What's Your Religion?

[Luigison]

1) Prayer is not needed for God, but rather for ourselves. Think of it like this: if you have a friend and he knows everything about you, does that mean that you shouldn't still want to spend time with him? Trust me, I don't pray for God's sake, but rather for my own sake to come to know God.

2) God loves all of his children, however some chose with their own free will to not accept it. God would never force anyone to do anything that he or she does not want to do. If a person truly hates God and does not want to spend eternity with him, then God (who is all loving) does the loving thing by respecting his free will and not forcing him to spend eternity with him.

3) The story of Adam and Eve is not and was never intended to be interpreted literally. As I have said before, that account of the creation of the world was most likely written in Judah about 1020-930 BC. The author had no idea how the world was created, nor did he much care. Rather, he used the story as an allegory to show life as it should be and the origins of human weakness.

4) Yes. However, this is the doctrine of faith that is integral to religion. Of course the debate will go on and on about a "proof" or "disproof" of God. Pascal's wager is also not satisfying for many (although I cannot see why). This is a real consideration, even for the most religious of people. It was just discovered, for instance, that Mother Theresa struggled with this exact question much of her life in her own faith. This, however, did not stop her from living in a Christian lifestyle and placing trust in God.

Obviously, these answers are slight, but I thought I'd offer some answers.

Of course, these responses are not meant to generate hateful replies.

I believe in a God and did not intend these questions to be slight, but I guess they are in a way.  They are, among other questions, things I've tried hard to answer myself.  I'll give my answers and comments on your answers later.  Thanks.  By the way, I've never purposely tried to be hateful, but I'm a skeptical thinker so I come off that way sometimes.  It also may be that the more I research and think about religious and spiritual things the less I believe in them. 

Edit:  I think you missed the most important question in number two. 

[Koopaslaya]

I suppose Hell was created when the first demons (fallen angels) came about. As far as my understanding of this Theology goes, these angels thought that they could be God themselves. They openly chose to rebel against God, hate him, and oppose good. In accord with their choice, God created hell to send these evil angels where they wanted to go.

[The Chef]

I'd like to see what would happen if you tried to explain your answer to No. 3 to Turtlekid and CrossEyed.

[ShadowBrain]

Show of hands: Who saw Life of Brian?

[Nintendoobsessed]

'Raises hand' Oooh, me! Me!


How to make a powerful storm:

1. Start the movie Life of Brian
2. Invite Turtlekid to watch a "beautiful, religious movie"
3. Run for your life

[Koopaslaya]

* Koopaslaya raises his hand.

"Where's the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?"

Also, let's not be mean to members or make fun of them or call them out on their beliefs because they are different than yours. *Cough -- Nintendoobsessed*

[nensondubois]

A scientific theory is an idea that may or may not be true based on partial scientific evidence. Religion is based on people telling you something is true and forcing you to believe it.

Yes people are conditioned to believe something. Religion is passed on the same way customs are; being condoned not to think differently or question them.

[jmdblazer]

I am a christian. The book of genesis isn't completely accurate. Moses wrote it, and he wasn't around at the time, so he explained it from what he knew, and said that God made things one day at a time, not in a literal sense. Though people nowadays take everything in the bible literally, even the book of revelations, which was written at a time when christianity was being outlawed, so it was written in a code which nobody nowadays can decipher.

[ShadowBrain]

You know, this has been bugging me for a while, so I'll just get it off my chest... "Religon"? Sounds like a Pokemon.

[Chupperson Weird]

I think that got mentioned a few pages back.

[CrossEyed7]

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." ~ 2 Timothy 3:16

"But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"" ~ Matthew 4:4 (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3)

"But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"-- these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. " ~ 1 Corinthians 2:9-14

[Sapphira]

3) The story of Adam and Eve is not and was never intended to be interpreted literally. As I have said before, that account of the creation of the world was most likely written in Judah about 1020-930 BC. The author had no idea how the world was created, nor did he much care. Rather, he used the story as an allegory to show life as it should be and the origins of human weakness.

You know, that's just a theory/opinion. Not saying I don't think it's true to some extent, but to make a blanket statement like that is an awfully dismissive view of the text.

3) If Adam and Eve only had sons, from where did their wives come?

First of all, let me clarify that they didn't only have sons. Gen 5:4: "After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters."

As for where their wives came from, I've wondered about that, too. This is my interpretation:
Aside from the Adam and Eve story, in the creation story, Gen 1:27 says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."  Since it's not referring specifically to Adam and Eve (other than possibly "man" in the first part), "male" and "female" might be used in the plural sense. In other words, God may have created many men and women around the same time, possibly after the Garden of Eden story.

(Heh, can you tell I'm taking an Old Testament class?)

[Koopaslaya]

You know, that's just a theory/opinion. Not saying I don't think it's true to some extent, but to make a blanket statement like that is an awfully dismissive view of the text.

Just a quick question about that. How do you think that it is true to some extent? I'm just curious about your interpretation of that theory.

[Sapphira]

Well, for example, God creating the universe in literally six days. Not that God's not capable of that, but for one, He's not bound by time like we are, and 2 Peter 3:8 provides the analogy, "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." My interpretation is that "day" means "era." People at the time probably would've had a hard time grasping that, though, so each "chunk" was put into day format to make it simpler, and to explain where the Sabbath day (resting on Day 7) came from. Again, this is just my personal opinion. Doesn't mean I'm right or wrong. No one can really know for sure.

Also, the Genesis account wasn't written down for at least a few thousand years after the events took place. I don't think the author(s) created the stories out of thin air, but rather were writing down stories that were handed down orally. So it's likely not 100% accurate; some things were probably embellished, exaggerated, or downplayed. But I still think the general gist--and the lessons--of the stories are true. And unless I have a reason to believe something might not be accurate, or the text implies (well, I infer) something figuratively (such as through simile and metaphor), I don't have a reason to not take it literally.

[Reading]

Also, the word they translate as "day" is "yom", which is often used to refer to a day, but literally means "time period" if I recall correctly. Just throwing a bit of info out there...and no, I don't know Hebrew. I found that information in a book.

I don't see the point of debates about how literal the creation story is, because I believe it's irrelevant. I have purposely decided not to make up my mind on the issue. If you're a Christian, you believe God created the world, right? What does it matter whether He created it in 6 days or ~13,700,000,000 years? In situations when it would come up, however, such as continental drift (a topic I've been interested in since childhood), I will defend the billion-years viewpoint.