andrew63

Isn't there something like 6.3 billion people on this planet and <1 billion are believers in religions with just the one god?
Scientology is the world's only religion with more disbelievers than believers!
Holocaust aside, what about Sept. 11? Where was god that day?

Personally, having a fundamental belief in a religion, supporting it, attending worship regularly, believing it etc., is no different to being an avid supporter of a soccer team with regards to a "weak person in need for believing in something".

Andrew

khoardiroy

So strength is believing in nothing.

Where was God that day of September 11th. Not with the killers anyway. They were obviously denying the teaching (as you seem to). Again, if you want an authorotarian interventionist God would that make you happy?

Its a shame that so many weak people have existed.

I mean without them wouldn't life be so much better...except for the lack of health, education, social concern, community... indeed you wouldn't even be able to read this but remain illiterate as well as opinionated with no sense of annalytical study of history and society.

I am amazed by the intelligence of the users of this forum. So many intelligent people throughout history have nothing on you...because they just did not have your wisdom to dismiss Christianity.....or maybe the simplistic ideas and answers that have been used to dismiss the bible have been argued before.

Folks do some research and look at the 2000 years of theological study and arguements before dismissing ideas. All I read here are trivial student arguements with little thought other than uninformed personal opinions.

iPom

Oh. my. god!

(Pick any - I don't have any one in particular)

birdynumnum

Well faith can be blind.
If believing in god & a religion helps give someones life meaning & happiness, good for them.
But dismissing the fact there is an almighty being doesnt equate with having a selfish lifestyle. I think its more selfish to act for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - a life ever after, than to take responsibilty for your actions on earth and be a good decent human being because you believe its the right way to live. That surely more altruisitc.

JAJ

One can't speak for other faiths, but Christianity believes that we are given free will. We are not puppets on a divine string. And free will includes the freedom to do evil as well as do good.

Nowhere in the Bible does it suggest that being a Christian gives you a kind of invisible shield against the various things that the world can throw at you. Jesus told us to expect as much. He said, "In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." [John 16:33]

khoardiroy

Totally agree

Christianity does not teach in a reward for good behaviour, but in belief. The behaviour attitude is in addition. Not an easy cop out.

That said there are many variations in interpretation of the bible and how humans interpret it. One must decide which to follow and why. The selfish way is always the easy one.

Lets not confuse man's corruption of religion to justify actions and faith.

iPom

I agree birdy...

My mother's a case in point here, who would call herself a committed Christian, but who doesn't actually think much beyond herself.
She thinks homosexuality is wrong and knocks other religions as being wrong.
My weekly conversations go like this:

Me: Hey Mum, how are you doing?

Her: Oh, you know,<sigh> just going on with the lord.

Me: Uh, ok. What does that mean, exactly?

Her: Well, you know, we're not happy here and we really need a change of scenery and we still have the mortgage of course. So we're just praying and leaving it in God's hands. It's just so terrible here... it's not a nice area any more and we want to move house, so we'll see how we like Australia when we come and see you in September.

Me: Uh huh. That's nice. So why not rent the house out and go and do something with all those years of nursing experience. I hear they're begging for volunteers to go out and give Polio immunisation to kids in Africa....

Her: Well, you know, we'll just leave it with God and see where He takes us.

Me: So what's happening in your life then? Been busy this week?

Her: Oh well I'm having the neighbour round for coffee in a few minutes. She's not a Christian, but she's been asking such interesting questions, so I've really been witnessing the Spirit to her.

Me: Nice

Her: Well the lord's just presenting me with these opportunities all the time so I have to take them.
Your father's really moving on with the Lord. And there was a witnessing of the spirit at church the other day. It's really so exciting. People are really coming to their knees.

Me: Um, well that's nice. <long pause>

So, I've been really busy this week... kids, life, photography, doing a course at TAFE.

Her: That's nice. I've always said you have a brain.

Me: Well I have to go and get on with the kid's tea. Catch you later.

Her: I'm really praying for you all ....

Me: Um,, thanks... <thinks: Couldn't you just be my mum instead?>


If anyone knows what the freak all that means, let me know. To me, after years in the church, it's shallow meaningless babble from someone quite happy to leave her every decision in the hands of someone she believes exists, and in doing so, allows her to opt out of her life and let someone else run it for her.

I have met real Christians... I can count on my right hand the amount I have met who got it right and who obviously believed and lived what they believed, but who were accepting of others and yet still remained connected with the real world.
IME, those are few and far between.

JAJ

I would just make the observation that many (most?) Christians don't go in much for the "witnessing of the spirit" stuff at church. At least not in the context I suspect here.

themerlin

That you mum is nuts lol

iPom

My mother's part of a 'born again' Christian set up in her spare time and is religiously trying to convert the others at the Anglican set up my dad runs.

Well done for trying, thinks I, but they're Anglican for a reason!

I just think her time could be better spent actually entering this 'terrible world' we live in and taking action to help make it better, instead of opting out and letting 'God' run it all.

khoardiroy

It means she hears a lot of pentacostal or prosperity christianity where its all show but no love.

Hmm are our mum's related?

iPom

Could be.

Hutch

Translation - life sucks, then you die, unless you're me.

No. Strength is believing that you're a biological entity. No more - no less.

No. I want no god.

Oh yes, we have religion to thank for all that. Don't mention that the 'church' bled the gullible dry for thousands of years in order to fund their experiments. Don't mention the systematic despoiling of indigenous nations, the rape of their wealth and the 'conversion' of people who'd existed for tens of thousands of years before J.C.'s little revolution.

I'm always amazed by the intelligence of 'believers'. I think you'll find that many intelligent people through history did dismiss Christianity as the farce that it is.

Oh, I didn't quite make it to doing a degree in Theology, but I'm well versed in the bible and its teachings, having had a fairly typical brain-washing at the hands of the Catholic church from the age of 2 right up to 16. So we hold 'uninformed personal opinions' because we don't think there's some bloke in heaven who made us all on a whim and who will banish us to an eternity of pain if we don't doff our caps to him?

Hilarious.

Wol

My philosophy, if you can put it that way, is to accept the world as it is described by the science of the time. It has worked pretty darned well in the main. It is rational and explains things as best it can - and accepts that ongoing research can add to or change what is perceived to be the "truth" about nature.

I find it quite scary that so many people nowadays can believe so many weird things, from astrology to scientology to mormonism. The yards of books in the bookshops under the "alternative" banners IMO don't show the human race in a particularly attractive light.

JAJ

There are many aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine that are not supported by the Bible, and some that sail dangerously close to the wind of contradicting it.

No denomination or individual can claim an exclusive right to interpret the Bible. Bottom line is that a bad experience with one particular denomination is not a reason to reject Christianity, or even assume that the denomination in question was representative of it.