**** Religion?

[slashbomb]

Hey you never know

You can take a chance and stop believeing in your religion but take the chance of your cost in the afterlife. Will you suffer in the gates of hell or live peacefully in the afterlife.

[mikea454]

wow im just typing fast, that is the reason for all the grammar errors, which i apologize for, but you knew what i meant and my parents are christian yes, but i didnt beleive in god till a few years ago when i actually started going to church and i studied the bible, and u know what i found, i found that i couldnt prove, any part of it wrong, it was the perfect book, and there have been too many miracles ive seen of to doubt gods exsistance...

-I am irsh and therefore was brought up Catholic

not just to pick on nightraven, but to any christians who have similar beliefs I have a few questions:

1. first of all which religion are you, and if answering questions outside your personal experience, whats your exposure - friends, theology major..... and are you of a christian sect that believes Jews killed Jesus?

2. What happened to the commandment about no idols/craven images, it was the second commandment given to moses, where did it go? and how did the tenth commandment given to moses become two commandments (see my other post for both jewish and catholic commandments - http://www.blizzsector.co/steam-room...us-racism.html )

3. PLEASE explain to me the holy trinity, other than its the catholic churches attempt to have Jesus be the son of god without breaking the first (and 'most important' commandment (having one and only one god)

4. why did we change from a loaf of bread to a wafer? Jesus used a loaf of bread (The last supper was a traditional JEWISH shabbot) and why cant we break the bread and drink the wine ourselves, why do we need a priest to do it now.

5. Why didn't the world end when Jesus came to earth?

6. What about all the inconsitancies in the churches stances? the sun revolves around the earth? Creationism? Crucifixtion through the hands - (must have been the wrists - hands are impossible - every cross and picture of jesus crucified or post crucifixtion are WRONG) at least the catholic church smarted up and took a stance that is virtually impossible to disprove (a page right out of the playbook aka the bible)

7. Why does god hate homosexuals, hate ************ and have tones of racism and sexism in 'his words'

8. why do we need churches, especially lavish cathedrals that cost vasts amounts of money?

9. If god is 'perfect' why does he not let the starving child in ethiopa, in some remote village that missionary work never penetrated into - into heaven? same question for the child who would have been my uncle but died as an infant before he was baptised? also other chirstian religions, and jewish and muslim... is their faith so wrong that they are banished to hell.... could thing the christians came along and corrected 350,000 years of 'not knowing any better. what about animals? I recentely got my very first dog in SEpt. and that puppy has more emotions and is more 'human'. Sure she has the intelligence of a 2 yr old child or a auestro lopithicus (sp?), but Its clear she expresses: fear, happiness, sadness, remorse, desire for companionship, if she scratches me and I say oww! she comes over to give me kisses... she isn't good enough for heaven?

10. Why do we pray to saints? I thought you should only pray to god, saints were just people, humans, why should they be prayed to?

11. why is god always portrayed with human form and is male? with such great power why not something of more of a force of nature or a ball of energy?

12. I think that the theory of gravity is just a myth... Its actually unmeasureable phlogistan that keeps everything 'glued' together... you cant dissprove the existance of soemthing unmeasurable so we should all believe this.

13. why cant you have sex before marriage? why cant condoms be distributed in Africa to keep the deaths from STDs to a minimum? Is this the word of god, or some sexually repressed and probably homophobic (because of homosexual desires he wished to keep repressed) man(men) from 2000 years ago? What kind of lvl of intimacy can you have with a person if you haven't ever really kissed then - yet you should pledge your life to them?

and I got alot more, but lets get a few of these answered first.... thanks for your help in furthering my understanding of my own religion and its cousins.


Additional Comment:

Hey you never know

You can take a chance and stop believeing in your religion but take the chance of your cost in the afterlife. Will you suffer in the gates of hell or live peacefully in the afterlife.

I got a bridge for sale..... its not in this dimension so you cant see it, or touch it, or make any observations to prove or dissprove its existance, but someday the earth will be sucked into this dimension and you'll be the (from toll collection) richest man ever!!! and live in a a life of luxuary just sign here on the dotted line

-------------------------------------------------


oh and send me a 10fg donation, and while your at it - I really hate when you do anything relaxing - idleness leads to evil - can you stop doing that?

[Crimson_Brilliance010]

WOW! I. am. amazed. These are chief editor calaber qeustions. I applaud you. Let me be the first to step up.

Black Baptist (don't really know if there's a difference between white and black or mexican for that matter) Btw, I am only going from what I know, which is all anyone can ask.

I think I'll take 10 for 200, please.

What is, "In my church, we don't pray to saints, we do pray only to God.

[DaCougarMech]

i like this guy

[mikea454]

WOW! I. am. amazed. These are chief editor calaber qeustions. I applaud you. Let me be the first to step up.


What is, "In my church, we don't pray to saints, we do pray only to God.

Thank you, and congrats to you on being part of a religion with AT LEAST one less flaw than the catholic religion. These questions are predominately written from a catholic point of view since my experience lies in catholic and jewish faiths.

FOLLOW-UP QUESTION:
14. the 3rd/4th commandment - Keep holy the Sabbath - It used to be Saturday, Moses held it on saturday, Jesus held it on saturday - why do Catholics have it on Sunday?? Our we breaking a commandment by keeping holy Sunday and not saturday now? Is this just another frail attempt to seperate themselves from their jewish cousins?


Ok this is going to sound a bit crazy at first but follow my logic. Imagine someone living 1000s of years ago. Lets say Ancient Egyptian time just for fun. He recognizes that life for anyone not in the house of the pharoh is pretty sucky - not a brilliant revelation. He starts telling people that he is the brother of Ra, the God of the Sun, and is recruiting good loyal people to live in the 'land of Sun' as part of their palace. Now their are only a few stipulations, First and foremost you must have faith, you must believe in Sun's power and NEVER question it. Next you have to be a good person, cause if your bad you will die and go to a place like your living now... as a slave - not lieing cheating stealing.... Third we will need some money to spread the word and save others - so dontate all you can afford and maybe a little more. You follow these rules and your horrible life will be rewarded with an eternity of happiness in my kingdom. Is this a far fecthed story?? possibly realistic? People are primed, this is everything they wanted:

A. As 'pack-like' instincts like caring for fellow members of your tribe, feelings of grief and sadness over the loss of a member, teamwork to survive (hunting/gathering, defense from elements/predators/other tribes etc) led to the development of modern man over 300,000 years - these same instincts promote a desire to be part of a greater 'pack' not just this little community of poverty and hardship - but a pack connecting the whole species and maybe more.
B. Building of a community - strengthening bonds with neighbors, helping each other (within the religion) to survive and live a better life.
C. Companionship through this community.
D. 30 yrs or less of misery = eternity of happiness (thats a good deal)

Just in case your still in doubt, I can saw a woman in half and then restore her, pull a coin out of your ear, Turn this bottle of water into wine (2000 years of the telephone game and it was kegs - enough for the whole party). I can walk on water - [of course there may be some ice under my feet so that I can reach your boat. (this phenomenon does happen in the great lakes region of the US.... see links http://www.fsu.edu/news/2006/04/04/ice.walk/
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=19440 ) OR this may have been mistranslated from hebrew since their word for water is ambiguous.] I can raise from the dead. [I think I have seen david blayne do a lot of these 'miracles'. When you subtract out the sensationalism of the story being retold over generations, how spectacular were these miracles. ] Im not just asking you to believe these miracles occured, but Im asking you to believe the extent retold by my brother's cousin's uncle's grandfather's roomate's next door neighbor once removed said happened. Just follow me and I will reward you with something intangible to your current state of being, but great none-the-less


WE have no copy of the ORIGINAL bible, just what was copied from copies of copies (and guess who was making these copies - prolly some monk who dedicated his life to the book - wouldn't hurt to touch things up a little to help save those non-believers.) There may well be a God, and we may possibly be worshipping him as he wishes, and living life as he would prefer us to, but religion wraps this up in cloak of additional 'stories' to seperate itself from other religions and further there own personal gains. Why should we hang on their every word when we dont know which word is theirs and which is the word of god himself. Is God going to punish us for not picking the correct religion, with the correct version, and believing only the correct parts within that religion. How have people taken religion to far you ask??

Lets look at the Orthodox Jewish religon (and stop picking on catholics for a minute). **"God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th he rested' -- lets just say for argument sake this is true. Now their are some people that believe that they should do this too and do no work on the seventh day of the week (saturday). In fact they want to be so sure that they dont break this rule that they wont:
1. carry an umbrella when it rains - cause carrying anything is work
2. drive a car/bus/bike anywhere
3. clean house, shower, cook dinner
4. turn on lights - this is the modern equivalent to making fire and making fire was always considered work
Beleieve this list goes on and on and some of the more extreme sects go so far as pre-ripping toilet paper, cause the act of ripping toilet paper is work and therefore must be preformed on a work day not the sabbath
**"you shall not cook a lamb in its mothers milk" - granted this sounds a little screwed up, but lets face it - once people stopped living on a farm with one sheep and her lambs this match will never be made. Cookin lamb in cow milk seems less severe or even a beef in another cows milk. Whats orthodox do to make sure they NEVER break this rule
1. Never have meat and milk in the same meal - just to be sure there is no cookin/mixing of the two. This includes a glass of milk with meat, cheese on your cheeseburger, cream sauce on your pasta with meat/chicken.
2. Use seperate dishes/silverware/pots for meat meals and milk meals - just to make sure there is no crumbs of the previous meal to mix
3. Restaurants are segrgated to either be meat or dairy restuarants - never both
and again this is just the tip of rules

these are just a few examples of how something that may have been the word of God to start was taken WAY to far by people over many many generations. Rules were still being added thousand years later. Ok I need to do work.... more later perhaps

[Rampage]

well from my knowledge all relidgions were made up....the romans did christanity, the greeks....greekin (LOL greekin) they made up their gods and there obviously crap...., lets see the chineese and buddah, india is allah...BUT you gotta think about this also....(for you guys that watch the scifi channel... there was an episode of Haunted on wednsay nite where the ghost inspectors [ no not the ghost busters] went to florida to a "haunted light house" they actualy caught an apperation on film. so that could be on life after death.....we all turn into apperitions [or in other words.... Ghost or black mass...w/e you wanna call it.] but it was wierd cuz there was a motion detector at the top of the stairs and the "thing" didnt set it off...but the ghost inspectors had actualy set it off.....and tere at the top door was a pad lock a dead bold lock a master lock and a door lock....so no one phsicaly could have opend it and closed it from the out side... so theres gotta be somthin after death imo....but nothin that has to do w/ religion....but thats just my 2 cents

[mikea454]

Just saw in the news.... pakistani muslims bombing Hindu Indians... thank you religion. Talk about generations trying to 1-up their ancestors and become more committed to their religious beliefs overzealous- not even on the right/left wing scale -lunatics giving other muslims bad names. 100s killed, and why? Damn that pisses me off

Additional Comment:

well from my knowledge all relidgions were made up....the romans did christanity, the greeks....greekin (LOL greekin) they made up their gods and there obviously crap...., lets see the chineese and buddah, india is allah

AGREED all religion is made up at least to a extent, usually a majority and probably never without some elaboration.

isn't allah the islamic god, India is predominately Hindu - ya know Vishnu, Genisha (sp?), and all the other gods of that polytheistic religion. Romans had their own religion too... it was an exact parallel to Greek. Christianity only came about later in the empire under the rule of constatine (the IX I beleive). Whose to say the greeks didn't have it to the 't'. We dont know their gods were crap - they just seem silly from our current point of view. Perhaps zues is considering smiting you as we speak.

[streetsoldier707]

I remember watching something on the History Channel...or National Geographic....but some guy theorized throughout all the religous text's of every known religon, from hundred's of years ago...they all spoke of great fire's/ lights in the sky...thinking that some of these account's relate to UFO sighting's, and many people think that Alien's started the idea's of religon. Although im catholic...It seem's a little eerie to have a theory such as that.

[Crimson_Brilliance010]

OK, I'll take 8 for 400, please.

What is, "Lavish cathedrals we don't do, but as for churches, we need those because we need a place that has been specificly made for praising Him. Churches, especilly the one I go to, pray long and hard,after they've recieved his instruction to make a sanctuary, and then place Bibles in the ground in specific places before they cement the foundation. It is His wish for us to praise Him, especially on ground dedicated to Him."

[mikea454]

OK, I'll take 8 for 400, please.

What is, "Lavish cathedrals we don't do, but as for churches, we need those because we need a place that has been specificly made for praising Him. Churches, especilly the one I go to, pray long and hard,after they've recieved his instruction to make a sanctuary, and then place Bibles in the ground in specific places before they cement the foundation. It is His wish for us to praise Him, especially on ground dedicated to Him."

Why do we need a place to pray to him, if god is all around us, god is everywhere, why do we need a church? does your church have stain-glassed windows, a bell tower.... or is it just a a plain simple warehouse of seats to gather with your fellow baptists and learn from the lessons of god/jesus? Did you church spend money to build something non-essential to the sharing of your religious ideas, they may not be the cathedral of Notre dame, but I suspect they aren't exactly 'no frills'. Besides this was a question directed to the sects of christianity that do build lavish churches.

[Crimson_Brilliance010]

Ok, I understand that the qeustion wasn't directed to me, but to answer your qeustion. We can pray/praise anywhere. He just likes it when we do it in specific places together. (Don't know if this is the right thread to bring this up in but,) There's a verse in the Bible that I'll have to find, but paraphrasing it, it's about this. I'll be sure to post after I consult my people.

Stainglass windows, yes. Bell tower, no. Brick church, yes.

[mikea454]

"Lift a stone and you will find me...." quote? also although the question was not specifically directed at you and therefore you cant give me a 'real' answer, I do appreciate the input, always curious about the differences in the christian based religions

[noobisback]

Lift a stone and you will find me? what the hell is that a bug??
i was raised a christian and ill be a christian till i die it doesnt matter really what other people belive in. if u belive in a life after death then good belive what you think is real. its not wrong for anyone to belive in god or life after death.

[slimp]

religions aren't a bad thing, they are useful. the reason i say they are useful is because even if they are bullshit, they teach good morales and help people out of bad situations (drinking, drugs, people who believe in stuff usually have something they think they can depend on) I don't do religion though, and i probrably never will.

[Z3R0]

Why can't people believe in what they want? Why is there always a debate?

[Mathalamus]

cauase people are usually stupid

[Z3R0]

It is shallow opinions such as that start arguments in the first place.

[Tool]

I Can Spam Too! Lol!

[Z3R0]

You know your name is very appropriate, Tool.

[Tool]

If your name is a representation of your "kool" factor then your "zero" is very appropriate as well.

But I think you should change your name to Spam. Then it would be the most fitting name that anyone on this board has.