God?

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

Where can I find more information one this? I want to hear more.

If there's any specific questions you have, you can ask me.

[-Unknown-]

Yes, I do believe in God. Specifically, I am a Christ-follower, meaning I believe in the triune God that is the Father (Yahweh; God.), His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. All three in one, one in three.

---

I hold belief in Jesus is entirely faith based, but if you want "commandments" there are only two of them that are deemed most important. "Love the Lord your God, and love others as yourself." - I hold that loving God means being aware of our sinful nature and making a concerted effort to atone - and that loving others means being quick to be self-less and instead try to help humanity prosper, while making others aware of the reality that is our sin so that they too can fight against it. I hold that all interactions must be between God and the believer, meaning things like forced conversion and coercing Christ are ineffective so much as simply going out and following Jesus' request to make disciples through exalting the good news of our undeserved forgiveness. Ultimately - the "guideline" if you will is simply believe.

---

I believe the true meaning of "Religion" is best applicable to what is usually the second meaning of the word found in most reputable dictionaries, being a SYSTEM of faith and worship. - and my opinion of the Christian "religion" varies depending on the area. In America for example, the Christian "religion" is FAR from ideal - whereas over seas in unfriendly areas such as Vietnam believers - even under watchful eye of their government - have it down perfectly. It should be noted in this section that I don't worship religion. I worship Jesus Christ.

---

The is no problem with having a singular God so long as you are following Him (and if you are NOT following Him than the issue would be that you are not agreeable with Him.) The larger issue than lack of agreement is posited in other two scenarios. In the instances where there is no God or there are many Gods everything is subjective to individual taste. While this may sound like a nice and fluffy thing to have in some arenas, one cannot justifiably have a justice system in place if the rules are subjective and the defendant can hold that according to his subjectivity he wasn't breaking the law. Also, multiple Gods tend to grapple for power and control in the lives of their followers and lead to contradictions. Contradictory faith and subjectivity are the biggest looming issues in non/polytheistic scenarios. You have to know WHAT you believe in -AND- know it to be consistent to the world around you.

---

I see myself as one of God's vessels, which would be lower on the totem pole than God Himself. The cool thing though, is that He came down to my level and died so that one day I could ascend as He did regardless of current positioning. No other religion advocates this model.

---

With Christianity, the cornerstone of ANYONE's faith is the real-life historicity of the Resurrection. If you can definitively prove Jesus didn't rise from the dead, you prove Christians are fools.

"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." - Paul, 1st Corinthians 15:14

I duely appreciate the opinion and perspective you have shared. It has been a while since I have heard a Christian speak on such a subject not that I don't expect such to happen or only expect those more aligned away from christianity or toward un religiousness to interact with this subject but it has been a while since I heard a religious person talk about especially with What I presume to be unoveremotional or offended thoughts in return Thank you for that, And I hope for more opinions and perspectives regardless I literally don't judge. Thank you.

[laggless01]

I lack belief in any god(s). As a child, I used to be a very faithful Christian, but that changed when growing up (ironically, right after my Confirmation), and it wasn't so much a slow transition. Nowadays, by pondering more and more about it, the gods I've learned about (or the dogma's, depending on how you look at it) became more and more absurd to me.
As of what created the universe, I refrain of giving that an easy, unverifiable answer like gods, but rather trust science to one day find the answer.
I believe this is the only life we get, and accept the insignificance of our existence in 'the grand scheme of things', as there is no sign of anything else being the case. It's why I try to be as good of a person as I can be, even though I know I falter frequently.
I respect other people's faith, although under some conditions, on which I'm not going to elaborate.

(What's in the spoiler is about Hilda's post, and is moreso directed to her. It might be a bit off-topic, so feel free to ignore it.)

Yes, I do believe in God. Specifically, I am a Christ-follower, meaning I believe in the triune God that is the Father (Yahweh; God.), His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. All three in one, one in three.

---

I hold belief in Jesus is entirely faith based, but if you want "commandments" there are only two of them that are deemed most important. "Love the Lord your God, and love others as yourself." - I hold that loving God means being aware of our sinful nature and making a concerted effort to atone - and that loving others means being quick to be self-less and instead try to help humanity prosper, while making others aware of the reality that is our sin so that they too can fight against it. I hold that all interactions must be between God and the believer, meaning things like forced conversion and coercing Christ are ineffective so much as simply going out and following Jesus' request to make disciples through exalting the good news of our undeserved forgiveness. Ultimately - the "guideline" if you will is simply believe.

---

I believe the true meaning of "Religion" is best applicable to what is usually the second meaning of the word found in most reputable dictionaries, being a SYSTEM of faith and worship. - and my opinion of the Christian "religion" varies depending on the area. In America for example, the Christian "religion" is FAR from ideal - whereas over seas in unfriendly areas such as Vietnam believers - even under watchful eye of their government - have it down perfectly. It should be noted in this section that I don't worship religion. I worship Jesus Christ.

---

The is no problem with having a singular God so long as you are following Him (and if you are NOT following Him than the issue would be that you are not agreeable with Him.) The larger issue than lack of agreement is posited in other two scenarios. In the instances where there is no God or there are many Gods everything is subjective to individual taste. While this may sound like a nice and fluffy thing to have in some arenas, one cannot justifiably have a justice system in place if the rules are subjective and the defendant can hold that according to his subjectivity he wasn't breaking the law. Also, multiple Gods tend to grapple for power and control in the lives of their followers and lead to contradictions. Contradictory faith and subjectivity are the biggest looming issues in non/polytheistic scenarios. You have to know WHAT you believe in -AND- know it to be consistent to the world around you.

---

I see myself as one of God's vessels, which would be lower on the totem pole than God Himself. The cool thing though, is that He came down to my level and died so that one day I could ascend as He did regardless of current positioning. No other religion advocates this model.

---

With Christianity, the cornerstone of ANYONE's faith is the real-life historicity of the Resurrection. If you can definitively prove Jesus didn't rise from the dead, you prove Christians are fools.

"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." - Paul, 1st Corinthians 15:14

I 'm really fascinated and glad to read the thoughts and beliefs of someone on another place on the spectrum of faith. I honestly thank you for typing them.
I do have a question, though: if He exists (by this I don't say he does), would your Lord banish a pagan like me to a place of eternal torture, because I found the proclaimed evidence to be self-contradictive and insufficient? Even though I try my best to be as good as I can towards others, according to my own morals and values? Also, would he inflict to my parents, who do believe, the pain of sending their son to Hell, them knowing I will be tortured forever? Because based on scripture, and what you wrote down you believe is required, that would be implied.
Also, morality is subjective. According to the bible, even Jesus Christ himself condones slavery, and I think we can all agree slavery isn't very good. Our laws are (normally) based upon what we, as a society, find morally acceptable and what not. Of course that changes when new insights are gained, or in the wake of certain events etc. And due to such changes, we adjust our laws to fit our new moral scale.
Finally, what you said about multiple gods grappling over control etc. etc....isn't that what is kinda happening throughout history between religions in general? Apply the rest of what you said about a multitude of gods to that...

I want to make clear that I don't/didn't/won't have the intention of attacking your faith, in the case you might feel or think that's the case. I respect you believing in God. There just were some things I had to ask/wanted to say about what you stated.

Edited September 1, 2015 by laggless01

[cmdemension]

personally i dont believe in god even if there whas a god then he/she is a bad god i dont really see why to believe in them or pray to them considering they will never anwser or help out the world everything that is happening on this world would be the side effects of what we humans are doing so in my perspective the human race would be god itself in my eyes we decide what happens

[Chase]

Laggless01

.1. Allow me to serve the situation of damnation to you in a way that is not viewed by non-believers. Yes,if you continue to denounce God based on evidences you deem are contradictory or insufficient, you are indeed choosing to spend eternity apart from Him. Notice the way I structured this scenario as a choice the damned make rather than the judgement God will make. I word it this way because I believe that everyone is a part of the "elect" and that on God's end, His choice was to pursue an eternity with you to the point where he came down as a lowly man and died an excruciating death to keep that possibility alive for you. By believing in Christ, you are essentially putting CHRIST on the stand under your name in the courtroom instead of yourself. Christ lived a completely sinless life - therefore the judgement for you - as he is your token - is that Christ ascends, and therefore so do you because you believed in Him. By not proclaiming Jesus as Lord of your life, you make the decision to put YOURSELF on the stand. No human outside of Christ lives a sinless life, and the wages of sin is Death - therefore, your choice is to die and spend the afterlife away from Him - and that is perceived as Hell.

My point there is this, God came down and gave everyone an alternative - and it's on us to make the choice. Your parents seemingly have made their choices and when their time comes they won't know the pain of you being damned. If they die before you do - they won't know the pain at all and will have died with hope for you.

2. Morals are most definitely NOT subjective if we're making the assumption God exists as Jesus proclaims - although your angle is significantly more substantial than most who come up to me with that argument. Even Richard Dawkins - the kingpin of New Atheism - lives his life (against his very held beliefs no less!) in a manner that suggests morality is objective as he is quoted on detesting polygamy and affairs, which is something that under a subjective moral worldview would not need criticism as it's not 'immoral' in that sense.You mention Christ's view on Slavery. Allow me to shed some historical light on the situation here. Firstly, Israel was under the Roman Empire at the time and MOST Israelites were used to the confines of slavery as being a normal occurrence with THEM usually being the slaves in the slave-master relationship. Jesus should first not be seen as a political activist - in fact - He even goes as far as to tell the Pharisees trying to trip him on paying taxes to Caesar by saying "Give to God what is God, and give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Knowing this, we can begin to understand that Jesus may not have been concerned with freeing slaves so much as the slave-master scenarios in his parables reaching the ears of those He spoke to. Allow me to propose another verse to you in order to show you why Jesus may hold no concern or even support the idea of slavery and yet still defend moral objectivity.

"And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” - Matthew 19: 3-9

Here, we find out from Christ that not all laws were MORAL laws and that this one on divorce is provisionary because of the human condition. If we're assuming Christ is God as we should be in this scenario, we have God explaining to these Pharisees that the divorce laws were there because the people's hearts were hard. Apply this to Slavery at the time. Jesus is a an Israelite and thus doesn't have the authority in his manly sense to challenge the Roman Empire over the issue. Instead, He focuses on the slaves themselves - and urges them to take the chances at freedom that they are given and advocating faithful service to their masters as they faithfully serve the Lord by parallel comparison. The apostle Paul then gives those in captivity these words - so it would seem the early Christians were more accepting without position of the situation than they were supportive of it:

"Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it. But if you are able to gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ."

1. Morality is most likely more objective than the world would have us think.

2. Jesus may only have been accepting and not supportive of slavery.

3. Not all laws pertain to morality.

4. It's more likely the early church was anti-slavery than it was for it - and wasn't in the position to make a political statement about the issue.

[Meruem]

simple answer, idc.

fuck it if i live, die or if there's even afterlife.

Earth is not our real life. It's akin to a simulation.

The name of our real planet is Cerri. It's not an afterlife, because we were born there before we came to earth. However, not everyone even goes to earth; there's not nearly enough space for all of us. Why Earth even exists and how who gets sent here is determined, I have no clue. I'm not sure anybody knows.

Cerri isn't a place with no problems. There's no such thing as a place without difficulties. It just doesn't have pointless problems that Earth has. People don't die at home. If they sustain too much injury, they go into a coma that they inevitably wake up from. How long the coma lasts depends on the kind of injury they received.

Age and gender are wrong as Earth understands them. Age has nothing to do with how many years you've been alive. I'm not talking about the adults that say "I'm a kid at heart" because they collect plushies and watch Disney movies. I mean that someone's mind and body can literally stop developing at a certain time. I stopped developing around 12-14. Also, males and females don't have physical differences at home. Each individual is given a body that matches their soul. Gender is just an aura related to vague mannerisms that everyone picks up on. We don't have genitals at home; there's a small hole where the part between your legs is on earth. There are trans* people on earth because earth gave them the wrong type of body and earth associates gender with body type.

We're a lot faster, stronger, and have better senses all around at home. It's not unusual for an athlete to be able to jump over several-story buildings. We can also eat a lot more at home, and there's no such thing as gaining or losing weight because your body's condition is permanent; it's one that matches your soul.

It's not always peace, but there aren't sadistic psychopaths who hurt people for pleasure. Every organization fights for a cause and legitimately wants to help people. Some of them are just misguided. Think Archie and Maxie from RSE/ORAS.

There are confirmed aliens. Cerri isn't the only planet. The Empyrean Council is one of the oldest groups of aliens. On the subject of age, people don't have wrinkles. Those who continue to mature past 30-40 will still have a body that looks around the range. There are people and other species members who are hundreds of years old.

There are guardians who watch over each country. Some countries on earth like Scotland and Egypt also exist on Cerri, and they have countries not on earth like one called Serenity. Each country has its own language.

It's impossible to lose a limb or suffer any other disgusting earth condition or disfigurement.

Those are the basics.

on the other hand though, reading things like this, whether it's just crap someone made up or not, is surprisingly amusing, way more than the church i stopped caring about long ago.

[Dark Desire]

I've come from a very religious family, but I've lived my life as someone who follows hard logic instead of one's emotions, so I've never been able to believe in a god. My family's bigotry when it comes to there beliefs had given me quite the negative view to religion but I know not to generalize the rest of the group because of that, but I enjoy understanding and learning about other people's religion and beliefs.

[Avatar of Grima]

I'm gonna ask that you guys stop the joke posting in this thread. Thanks.

I didn't joke post, I am atheist :|

[Shanco]

My stance on religion and God are pretty much identical to Dark Desire's. My Family (both sides of it) are very strongly religious (Christian, to be specific) with me being the only one in my immediate family without said faith. I also have a lot of friends who are Wiccan.

I do however want to be able to understand as many religions as possible. Other than the obvious social benefits that come with the mutual understanding of one's beliefs, one thing that disgusts me the most is violence that breaks out as a result of clashing faiths - thus if I can unite people who fail to be at ease due to their beliefs in God or whichever deity they follow, then I take pride knowing that I have done my part for the world (as I do somewhat subscribe to the theory that everyone in the world has a purpose, whether it has already been fulfilled already or not).

[laggless01]

Laggless01

.1. Allow me to serve the situation of damnation to you in a way that is not viewed by non-believers. Yes,if you continue to denounce God based on evidences you deem are contradictory or insufficient, you are indeed choosing to spend eternity apart from Him. Notice the way I structured this scenario as a choice the damned make rather than the judgement God will make. I word it this way because I believe that everyone is a part of the "elect" and that on God's end, His choice was to pursue an eternity with you to the point where he came down as a lowly man and died an excruciating death to keep that possibility alive for you. By believing in Christ, you are essentially putting CHRIST on the stand under your name in the courtroom instead of yourself. Christ lived a completely sinless life - therefore the judgement for you - as he is your token - is that Christ ascends, and therefore so do you because you believed in Him. By not proclaiming Jesus as Lord of your life, you make the decision to put YOURSELF on the stand. No human outside of Christ lives a sinless life, and the wages of sin is Death - therefore, your choice is to die and spend the afterlife away from Him - and that is perceived as Hell.

My point there is this, God came down and gave everyone an alternative - and it's on us to make the choice. Your parents seemingly have made their choices and when their time comes they won't know the pain of you being damned. If they die before you do - they won't know the pain at all and will have died with hope for you.

2. Morals are most definitely NOT subjective if we're making the assumption God exists as Jesus proclaims - although your angle is significantly more substantial than most who come up to me with that argument. Even Richard Dawkins - the kingpin of New Atheism - lives his life (against his very held beliefs no less!) in a manner that suggests morality is objective as he is quoted on detesting polygamy and affairs, which is something that under a subjective moral worldview would not need criticism as it's not 'immoral' in that sense.You mention Christ's view on Slavery. Allow me to shed some historical light on the situation here. Firstly, Israel was under the Roman Empire at the time and MOST Israelites were used to the confines of slavery as being a normal occurrence with THEM usually being the slaves in the slave-master relationship. Jesus should first not be seen as a political activist - in fact - He even goes as far as to tell the Pharisees trying to trip him on paying taxes to Caesar by saying "Give to God what is God, and give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Knowing this, we can begin to understand that Jesus may not have been concerned with freeing slaves so much as the slave-master scenarios in his parables reaching the ears of those He spoke to. Allow me to propose another verse to you in order to show you why Jesus may hold no concern or even support the idea of slavery and yet still defend moral objectivity.

"And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” - Matthew 19: 3-9

Here, we find out from Christ that not all laws were MORAL laws and that this one on divorce is provisionary because of the human condition. If we're assuming Christ is God as we should be in this scenario, we have God explaining to these Pharisees that the divorce laws were there because the people's hearts were hard. Apply this to Slavery at the time. Jesus is a an Israelite and thus doesn't have the authority in his manly sense to challenge the Roman Empire over the issue. Instead, He focuses on the slaves themselves - and urges them to take the chances at freedom that they are given and advocating faithful service to their masters as they faithfully serve the Lord by parallel comparison. The apostle Paul then gives those in captivity these words - so it would seem the early Christians were more accepting without position of the situation than they were supportive of it:

"Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it. But if you are able to gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity. For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ."

1. Morality is most likely more objective than the world would have us think.

2. Jesus may only have been accepting and not supportive of slavery.

3. Not all laws pertain to morality.

4. It's more likely the early church was anti-slavery than it was for it - and wasn't in the position to make a political statement about the issue.

I think this discussion might be better suited in a thread on its own, since this one is merely for posting what people believe in. Would you agree?
I'll post my reply in that topic if one for it is made.

[Chevaleresse]

@hilda: You know that a negative cannot be proven, correct? One cannot definitively say that an event did not happen; instead one must demonstrate a more likely scenario, rule, or idea supported with things that can be proven.

To use this tired analogy, you cannot say that dragons don't exist; you can only point out that there is little to indicate that they do.

[Darvan Korematsu]

Y'know I did this sermon for a men's group two weeks ago on the subject of focus. I talked to the Pastor of my church, and he gave me interesting earfuls on a whole bunch of different subjects, for instance in the world we live in, we need suffering and fear in order to function, or else the meaning of life is worth zilch. "God" was that entity for the longest time that people used for fear and the model of an ideal human stemmed from the philosophies of each religion. Religion is not purely religion, it's all philosophy whether you want to believe it or not. Maybe subconciously I believe there is a God because if I fuck up, maybe said God would hear my plea.

People may counter with why would a God allow suffering of their people? The simple answer is we would take God for granted and then become overreliant on Him alone. You guys may not think so, but think of so much shit you have in life you don't even have a second glance at and waiver in distress when it's gone.

There's also the off chance when miracles happen. People harp about miracles and luck not existing, and I'm even taking Statistics right now with odds usually being against someone. Why is it they overcome the odds stacked against them? Even if there was nothing spectacular about their case?

If people are so clandestine to believe in something like the Illuminati, then God shouldn't be too far fetched.

[Shing]

As dark and shanco, it's really similar to me. My family or whole like cousin or something is christians, but myself isn't considered as christian.

However i respect them and and learn about their religion so i can know more of what to do when i meet someone with same belief.

[Shamitako]

@hilda: You know that a negative cannot be proven, correct? One cannot definitively say that an event did not happen; instead one must demonstrate a more likely scenario, rule, or idea supported with things that can be proven.

To use this tired analogy, you cannot say that dragons don't exist; you can only point out that there is little to indicate that they do.

That's kinda the point I think

Nothing is true until every other possibility is proven untrue

Everyone is right because nobody can be wrong and everyone is wrong because nobody can be right

(I had a big long philosophical ramble here, but I decided to just delete all that and leave the TL;DRs)

[TimTim]

I would like to think that i am agnostic theist, that being said, unless both sides have presented sufficient and convincing evidence for their argument, i am inclined to believe there is higher power at work, just not within our current grasp of knowledge. My upbringing is in Christian household, i still believe in Holy Trinity, just skeptical of Bible teachings since a 2thou years old scripture is probably not in keep with human society advancement~

[Sunbean]

I grew up strictly Catholic, but I'm agnostic. I think religion is man-made and a reflection of what we want to believe in, and it has lots of flaws that are overlooked. As with anything man-made, it has its faults, and I think it's brought a lot of pain and suffering to this world along with its positives. I doubt the gods most religions follow exist as we know them. That being said, I also don't think that means there isn't some kind of creator. There may or may not be, and we won't know for certain until death.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Sunbean

[Eviora]

Contrary to popular belief, it's definitely possible to prove some negatives. This is easiest to see when you think from a mathematical perspective. I can quite effortlessly prove there are no integers that are both even and odd. That example may seem obvious, but there are many more mathematical proofs that things don't exist that are far less obvious.

However, if you try to prove or disprove anything supernatural, you're going to have a very hard time. Most words in the English language are simply vague enough that there's room for ambiguity. If I accept the possibility that something supernatural exists, that something could be anything from a just god to a demon posing as a just god who is feeding is lies to watch us hurt each other. The second I take such things into consideration, almost any conception of a god cannot be disproven, but neither can it be proven. The whole endeavor basically leads to a dead end.

[Hiss13]

Originally I wasn't going to debate this but since Hilda brought up the concept of objective vs subjective morality, I wanted to ask this to her. Can you define objective morality? This is more to prevent the term from being nebulous than anything before I ask my next question.

[Deleted User]

I want to introduce many of you who are sort of stuck between to a different ism.

1. The belief that God has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws. Deism thus rejects the supernatural aspects of religion, such as belief in revelation in the Bible, and stresses the importance of ethical conduct.

[Chase]

Objective morality is a set of principles regarding "good", "bad", "right", and "wrong" based on the existence of irrefutable statements - or facts - as opposed to individual feelings or cultural norms.

@ Laggless - I would posit that since we're discussing the topic of God - that it's allowable until Amentura (-Unknown-) says otherwise. Alternatively, you can send me a private message with your response.

[SnowGlaceon]

Yes, I do believe in God. Specifically, I am a Christ-follower, meaning I believe in the triune God that is the Father (Yahweh; God.), His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. All three in one, one in three.

---

I hold belief in Jesus is entirely faith based, but if you want "commandments" there are only two of them that are deemed most important. "Love the Lord your God, and love others as yourself." - I hold that loving God means being aware of our sinful nature and making a concerted effort to atone - and that loving others means being quick to be self-less and instead try to help humanity prosper, while making others aware of the reality that is our sin so that they too can fight against it. I hold that all interactions must be between God and the believer, meaning things like forced conversion and coercing Christ are ineffective so much as simply going out and following Jesus' request to make disciples through exalting the good news of our undeserved forgiveness. Ultimately - the "guideline" if you will is simply believe.

---

I believe the true meaning of "Religion" is best applicable to what is usually the second meaning of the word found in most reputable dictionaries, being a SYSTEM of faith and worship. - and my opinion of the Christian "religion" varies depending on the area. In America for example, the Christian "religion" is FAR from ideal - whereas over seas in unfriendly areas such as Vietnam believers - even under watchful eye of their government - have it down perfectly. It should be noted in this section that I don't worship religion. I worship Jesus Christ.

---

The is no problem with having a singular God so long as you are following Him (and if you are NOT following Him than the issue would be that you are not agreeable with Him.) The larger issue than lack of agreement is posited in other two scenarios. In the instances where there is no God or there are many Gods everything is subjective to individual taste. While this may sound like a nice and fluffy thing to have in some arenas, one cannot justifiably have a justice system in place if the rules are subjective and the defendant can hold that according to his subjectivity he wasn't breaking the law. Also, multiple Gods tend to grapple for power and control in the lives of their followers and lead to contradictions. Contradictory faith and subjectivity are the biggest looming issues in non/polytheistic scenarios. You have to know WHAT you believe in -AND- know it to be consistent to the world around you.

---

I see myself as one of God's vessels, which would be lower on the totem pole than God Himself. The cool thing though, is that He came down to my level and died so that one day I could ascend as He did regardless of current positioning. No other religion advocates this model.

---

With Christianity, the cornerstone of ANYONE's faith is the real-life historicity of the Resurrection. If you can definitively prove Jesus didn't rise from the dead, you prove Christians are fools.

"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." - Paul, 1st Corinthians 15:14

What she said.

[Darvan Korematsu]

I want to introduce many of you who are sort of stuck between to a different ism.

• The belief that God has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws. Deism thus rejects the supernatural aspects of religion, such as belief in revelation in the Bible, and stresses the importance of ethical conduct.

THAT is what I am a firm believer in . Thank you Jeri.Minus the revelations. I'm willing to believe in Deism except for the fact that something is out there. Thus, I follow the ethical conduct of Christianity.

[Hiss13]

Objective morality is a set of principles regarding "good", "bad", "right", and "wrong" based on the existence of irrefutable statements - or facts - as opposed to individual feelings or cultural norms.

@ Laggless - I would posit that since we're discussing the topic of God - that it's allowable until Amentura (-Unknown-) says otherwise. Alternatively, you can send me a private message with your response.

So my question is simply this. Is something good or right because God says that it is good or right (and of course this applies to bad/wrong as well) or is it that something is good/right and God acknowledges that quality?

[Shamitako]

So my question is simply this. Is something good or right because God says that it is good or right (and of course this applies to bad/wrong as well) or is it that something is good/right and God acknowledges that quality?

Well, the idea is generally both. The idea is that God defines right and wrong and right and wrong define God. It's an unending loop, kinda like this discussion is bound to become

[Gaunt]

Oh another topic about religion...*smirk* is it time for round 2 already?...nah not today (for me at least) as i'm really tired right now but i'll come back for sure...ah yes i almost forgot: atheist here (for reasons i'll explain later when i'm more capable of coherent though).