God

Originally posted by Rich Parsons


Remeber you all asked ! :D

Actually, I asked :p

Originally posted by nightingale8472
in wicca, self defense is not only justified, it is MANDATORY under the rule of "harm none." "Harm none" covers both action and INACTION, so therefore, if, by your own inaction, you allow yourself to be harmed, you violate the rule. Thus, you must defend yourself in order to minimize the amount of harm done. The harm is minimized, because although you may cause injury to the other party, you aren't going to cause rape or murder.

For all you christians out there, self defense is permitted (or at least, not prohibited) by the ten commandments. There are two versions of a particular commandment. some books say "thou shalt not kill." while others say "thou shalt not murder." if you trace the bible back to the original aramaic text (or even back to the latin), you discover that the word used translates much closer to murder than to kill. therefore, one could draw the conclusion, that since the writers of the book got that specific regarding murder, that some kinds of harm and killing could be acceptable under certain circumstances.


Very very very interesting. I wonder what the Jewish religeon stands on that subject.....:asian:
 
this one's hard for me.. agnostic/athiest I guess, depends who I talk to.

basicly if I'm in a room if athiests I argue in favor of thiests, with thiests I argue for the athiest. My personal view on religion is pritty darn simple, I havn't seen an argument that can prove beon d a shadow of a doubt that either A: there is nothing to reality beond the empiricul universe. and B: That there is something to reality beond the empiricul universe. Leading me to my core belief of "Who cares?" (actualy directed twards myself so maybe more of a "do I care?"). That is to say my life choices would not change if I were to join a religion so why bother?

Actualy the arguments and counter arguments I have considered are a bit more complicated but basicly I don't like organised religious bodies, I personaly don't like the idea of having religious leaders.

(edit) Almost forgot about Kaith's question.

As in my case my religious outlook (or lack of) is essentialy a result of my personality and the way I think, my MA perspectives mirror my religious perspectives in most regards, so I like to practice in an environment where there is little dictation but rather more of a mutual scholastic persuit, that is to say we don't do things because someone told us to but rather because after discusion and experimentation evidence points to it being a good choice. (hope all this makes sence to someone.. it's late and my mind might not be working properly :p)
 
I just don't beleive... I want to know. What I know I live by.. What I don't know I reflect on.

The question if your religious or if there is a god, are quite uninteressting, because they come down to a beleif system. Any beleif system builds on absolute truth ( a truth that can't be disscussed), which doesn't emphesize discussing it ( or can't tollerate it).

And somewere in my philosphical self I don't beleive in good or bad. Things change, sometimes it's more of one thing, other times it's something else. But thinking of things as good or bad, you use a reference point. Thinking that things are good and bad will just start you off on the path of "better/worse" also called judgemental. Some might say I don't judge, but already there you just did. The other part of good/bad, is that both sides are correct, it's a point of view. And just because you take one side, does that justify that the other side should exsist?

In my world duality is a part of the world. You can't just choose one side, because it'll change. It's the nature of good and bad. They change as times goes by....

/Yari
 
Regarding god-belief, I'm an atheist. My beliefs in general are probably best accomodated by secular humanism. I was raised Catholic, and went to Catholic schools. Probably the biggest reason I dropped the religious stuff was that it just makes no sense to me. While growing up I voraciously read historical stuff, old mythologies from other cultures, bibles, etc. I also gobbled science fiction like candy. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't really distinguish among theistic-beliefs. They all originated in primitive cultures' attempts to explain things that happened to them over the ages, lacking the modern scientific principles and knowledge base that we have now.
 
ya'll have done it now. Here I am in my office on a holiday trying to get work done, and someone had to ask about "God". Now I am going to give my lengthy response, bore everyone, and not get as much done as I expected too today. I'll try to keep this as short and as interesting as I can, but here is my conversion story. and Oh well, here it goes.....;)

When I was a kid, I had gone through the Catholic sacraments and catechism. I had a horrible time with the religious education program when I was growing up, mostly do to ignorant and intolerant instructors. Most of these were volunteers who had no training in childhood development or teaching, so they were unable to recognize what the “trained” teachers and councilors had recognized in the public schools; that I acted the way I did in religious ed. class because I had serious problems at home. You see, I also came from a “broken” home, and an abusive environment. This turned me completely away from the Catholic Church, and Christianity in general. I couldn’t see how Christianity could be “the answer” when people seemed to act outright “evil” in the name of it. So I decided that Christianity wasn’t for me.

I had an urgent need to find some sort of answer, however, because I wanted to justify ending my own life. Now I have to put a little disclaimer here: I was only 11 years old when I had reached the suicidal stage, but don’t let my young age fool you. At the time I was probably on my 10th psychologist (of which only one had diagnosed me as suicidal with homicidal tendancies). Most of these doctors where testing my aptitude, however; apparently I have a talent for conceptual logic and communication. That is not for everyone on this forum to know the details about, because I don’t think I’m better then anyone else. Everyone has their talents. I just want to make the point that I had been thinking and reading about subjects that take conceptual logic beyond the scope of the average adult when I was about 7 or 8 years old, so by the time I was 11 I had read through and thought through quite a bit, I would say.

Too much knowledge for a young kid with no moral direction is no good, however, because I had rationalized the insignificance of my own existence. That, coupled with my overall lack of enjoyment of everyday life (getting my @$$ kicked at school by bullies, then at home by my parents wasn’t helping), I wanted to end my own life. I had decided that before I do so that I had better figure out what life means. So I looked everywhere I could find outside of Christianity for answers. This luckily brought me past my suicidal stage, and I was realizing that there was far too much out there for me to discover, and that killing myself would probably not be such a good idea.

By 8th grade, life was much better. My parents separated, so my abusive father was no longer as much of an influence. I had gotten proficient enough in my TKD to prevent myself from getting bullied, and I had just started Arnis a year before. Although I went through the motions of a Catholic conformation to appease my mother, I had developed more of an eastern thought in terms of religion; with the philosophies of Taoism, Zen Buddhism, Confucism, and Menceism mixed with an anthropomorphic concept of God. I did not identify myself as a Catholic at all.

That summer after my 8th grade year, I went to Canada on vacation with my mom and brothers to a little resort in Red Bay Canada, off the Georgian pinincula. I met this guy up there who was an Evengelical Christian. He was cool, and not “preachy” or annoying like many “bible-beaters” I had met. We got into a conversation about religion. We respected each other’s views, but I admitted that much of what he said had made sense. I had decided to look back into Christian philosophy, realizing that it did have some value, even though I had not agreed to become Christian. He had sent me a New King James Bible, of which I read the entire thing. I had taken what I liked, and discarded (more or less) what I didn’t.

My search continued through my graduating high school. I had Christian philosophy mixed in with eastern thought. I had also identified with tribal “Pagan” belief systems, particularly those of a Celtic origin. Then the rational for Christianity, one day out of the blue, hit me harder then it had ever had.

THE RATIONAL:

Take 6 people from various cultural backgrounds, and put them in a room: Lets say one Jew from Israel, one Druid from England, an atheist from America, a Christian from Mexico, a Muslim from Iran, and a Buddhist monk from an isolated area in the himilayan mountains. Then ask them various moral questions, such as “Is it O.K. to unjustifiably murder someone?” or “Is it O.K. to steal?”

Assuming that the people who were picked are not “psychopaths” or deemed “insane” by the standard of their own culture, these people will have a general agreement on key moral issues. Granted, the rational might vary when asked a detailed question. For instance, the Atheist may believe that it would be O.K. to kill someone if you are defending yourself, but the Buddhist might believe that even in that case, that would be murder. But the answer to the broad question: “Is it O.K. to unjustifiably kill someone, the general concensus would be ‘no.’”

Then ask these same people if there are individuals in their culture who have broken these generally accepted “rules.” They will all answer “yes” of course. Now all of you ask yourself, do you have morals or standards that you are unable to live up to? How about your community, or heritage? Don’t you see people all around you who make mistakes daily, and don’t meet their own standards? Don’t you?

Now, examine the animal kingdom. A little lion is eating a fresh kill, and a bigger lion comes along and is hungry. The bigger lion pushes the little lion aside and takes the food. The little lion doesn’t exclaim “Hey, that’s my food! That’s stealing! I’m gonna take you to court!” The little lion might not be pleased, but the fact is that the animal kingdom doesn’t have a method of “rationalizing morals” the way that we do. Evidance shows that they are working purely out of conditioned response, and instinct. Animals don’t have ideals that go beyond the scope of their capabilities like humans do.

So what logical explianation is there for all of this? Nature, and the animal kingdom, conforms to a cycle of birth and death. The same is with our humanly bodies, which will eventually become dust again. But, as humans we are constantly trying to take ourselves out of that cycle. This is why we don’t conform well to nature in itself; our destruction of the earth is an unfortunate extension of our personal conflicts with this cycle. And, we are the only beings on this planet that have a standard that is “outside” of ourselves; and no one knows exactly what that standard is because it wasn’t created by humans alone. The only logical explaination, when you think about it, is the Judeo-Christian one; that there is a God beyond us, who created us, and who has set the standards. Since we are not perfect, we struggle to conform to these standards that are beyond us. Since we have souls we desire to be in a place outside of the cycle of birth and death. Without something more powerful then us, we wouldn’t even have the desire to try to conform to standards beyond ourselve. We want to improve ourselves because we want to be like God, and we are made in that image.

The Paradox of Evil was also better solved by Christianity then other religions. How can there be evil if there is a God out there who is ultimately good? God is love, and according to Christian theology, he wants us to love before we can be in heaven. In order for us to love, we have to have the ability to “choose” love or not. Otherwise, it would be forced, and it wouldn’t be love at all. Love is what it is because we have the choice to love or not. It is when humans choose “not” to love, or to “walk in truth;” that is when problems arise. There is no middle ground. Every choice and behavior is made either for God (good) or for the opposite of God (evil). The “Devil,” according to theology, just happened to be one of God’s closest angels who chose the opposite of God. Evil exists in this world from people choosing the opposite of God. This evil is the unfortunate, but neccissary consequence of allowing us humans who are not perfect to have the freedom of choice. Our freedom is our own downfall. That is the paradox.

Then, the final argument for Christianity involves Christ himself. When you read the bible stories, you realize more and more that Christ claimed to be the son of God, basically God walking around in the flesh. The only choices that are available to us, then, is that either 1. Jesus is the son of God, or 2. Jesus was insane, or 3. Jesus is the biggest fraud and lier that this world has ever known. There is no middle ground here. Upon realizing that this “Jesus” person has had such an influence on this world, and that his teachings make sense, and are yet profound still today almost 2000 years later, and all the other proofs that point towards Jesus being a pretty wise, smart, good, and self sacrificing guy, only one conclusion comes to mind. #1 must be correct…Jesus must be who he said he was.

I am now a practicing Catholic. I had realized that the mistakes made towards me when I was younger were human mistakes, and not the fault of the religion, church, or the truth that exists behind the religion. Unfortunatily human mistakes in the name of religion are very grave. They are a result of human ignorance, not the religion itself. I chose Catholicism because even with the rules and standards of the church, I was able to intigrate the truths that I had learned from eastern theology, and Pegan/tribal thought, exept now God is the underlying purpose for these beliefs. Plus, the Catholic Church is the oldest existing Christian church, and its belief system, rituals, etc. are the closest I can get to the actual practices of the apostiles during the time of Christ. Plus, the doctrine just makes plain sense to me.

Well, this is my outlook, and how I came to realize what I know to be true. My beliefs may be correct, or incorrect, but they are probably a little of both to some degree. One thing that is a fact, however, is that not everyone can be right. There is a truth out there, and you are either on your own journey towards it, or you are not. I hope for your sake that you are. Just don’t be afraid to take the narrow path, to enjoy the scenery, and to ask for directions along the way.

Peace, love, and with respect,

PAUL

:asian:
 
Paul,
IMHO, NUF SAID, AND WELL SAID!!!

Peace
Dennis
 
Well for I'm a Christian and as for why - it's experience...
When I was young my parents bought me up in a Baptist church, I loved it as a little kid but as I got older the whole thing seemed a bit boring and restrictive. Somewhere along the line things got out of hand and I started getting into some stupid stuff. Eventually woke up and wondered what had become of my life and decided to give this church that some of the kids at school were talking about. This was at age 17.
Started seeing a girl and while we were mucking around she fell over and sprained her ankle to the point where she had to get crutches. Went to church that night where someone bent over and put their hands on her ankle and asked God to heal her and she threw away her crutches and walked. That was pretty impressive.
 
Very well put there Paul, great post.

I am a Christian, sometimes question parts of it and always trying to make my faith stronger. This thread has done some good for me.
 
:)

And for the record, I respect everyones right to have their own beliefs. This post wasn't predominatily Christian; actually it seemed to be predominatily "athiest". I can respect that, it's their journay, but I just wanted to give an alternative. More importantly, I wanted to explain the logic behind my alternative.

I really am enjoying this post so far, and hearing everyones point of view.:D

Jill666 O.K. Jill, you got my attention. I am totally confused... are you saying "God, No Thank You" as in your not interested in God, or are you saying "God.....No, Thank YOU" like your actually thanking God for something. Or, like God thanked you for something, and you said "No, Thank You" as in "my Pleasure."

Really, I don't know what you mean.
 
Yea, probably.

I'm just being kind of an antagonist, (or a-hole, whichever you'd prefer to call it:p ). I was attempting to get her to elaborate a little bit. The comment seemed a little snide after my post, and the few others after mine, anyhow.

It wasn't like she was simply stating her belief's, or giving a useful reasoning behind her beliefs. A good example of an appropriate "non-christian" answer on this thread was quizmoduis post. He stated he was an athiest, and gave his reasoning behind it. I may not agree with him, but he at least stated his beliefs in a constructive manner. In fact, even the other posts that were briefer then his where pretty constructive, I thought.

I didn't feel that Jill666 had stated her opinion in the same constructive manner as the rest of the posts here, whether intentional or not. Plus, linguistic structure of "God....No, Thank You." is pretty confusing as well when you think about it, even though I could guess what she probably meant by it.

Anyways, I'm rambling. Sorry. If Jill666 didn't want to elaborate or discuss her beliefs in a constructive way, then she should not have posted on a thread that is primarily discussing religious beliefs. I don't know if that is the case with her or not, though, at least not until she posts something in explaination.

:cool:
 
O.K., now I really am being an @-hole. :lol:

I'm totally just kidding around, though. I hope you all, including you Jill666, will see the humor, and not get POed at me.:D :asian:
 
I'm not an atheist or agnostic. I think religion is a load of crap that people use as a crutch to argue how right they are and how wrong everybody else is. I was somewhat of an atheist when I was younger until I was told that evolution was scientific.
 
I don't go slamming my religion down anyone's throat. What pisses me off are people going around slamming other people's religions. People who state that religion is a clutch, have no clue what they are talking about, either due to youthful ignorance, or simply ignorance.
 
I agree ignorance is a big problem today. It seems to be more rampant in today's society than ever before.
 
I was born a Serbian Orthodox.

Really a Christian under my own terms...not affiliated to any church or religious group.;)

Follower of the Tao of Z-Rex :D
 
My thoughts tend to be more along the lines of sweeper. I haven't made a decision about whether or not I believe there is some higher power(s) and I think I'll keep it that way for a while.

There maybe very well be a higher power of some kind or there may not be, but either way I try to live my life as a good person.

I think being relegious can be a very good thing in some cases and I know it has really helped some of my family and friends.

Like I said, either way I try to be a good person and I guess I'll find out when I die. :asian:
 
Originally posted by Zoran
I was born a Serbian Orthodox.

While in college I dated a girl who was Russian Orthodox. I learned that Russian Orthodox holidays fell whenever she had an exam.
 
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