Also why would God have Jesus only 2 thousand years ago when modern man has been here for much much longer.
[quote]cryptik wrote:
I think all religions are bs. They are nice thoughts but still bs. They serve a purpose to the weak minded that need to believe in something and for those that want to believe in something. The truth be told when your days are done your ass goes in a box in the ground or a box in the oven. Nothing more or nothing less. So live everyday to the fullest and be good to your fellow man.[/quote]
THE BEST ARGUMENT EVER! Thank you for showing me the light.
[quote]cryptik wrote:
Also why would God have Jesus only 2 thousand years ago when modern man has been here for much much longer. [/quote]
Prophecies.
You have faith in your belief. I have faith in mine. Life is mystery to all of us, even to the scientists and the evolutionists. They have their hypothesis on life. I haven’t looked at your thread you sent, but I find science interesting too, and history, and music, and muscle cars.
God is where you want Him to be. If He were to show up at your house, would you even recognize Him?
Be able to acknowledge Him? I doubt it, you’re not looking. I see, everyday, acts and deeds of people who love God and that is a testimony to Him, therefore, I see Him in them. It’s a choice, what to see or not.
and by the way…I like your avatar. Never been sure which one of them is creepier. The king or ronald.
[quote]69GoatMan wrote:
You have faith in your belief. I have faith in mine. Life is mystery to all of us, even to the scientists and the evolutionists. They have their hypothesis on life. I haven’t looked at your thread you sent, but I find science interesting too, and history, and music, and muscle cars.
God is where you want Him to be. If He were to show up at your house, would you even recognize Him?
Be able to acknowledge Him? I doubt it, you’re not looking. I see, everyday, acts and deeds of people who love God and that is a testimony to Him, therefore, I see Him in them. It’s a choice, what to see or not.
and by the way…I like your avatar. Never been sure which one of them is creepier. The king or ronald.
[/quote]
I like what you said there. And all I do believe what I said, but I am just playing around(devils advocate) with you. I will bow out of this thread and sorry if I pissed anyone off, but I was just playing around.
[quote]cryptik wrote:
[quote]69GoatMan wrote:
You have faith in your belief. I have faith in mine. Life is mystery to all of us, even to the scientists and the evolutionists. They have their hypothesis on life. I haven’t looked at your thread you sent, but I find science interesting too, and history, and music, and muscle cars.
God is where you want Him to be. If He were to show up at your house, would you even recognize Him?
Be able to acknowledge Him? I doubt it, you’re not looking. I see, everyday, acts and deeds of people who love God and that is a testimony to Him, therefore, I see Him in them. It’s a choice, what to see or not.
and by the way…I like your avatar. Never been sure which one of them is creepier. The king or ronald.
[/quote]
I like what you said there. And all I do believe what I said, but I am just playing around(devils advocate) with you. I will bow out of this thread and sorry if I pissed anyone off, but I was just playing around.
[/quote]
Well, it’s not like we haven’t heard any of it before. Thanks for stoping by. Have a good one.
[quote]cueball wrote:
<<< Prefacing your statement with “I think” doesn’t lend much weight to the rest of it. Especially when the rest of it seems so “definitive”. >>>.[/quote]
LOL! Oh so painfully true and before this guy jumps to conclusions, this goes for everybody, myself included. Having lived with myself in the death of sin and now the life of Christ for quite a while I’ve come to view my own natural autonomous opinion on anything of real import as an ongoing lesson in the necessity of sanctification.
[quote]THE_CLAMP_DOWN wrote:
Awareness is my religion. Love and peace are my god.
[/quote]
All very nice sentiments. it’s a shame none of them will give him everlasting life. It really is a shame I mean that.
Hi all,
Just browsing through this topic and I don’t think anyone has actually really explored in any depth (forgive me if I’m wrong on this) as to why their religion is the right one (which was kind of the point of the OP I think).
I mean, I can buy the existence of a deity of some kind, but I fail to see why Christianity (I’ll use this as the majority of people on here seem to be Christians) is the correct choice as oppossed to say, Islam or Hinduism. Seems to me that this is the point where it all becomes subjective and in the realm of personal experiance, and I haven’t seen many reasons as to why so and so religion is correct as oppossed to all the others.
[quote]alex789 wrote:
Hi all,
Just browsing through this topic and I don’t think anyone has actually really explored in any depth (forgive me if I’m wrong on this) as to why their religion is the right one (which was kind of the point of the OP I think).
I mean, I can buy the existence of a deity of some kind, but I fail to see why Christianity (I’ll use this as the majority of people on here seem to be Christians) is the correct choice as oppossed to say, Islam or Hinduism.
Seems to me that this is the point where it all becomes subjective and in the realm of personal experiance, and I haven’t seen many reasons as to why so and so religion is correct as oppossed to all the others.[/quote]
LOL. So true. The thread was interesting but totally got trainwrecked into a theology debate. So, thanks for reminding everyone what the original topic was supposed to be! Hopefully the remainder of this thread will be as interesting and relatively civil as the last 8 pages.
For the record, I think this is by a long, long margin the most civil discussion of religion on the PWI forums ever started. I was expecting a trainwreck by the end of the 1st page.
[quote]alex789 wrote:
Hi all,
Just browsing through this topic and I don’t think anyone has actually really explored in any depth (forgive me if I’m wrong on this) as to why their religion is the right one (which was kind of the point of the OP I think).
I mean, I can buy the existence of a deity of some kind, but I fail to see why Christianity (I’ll use this as the majority of people on here seem to be Christians) is the correct choice as oppossed to say, Islam or Hinduism. Seems to me that this is the point where it all becomes subjective and in the realm of personal experiance, and I haven’t seen many reasons as to why so and so religion is correct as oppossed to all the others.[/quote]
Well, let’s see…from a Christian point of view, the most important thing that ever happened in the universe was the incarnation, birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. This cosmic event - which changed everything forevermore - is missing in Islam & Hinduism.
But that may not have immediate appeal or meaning to many who aren’t Christian.
However, even if we approach a comparison on a purely philosophical point of view:
For example, Hinduism is fundamentally “pantheistic.”
And Islam is heavily “gnostic.”
These properties alone render both religions problematic on a number of philosophical levels. And for these reasons, and much more, I personally wouldn’t go anywhere near them.
Every religion is problematic on a number of philosophical levels. Yes, katz, even yours.
Belief is a subjective thing based on subjective experience.
Not even going to try and read all these posts… Also, will not read any responses, but feel free to comment.
Religion is too binding, too contradicting, too dumb, and ironically too much of a waste of life.
On that note, Religulous is a good movie, anyone who agrees should watch this, sit back and enjoy the one life you get. Period.
Am I going to hell, na, I know I’m not a bad person, who’s to say I am? lol
Also, if anyone wants to debate, well, go ahead and argue amongst yourselves.
Sure, this will be a low blow, immature, cliche (as it’s been described to me?). Why did god make hitler and let him become, well, hitler.
Also, I liked the idea of the old testament. Isn’t god supposed to stick his might hand out from the heavens and take his holy thumb and squash Hitler while he stands at attention w/ his arm raised to millions of men (only possible from drugs, lol, meth was good for that)…
Like I said, I’m not coming back. Just like to add fuel to the fire (if at all)… 
The only things I worship are Beer, Women ( my wife in particular), and people who have the dedication and drive (mixed in with a little genetic blessing) to be called Worlds Strongest Man. Oh hell, who’m I kidding? I also worship steak, Alice Springs Chicken from Outback, Pizza Hut’s any size pizza with any toppings for just $10, and once again…Beer.
Other than that, I don’t have any imaginary friends anymore, let alone worship them or call them god.
[quote]fmaurice wrote:
Not even going to try and read all these posts… Also, will not read any responses, but feel free to comment.
Religion is too binding, too contradicting, too dumb, and ironically too much of a waste of life.
On that note, Religulous is a good movie, anyone who agrees should watch this, sit back and enjoy the one life you get. Period.
Am I going to hell, na, I know I’m not a bad person, who’s to say I am? lol
Also, if anyone wants to debate, well, go ahead and argue amongst yourselves.
Sure, this will be a low blow, immature, cliche (as it’s been described to me?). Why did god make hitler and let him become, well, hitler.
Also, I liked the idea of the old testament. Isn’t god supposed to stick his might hand out from the heavens and take his holy thumb and squash Hitler while he stands at attention w/ his arm raised to millions of men (only possible from drugs, lol, meth was good for that)…
Like I said, I’m not coming back. Just like to add fuel to the fire (if at all)… :)[/quote]
I would comment, but I only read the first two lines of this post…
[quote]katzenjammer wrote:
[quote]alex789 wrote:
Hi all,
Just browsing through this topic and I don’t think anyone has actually really explored in any depth (forgive me if I’m wrong on this) as to why their religion is the right one (which was kind of the point of the OP I think).
I mean, I can buy the existence of a deity of some kind, but I fail to see why Christianity (I’ll use this as the majority of people on here seem to be Christians) is the correct choice as oppossed to say, Islam or Hinduism. Seems to me that this is the point where it all becomes subjective and in the realm of personal experiance, and I haven’t seen many reasons as to why so and so religion is correct as oppossed to all the others.[/quote]
Well, let’s see…from a Christian point of view, the most important thing that ever happened in the universe was the incarnation, birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. This cosmic event - which changed everything forevermore - is missing in Islam & Hinduism.
But that may not have immediate appeal or meaning to many who aren’t Christian.
However, even if we approach a comparison on a purely philosophical point of view:
For example, Hinduism is fundamentally “pantheistic.”
And Islam is heavily “gnostic.”
These properties alone render both religions problematic on a number of philosophical levels. And for these reasons, and much more, I personally wouldn’t go anywhere near them.
[/quote]
Could you elaborate a bit on the ‘gnostic’ elements in Islam please, as personally I haven’t really seen anything in there that would lead me to consider it heavily gnostic, although to be fair I haven’t look into Islam that deeply.
But also this is just comparing Christianity to two other major religions and stating that it is philosophically superior, but that doesn’t neccescarily validate Christianity as truth, it just shows a philosphical difference. Such arguments may make Christianity more valid than other religions, but it doesn’t mean it should be defaulted to in my mind without something else.
[quote]CappedAndPlanIt wrote:
Every religion is problematic on a number of philosophical levels. Yes, katz, even yours.
Belief is a subjective thing based on subjective experience. [/quote]
I also want to touch on this as subjective and personal experiance is one of the other things that makes it hard for me to accept the idea of ‘one true religion’. Though personal experiance is often an argument that is used to try and prove the truth of whatever religion, the thing is that many many people from all religions have probably had a deep, profound religious experiance, or perhaps feel that they are in contact with or know God.
Since there are people like this from all religions, and since many religions claim to be ‘the only one’ this means that either:
a) They are all wrong and deluding themselves
b) They have all experianced God, but this would disprove the each religions respective claim that they are the only way
or c) Only the members of one religion have experianced God, and all the others are just kidding themselves. However, if that is the case, how can one possibly know which religion has got ‘the real deal’ and which hasn’t, since undoubtedly many people from other religions with deep religious convictions and experiances are kidding themselves, how can I tell the difference between that and the truth? As I am not them I cannot experiance each one to find out myself, all I have is the words of the people who have had these experiances, and each one will have the same deep conviction that they are right and the others are wrong, and the same argument will be just flipped back at them.
[quote]CappedAndPlanIt wrote:
Every religion is problematic on a number of philosophical levels. Yes, katz, even yours.
Belief is a subjective thing based on subjective experience. [/quote]
I also want to touch on this as subjective and personal experiance is one of the other things that makes it hard for me to accept the idea of ‘one true religion’. Though personal experiance is often an argument that is used to try and prove the truth of whatever religion, the thing is that many many people from all religions have probably had a deep, profound religious experiance, or perhaps feel that they are in contact with or know God.
Since there are people like this from all religions, and since many religions claim to be ‘the only one’ this means that either:
a) They are all wrong and deluding themselves
b) They have all experianced God, but this would disprove the each religions respective claim that they are the only way
or c) Only the members of one religion have experianced God, and all the others are just kidding themselves. However, if that is the case, how can one possibly know which religion has got ‘the real deal’ and which hasn’t, since undoubtedly many people from other religions with deep religious convictions and experiances are kidding themselves, how can I tell the difference between that and the truth? As I am not them I cannot experiance each one to find out myself, all I have is the words of the people who have had these experiances, and each one will have the same deep conviction that they are right and the others are wrong, and the same argument will be just flipped back at them.[/quote]
This is a good, logical way to put it. I believe “B” is the Truth. Fortunately, not ALL religions feel their way is the only way. “All paths lead to God” I have no idea who said that…I’ll have to look it up.
The question of “The Right Religion” is therefore a flawed question. They are all right. God is bigger, grander, more loving, and all encompassing of everyone and everything. To think that God picks out one puny path/religion to reveal himself exclusively, is a low view of God. And yes, even the most self-described “rightest” religions of the world are small in the vast creation of the Universe.
I’d like to pose another question…How much of the world’s suffering and evil is experienced within the conflict of pushing, promoting, judging and/or defending the “rightness” of a particular religion?
I don’t believe in any form of organised religion. I read a lot of atheist literature a few years ago but it never fully convinced me that I was an atheist. I don’t believe in the Christian God, or any other sort of god espoused by these organised religions.
I do, however, feel like there are forces at play which, at present, can be neither detected nor explained by science - this is what I understand as spirituality. Some sort of inherent connection between ourselves and the reality around us outside of what science can tell us.
While I understand the views of people like Richard Dawkins who believe only in what science can show them, I find it difficult to understand how those people have never had that nagging feeling deep down that something major has still been left untouched and unexplained. I don’t doubt that in the fullness of time, science can and will explain all mysteries, but for now, what I understand as spirituality (that manifests itself in religion) is this unexplained (perhaps unexplainable) factor.
No intelligent design though, that’s a load of shit.
I find it odd that people actualy still beleave in religion, its like people still beleave the world is flat