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I admit I don't know anything about while we are really here. I hope that Chistians are right and there is an after life, I am scared of not existing for some reason. I know it won't matter but it still scares me. I just don't have faith that heaven exists.
Nothing to fear, Luissa. After death you will be as at peace as you were before you were born. Since we are all condemned to death as mortal beings, there is no sense in fearing the inevitable. Live well. Love well. Be a good soul and fear not what happens to people of a good heart.
Despite the parables, I seriously doubt the streets of heaven are paved in gold, guarded by United States Marines and that we'll all spend eternity strumming harps and singing hosannas. It is as impossible for a mortal being to fully comprehend God and heaven as it is for an ant to comprehend an aircraft carrier. We can understand pieces of it, but not it's completeness because our brains are simply incapable of holding such a large thought.
Hey.......the've found actual amino acids in various meteors that have come from space.
Isn't that where the Lord lives?????
Just floating around in space? Hardly.
Has anyone seen Voyage - the 1/10 billionth scale model of the Solar System? There are a few around the country. I saw the one in Corpus Christi, Tx. It's very cool, but the most shocking thing I noticed was that space was immense and that our Solar System was almost pure space with a couple of tiny pebbles floating around in it.
To think that an entity such as God is not only larger than our Solar System, but larger than the Universe is completely incomprehensible. Those fire-and-brimstone preachers who say they know what God wants are talking through their hats. It's barely possible for a human being to even comprehend God much less "know" God or know what God wants.
We have inklings of what God wants. Glimpses. Glimmerings. A few key ideas maybe. Know? No friggin' way.
Hey.......the've found actual amino acids in various meteors that have come from space.
So?
It indicates life exists beyond our own planet.
One problem we, the human race, has had historically is egocentrism. Heck, the authorities locked up Galileo for suggesting that mankind wasn't the center of the Universe.
Don't get me wrong. I believe in the Almighty. I just don't believe that human beings are the center of God's focus. The Universe is a very HUGE place. It might be only one of God's creations. It would be egocentric to think that only we, mortal humans, are God's only concern. Humans who think God is only concerned for them is very selfish in my opinion. In the end, we are all ONE with God, but we should not make the selfish mistake that God thinks we are the ONE.
For example, there is a 28 year old man in Pennsylvania using the "Leviticus defense" for murdering a 70 year old man by stoning him. Apparently, the 70 year old made an unwanted pass, so this fellow studied his bible and then wrapped some rocks in a sock and beat the old man to death.
Honestly, why didn't he just say, "no thank you" to the pass.
Because violent people with latent homosexual tendencies and low self esteem don't think rationally. He's attempting to use the Bible as an excuse in order to justify a murder. I hope he is sentenced accordingly.
Let's see if I get this right. Instead of blaming Leviticus, you blame the murderer for having "homosexual tendencies"? It sounds like you're blaming the violence on homosexuality, in a sense, blaming the murder victim.
The issue is this man couldn't just say no to a pass. He is a biblical literalist. He took the law into his own hands, and he cites biblical law over civil law.
Lev. 20: 13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death."
I think he's blaming the murderer for using the Bible as an excuse for his own head-fuckery. I don't think he's blaming the guy for having head-fuckery in the first place. I, however, note that you seized on the "latent homosexual tendencies" and totally ignored the concurrent "violent" and "low self-esteem".
Because violent people with latent homosexual tendencies and low self esteem don't think rationally. He's attempting to use the Bible as an excuse in order to justify a murder. I hope he is sentenced accordingly.
Let's see if I get this right. Instead of blaming Leviticus, you blame the murderer for having "homosexual tendencies"? It sounds like you're blaming the violence on homosexuality, in a sense, blaming the murder victim.
The issue is this man couldn't just say no to a pass. He is a biblical literalist. He took the law into his own hands, and he cites biblical law over civil law.
Lev. 20: 13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death."
I think he's blaming the murderer for using the Bible as an excuse for his own head-fuckery. I don't think he's blaming the guy for having head-fuckery in the first place. I, however, note that you seized on the "latent homosexual tendencies" and totally ignored the concurrent "violent" and "low self-esteem".
If we're to accept his existence at all. Good point.
David Hume:
If the evil in the world is intended by god he is not good. If it violates his intentions he is not almighty. God can't be both almighty and good. There are many objections to this, but none that holds since god is ultimately responsible for the existence of evil. Besides, if only god can create he must have created evil. If somebody else (the devil) created evil, how can one know that god, and not Satan created the universe?
Galilei, GalileoThey put him under house arrest for making definitive theological statements - rather than scientific statements, or asking theological questions - on their dime.
Continent? When Leviticus and Exodus were written, they didn't even know much further than their own horizon. The distance between the Pyramids and Solomon's Temple is about 270 miles. About the same distance as between Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida or Boston to New York. That's all they knew.What did you expect people who were too primitive to know anything beyond the borders of their own continent, let alone outside the atmosphere of their own planet, to think? Nevertheless, while God almost certainly has other things going on besides this planet and its population, He did still indicate that we were quite important to Him, so I suppose we're going to have to take His word for it, if we're going to accept His existence at all.
If we're to accept his existence at all. Good point.
David Hume:
If the evil in the world is intended by god he is not good. If it violates his intentions he is not almighty. God can't be both almighty and good. There are many objections to this, but none that holds since god is ultimately responsible for the existence of evil. Besides, if only god can create he must have created evil. If somebody else (the devil) created evil, how can one know that god, and not Satan created the universe?
Yes, well, the person I was actually addressing DID, in fact, indicate that he (or she, I dunno) was accepting the existence of God.
If you don't wish to accept that, then anything else that was said has no relevance to you, and therefore does not invite any response from you, and CERTAINLY does not invite you to rush in with quotations attacking Christianity from people I neither know nor give a shit about.
When I am hungering mightily from instruction from arrogant human beings on how their lofty human moral standards are not being met by God Almighty, please rest assured that you will be the first one I come to. At this moment in time, however, I am not in the market for excessive hubris, so keep it to yourself.
Let's see if I get this right. Instead of blaming Leviticus, you blame the murderer for having "homosexual tendencies"? It sounds like you're blaming the violence on homosexuality, in a sense, blaming the murder victim.
The issue is this man couldn't just say no to a pass. He is a biblical literalist. He took the law into his own hands, and he cites biblical law over civil law.
Lev. 20: 13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death."
I think he's blaming the murderer for using the Bible as an excuse for his own head-fuckery. I don't think he's blaming the guy for having head-fuckery in the first place. I, however, note that you seized on the "latent homosexual tendencies" and totally ignored the concurrent "violent" and "low self-esteem".
Yes, I picked on that one for a reason. I was making a point that one can just as easily blame the religious oppression as the "homosexual tendencies" for this violence.
Both men were limited. The 70 year old had the mind of a second grader. The murderer had previous sex offenses and was mentally ill.
It's not a simple case of blaming homosexual tendencies or religion. Both were elements in this crime.
I think he's blaming the murderer for using the Bible as an excuse for his own head-fuckery. I don't think he's blaming the guy for having head-fuckery in the first place. I, however, note that you seized on the "latent homosexual tendencies" and totally ignored the concurrent "violent" and "low self-esteem".
Yes, I picked on that one for a reason. I was making a point that one can just as easily blame the religious oppression as the "homosexual tendencies" for this violence.
Both men were limited. The 70 year old had the mind of a second grader. The murderer had previous sex offenses and was mentally ill.
It's not a simple case of blaming homosexual tendencies or religion. Both were elements in this crime.
No, one cannot "just as easily blame religious oppression", especially since any religious oppression so far exists only in your head. The murderer chose to use the Bible to justify what he wanted to do anyway. He could just as easily have chosen the Torah (which I believe contains Leviticus as well), or the Qu'ran (which isn't all that friendly to homosexuals, either), or any of a dozen cultural groups in this country that teach that "real men don't have no truck with that limp-wristed faggoty shit". But until you can prove, categorically, that he was ever "religiously oppressed" at all, let alone that Christianity or the Bible teaches that it's okay to go out and kill people who offend you with impunity, you can't blame the Bible, or Christians, or anyone but the killer himself.
...how do you expect him to save you?
This seems like a fatal theological flaw if ever there was one.
Pffft. What do they know? Wonky. Has. Spoken.And Communism, which is state-sponsored atheism, has killed a hundred million people.
Did you have a point?
I've had many, all of which you missed.
(And atheism isn't even necessary in a communist nation to begin with. There's no corrleation.)
Beeep!!! Sorry, wrong answer.
Modern twentieth-century Communism is based on the theories of Karl Marx. Marx considered atheism as a key part of communism, and is famous for saying, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses." Marx was himself an atheist, of course, and he also wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."
Vladimir Lenin wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."
In 1955, Chinese communist leader Chou En-lai declared, "We Communists are atheists".
If you can't believe the Communists themselves, who CAN you believe? Well, how about someone who lived and suffered under Communism?
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
It's not an accident that every society that has ever started out to be Communist either abandoned it early, or ended up persecuting religion.
If we're to accept his existence at all. Good point.
David Hume:
If the evil in the world is intended by god he is not good. If it violates his intentions he is not almighty. God can't be both almighty and good. There are many objections to this, but none that holds since god is ultimately responsible for the existence of evil. Besides, if only god can create he must have created evil. If somebody else (the devil) created evil, how can one know that god, and not Satan created the universe?
Yes, I picked on that one for a reason. I was making a point that one can just as easily blame the religious oppression as the "homosexual tendencies" for this violence.
Both men were limited. The 70 year old had the mind of a second grader. The murderer had previous sex offenses and was mentally ill.
It's not a simple case of blaming homosexual tendencies or religion. Both were elements in this crime.
No, one cannot "just as easily blame religious oppression", especially since any religious oppression so far exists only in your head. The murderer chose to use the Bible to justify what he wanted to do anyway. He could just as easily have chosen the Torah (which I believe contains Leviticus as well), or the Qu'ran (which isn't all that friendly to homosexuals, either), or any of a dozen cultural groups in this country that teach that "real men don't have no truck with that limp-wristed faggoty shit". But until you can prove, categorically, that he was ever "religiously oppressed" at all, let alone that Christianity or the Bible teaches that it's okay to go out and kill people who offend you with impunity, you can't blame the Bible, or Christians, or anyone but the killer himself.
If the bible teaches you that your very being, who you are as a person, is wrong, you're oppressed.
He chose the bible, not the q'uran or the torah. Literalism is wrong whether its the torah, the bible or the q'uran being used.
Here's an answer to that question.If we're to accept his existence at all. Good point.
David Hume:
If the evil in the world is intended by god he is not good. If it violates his intentions he is not almighty. God can't be both almighty and good. There are many objections to this, but none that holds since god is ultimately responsible for the existence of evil. Besides, if only god can create he must have created evil. If somebody else (the devil) created evil, how can one know that god, and not Satan created the universe?
As he continually has....how do you expect him to save you?
This seems like a fatal theological flaw if ever there was one.
Only if you miss the point.
Galilei, GalileoThey put him under house arrest for making definitive theological statements - rather than scientific statements, or asking theological questions - on their dime.
Galileo was arrested for his statements about the solar system, charged with heresy. The church made him make a public statement that the earth stands still and the sun revolves around the earth not the other way around.
Continent? When Leviticus and Exodus were written, they didn't even know much further than their own horizon. The distance between the Pyramids and Solomon's Temple is about 270 miles. About the same distance as between Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida or Boston to New York. That's all they knew.What did you expect people who were too primitive to know anything beyond the borders of their own continent, let alone outside the atmosphere of their own planet, to think? Nevertheless, while God almost certainly has other things going on besides this planet and its population, He did still indicate that we were quite important to Him, so I suppose we're going to have to take His word for it, if we're going to accept His existence at all.
A God capable of creating the entire Universe, and probably Multiverses, certainly has the capability of monitoring much of what goes on within it.
Yes, I picked on that one for a reason. I was making a point that one can just as easily blame the religious oppression as the "homosexual tendencies" for this violence.
Both men were limited. The 70 year old had the mind of a second grader. The murderer had previous sex offenses and was mentally ill.
It's not a simple case of blaming homosexual tendencies or religion. Both were elements in this crime.
No, one cannot "just as easily blame religious oppression", especially since any religious oppression so far exists only in your head. The murderer chose to use the Bible to justify what he wanted to do anyway. He could just as easily have chosen the Torah (which I believe contains Leviticus as well), or the Qu'ran (which isn't all that friendly to homosexuals, either), or any of a dozen cultural groups in this country that teach that "real men don't have no truck with that limp-wristed faggoty shit". But until you can prove, categorically, that he was ever "religiously oppressed" at all, let alone that Christianity or the Bible teaches that it's okay to go out and kill people who offend you with impunity, you can't blame the Bible, or Christians, or anyone but the killer himself.
If the bible teaches you that your very being, who you are as a person, is wrong, you're oppressed.
He chose the bible, not the q'uran or the torah. Literalism is wrong whether its the torah, the bible or the q'uran being used.
