This is bound to be a very hot-headed topic, so let's keep it clean - go after the beliefs and not the believers, for any side.

What do you think about Christianity? How do you view it today? Is it a religion exclusive of all others, or is there room for salvation outside of Christ? Is there life after death at all?

How about the Bible? Is it accurate in a real and in a spiritual sense?

Does God exist? If so, is He a personal God? Is He the Christian God?

Explain your feelings and point to some resources. Let's have a good, clean fight.

*ding*

I think Christianity is the truth as best as I can perceive it in this worldly body. I think the important component to Christianity that some forget is the teaching of Jesus Christ. We have holier-than-thou people missing some of the picture, and we have Jesus-freaks that miss another part. Christianity is essentially an extended family of the Jews that believe Christ fufilled the prophesy of the prophets. And by all accounts and measure in comparison, I think it matches up well between the testaments.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to factually prove everything in the Bible. There's a lot to be assumed. But again, that's the part of faith. I am a scientifically minded person, but there's a point where the science just becomes ludicrous. I don't take faith as a copout, but as a component of what feels most real to me. The whole notion that we came from nothing into something without anything involved is just unacceptable and impossible in my view of the universe. I think scientists trying to disprove God are wasting there time. They are the ones meddling in things that are virtually unfalsifiable and uncomfirmable.

But back to Christianity, I think it fits best as a faith to people on the whole because Jesus Christ was essentially the one who fulfilled all prophesies written about him from the Old Testament. And honestly, I would hate to think that this kind of "truth" would be the misleading kind as you had the martydom of 11 of his twelve disciples (counting the one that replaced Judas Iscariot) and millions of missionaries worldwide. Not to mention, while I think the Crusades were mostly misguided, even then, I'd hate to think this was all a lie.

I look at the tone of Christianity and the lifestyle it professes it just makes sense. While I may have differences of opinion about some practices established in Leviticus, they do have their validity on some realm. But then again, I'm human. I'm Christian. I'm forgiven. I'm fallible too, but I think as long as your fallible doesn't reign on the side of denying God when you see Him, you'll be fine.

I don't think you'll ever find a sect that can tell you how you're saved, but it's one of those things that I feel when it's in your heart, it's there -- no matter when or what the consequences are. And in addition, I suggest there are many who will be saved, even living a life outside of worldly Christianity. There will be some that are humble to Jesus when they meet Him and they will probably find reason to worship Him. However, I suggest that it's more worldly fulfilling and personally fulfilling if you work with Him here.

Biblical accuracy is touchy to me. While I believe everything happened as the way God suggested it, I believe interpretation has led to some misrepresentations of what He wanted said. At the same time, interpretation has also led people to be cold-blooded killers and rebels without a cause. The Bible flip-'n'-pickers concern me as they never put the whole in context from the part. Ezekiel 25:17, for instance, can become quite wicked once an interpretation a la Tarantino's is simply suggested. Taking a class in redaction theory of the Old Testament, in addition, may have convinced me that there were many different authors of the Bible with different agendas. And with that line of thinking, it's easy to succumb to the notion, that perhaps, the Bible is a lie. But why tell the same story, praise the same God, and prophesize the same person over and over again in order to defame and mock and ridicule others of the same religion? Does that really work? And does it take away from the truth if it did? I suggest that it doesn't work and that the truth remains.

God is very personal, but it's the person's responsibility to open that relationship. If one is not in prayer regularly and does not designate special moments to honor and speak with God, I would suggest that they would not feel a personal, Christian God. In fact, they'd probably find other characters they don't want in that case instead.

And I'll be honest. I think the biggest reason I find God to be as Christianity supposes is sourced from children. I look at a child as innocent, warm, and loving. These are the characteristics that Jesus wanted all people as. Jesus wanted that warmth and curiousity. He didn't want the anger and blood of anyone who didn't believe in Him. He just wanted the hearts and minds of children, as they could believe in the fantastic and the loving.

The Koran doesn't suggest that all who embrace them will get into paradise. The Jews feel that the old way is salvation, and that's true. But only Christianity suggests the spiritual warfare that is ongoing. I've been attacked by demonic spirits lately and they try to tell me that God isn't real and that I can live a worldly life to the fullest because God forgives all. And while one part of that may be true, I know that my life has never been better since I've walked with Jesus Christ. Even the simple notion of reading a Bible verse a day warms me up to the world. It's remarkable how a simple interest can feel so wholesome and right. Christianity, I believe, in the only all-inclusive and interested religion for conversion -- so much that it seems to wait until after you're dead before it makes its final decision.

That's pretty much a deal sealer to me.

God bless,

Jared

There are many good things about the Bible and Christianity. But Jesus, as amazing as he was, is not God. I mean no arrogance when I say this, but if God was so "all knowing" as many claim, wouldn't he understand why people might be wary/questionable of his existence and so called "rules?"

I have a lot more to say about the subject its just not something of interest right now. I think there are much more important things to believe in other than making sure our nation, our society, and our existence are leading "moral" lives, and I am sure that "God" probably feels the same way.

I think it's unlikely. It's easy to be agnostic and say: well you can't prove his/her/it's existence... so maybe, maybe not. Who knows... I'm in no position to say.


I think that asks the wrong question.

For me, the question is:

Do we need a God?



Of this I can be quite sure that if God exists, he/she/it is not a personal guide, marriage counsellor etc. If God exists, god is *everything*.



"He" better not be. Or I'm kicking his ass.

I'm going to stray off course a little bit and just briefly comment on organized religion in general.

Personally, it's not for me, but I can understand why it may be for other people. I see some good things come out of it--it's a community builder and can help people partkae in good will on earth. However, once the holier-than-thou sentiment kicks in, it can nullify if not overwhelm the good.

I like what the song "God Fearing Man" had to say:

I went through 12 years of catholic school and I went to church every Sunday, holiday and sometimes random days for 18+ years. I have stopped going to church regularly for about 4-5 years now.

I would love to find a religion that I could fit into but I don't think I will and Christianity is definitly not one. I used to badger people that would blindly obey a religion but I've come to see that its people's faith that make them good people, that make them feel good about who they are and where they are going. I respect that. I don't think there is an afterlife in the sense of heaven and hell. I don't see how what you do in your short time here can earn you eternal damnation. I think if you are born a "sinner," (in any way, liar, adultor, murderer) that you were born or raised that way and you can't help that. How can you be sent to eternal damnation for that. I think Christianity is slowly slipping. Its politics and oldtime belief system scare people away and I think they need to change to fit the 21st Century. I think the Bible is fiction based on maybe some true events and people.

With all this in mind I also can't seem to find a place for God in this universe but like i mentioned up top, I'd love to "find" him/her/it and understand him/her/it, but the way things are going, I don't see it happening. I think modern day world religions are becoming grossly outdated and this ultimately affect a lot of issues in the future.

Send a Message to God
He has gone too far this time.
By Heather Mac Donald


In the wake of the tsunami disaster, it's time for believers to take a more proactive role in world events. It's time to boycott God.

Centuries of uncritical worship have clearly produced a monster. God knows that he can sit passively by while human life is wantonly mowed down, and the next day, churches, synagogues, and mosques will be filled with believers thanking him for allowing the survivors to survive. The faithful will ask him to heal the wounded, while ignoring his failure to prevent the disaster in the first place. They will excuse his unwillingness to stave off destruction with alibis ("God wasn't there when the tsunami hit"—Suketu Mehta) and relativising ("for each victim tens of thousands yet live"—Russell Seitz), even if those excuses contradict God's other attributes, such as omnipresence or love for each individual life.

Where is God's incentive to behave? He gets credit for the good things and no blame for the bad. Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is fond of thanking God for keeping America safe since 9/11; Ashcroft never asks why, if God has fended off terrorist strikes since 9/11, he let the hijackers on the planes on the day itself. Was God caught off guard the first time around, like the U.S. government? But he is omniscient and omnipotent.

So slavishly do his worshipers flatter God that they give him credit for things he didn't even do. Let a man rape and murder a child, and it's the man's offense; but if someone tends to the sick or shares his wealth, it's God's hand at work. The Most Rev. Gabino Zavala from the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese rejects any suggestion that God forsook the tsunami victims, according to the Los Angeles Times, but he credits God with the subsequent charity: "You can see God in the people's response—how they're reaching out."

It is a sad fact of human relations that unqualified adulation often produces from the adored one contempt and a kick in the chops, rather than gratitude and kindness. Apparently, the same applies to human-divine relations.

So, let the human race play hard to get. Imagine God's discombobulation if, after the next mass slaughter of human life, the hymns of praise and incense do not rise up. He checks the Sunday census; the pews are empty. Week after week, the churches and mosques are unattended; the usual gratitude for his not wiping out even more innocent children does not pour forth.

He starts to worry. Has he gone too far this time? Maybe he should've exercised his much heralded powers of intervention, the same powers that his erstwhile worshipers presupposed every time they prayed for him to cure a cancer victim, or get them into law school.

And so, no longer guaranteed an adoring public, he starts to make nice. He calls back avalanches poised to wipe out whole villages; he brings rain to drought-stricken communities; he cures fatally handicapped babies in the womb, or prevents such flawed conceptions before they happen. He presents tokens of his love to malaria victims and children paralyzed by auto accidents. Africa blooms with peace and prosperity.

It might not work. But the "I'm rotten-You're divine" syndrome isn't too functional, either. It's worth a try; there is nothing to lose.

-----------------------

If the Christian God exists I'd like to meet him in the back of an alleyway and stick a large cross right up his ass.

Get in line... or do we double team him?

Allllrighty, I'll just answer these questions one by one.

I think Christianity was just a odd anti-secular cult that got co-opted and transformed by an empire that got used by several other empires since.

Like most religions, its exclusive, but some forms of it are tolerant and other forms are not.

I think there is life after death, but I certainly don't know for sure. I just hate to think I would cease to exist after less than 120 years.

The Bible is part history and part mythology.

I personally don't believe in God, as in The Father God, but I think there is some kind of creative force in the universe.

I consider myself a pagan, which basically means I worship Nature. I don't believe in Odin or Zeus or any silly stories or superstitions... Science is my way of understanding Nature, and is what makes me realize Nature is something to be revered.

Well, as someone who ran the gamut from not caring if there even was a God to super spiritual Christian to hating church/religion but loving God, I can try to answer these questions.

What do I think about Christianity? How do I view it today? Well, I think it's run amuck today and has turned into a religious fiasco filled with hypocrisy, greed, and power....oh wait, it's been like that since Jesus left. See, man is not perfect. Never will be. Most of us look to a higher power, something that has all the answers. But in all honesty, today it seems like something that started out as a great idea, but turned into something horrific. Not that Christianity is even an idea to me. It's real to me, it's just the way man has twisted it and turned it into a religion. See, Jesus didn't come to start a new religion, he came to speak the Truth. He came to rid the world of the religious ideals and bring man closer to God, for man had separated himself from God. God, unfortunately, is too holy to be around sin. We all sin and fall short. But God sent a sacrifice...Jesus...His only Son. That sacrifice is a means for us to be close to God again. Blood atones sin. Jesus' blood was perfect for he was sinless. See, someone above said Jesus was not God, no, he never claimed to be. He claimed to be the Son of God, and he claimed to be at one with God. That simple premise has turned into a religious culture who does stupid things such as starting wars in the name of God and murdering abortion doctors in the name of God.

Is it a religion exclusive of all others, or is there room for salvation outside of Christ? Is there life after death at all? See, I don't know. If somebody lived a good life, but never heard of Jesus, I can't fathom a loving God condemning this person to Hell. But, it's not for us to know or judge. But if blood atones for sins, then why not believe in the only one who ever said his blood atones sin? I believe there is life after death. That's simple for me. I don't believe it ends when we die. What's our purpose but to live and become worm's meat?

How about the Bible? Is it accurate in a real and in a spiritual sense? Well, Jared answered it very well. But I'd like to add a few things. Yes, the Bible was written by man, and man is not perfect. But as Jared stated, every prophesy about Jesus in the Old Testament came true. I don't believe the Bible should be interpreted 100% literally. Take for instance the Creation story in Genesis. It is written in an allegorical and poetic sense. Not to be taken literally. It was handed down verbally for hundreds of generations before even being written. It was meant to give a summary of the events. There's even arguments about the fact that the two different accounts in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 contradict each other. And they do. But the important thing is that we believe God created the universe. Another thing that chaps my hide is the fact that the religious take Revelation so seriously. As if it's an accurate prediction of the end to come. Yet, historically, it is known that it was a highly metaphoric letter written in the early church to communicate with other Christians. For they could not communicate if they had used all this "Christianese", but rather they used metaphors and allegory to portray the condemnation of the early church. I'm not saying there isn't some prophecy included, but I'm just saying don't turn it into a billion dollar book series to captivate a highly influential and religious mindset.

Does God exist? If so, is He a personal God? Is He the Christian God? Yes, I believe God exists. That is part of having faith. Something you believe even though there may not be any evidence for it. Yes, I believe He's a personal God, but not the religion that man has turned Him into. And I believe He's the Christian God, but not the God of church where he will only help you if you pay your tithes and go to church every Sunday and Wednesday. I don't believe church or organized religion is the answer. I think Jesus came to make it simple, not some complex religion, but a personal experience. I don't follow the same convictions other Christians have. I don't go to church. At least in not over a year. I have an occasional drink, sometimes some pretty hard alcohol. Sometimes just a glass of wine or a beer. Jesus chose to hang out with sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, and the like. He ate and drank with them. They were a lot simpler people. They were not the religious folk which he came to reveal their absurdities.

I think Christianity is bull shit, but it is a great idea. Just from the perspective of virtue alone, the new testament preaches a wonderful moral code that is still relavent thousands of years later. Also, Christians in general are very giving and wonderful people. If you look at local charitable organizations, food banks, and homeless shelters, more often then not they are put up by churches or Christian organizations. Also if you look at their humanatarian record around the world it is second to none. Now there are a lot of bad Christians, a lot of instances in history where people have taken the relgion and used it for terrible things, but that definetly should not be a reflection on the general ideas it expresses. As far as it being true from a historical or religious perspective, I personally don't believe in the majority of it. But the virtuous aspects of it are completly correct in most cases. I think it is a great idea that most of the time is used for good, but sometimes a few ass hole muck it up.

I think whatever floats your boat is great. I just wouldn't put God ahead of family. I also wouldn't preach.

keep thy religion to thyself - george carlin

What do you think about Christianity? How do you view it today? Is it a religion exclusive of all others, or is there room for salvation outside of Christ? Is there life after death at all?

Christianity, despite what many Christians think, preaches universal salvation. That salvation is through Christ, but it is distributed based on the intents of your heart, not your knowledge or culture. A good-natured Muslim has the same chance at being saved as a good-natured Christian. That being said, I do believe that salvation is only through Christ as stated in the Bible, but I believe that the truth will be revealed to everybody at some point in their existence (after life), and everybody will be able to make an informed, non-biased choice as to whom they want to follow. That's the only fair way.


How about the Bible? Is it accurate in a real and in a spiritual sense?

The Bible is only accurate as far as it is translated and interpreted correctly. Most Christians do not understand the very nature of the writings, and how they came about, which taints their understanding of it. If you ask many Christians, God wrote the Bible, and it is one book, completed and assembled by John. This is simply a false belief. "Bible" comes from the term for library if you know even the slightest bit about latin languages, and that should be our first clue that the Bible is merely a collection of writings related the Jewish/Christian history and doctrine, and never claims to be complete.


Does God exist? If so, is He a personal God? Is He the Christian God?
Yes, yes, and yes. If God exists, he/she/it has to have some sort of correct set of attributes. If I, for example, believe God is physical, and somebody else believes God is purely spiritual, we cannot both be correct, or we would be worshipping two completely different Gods.

I believe in God. The end.

I dont know or care if god exists. I'm not qualified to determine if there are god or gods. I live my life the best I can, expecting that there is no god. And I love my life and everyone in it, and wouldnt trade it for anything.

I dont think it matters what you believe as long as you can say that.
The answer is different for everyone.

At the current time I do not believe in god. That's not necessarily a lifelong commitment, and I've only thought this for the past few years. Until I see compelling evidence otherwise, I don't think I'll change my belief.

Usually when I tell somebody that I don't believe in god, they'll respond with "why don't you?". Recently I put some thought into that very question, and I realized the question is entirely backwards. I shouldn't be asked why I don't believe, but believers should be asked why they believe in a god. The few times I've actually asked this question, I've been less than impressed with the answers I've gotten in return. Maybe some day I'll be confronted with convincing evidence. Until then, I see no reason to believe in the existence of a god.

To me, it seems that over the course of human history, people have always come up with gods to explain what they couldn't explain themselves. In the past there was a "sun god", until humans realized that the sun was actually a burning ball of gas that the earth revolved around. There were "fire gods" until humans understood the concept of fire. I could go on and on. As humans have become more and more educated, gods have simply evolved to explain the unexplainable. That's still true today, as science has begun disproving numerous aspects of Christianity and what is stated as "fact" in the bible.

I've tried to read the Bible once but I stopped cause it was the most hateful bullshit I'd ever read.

nice post.....now pray you fucker!

Jesus certainly laid down some very solid points on how to live. His views on love, humility, and caring for others are still very applicable today.

As far as God goes, who knows? All I can say is that I try to live a decent life and be decent to other people. Whether it is all true or all completely different, we won't know.

Just be darling and I will be too...faithful, to you.

How so?