Habibi, you are respectful of others beliefs. You present your beliefs with reasons, actions and thought. I respect you and what you believe even if I believe the total opposite. And I know you do the same, something that is very much lacking in this world.

 

Habbibi,

Given your thoughts on reincarnation or possibly the recycling of life, have you looked into Hindu or Buddaism? Both theologies are older than Christianity and explore the paradigms which you described. Such a train of thought is probably politically incorrect especially here but it is something you may want to explore. It is even possible that both you and the most fervent Christians are correct.

I was raised in both the Methodist and Lutheran schools of thought. Both came about as a result of a somewhat humanistic rejection of the Catholic church at the time of the reformation and just before the rennasaince period. Actually the Lutheran paradigm came well before the Methodiust one. But both resulted from the populations revulsion of the Catholic Church's corruption and brutaltiies of the middle ages. With the pedophilia today and the C. Churches refusal to deal with it I can understand the revolts.

We know the authors of the various books of the Bible used some factual references in their writings and probably used some allegories as well. We also know that there were supposed to be twelve desciples yet they are not all represented in the "accepted" versions of the popular Bible. There are books known to have been written and used in the study of Christianity long before the Western Roman Empire accepted and adopted the religion of Christ. Many of the books are not represented in the modern bible and offer different views of the death and resurection of Christ. There are even various descriptions of the creation.We also know that most of the current bible was commisioned by a Roman Dictator that tortured to death anyone who did not share his exact views of how Christianity ought to be.

We also know that God, if he exists, is not perfect, he created us after all and then regretted it. He flooded the earth in anger then showed remorse. He has shown that he has a sense of humor, heck, just read 01XLTSports posts, And He has allowed us to believe in so many different views and interpretations of his words, which shows us that he is both sardonic and accepting.

If we are made in his image, that does not have to mean his physical one. It could simply be his mental or spiritual image or maybe an image that we as a species are not yet capable of grasping. Certainly we know the earth is not flat, yet to say so out loud meant death by torture only ten hundred years ago. Almost all of science today would have been heresy in the not too distant past and even today some would forgo science in our public schools.

My own feelings run from total acceptence to outright doubt and dis belief at times. Why would he force his only son to die painfully for us to be saved when he already had the ability to accept us if we believed in him or were rightous people? Given our human frailties and penchants for doubt why make us lean on such things that we knoe to be impossible to achieve the goal of heaven? If God could make himself available to Moses then why not to everyone in their own time?

There are many questions that we cannot answer and to accept them blindly on faith can be hard. Because we can even fathom such posts as these means that our species is different from all of the rest, but it might just mean we have too much free time.

One thing I will never accept, nor should anyone else, however is for another human to condencendingly tell me that my beliefs are wrong or inferior to theirs. Nor should anyone be forced to pledge an allegience to a God they may not believe in.

 

And God created liberals to keep us entertained…

 

Glad you have a sense of humor. Also glad you took no offense.

 

Not at all my friend. It is always good to read your post and even better having informed debates back and forth. Good post by the way…

 

Thanks Swofford, if only the rest of the world were as tolerant as those of us on this board, we can only dream.

Nick, you are a smart fellow, I would love to sit down with you one day, have a few brewskis, and shoot the breeze.
Actually, I would love to do that with several people from here, but Rockpick is too damn cheap to host the f150online summer GTG at his house.
We need to apply more pressure and try to guilt him into it. After all, it's his duty as a moderator.

Habibi

 

Okay, Party at RockPicks house! We can BYOB!

I'm sure his wife won't care.

 

Nick, good post.

At first I was going to argue this point as I don't agree with it, but it's more of the that blind faith thing.
I believe in God and that he is all powerfull and perfect, but I still tend to stay away from religion and churches which makes my belief of Him easier, and to a point answering hard questions like those much easier.

From my point of view, I look at the bible as more then a 'collection of good stories' (that I defended earlier) but I also don't take it as 100% truth. I've seen many facts that make me believe the bible is accurate and consistant in terms of the many authors over a span of many years who wrote it. But whose to say the beginning, or originals where true. It could have been that regret and remorse where human errors at the time of writing. IE - if a lie is around long enough it becomes the truth.

As to what you posted that isn't a strong defense against it. And honestly, I would love to hear a hardcore bible thumpers answer to that. And for the comical side of things, I would love to hear a televangalists answer to that