I grew up atheist for 16 years. I had always kept an open mind towards religion, but never really felt a need to believe in it. My sister started going to a Wednesday night children's program at a church. Eventually, I was dragged into a Christmas Eve service. Scoffing, I reluctantly went, assuming that this was going to be a load of crap, but when I went, I felt something. Something that I've never felt before. I felt a sense of empowerment and a sense of calling. Jesus called upon my soul, just like he did with his disciples. he wanted me to follow him. Now, my life is being lived for Christ. He died on the cross for my sins, and the sins of everyone who believes in him. He was beaten, brutalized, struck with a whip 39 times, made to carry a cross up to the stage of his death. This I believe to be true, and I can never repay him for what he has done. I still have my struggles with Christianity, but I've found this bit of information most useful. Religion is not comprehensible in the human mind, because we cannot comprehend the idea of a perfect and supreme being, a God, but we can believe it in our heart, and that's the idea of faith. Faith is, even though everything rides against me believing in Jesus, I still believe in him because I know that it's true in my heart. I invite my fellow Brothers and sisters of the LORD to talk about how Jesus has helped you in your life. No atheists and no insults please
So yes, sometimes we are capable of seeing what God wants from us right now, but it's not always like this.
How do you know this?
Hmm. Yes. But still, you are free to choose the life without God, you will just end up alone after death, and that equals Hell.
How is that Hell? Also if this God is omnipresent how is that possible? Isn't that a bit like being left on dry land under the ocean?
[quote]If you do not live to serve him, you will be cast off, away from him, where the Devil will take you and place you in hell. It is that simple.
Is this an example of God's omnibenevolence?
It's an example of Him respecting our free will. Period.[/quote]
Good thing we don't respect our own children's free will in such a way.
If you have faith, you are sinless. If not, you go to hell.
If you just accept our nonsensical sounding story that has nothing to back it up and ignore contradictions and facts your sinless. If not, you go to hell.
Just to give you an idea of what you sound like to me and likely others.
and after 2000 year of seeking there is nothing to test or experiment whit, so we can see that your conclusions are right.
More like 152 years.
You're the religious nutjob here, not me, so of course I can provide sources and examples.
You're the religious nutjob here, not me, so of course I can provide sources and examples.
here you go - an article in the NY times Biological altruism Altruism in birds Human-like altruism shown in chimpanzees 'Mutt-ernal' instincts
So much for "I respect the Christian religion."
1st link "Dr. de Waal, who is director of the Living Links Center at Emory University, argues that all social animals have had to constrain or alter their behavior in various ways for group living to be worthwhile."
2nd link "But it should not convince. The key point to remember is that biological altruism cannot be equated with altruism in the everyday vernacular sense. Biological altruism is defined in terms of fitness consequences, not motivating intentions."
3rd link "But the behavior is genetically "selfish" because it helps young relatives survive, thereby perpetuating the family's genes"
The fourth article is a claim that I would request a link to.
5th link "Darwin was wrong."
I may have taken that last one out of context, but you get the point I was trying to make. Those dogs and cats are domesticated. They cannot survive by themsleves (most of them can't anyways) so they have to result in altruism. Thus "Mans best friend."
Good thing we don't respect our own children's free will in such a way.
Is this sarcastic? Modern times encourages child independence, regardless of what life the child is leading, and rebukes discipline. We are told to raise children like they are adopted orphans.
How is that Hell? Also if this God is omnipresent how is that possible? Isn't that a bit like being left on dry land under the ocean?
Well....
God knows what is happening to you, regardless of your location. And in hell, you could be doing 1 or 2 things:
A: Burning. B: Screaming.
Plus how Hell is defined in the Bible is extremely abstract. It is simply "A lake of fire"
Is this sarcastic? Modern times encourages child independence, regardless of what life the child is leading, and rebukes discipline. We are told to raise children like they are adopted orphans.
Don't know what it's like where you live but around here children are constantly sheltered and micromanaged. However that's besides the point. Even with an extremely laxed environment if we saw a child doing something that would lead to harmful consequences we would actively prevent them from taking such actions, circumventing there free will.
if we saw a child doing something that would lead to harmful consequences we would actively prevent them from taking such actions
my parents let me very free to explore the world on my own. but ofcourse they didn't let me do things wich can harm some1 or myself. and i never saw it as they stoped me from being free. but the 5 times i had to go to church whit them i was absolutly not feeling free at all. nothing was allowed but sit there and shut up. now listen to that guy in front. almost like they wanted to brainwash me.
science can test and experiment whit it's theory's. we draw our conclusions from those tests and experiments.
but science is not always right, because like you said, its just experiments and theories. do you really believe in the big bang theory, or how we all were once a pile of goo? i think this shows how much science is guessing just as, from your point of view, religon is.
Don't know what it's like where you live but around here children are constantly sheltered and micromanaged. However that's besides the point. Even with an extremely laxed environment if we saw a child doing something that would lead to harmful consequences we would actively prevent them from taking such actions, circumventing there free will.
We tell our children to listen to what we say, and in general, accept it. We can save them from dying a couple of times, but in the end they will need to listen if they hope to survive.
i dunno how you read things. but that sentence was about religions. plz. read carefully your religion is 2000 year old and in those 200 years you have been seeking for evidense wich you still can't find.
and evolution is not science. we were talking about science. evolution is just a very tiny part of science.
but science is not always right, because like you said, its just experiments and theories. do you really believe in the big bang theory, or how we all were once a pile of goo? i think this shows how much science is guessing just as, from your point of view, religon is.
the big bang theory = not evolution. neither of them are abiogenesis.
if you think all these theorys are about the same thing. your wrong. evidense for evolution does not work on the big bang or abiogenesis. and neither the other way around.
As has been said many times by you guys, God doesn't interfere with free will. Raising and caring for a child does have us interfering with their free will. Particularly when they are unable to understand verbal commands.
my parents let me very free to explore the world on my own. but ofcourse they didn't let me do things wich can harm some1 or myself. and i never saw it as they stoped me from being free. but the 5 times i had to go to church whit them i was absolutly not feeling free at all. nothing was allowed but sit there and shut up. now listen to that guy in front. almost like they wanted to brainwash me.
Give me, "School" for 500.
and after 2000 year of seeking there is nothing to test or experiment whit, so we can see that your conclusions are right.
How could we have been searching for evidence to test if Science has only taken its prime in the last 3 centuries?
i think this shows how much science is guessing just as, from your point of view, religon is.
Sort of. For instance, I believe that everything in science has a percent chance of being true. The more times your run the test, the more likely it becomes true. Nothing will ever be definitely true, because we cannot run the tests an infinite number of times. When you start basing what is true upon what you have based is true, the percents multiply. (They would have to be decimalized) So if you keep what you think you know off of what you think you know, such the case of cosmology and palaeontology. Which is generally why I am speculative to new scientific findings, because everything simple in the Universe is already very, very unlikely to be wrong.
you have been seeking for evidense wich you still can't find.
i think there is a lot of evidence. how about this: iraq has all this oil. the oil comes from plants. that is most likely where the garden of eden was. the bible says that the garden of eden was between two rivers (tigris and euphrates) does that not also confirm the location?
evolution is just a very tiny part of science.
on the contray, evolution is a rather large part of science
