Microsoft is.

That's not my point. My point is that L Ron saw how he could use religion to exploit people, and pulled it off.

People are retarded; they'll believe anything.

[Goatboy]

That's not my point. My point is that L Ron saw how he could use religion to exploit people, and pulled it off.

People are retarded; they'll believe anything.

Okay, let me restate what I said. I don't hate any religion. Scientology is not -in my eyes- a religion, therefore I can and will diss it all I want. It is, however, a great business strategy.

[Possumdude0]

Possumdude, have any further thoughts on this? I'd like to see your point of view on my last few points.

Sorry I never came back to the thread, my internet access was limited over the summer. My views on the matter are similar to Finarfin Palantir's. Most of the Biblical contradictions I've seen fall under the categories of taking verses out of context, bad translations, and in a few cases deliberate misrepresentations. And yes, included in those categories are the contradictions in the link you provided, many of which I've come across before. There are a few that are new to me, and I'll likely be pulling out my Bible later to look at the verses in context.

I've noticed that a lot of the contradictions are verses pulled out of context (which is why you hear that argument from Christians so often).This is why I tend to recommend that non-believers who feel that these contradictions show the Bible to be false should get a Bible and read the verses in context.

This biggest problem is the people who go into the Bible trying to find contradictions. In any sort of research, if you start out badly wanting a certain result you will often get that result regardless of whether or not it is true. And when they then quote two verses, from two separate books (and the Bible is actually a whole bunch of books, not just one), which were written hundreds or over a thousand years apart, without any contextual information, it becomes easy to make two verses that don't actually contradict seem to contradict.

[ChippZanuff]

you sound eerily close to my religion. i guess i consider myself christian, but i haven't been to church in years. i also had a wild thought. if heaven is what we make it, why can't god be?

i'm also prepared to accept any religion. if i die and see allah staring at me, i'll accept it. if i die and see buddha sitting on his fat ass smiling like always, because he's a genuis and always happy, i'll accept it. i've almost converted to buddhism. i have even considered athiesm, but then denied the fact.

i've also been wanting to say this: i think god made science do all the work, and he intervenes from time to time. i also think i'm the only live person in this universe, and everyone else is just here but not functioning like i do, BUT! but everyone else has their own universe, which is a parallel universe, and everything is synchronized. so if it punched someone (which i constantly do), it happens in my universe and their universe (i can punch a trillion to the 10000 power miles!). and if something becomes unsychronized, it screws with the time-space continium and causes a time paradox. it seems to fit, and is incredibly bizzare, but i think its how god made it. so call me a crackpot.

-cHarLiEaCe

Your religion sounds like it's based on a great acid trip. lol