Let's have a nice, long discussion about religion

I consider myself Agnostic because you can not disprove or prove God. Anyone can disprove some of the arguments in the Bible about how the world started. However, disproving one part of something doesn't completely negate the rest. The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere. Until God can be absolutely proven to not exist, then I won't rule out the possibility of God's existence.

I was raised Christian, but my parents never pushed me into being as religious as they are themselves. They allowed me to guide myself in my own way and I'm glad they did that because I feel like this way I'm able to learn more from others and still have my own beliefs.

I consider myself Agnostic because you can not disprove or prove God. Anyone can disprove some of the arguments in the Bible about how the world started. However, disproving one part of something doesn't completely negate the rest. The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere. Until God can be absolutely proven to not exist, then I won't rule out the possibility of God's existence.

I was raised Christian, but my parents never pushed me into being as religious as they are themselves. They allowed me to guide myself in my own way and I'm glad they did that because I feel like this way I'm able to learn more from others and still have my own beliefs.

Lollicupkins

wow. good answer!

I'm not religious, I'm a Christian. I'm in a relationship with Jesus Christ.ShowStopper102

I'm not religious, I'm a Christian. I'm in a relationship with Jesus Christ.ShowStopper102

Since when Christianity is not a religion?

[QUOTE="ShowStopper102"]I'm not religious, I'm a Christian. I'm in a relationship with Jesus Christ.gobo212

[QUOTE="ShowStopper102"]I'm not religious, I'm a Christian. I'm in a relationship with Jesus Christ.Teenaged

[QUOTE="Teenaged"]

[QUOTE="ShowStopper102"]I'm not religious, I'm a Christian. I'm in a relationship with Jesus Christ.ShowStopper102

Since when Christianity is not a religion?

[QUOTE="fluffy_kins"]

[QUOTE="AnObscureName"] If you could, would you?mindstorm

I'm interested to hear the answer to this too......

I'll answer.

"Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh." (Peter 2:18 ) This does not say it is right or even ok to have slaves. To put this in simplistic terms, this verse assumes people will do things wrong and simply limits the harshness of their treatment to other humans.

"If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property." (Exodus 21:20-21) You have to be aware that this is the Old Testament. I'm not saying by any means that the Old Testament is inferior to the New Testament but often times the morality of the Old Testament is not as strict. If you look in Matthew 5 Jesus displays a stronger set of morality than what had been before. I could go in more detail with this passage but my basic point has been made.

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5:22-24) I see nothing wrong with this personally. This submission does not mean the wife just lets the husband treat her harshly as this is a two-way relationship. Both the husband should love his wife with a tremendous love and in response, the wife should submit to her husband. Of all the females I've dated, they all want this honestly.

"I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by; I let them become defiled through their gifts-the sacrifice of every firstborn-that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the LORD." (Ezekiel 20:25-26 ) You act as if God does not have the right to punish the wicked... He is a holy God and will eventually punish all who do not seek him. You think he is wrong for that? He let us seek him despite the fact that we continuously disobey him. Listen to the song I mentioned in my most recent blog and you'll hear what I'm talking about.

"When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. . . . This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them-the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites-as the Lord your God has commanded you." (Deuteronomy 20:10-17 ) Simply put, they disobeyed God, he has every right.

"When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations . . . then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy." (Deuteronomy 7:1-2 ) Because they deserved none... none of us do but God gives us a chance at redemption nonetheless. Why else do you think the Gospel of Jesus Christ is called the Good News?

"Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property." (Leviticus 25:44-45) The basic idea of my rebuttal is mentioned above.

"He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." (Psalms 104:5) First of all, this is poetry, not a text book that should be taken completely literal. The end of the very verse before it says, "his ministers a flaming fire." I suppose that means it should be literal too... Second of all, the Hebrew word here is erets which can mean land, earth, and ground. It does not have to mean the entirety of the planet earth.

Are you kidding me?

To Teenaged: I THINK it's safe to say Christianity is a religion. FOLLOWING CHRIST, however, is not.ShowStopper102

The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.Lollicupkins

[QUOTE="Lollicupkins"]The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.Rocky32189

[QUOTE="Rocky32189"][QUOTE="Lollicupkins"]The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.vlin1108

topic. If you were raised following a certain religion, do you still agree with it or just follow it to make your parents happy?

if you chose to follow a different religion, which one did you choose and why?

if you are atheist, why did you choose to go that way?

I personally am agnostic. I just believe something bigger than all of us must exist out there. Also I figure no super-religious/atheists can really get on you for being agnostic. It's kind of the neutral position.

fluffy_kins

[QUOTE="Rocky32189"][QUOTE="Lollicupkins"]The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.vlin1108

[QUOTE="Rocky32189"][QUOTE="Lollicupkins"]The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.vlin1108

The fundamental particles that created our expanding universe could have aways existed. If this is the truth, then they were never created.

[QUOTE="Rocky32189"][QUOTE="Lollicupkins"]The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.vlin1108

Haha...

And before the big bang? Many leading physicists believe the universe goes through an infinite cycle of expansion and collapse.

Yes...check mate indeed...but only in your mind.

Your improved grades wouldn't by chance happen to be the result of harder work/studying?dnuggs40

I partly agree with BiancaDK above, there may be a God in a snese of a being greater than ourselves, even a sentience. I'm pretty sure they don't hear prayers though.

Just because we can't explain why the Big Bang occured does'nt mean it did'nt there are so many possible reasons (yes including it being created.) Eventually the pull of gravity will be so great that the Universe will stop expanding and start imploding. it's possible there are parallel universe's, our own might have been created by an extremely advanced race that figured out how to make a big bang... it's all possible. could be like war of the worlds (I hope it is).

No one has enough knowledge, or even brain capacity to indefinately ssay we are here for one reason or another. and what is the exact definition of agnostic? what i have typed above would point to me being an atheist? or a fence sitter.

Im actually really hoping the universe is governed by pygmy goats. hell bent on the destruction of apricot jelly..... and possibly jam.

[QUOTE="ShowStopper102"]To Teenaged: I THINK it's safe to say Christianity is a religion. FOLLOWING CHRIST, however, is not.Teenaged

[QUOTE="Teenaged"][QUOTE="ShowStopper102"]To Teenaged: I THINK it's safe to say Christianity is a religion. FOLLOWING CHRIST, however, is not.ShowStopper102

[QUOTE="Rocky32189"][QUOTE="Lollicupkins"]The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.vlin1108

The Big Bang theory says "hai thar."

'Let's have a nice, long discussion about religion'Lto_thaG

I just imagined my topic title being said in the buzzkillington voice. mwahahhaa.fluffy_kins

i figured that that was how it was intended :)

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i'm atheist in the sense that i do not believe an external being, all knowing and and omnipotent, but i do believe in values greater than myself karma is probably the easiest way to explain it. and yes tibbetan bhuddism to me is the most attractive religion mainly due to its lack of arrogance and it's ability to say that certain things are misunderstood.

[QUOTE="Rocky32189"][QUOTE="Lollicupkins"]The fundamental argument is that the universe exists, unless it created itself (which I doubt), then something had to create it. The cycle had to begin somewhere.vlin1108

Jesus because he was the only man who made B.C and A.D in the time line ( if this line did not make sense it is because i forgot how my Friend said it lol )iki080

Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea, changed the calendars of the country to display that the beginning of time (or at least a new era, whichever it may be) was parallel to the day he was born.

This being said, one shouldn't judge how legitimate a man (or his teachings) were just because time periods are labeled after him.

religions are created by ancient governments to uphold disciplines and regulations so as to make ppl obedient and scared imao..sorry to offend.Amartherion

man turned to spiritual advisors to explain the unknown, spiritual advisors found this gave them power and money, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

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this power lead to holocausts, massacres, genocides, gendercide etc. examples, the Aztecs, the israelites' march on "the promised land", the christian crusades, inquisitions. the roman catholic church single handedly held human development back by 400 years. in that time no scientific breakthroughs were made and anyone who researched science was a heretic.

^ be controversial, but not offensively so.

Any more takers out there? want to express your faith to the world??

I'm agnostic because some questions are beyond our capability to answer (though that doesn't mean we shouldn't try).gobo212

this

i am a muslim,

i studied all other religions and didnt find them to be....well....good as islam so i sticked to it

i dont care what my parents thinks about my religion, its my life...

I am an atheist because no religion or deity has convinced me of their truth or existence.foxhound_fox

[QUOTE="vlin1108"][QUOTE="Rocky32189"] Isn't it possible that the universe has always existed? Therefore, it was never created.dnuggs40

Haha...

And before the big bang? Many leading physicists believe the universe goes through an infinite cycle of expansion and collapse.

Yes...check mate indeed...but only in your mind.

I am a Christian. I grew up in a with a heavy christian background, at some point I stopped believing in God - well, more like I blamed God for some not great goings on in my life - but in the end I chose to take the whole leap of faith thing.

In my opinion, Science and Religon do not necessarily always have to be at odds. For instance, I do believe God created the Earth and all its inhabitants, but I also put a lot of stock in the notion of evolution. I do not believe a random explosion created everything, and from that we, and everything else that exists, spawned by absolute luck and randomness.

But, then there are the things science can not prove. Sticks do not turn into snakes, fogs do not mystically kil the first born, men can not walk on water, etc and that is where the faith comes in.

welcome theoretical astro quantum physicist. checkmate is best used to describe the end of a match where one opponent bests the other to the point where the loser no longer has position to manuever. Who said that discussing the origins of life and spirituality was a match? in the end most atheists are confused and questioning just as most religious persons but in the sense of most atheists, we don't wish to be given an answer to go through our lives with. in certain circumstances some believe that an individual path must be taken. But in the sense of die-hard atheists, does atheism not become your religious ideal when you stop questioningPhilosoph

You seem like the kind of person I could sit down and have a long intellectual conversation with b/c of that one sentence regardless of religious beliefs.

[QUOTE="dnuggs40"]

[QUOTE="vlin1108"] It's expanding itself, which points out that it must have had a beginning. Checkmate, atheists.vlin1108

Haha...

And before the big bang? Many leading physicists believe the universe goes through an infinite cycle of expansion and collapse.

Yes...check mate indeed...but only in your mind.