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Random thought

@Richard. From a biblical stand point. God created all men with an eteranal soul. Our soul will live for ever. I know that sounds positive but, each soul will live eternally in Heaven or Hell. In Heaven souls will worship and praise Christ continually and there will be no pain, sin, or wickedness of any kind. In hell God will keep those souls alive and in full touch with their senses, in eternal darkness, alone, and in pain. Thus the immortality of the soul.

So, how does that work, exactly? When there was just Adam and Eve, where were all of the rest of the souls awaiting bodies to inhabit? Where are all the souls now of people yet to be born? I'm guessing it isn't much fun if you are that soul for the last person yet to be born sometime FAR, FAR in the future...

And speaking of Adam and Eve, don't you tend to wonder how much better off the human race might be if we weren't so heavily inbred?

Another question: Is God omnipotent?
 
If you would have told me that the author of the video was a woman, I could have saved the time of watching it. Most heresies are started by women.
This statemenst speaks volumes. This is not a compliment.
I said most not all. Some examples would be wiccan, 7th day adventis, the main femanist movement was started by Ann Hutchenson. God had the bible writted as a patriarchal society. Historically when women move away from the teachings of sola scriptura they start or get involved in anti biblical or extra biblical movements.

I not talking down to women. I am married to one. Proverbs 31 and Titus chapter 2 give examples of godly women. I'm just merely stating historical facts and biblical truths.
Right. Not buying it.

Man I don't remember being that judgemental here. But hey Iron sharpens iron. No offense taken.
Case of amnesia?

You are well within your rights to have your own choice of religion.
As both a woman & a Wiccan, I find these posts are very offensive.

I stood up for you. You have since lost my respect. I only hope that you chose your posts carefully.

This attitude that Christianity is the *only* true religion, is one of the reasons I chose to forsake it. I wish to have no part in any religion that acts so egotistical.
Oh, and just to edify you....Wicca was created by a man. :D
Thank you for pointing that out.
 
@Richard, God creates souls and bodies. I am not aware of any scripture where a soul awaits a body outside of Christ. Not for sure how heavily inbred we are now. God allowed it for a while but, in Leviticus he stops it and commands that no one lay down with mother, brother, and sister and so on. God is omniopotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Thus furfilling the word sovreign. I find it very comforting that Christ is in control. If man were in control it would be an awful place. I know on will say this place is pretty awful now but trust me if God did not intervene by weather, using other people, and sometimes the super natural we would have already destroyed our selves.
 
I received a PM this morning-

Would this be considered a "predjuicial" remark?

Quote:
If you would have told me that the author of the video was a woman, I could have saved the time of watching it. Most heresies are started by women.



I am going to address Lavender's statement that has many of the women here in an uproar.

Prejudicial is fairly hard to define.

Was his comment harmful to...women in general?

Or how about adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, damaging, dangerous, deleterious, detrimental, evil, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, harmful, wicked?

I could find a hundred posts a day that fit part of that definition.

I don't think Lavender's remark was directed at anyone personally, and he goes on to substantiate his claim with what he would call "evidence."

So- while we may not agree that "most heresies are started by women," I believe Lavender is within the rules here to make a statement like that and then try to defend it. And the rest of us are free to debate it, civally, please.
 
This weekend, my family and I buried a much-beloved Uncle. My Aunt, his wife, has attended a Methodist church in their neighborhood since they moved there in the early 60's. The preacher of that church gave the "sermon" at the start of the memorial, following the burial.

I have never in my life wanted to slap a person more.

It was all I could do to hold my seat, and my tongue as I listened to my grieving aunt and her family sob unrestrainedly as this buffoon, this moron, "ordained by God" continued to speak.

During the course of his "healing" discussion, he mentioned all the dozens of ailments my uncle has battled since his first heart attack in 2002. In addition to the physical "suffering" that my uncle endured, this clown also had the good sense to mention the fact that we lost his daughter to cancer at a young age, and oh, yeah, for good measure, let's talk about the anguish of losing his grandson to suicide, also at too young an age.

Yes, that's a good way to heal. Thank you so much for that, representative of the Christian God.

How anyone can waste their time believing that crap is beyond me. As others have said in this thread, the God of Christian beliefs is a wanker. He's not worthy of being followed. He uses and abuses his "power" and his followers, and is more cruel than many other gods from mythology.

"It is a better world [without God/gods], a place where we are responsible for our own actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and because it's the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment."

Spoken by Arya in Eldest by Christopher Paolini, as she discusses religion and the divine with the protagonist, Eragon.

A heaven without animals for me is hell. In fact, a heaven where anyone exists in hell would be a hell to me.

The intriguing thing is that in recent years, Church's have started to relent on this point and to do things like animal blessing days and discussions of animals entering the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because too many people in today's modern life find it disconcerting, unsettling and just outright intolerable to consider "eternal life" without our beloved animal companions.

So the church, being a propaganda machine out to make money by capitalizing on believers, is relaxing those standards.

The same thing happened several decades ago when the Catholic Church decided to ease back on the "truth" that unbaptized babies who die don't go to heaven because they have not been "welcomed into the kingdom of God." It was upsetting to people, and upset people have a tendency to leave the church, which results in a loss of money.

Gotta have money to afford all that "bling" you wear to deliver the Sunday service in Rome....
 
Lauren - I'm sorry that the service for your loved one went so badly. As a person who is of the faith you're so angry at, I truly am sorry.

Reading this thread has been "painful" for me. On one hand, we have this person apparently "Christian" making obnoxious and incendiary statements that leave himself AND his religion - which I share but in a completely different way than he does - a target of ridicule.

On the other - perhaps rightfully so - given the nature of the OP, we have folks - many whom I consider "friends" on this site - attacking a belief system that I happen to be a part of... a belief system that I would never brow beat someone with or foist upon anyone EVER.

I have so much more to say, but don't quite know how to word it and I hope I don't find myself regretting even making this post. I hope it is sufficient to say this... "Not everyone who shares the Christian faith is like or agrees with either the OP or the Pastor Lauren spoke of". I am a Christian who does not agree with the OP or the methods/sermon who did the service for Lauren's uncle. I try to be as open-minded as I can. I may not agree, but I do my best not to belittle the beliefs of others. I would hope for the same in return.

I've done my best to be careful how I worded this... Here goes...
 
I am a Christian who does not agree with the OP or the methods/sermon who did the service for Lauren's uncle. I try to be as open-minded as I can. I may not agree, but I do my best not to belittle the beliefs of others. I would hope for the same in return.

I've done my best to be careful how I worded this... Here goes...

OOPS... as soon as I hit "POST" I found an error... after "methods/sermon" I meant to put "of the Pastor".

sorry...
 
From a non-believer, please let me try to explain this.

Saying that anyone who doesn't believe your faith is doomed to eternal torment and punishment *does* come across as forcing faith. By saying that, you say that I *deserve* to be in the most horrific pain possible for ever and ever just because I didn't *believe*. I haven't murdered or tortured or kidnapped or raped anyone. I have gone out of my way to help people and animals, sometimes to my own detriment. I'm not perfect, because no one is. But because I am imperfect I'm going to be set on fire for the rest of existence. Just for that. Just for being human.

It's psychological abuse, in a way. We are disgusted by people who tell their children "You're stupid and evil and will never amount to anything and you aren't worthy of being loved" so why are we supposed to find the same things as 'benevolent' when they come from a deity? Why should I smile and nod my head and say "You're right! I'm a horrible horrible being deserving of absolutely nothing and need someone else to make me good!"

The best of the 'rules' from judaism and christianity were around long before those religions. They are rules that allow for a social species to continue to *be* a social species. Don't kill. Don't steal. Don't rape. Don't harm children. Wait, except that there is a commandment that says to kill children if they are disrespectful of their parents.

Why haven't we all been stoned to death?

Equally, I do not believe that a third party can forgive my transgressions. If I do someone harm, it is not God and Jesus who must forgive me, it is the person I harmed. Even if I repent of the action, I am not forgiven until the individual I have harmed has forgiven me. And I refuse to be held accountable for an action taken by someone who didn't exist. For being born human. If I follow all the rules except the "believe in me" rule, why do I still deserve hell? Yes, that one could be seen as a transgression needing forgiveness from the deity in question, but why would an omnipotent, omniscient, and supposedly omnibenevolent being feel so strongly that they need *worship* as to create a place like hell just for those who don't?


Amen :bowdown:
 
I'm not sure it's worth continuing this thread either. I know you guys are all for not locking threads and allowing civil discussions . I'm sad that some of the casualties in this thread are folks like Fred, quiet believers of christianity that don't go around trying to convert everyone on the internet. Nanci I am not surprised. Politics and religion threads usually get heated.
My objection to Lavender covers more threads than this one, I see a few others where he's trying to incite trouble. Nothing I have read from him really says "I want to stay and become a part of this community" instead cs gets compared to an uppity rich neighborhood and he's mad he has to pay to put up for sale ads (which I still keep seeing posts referring to how many hatchlings he has)
After all the remark is only sexist. It's not like he attacked blacks, asians, native americans, or gays, just us little women so I guess it's OK :shrugs: And ugh.
 
I am very saddened that what Lavender said has caused otherwise nice people to lash out in a way that has hurt innocents (Fred and possibly others).
 
I know that I am disappointed in Lavender. Supposedly we believe in the same God, and Christian beliefs. But, I have only seen posts meant to divide everyone here. And, seeing my beliefs attacked by the other members here, has left me somewhat sad. Though I knew it would happen, because religious discussions always lead to how evil Christianity is. I will try not to keep posting in this thread, but I will keep reading it.
 
I know that I am disappointed in Lavender. Supposedly we believe in the same God, and Christian beliefs. But, I have only seen posts meant to divide everyone here. And, seeing my beliefs attacked by the other members here, has left me somewhat sad. Though I knew it would happen, because religious discussions always lead to how evil Christianity is. I will try not to keep posting in this thread, but I will keep reading it.
Hence my first post on this thread where I said, "Nothing good can come of this..."
 
I know that I am disappointed in Lavender. Supposedly we believe in the same God, and Christian beliefs. But, I have only seen posts meant to divide everyone here. And, seeing my beliefs attacked by the other members here, has left me somewhat sad. Though I knew it would happen, because religious discussions always lead to how evil Christianity is. I will try not to keep posting in this thread, but I will keep reading it.
i couldnt agree more with outcast and fred. this thread is pointless. We (on both sides of the discussion) have done nothing but add fuel to the fire lavander has started. I for one am tired of this guy and hope Z starts trowing some fellas around soon...ill b happy the day his name is in bright RED!!
 
I agree, this thread needs to be closed. No one is making any kind of head way in these "arguments" and no one ever will. This debate has been had for millenia and will continue to be had until we are extinct.

Its like a war that never has a victor. More and more innocent people become victims the deeper the rabbit hole goes, so to speak.

This attitude that Christianity is the *only* true religion, is one of the reasons I chose to forsake it. I wish to have no part in any religion that acts so egotistical.

I agree. I consider myself Roman Catholic because that is the last church that I attended (that has been well over a decade ago). However, because of this attitude I strayed from organized religion a long time ago. It had nothing to do with being bored on Sundays as a kid. I just couldn't get into that attitude or follow a group of people with the proverbial holier-than-thou beliefs. I am not saying all or even most of the people in these religions are like this but it only takes one to give everyone a sour taste.

I choose to worship in my own way. That doesn't involve churches and sermons and such but it still brings me comfort when I need it. During the good and the bad.

I don't want to hear how bad a choice someone may think this is, nor do I want to hear that I am doomed to hell where I will be ripped apart over and over again, for all eternity.

I am happy with my choice just like you are with yours. Besides that, there is no one who has the right answer. Only those that BELIEVE they have the right answer. Those are called the FAITHFUL no matter what religion you practice.

Lavender, step away from yourself completely for an instant and read your posts. Seperate you current belief from the way you are interpreting your own remarks and think about their impact the way that your audience might. Then, and only then, will you understand why no one here can see eye to eye with you. You have people in your own faith here that refuse to stand next to you in the argument because they believe you are representing them wrong. Your remarks have lost you respect with your religious brothers and sisters here. This should be an eye opener to you.

Please close this thread before another member, who would otherwise never earn it, gets an infraction. Good people are getting hurt, not physically, but still.
 
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