Oh for goodness sake.

I agree with Steve though. Because i know this is my only life, i will enjoy it and live it to the full. I don't want to live forever. I want to experience happiness, sadness and know that i need to be as good as i can because i don't have forever.

If god was so great, he would let us have our own free will and respect our own decisions. Why does he feel the need to be worshipped?

GOD IS THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF THE WORLD!!!!! if it wasn't for God we would not be here!!!!!

I give up. You can't reason with someone who is so blind they don't want to listen to anything else.

I'm a listener too but youre speaking LIES ALL LIES!! if you submit too God you can have eternal Joyness and you will see Sign & Wonders!!!

That's just it Simon. you Don't have to spend your life worshiping. God asks nothing more then to follow his ways and give your sole to you.

if you don't worship, it's not like he'll send you to hell or something. I have no idea why you can't get that thru your brain.

it's not like you'll be spending your life in some church worshiping 247.

With all due respect that's pretty narrow-minded.

Me, Simon, or Steve haven't said you guys are speaking lies, and we haven't said that if you listen to "science" and "facts" you will have eternal joyness and see truth and wonders and blah blah... etc.

I like to believe a bit of both trust me, but I just find facts way easier to believe and think about. Maybe not everything will be explained by science... but, scientists FTW. Science EXPLAINS it (maybe not all of it but it does), it doesn't just say "oh Earth got created" without telling why/how/whatever...

Arguments such as this one do nothing but get everyone riled up, especially since there is no definitive answer to it, and I personally believe that this question will ever be truly answered, ever.

Take life as it is:
Your alive, you can do things, you can change peoples lives, you can learn, you can do just about anything you want to do. Try to live your life to the fullest, meaning you try to do as many things as you can do.

As for death, well, you'll just have to find out for yourself. There's been several cases of people dieing and the coming back to life, all of which having some sort experience to which they interpret for themselves... but again, they are the ones that experienced death, and they have will most likely have a different interpretation than you will.

As for life after death, people can live on through their friends, family, enemies, etc. as long as those people remember them. With this simple memory of the dead, the living will do things that they would normally not do... "I will become the best I can... for dad" sort of deal. People can also live on through their fame of their actions, such as the great heroes Hercules, Beowulf, Moses, to name a few.

Science is merely a tool people have come up with in order to understand the world around them. Scientific facts are those that "If you do this then this will happen, always." Scientific theories are those that "If you do this then this will probably happen... most of the time," as well as "Well, this might have happened in this way, but I can't really find concrete proof that it did." That being said, there are numerous Scientific theories that explain the origins of everything, but there is no way that people can test them.

In the end, it really boils down to what you believe... what you believe is what you believe, and you will not change your belief unless you are willing to.

I personally advise that when you are going to say your belief to someone, that you say "I believe that..." "or so I believe" in order to prevent another uproar such as this... because when you forget to say that, some people will hear "My belief is the fact" and will probably put up their dukes or start hugging you...(?)

As for my beliefs, well, that's up to me and you-know-who.

You just got raped/repped. :)

Hehe good to see you registered. :P

Yeah, bad thing is that I've got yet another Forum to keep up with. (dangit!)

And THAT's exactly what I'm talking about Chris. You take the easy way. Not the wise way.

The bible explains why we were made. you just have to read the dern thing.

You won't understand it at first. believe me. but, it'll come to you. you just have to be smart enough. you have to be alot more wise to understand those words then to be somewhat smart to understand science. H'es waiting on you to read. He'll help ya out.

"and I personally believe that this question will ever be truly answered, ever."

Exactly. that's exactly how God wants it. (read other posts to see what I'm talking about)


"Your alive, you can do things, you can change peoples lives, you can learn, you can do just about anything you want to do. Try to live your life to the fullest, meaning you try to do as many things as you can do."

"Change peoples lives", Ha, and you can't see that's what I've been trying to do. and it will changes lives for the better. Believe me.

It's what made my dad who he is today.

when he was a lil' dude, his parents had lots of money, But they didn't give a rats a$$ about him. they'd rather spend their money on booze, drugs and parties. so even tho they had all that money, Dad was still left to eat what-ever barries he could find outside.

he was always trying to pull his drunk Dad off of his mom cuz he was always beating her. he would then get beaten himself.

he was always getting involved in gangs at his school and starting fights.

Then he started on Drugs........

He was going down fast! one day he just started reading the Bible. at the age of 12 he asked God to save him.

Well he's here to day as a middle class working man. he's got 15 acres of some really nice woods (and creek) with a two story house, two vehicles and his daughter in college. and he has been happily married for over 24 years and has kept the same good job this whole time. he's a very decent and kind man.


He didn't go to some kind of shrink. he went to God.

"The bible explains why we were made. you just have to read the dern thing."

it sounds like one of those Native American creation myths

im not trying to be funny or mean or anything like that, im just saying

"it sounds like one of those Native American creation myths"

exactly. only if you don't understand it.

just read. you'll see that it's so much more then some fairy tale some Indian made up.

""and I personally believe that this question will ever be truly answered, ever."

Exactly. that's exactly how God wants it. (read other posts to see what I'm talking about)"


Why? What is he hiding? Doesn't he realise that a lot more people would believe if there was some kind of proof. And you can't justify god creating the earth as proof. The bible is an ancient book that im sure has been edited many many times. So you cannot believe what is written in it today to be true since the time of Jesus.

Ok you're not thinking about it simon.

if we had proof that he did exist and proof there is a such place known as the damned, then every one would choose god because they don't want to be claimed by the damned.

so they'd be using God rather then choosing him because they love him. and so God would be back to square one.

that's the whole reason he planned for eve and adam to eat of the tree of knowledge. he wanted them to gain the knowledge of evil so they could make the choice rather the being born to love him.

imagine you have created something like God created us. you wanted your creation to love you. But the problem is, they love you because you designed them to love you from the start. then that wouldn't be true love. it would be forced love. Now what kind of mad God would force people to love him. so he gave us the knowledge of evil so we could make the choice. live in sin and ignore Gods invitation to escape. or Put a little bit of faith into trusting something he left behind for us.

he wants you to make the choice based on how wise you are. he wants you to trust him and simply take his word for it. Not to ask him to save you simply becuase you don't want to be claimed by saten.

So he would rather us believe it just because someone says its right? But then what makes it more right than any other religion?

No, he would rather us believe it because we choose to trust his word he left behind for us. His word being the bible.


And other religions are even more like fiction. they have no main purpose other then we were simply created by some higher existence.

This has a reason. this makes sense as to why this higher existence (God) would create us.

Also if you read the Bible. you'll find chapters that refer to to other chapters in OTHER books of the bible that were written hundreds of years later. So how could the writer predict what would happen hundreds of years later. Studies have been made to even show that they were written hundreds of years AFTER the books that refer to the same events. yet earlier books written by different people with no relations, refer to events that are yet to happen hundreds of years later.

which is even more reason to believe that God used these people who wrote the different books of the Bible to tell his word. People did not write the books of the bible. God did, he simply used the people to write it. So God new the events that would happen when the writer could not.

You just have to read.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/var_rel.htm

This is what I love about religious topics epecialy with the christian believers. They have little tolerance for others who believe differently than them and will cram their beliefs down others throats. the link above is about just the currently practiced religions. those dont include the thousands of years prior to christianity that ancient civilizations worshipped something else. And the very bible itself states all those religions are invalid. What makes the bible and christianity more valid than say the ancient greek religion, Aztec, or even Buddhism?

The answer is NOTHING.

"In one way, most people in North America are Atheists. Christians will generally deny the existence of the Mayan, Hindu, Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Sumerian, Sikh, and many hundreds of other Gods and Goddesses, even as they assert their belief in the Christian Trinity. Thus, the difference between a typical Christian and a typical Atheist is numerically small: The strong Atheist believes that none of the many thousands of Gods and Goddesses exist; the Christian believes that one God exists in a certain structure -- a Trinity -- whereas all of the other thousands of deities are nonexistent, artificial creations by humans. Although the numerical difference is much less that 0.1%, the philosophical difference is immense."

That in and of itself is a hypocrsy.

The bible was translated many times over the past 2k years and changed to suit the religious leaders in power. this is fact.

Believe in the god of your choice. or not! This subject should be closed and get back to spam..

But this is SPAM!!!!! :D :D :D

You've been given your choice............ that's that.

you can either reject it like you are now or accept. so good luck wif dat.

I like Spam actualy. Its not so bad when its fried with a nice crisp outside sliced thin between 2 pieces of bread with mayo, lettuce, and tomato.

chopped and mixed with top ramen though is nasty....

.





ShArP is slack on the job so now I have to add dots.

i believe devil dog #1 rules over all
hell look at MJ! he did a great job on him and see how long he lasted 50yrs lucky fool

uh huh.

That's what's wrong with America today.

How the heck can you say that and live in a country that was founded on God.

Our founding fathers would be ashamed of the America that exists today.

I just want to take the blindfold from your eyes.

Believe me. you've seen nothing. you've been living blind.

how bout we just drop this religous stuff, im getting tired of reading ur guys' opinions on the bible and all that stuff

.

Skinny, just drop it. The more and more you try to press the Bible and Christianity upon others the less and less they are willing to even consider them.

It is their own personal right to choose their proverbial path, and only they can walk it.

I remember a profound thought from reading several fictional books that addresses this matter...

"Do you choose the path that has been cut for you? Or do you choose the path which has yet to be cut?"

Remember now, that a path can criss-cross many other paths... but still have the same destination. Also, it has been said that the actual destination is not important, but rather the journey and experiences gained along each traveler's chosen path.

"And if you do choose the path which has yet to be cut, which tool or tools would you be willing to use?"

Personally, I believe that one should try out each "tool" that they can get the chance to, so that they may weigh their options and pick which tool suits them best. Some people prefer the Axe, some prefer the chain-saw, while even others prefer the Hammer. Each of them have their own advantages and disadvantages, but it's up to the users to decide which tool works the best for them.

Skinny, I understand your concern over everyone's souls, but you must understand that they have the right to choose for themselves... and if they choose a different path you must respect their choice, no matter the outcome.

On a much lighter note, what did everyone have for dinner tonight?

I had a nice stew of corn, tomatoes, and some hamburger.... it still needed salt and pepper though.

i mixed up some rice i cooked last night with some macaroni and green beans and little cubes of spam i found in the fridge, then once all that was mixed and microwaved up i put some ranch, and some mayonaise. Well we are just trying to change peoples mind shadow, but thank you for telling us what we are doing wrong.

my aunt fell and broke her hip once walking up the church stairs ...

No worries.

Hey have you ever tried something called Risotto?

I've made several of the non-alchoholic versions and loved eating every one of them :D

Devil Dogs Rocks:rocker::eatme::rocker:

haha. that's pretty corny.

Well I can't say I respect their choice. more or less feel sorry for them. but I was not trying to force anyone. you need to re-read my posts. I was answering questions and making corrections.

I'm the one that was always saying the choice was yours. I've made mine. I guess I just wanted to try and help. But I guess I can't help anyone here.

and pluss I'd already "Dropped it". you just started it back up again.

Eh... whatever. :P

when i stated my beliefs you questioned it, and i gave answers but all you offer in return is:

god is real because the bible says so...
we exist because the bible says to...
read the bible it explains everything...

it's THE typical thing that a religious person will say as if it's the be all and end all and the truth.

out of all the books out there what makes the bible a fact based book? why do you believe the bible? or why believe it instead of the Qur'an etc?

if you could answer this, it would be great :)

i'm open to believe a lot of things but i need some kind of evidence or proof, i've read the bible on and off but it's just impossible for me to believe right from the very start about the earth being created in 6 days and adam and eve and talking snakes, sry but i just can't go along with that. evolution seems much more logical and is at least able to be researched.

but the way it is, the bible shouldn't be taken literally by any means, which just leads to different interpretations and often to suit the way a particular individual wishes to believe either way.


re:"you don't understand and that's how god wants it"... the ultimate cop out tbh, if you were trying to cover up a lie, what would be THE number one excuse - "i could tell you but you wouldn't believe it"... well thanks for stating your case, you just failed to convince anyone.

.

http://www.josh.org/site/c.ddKDIMNtE...so_special.htm

Read that stevey

"lest anyone think this isn't something marvelous, we'd like to give you this challenge. Find ten people from your local area having similar backgrounds, who speak the same language, and all are from basically the same culture. Then separate them and ask them to write their opinion on only one controversial subject, such as the meaning of life.

When they have finished, compare the conclusions of these ten writers. Do they agree with each other? Of course not. But the Bible did not consist of merely ten authors, but forty. It was not written in one generation, but over a period of 1,500 years; not by authors with the same education, culture and language, but with vastly different education, many different cultures, from three continents and three different languages, and finally not just one subject but hundreds."

read the Bible and you'll see what they mean.

That's a good one. :D

We need a time machine for all this...


















On another completely different note, this quote is interesting (it's not to be taken seriously, so don't hype up):

http://richardathome.files.wordpress...urus-quote.jpg

indeed that is a good quote. I do respect your being open minded to this Chrispy. and but once again you've not read the Bible (or you have but still don't understand it).

he is willing and he can. and he will as he has promised in the Bible.

I'm not going to preach about anything beyond my knowledge. so I'm going to give my opinion.

I believe it is all in his plan. he will destroy evil. just not yet. he is going to let us live our existence before he comes to claim us. to let us decide weather we will believe him or deny him.