Misconceptions about Christianity ;+)

Originally posted by just_a_pilot
Emily, I don't belive in *god*. Why? Because I am an Alcoholic who needs a drink. When you almost die...... God does not help. My Grandpa died this morning from cancer. I have to go Cambridge Illinois for the funeral. God will not help me not drink, but maybe he does not care if I do?

I am sorry to hear. Thoughts and prayers with you.

Originally posted by Emily_Cragg
... God is just as fluent with language and meaning today, as He was 2000 or 4000 years ago.

In other words...christians will continue to twist and redefine language to suit their need to prove a belief system that is continually undergoing a scrutinisation by intelligence that seems to dispell their convictions.

How is it that when you ask a christian " give me proof and I'll believe" they always say you need no proof it is a faith. Then when you tell them their faith is wrong they become very irate and try every method available to"prove" their "faith"?

People who "connect with" God will continue to intuit and infer His Will and His Thoughts.

And that's how it is.

I have kept a spiritual journal since 1991; and it ended up being a 250-page book.

So, I finally condensed and culled out all the chaff; and I put the really interesting stuff up on my web-site.

And, yes, those of us who cling to the Christian "Redemption-from-Sin" methodology >DO< in fact, listen for God's DIRECTIONS--

so here they are. Have attem.

[url]http://www.abidemiracles.com/77776.htm

Originally posted by Emily_Cragg

I have kept a spiritual journal since 1991; and it ended up being a 250-page book.
:

Whoa you seem like a hot date!!!!

seriously though it seems to me you are taking this a little too seriously. Do you let your faith run your life or your life run your faith. And do you, personally I mean, feel that people who have no faith in a god, or religion are somehow less fortunate or lower than you.?

to be in the judging business over a buncha kids.

No way I can assess what other people are doing.

I just do my thing; and here it is.

Take it, leave it, or whatever.

Really? well firstly you nicely avoided answering the question by submitting a vague and irrelivant answer that leads to another subject like a true religious proclaimer would.
If you think that anyone who does not believe in God is meek then I think that is somewhat judgemental is it not. And I do not meani n the sense that the bible thinks non-believers are the meek , but in the sense that you think they are a lower class of people.
Or do you noy, an answer would be nice.

Have you forgotten, all the "believers" get taken to Heaven?

Okay, so who's LEFT?

The predatory Nihilists? The Cynics? Of course not!!

No, the people who inherit the earth are the ones who are "up to here" with all this religiosity, who are too timid to join anything; but they realize Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong.

I'm not downing Agnostic at ALL!! I'm just looking at Scripture. And it says right here: the Faithful go to Heaven and the Meek [who don't Trust anybody including God] inherit the earth.

Now, that's not a bad outcome, I think.

so basically you are saying that you have no predjudices. But the believers gain eternal and everlasting peaceful bliss in paridise, bu the no believers just live on erath.
But as you say for a bunch of non believers that is the best they can hope for!

at least until they change into active participants in SOME COVENANT or other.

There HAVE BEEN five Covenants, you know--not just TWO.

Adam's--stewardship of the planet

Noah's--community and the protecting of the weak and vulnerable

Abram's--literacy as the way to progress spiritual understanding.

Moses'--Law to regulate what behavior creates positive social outcomes and to penalize the behavior that creates negative outcomes.

Yeshua's ["Jesus'"]--to do away with all forms of capital punishment and intolerance toward people just trying to get along.

So, anybody who doesn't get into one of these corrals, but who wants and expects to see people get along and do right, and live in peace--Why shouldn't THEY inherit the Earth??

might as well say :
well there were three bears you know not just two.
Daddy bear -his porridge was too hot
Mummy bear- her porridge was too cold
and Babbsy-(Baby Bear)-his porridge was just right.
So Goldilocks shall inherit the bed and sleep tto long.

Any piece of fiction really.
Oh I might not go to heaven because I don't believe a story !!!!!!

That's the way it has been handed down to us.

You wanna argue?

Go for it.

Originally posted by Emily_Cragg
That's the way it has been handed down to us.
You wanna argue?
Go for it.

Actually not handed down at all but forced down.To be handed down would suggest a story of myth or legend. The bible is both and neither. I would never live my life based on one book. I would not trust such a work of fiction that is truly an awful read and completley sensless. And to choose to believe in something that makes you think of others who choose not to makes you a bigot. Ipso Facto all religions are bigoted and all followers are bigots. You know no more or better than me, you are from no higher plain tan me, you shall see nothing after death I shall not see.

Teller - now let me ask YOU a Question:

Would you do Anything for Money or to get Paid?

What if I offered you a Million Dollars to Murder someone - would you do it?

P.S. I realize that you don't necessarily need Religion to be a Moral Person - but why do you Degrade people who do? Think the Bible is just a bunch of Fairy Tales - OK good for you. Just keep it to yourself!

You've made your choice; you have your preferences.

what are you doing here?

Are you a missionary for Agnosticism and Atheism,

or do you just like to argue?

Originally posted by Seraphim_Serpente
P.S. I realize that you don't necessarily need Religion to be a Moral Person - but why do you Degrade people who do? Think the Bible is just a bunch of Fairy Tales - OK good for you. Just keep it to yourself!

I appreciate that you understand that morals do indeed exist without benefit of religion. Unfortuantly most of the 'christians' I have interacted with here have told me I'm damned, condemned, evil and that I am a sinner- only on the basis that I must be one because I do not follow the bible. Why do they have to degrade me just because I don't believe? The majority are suppose to be against degrading others yet take it upon themselves to do exactly that because all these 'lost sheep' won't do what they're told.. and the escape clause [that offers them immunity from this sin] is that they can because Jesus said to spread the word. Why aren't non believers afforded the same 'righteus' immoral freedom to be arseholes.. Catch 22. Why don't they keep their prejudices to themselves?

Most of them just believe what they're told.

I grew up in a rabidly atheist family [I was adopted].

These were people who "had it up to her" with religion going back a hundred years. So, when I went to church [by myself starting the age of 5], they used to demand to know, "WHY are you going to church?"

And so I said, "It makes me feel better."

And then they'd give me that "dumb look." You know the "dumb look"--as if to say, "How weird!" And then I'd toddle off to church and sit with the adults in the regular service. I hated Sunday School. It was stupid then and it's stupid now.

But most of the people I have ever known have never gone to church at all; and they don't understand. The people I know who DO GO TO church don't understand it, either.

So, I started journaling so I'd have somebody to talk to about it--myself. And I realized, when I began reading what I myself wrote--that my contact with and connection with "other dimensions" is stronger than most peoples'. So I live like an ordinary person; and I deal with this.

A lot of what the Christians teach is plain wrong--not merely misguided.

Oh well. so, as far as I'm concerned, it's no wonder you feel the way you do. I'd be totally put off too, if I didn't have this innate connection.

Quote: "Unfortuantly most of the 'christians' I have interacted with here have told me I'm damned, condemned, evil."

I identify with what you are saying - the same thing happened to me with my own family about 6 years ago when I began studying & practicing Buddhism because I felt unsatisfied with Catholicism!

It's fine to be a Buddhist, but Buddhists don't get [their memories] SAVED.

If that's a good outcome for you, then be a Buddhist.

But, if you still want to be involved with the Covenant for Eternal Life, you'll need to find a Christian denomination in which you can be comfortable.

There ARE some Christian denominations [belonging to the Covenant that YHVH and Yeshua established for preserving people] that take on the characteristics of Buddhism.

Quakerism, the "Quaker Meeting" [NOT the Quaker Church]; the Trappist movement in the Catholic Church are two that come to mind. You can also find enough "room" in the Episcopal Church [they don't demand a testimony from anybody] to live like a Buddhist in their midst and yet participate in the Covenant with them as a full member.

Don't be so quick to throw out the baby with the bathwater. There are many communicants with your mindset in full Covenant relationship with God. You're just going to have to seek out "that special place" that God had in mind for you all along.

Originally posted by Emily_Cragg
Most of them just believe what they're told.

I thnks thats comes when people are overly religious yet completely oblivious to the spirtual side. I have trouble understanding how people can 'grow' at all blindly following doctrine wihtout questioning it.

I grew up in a rabidly atheist family [I was adopted].

These were people who "had it up to her" with religion going back a hundred years. So, when I went to church [by myself starting the age of 5], they used to demand to know, "WHY are you going to church?"

And so I said, "It makes me feel better."

That should be whole point. I was brought up catholic.. church was punnishment not enlightening or nurturing unfortuantly. Their philophies were primarily about shame and redemption so there was no room for personal evolvement.. it was all about repression. Still never got what I should be ashamed about.

And then they'd give me that "dumb look." You know the "dumb look"--as if to say, "How weird!" And then I'd toddle off to church and sit with the adults in the regular service. I hated Sunday School. It was stupid then and it's stupid now.

I have a problem with children being given negative self images with the 'mortal sin' thing.. especially telling little girls 'eve was evil and responsible for the fall of mankind'.. thats kind of warped.

Oh well. so, as far as I'm concerned, it's no wonder you feel the way you do. I'd be totally put off too, if I didn't have this innate connection.

I have an 'innate connection to something.. the strange thing was when I 'cleaned the slate' so to speak.. and put the teaching into a rational perspective.. it was only then that I became spirtual. No relgious baggage I guess.

Strange thread.

A lot of views.

�as a child� has always worked for me when I let it.

Easy to conceptualize, hard to do. The worst thing about becoming an adult is losing the natural capacity to accept and comprehend something for what it is.