'What religion are you?' poll discussion

k.o.d

adrian_clark wrote: »

During his earthly life, the man Jesus Christ clearly, repeatedly, and emphatically declared himself to be the only God. This claim is without precedent or peer in the history of the world. Today, a few billion people who worship Jesus Christ as God believe that claim, making him the most significant person who has or will ever live. Luke’s gospel, which I recommend as a useful place for research, gives us the most detailed, historically accurate account of the man who is God. The attitude you express is an amalgam of 20th century atheistic thinking. It is a truth claim devised to rationalize the effect Jesus has had and remains to have on history. I guess at the moment of death we will have the proof to substantiate the truths we uphold.

We will have to agree to disagree, St. Lukes gospel may be historically accurate as to times and dates, but as for proof that someone of flesh and bone being the One true God, nah! I don't buy it.
Faith is a great thing, and in times of need a neccessary one, but please don't try to sell me a dream.

adrian_clark

k.o.d wrote: »

We will have to agree to disagree, St. Lukes gospel may be historically accurate as to times and dates, but as for proof that someone of flesh and bone being the One true God, nah! I don't buy it.
Faith is a great thing, and in times of need a neccessary one, but please don't try to sell me a dream.

If you had the cure for cancer how selfish, unloving and cruel would it be to keep it a secret? When you have good news it natural to share it, especially when it involves a wow factor of such proportions. The whole point is that this is good news not good advice. There are many people, religions, philosophers and theorists offering explanations through their truth claims. They all cancel one another out, even the popular one that says there are many truths is a truth claim. There can only be one truth. With that truth comes honesty, integrity, compassion, generosity, meaning, purpose and above all love. Our families, spouses, and children deserve weighty truth that is rooted in compassionate, faithful and enduring love.

[Deleted User]

adrian_clark wrote: »

If you had the cure for cancer how selfish, unloving and cruel would it be to keep it a secret?

It'd be very kind to keep it a secret if it wasn't double-blind trial tested and rigorously verified... I don't think I'd want a magic cancer cure to be based on faith alone..

Science 1, Religion 0

Fifer

adrian_clark wrote: »

During his earthly life, the man Jesus Christ clearly, repeatedly, and emphatically declared himself to be the only God. This claim is without precedent or peer in the history of the world.

Is it? Delusions of this type are reasonably common with mental illness and other conditions. Declaring ones self to be something is not evidence that one is what one claims to be.

k.o.d

adrian_clark wrote: »

If you had the cure for cancer how selfish, unloving and cruel would it be to keep it a secret? When you have good news it natural to share it, especially when it involves a wow factor of such proportions. The whole point is that this is good news not good advice. There are many people, religions, philosophers and theorists offering explanations through their truth claims. They all cancel one another out, even the popular one that says there are many truths is a truth claim. There can only be one truth. With that truth comes honesty, integrity, compassion, generosity, meaning, purpose and above all love. Our families, spouses, and children deserve weighty truth that is rooted in compassionate, faithful and enduring love.

I know what you are trying to say, but that is a crap analogy.
God doesn't have the cure for cancer, well he does, it is called death.
Compassionate, faithful and enduring love comes from the family, not some supposed higher being. When all goes well, God is all powerful, when it goes to ratshit, the Lord works in mysterious ways.
There is one underlying truth, we cannot prove God exists, we cannot prove he doesn't either, but as science explains more and more, the church's dogmatical approach tends to alienate it further and further.
I think faith is a brilliant thing, it does pull people together, but please, not blind faith with an umbrella doctrine of 'He is there because he just is'

zzzLazyDaisy

Too late to vote, but there was no tick box for me anyway.... I'm christo-pagan

adrian_clark

k.o.d wrote: »

I know what you are trying to say, but that is a crap analogy.
God doesn't have the cure for cancer, well he does, it is called death.
Compassionate, faithful and enduring love comes from the family, not some supposed higher being. When all goes well, God is all powerful, when it goes to ratshit, the Lord works in mysterious ways.
There is one underlying truth, we cannot prove God exists, we cannot prove he doesn't either, but as science explains more and more, the church's dogmatical approach tends to alienate it further and further.
I think faith is a brilliant thing, it does pull people together, but please, not blind faith with an umbrella doctrine of 'He is there because he just is'

If you are looking for blind faith look no further than the theory that something could come from nothing. If you are looking for historically based evidential faith look no further than the life, works and person of Jesus Christ. This is not a disconnected capricious god of caricature but a connected God who came into human history because he loves us, his people, created in his image.

Have you never wondered why you are so infinitely different from animals? Have you ever thought how it would be if you really are made in the image and likeness of God, the father of the fatherless, the orphans, widowed, hungry, lonely, depressed and dispossessed? This is the God who loves us, and who will relentlessly pursue you even while you still reject him, just as Jesus was rejected, spat upon and abused all the way to the cross.

Gareth_Lazelle

adrian_clark wrote: »

If you are looking for blind faith look no further than the theory that something could come from nothing.

And yet I notice that there are scientists looking into that very thing to find out more about it (was it only last year the LHC started operating?) - so that isn't blind faith so much as a working hypothesis (i.e.: an idea) which scientists are investigating further,

Those scientists presumably had doubts about how the universe was created too, but went out and looked, investigated and tried to figure out for themselves how reality fits together - one assumes that there current stance is based upon the evidence they have seen and their interpretations of it.

(Just because they don't have all of the facts doesn't make them any less or more wrong - they may simply not be able to see the whole picture yet, much as you would if you only read half of the bible),

They may very well be wrong, but they are by no means blind, and they certainly can't be criticised for investigating further, or for believing what the evidence tells them (evidence can be refuted, and beliefs can change - or at least they should be open to change),

adrian_clark wrote: »

If you are looking for historically based evidential faith look no further than the life, works and person of Jesus Christ.

But as a few folks have pointed out - the evidence is mostly hearsay (mostly written down, but still hearsay). There is little or no solid evidence (physical stuff backing up their story that could only be attributed only to God or Jesus without resorting to circular logic),

There are many aspects of Jesus life that could be disputed (some have been brought up in preceding comments) - for this discussion I don't think the specifics are important so much as the simple fact that the "evidence" is already in dispute.

That isn't to say that belief in him is necessarily incorrect (just because there is little "reliable" evidence doesn't mean that it isn't true), but just to say that the evidence isn't really there, and so there can be powerful reasons to look at other possibilities (which may be equally if not more compelling whether they are true or not),

connected God who came into human history because he loves us, his people, created in his image.

And yet the targets of that love are disconnected from it,

You make it sound like God is stalking us (creepy!) but I'm sure that isn't your point...

Have you never wondered why you are so infinitely different from animals?

Really not - the more contact I have with animals the more I think we are alike... And the more I think most folks live in denial about there "superiority" or lack thereof...

[Deleted User]

Infinitely different? haha.

We are 96% genetically identical to chimps (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0831_050831_chimp_genes.html)

I do take issue in the 'made in god's image' stuff really. We're not 'perfectly' designed. We are susceptible to many illnesses and ailments. Without modern medicine we don't live all that long.

tbourner

Ooh missed this thread!
I'm not sure what I am, I guess I'm 'not practising'. I believe there is a creator but I don't believe in any word of man, and since ALL religions are based on the words of a single person then I can't bring myself to follow any of them! If at some point our creator speaks to me then I'll listen, but as it is I just live as my own moral compass dictates. I don't believe in an afterlife though.