What's Your Religion?

[StalkingWolf]

Well, to those who keep on fussing at me for what I said, I was not forcing my religion upon anyone, and I do respect the beliefs of other people thank you! I may as well just get off this thread, because like everyone else I was just sharing my beliefs, but obviously mine seems to be making people upset even though I said several times that I was not saying this to offend anyone or make anyone believe in my religion(I am not forcing anything upon anyone, so it doesn't seem very fair for you to be accusing me of that!), not that I even can. I was not intentionally trying to offend anyone, and those that I did forgive me! I DO NOT however, agree with you that there is no absolute truth, because if there wasn't how would people know what to base their life upon, they have to base it upon something they believe to be truth! I do also believe that the Bible is God's unfallible WORD, and that is where you can find an answer to anything you need in life! That is what I believe and the issue of the 'for the wages of sin is death' I can't make it any clearer than that, because that is what God said, but he also said that he would make a way for escape from that punishment if people chose it...(the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ) Again, I am sorry if I offended anyone, was not my intention at all. I am not condemning anyone to hell, because I am not in power to do that, only God is! I am just a messenger for him, all christians are considered messengers of God, but you must KNOW him and HIS WORD(the Bible)before you can consider yourself worthy to speak boldly in His name. God said in Matt. 16:15, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." I am doing what God said in the Bible, not forcing ANYTHING upon ANYONE!!!!! Yes, I do base my life on the Bible because like I said, I believe it is God's unfallible Word, and I need nothing else to guide me if I have God's exact words already! That is the TRUTH I believe in, and nothing can change that, not even destiny.....

[Xinithian]

Originally posted by StalkingWolf
Well, to those who keep on fussing at me for what I said, I was not forcing my religion upon anyone, and I do respect the beliefs of other people thank you! I may as well just get off this thread, because like everyone else I was just sharing my beliefs, but obviously mine seems to be making people upset even though I said several times that I was not saying this to offend anyone or make anyone believe in my religion(I am not forcing anything upon anyone, so it doesn't seem very fair for you to be accusing me of that!), not that I even can.

It's not that you're forcing your beliefs upon everybody else, it's that in this debate there is no absolute truth and you have to be willing to hear and accept all ideas. Whether or not you believe it is absolute truth is up to you, but for this debate there is no absolute truth. You can't just say that only the Bible is "God's word", because that's all in your opinion and beliefs and is not proven (it also applies to other religions... keep in mind that they're all theories and there is no proven truth).

You should stay in this debate, but just be more open-minded to different ideas and theories.

[lion_roog]

If I offended anyone...I would like to say that I don't give a crap. I love you all....now give me a kiss...

"Truth" is funny....it's funny because it can change from person to person.

[StalkingWolf]

I am open-minded to hearing whatever people say, but let me ask you this, if the Bible is not God's Word, what is then? Since it is so-called not proven, nothing else has been proven to be God's Word, the Bible has always been considered as God's words, every since it was first written! Men have such finite minds that they wouldn't have been able to make a book such as the Bible without the help of an Almighty God! So, if you think about it, it is the only sensable thing to believe that it is God's words, and has been every since God had those forty men write it....it was "God-breathed" Again, I say I am open-minded to anything people say, I am simply stating my replies or belief, not theories, on the issues at present...

[Muruwa]

Originally posted by lion_roog
I like Mormon's....never met a kinder people than the people of Salt Lake City...and I like how family oriented the Mormon Church is.

Yes, that is something I enjoy about my church. Even if I don't get along with my siblings all the time, it's a huge comfort to know that I will always be with them, here and forever in the after life. This was very helpful to me when my grandmother died. It confused me on why I wasn't as sad as I thought I should have been, when I realized I would be seeing her again someday, I'll just have to wait till then.

[lion_roog]

Originally posted by Muruwa
This was very helpful to me when my grandmother died. It confused me on why I wasn't as sad as I thought I should have been, when I realized I would be seeing her again someday, I'll just have to wait till then.

Yes, I thought the same thing when people died around me. I was just like, it's apart of life and I will see them again.

Keep standing firm to your beliefs, StalkingWolf....it's a very admirable quality.

[2 Die FR]

Originally posted by Muruwa
Even if I don't get along with my siblings all the time, it's a huge comfort to know that I will always be with them, here and forever in the after life.

Isn't that a wonderful thing to know, that families can be together forever? Being born and raised as a Mormon, I sometimes forget that not all people believe that. A death of a loved one is tragic, for the family members and people who lived close to that person, but there are many that believe that they will never see them again. It is very comforting to me, as it is to you, Muruwa, that the people that mean the most to us will be with us for eternity.

Being a Mormon is tough sometimes because the standards are held high for its members. The Word of Wisdom outlines some of them, such as we do not drink alcohol or coffee, we do not use tobacco or drugs, and we try to avoid profane, vulgar or offensive media. For me as an individual, these standards are not as hard to tolerate as the criticism I get occasionally even from my friends for being a Latter-Day Saint, especially for not drinking caffinated drinks, not watching R-rated movies or not dating until age 16 (but luckily I just turned 16, so that's great!) And every morning starting at 5:55 A.M. I go to church to attend Seminary, or scripture study, which they can't believe I do. It's not that hard though, and I get so much out of it, it really starts me off the right way each day.
If anyone has a question about anything, please give me a PM. Ok, I'm done!

[Inuchance]

I was raised as a Catholic, but I was never very devout, often questioning what I'd been taught, as I'm naturally a very inquisitive person, and the answer "because [x] says so" never satisfied me. When I realized that had I been born in some other region, I would probably have been raised a different religion, I began to wonder what made the religion I was learning 'Right,' and not having any proof,I ended up with the conclusion that it would be pretty risky to devote myself to One religion. Especially while studying mythology, you realize that all sorts of religions vary greatly, but also carry various similarities to other religions, both archaic and modern-day. Whether that's due to some sort of universal force (a God), or just the way humans developed I don't know. Rather than worry about which religion to stick to, I just live a relatively good life, in which I'd help others when able, avoid harming others, and generally staying out of the way of trouble, to improve humanity the best that I can.

[Inuchance]

And blah, hate to double post, but a couple extra things I wanted to reply to, but didn't think to at the time.

Originally posted by pntbll248
Roog, you double posted, you're going to Hell.

Just kidding, wanted to liven the mood a bit.

Is that one of the unwritten commandments, like "Thou shalt not pay too much for a muffler"?

Originally posted by 2 Die FR
Being a Mormon is tough sometimes because the standards are held high for its members. The Word of Wisdom outlines some of them, such as we do not drink alcohol or coffee, we do not use tobacco or drugs, and we try to avoid profane, vulgar or offensive media. For me as an individual, these standards are not as hard to tolerate as the criticism I get occasionally even from my friends for being a Latter-Day Saint, especially for not drinking caffinated drinks, not watching R-rated movies or not dating until age 16 (but luckily I just turned 16, so that's great!) And every morning starting at 5:55 A.M. I go to church to attend Seminary, or scripture study, which they can't believe I do. It's not that hard though, and I get so much out of it, it really starts me off the right way each day.
If anyone has a question about anything, please give me a PM. Ok, I'm done!

For alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, there's absolutely nothing you're missing, unless doing things like puking all over yourself after a night of heavy-drinking is your thing (that mental image of someone I know covered in his own vomit is still ingrained in my mind ). As for caffeine, you're just setting yourself up for trouble there, too. I'm a caffeine-addict, and as I'm writing this it's 5am and I'm still not feeling tired... The no-dating-until-your-16 standard I think is a good one to have... I have yet to actually see anything come meaningful out of a relationship started under that age...

Though, as for R-rated movies, that's something I could never live without, and I could never wake up at 6am (see previous paragraph, re: caffeine), especially if it meant having to go to church.

[Dare]

Originally posted by StalkingWolf

Men have such finite minds that they wouldn't have been able to make a book such as the Bible without the help of an Almighty God!

I think you greatly underestimate the creative capacity of the human mind with that statement.

[unregistered user]

StalkingWolf, I too admire you for standing up strong for what you believe in. But as I said before, everything on this thread is based completely on faith. To you and I and others the Bible may be God's word, to others it might be the Qu'ran, and some it could be the words of Buddha or some that only follow the old testament of the bible. You may feel as though the other religions are not the real deal, but that doesn't mean that other people feel the same way. Hate to quote Scar but it fits, "Truth is in the eye of the beholder."

Now, everyone else please show StalkingWolf respect also and quit jumping on her all at once

One last note, we don't know how many people put the bible together. For instance, for the longest time we thought the first five books of the bible were by Moses. But now there may be evidence to challenge that. Some say four different people wrote the first five books. All of the books that followed in the Old Testament was written in Alexandria or Israel by forty or so Jewish scribes. Some of the books and parts of the books even were left out because the Jews didn't consider them acceptable, mainly because they were written in Alexandria. The New Testament is even worse. The early church possibly took some of what should of been in there out at the council of Nicea due tot he fact that the church leaders didn't consider it canon. If you want to know how much we lost, a monastery in Sinai, Eygpt claims to have found a whole other gospel! It's impossible to say how many wrote the bible really, or at least really hard to know, there are some clues here and there.

Anyway, gotta go ^^ Make peace, not war.

[Nephilim]

Originally posted by StalkingWolf
Men have such finite minds that they wouldn't have been able to make a book such as the Bible without the help of an Almighty God!

Eh, I dunno about that. I mean there are a lot more well written, descriptive and interesting books out there. Like The Lord Of the Rings. I mean come on, there are even several original languages in there.

No one's mind is finite, anyway.

[A-non-a-mus]

Originally posted by Ravoc
As for the people that have never heard the gospel at all before, I honestly don't know the answer to that one Xinithian, perhaps someone else here does.

I know a little on this,

picture your door, now think of someone knocking on it, you can hear the knocking, but you can't see who stands on the other side... will you open it?... or not?...

now, in Rev 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them and they with me."

in other words, everyone, in one form or another will know...

now, as for babies, whom hasn't matured enough to understand, well in psalms it has where david's baby dies, and david says: 'he won't come back to me but I will come to him.' in other words, they go to heaven.

[unregistered user]

Actually Neph, it is, the human brain only uses 10% of its capabilities, so it is finite. Then again if you go with a previous post on here of mine saying that nothing in science is proven completely, which it isn't, this could change as well.

[lion_roog]

Originally posted by Ravoc
Actually Neph, it is, the human brain only uses 10% of its capabilities, so it is finite. Then again if you go with a previous post on here of mine saying that nothing in science is proven completely, which it isn't, this could change as well.

The mind is finite in that sense....but in the sense of the ability of the mind, it is not finite.

...STL, I am already drunk off insanity.....but I'll take another hit, thanks.....

I think you greatly underestimate the creative capacity of the human mind with that statement.

True....but think of this....everything you picture and create in your mind is actually pieces and parts of something you have already seen already. And if you have yet to see something, and you see it, then you relate it to things you know.

[unregistered user]

Roog is right, even mythology has its basis in something that people claimed to have seen, use the unicorn for example.

[Kintaru]

Now I believe that the bible is God's word, but I can't think that we're meant to take everything in it literally.

But that's just it, I can say I believe it's the world of God, but I can't prove it. I mean, who's to say it just wasn't something somebody started to make up, and before you know it, it snowballed into what it is today.

But I don't think it matters, as the bible was never meant to be a complex set of rules on what's moral or not. In my mind it's a basic guide on how to be a good person and love others, it doesn't need to be so complicated, and in that case, it doesn't matter who wrote it. It's message is still the same as it always was.

[Darkslash]

Originally posted by Kintaru
Now I believe that the bible is God's word, but I can't think that we're meant to take everything in it literally.

But that's just it, I can say I believe it's the world of God, but I can't prove it. I mean, who's to say it just wasn't something somebody started to make up, and before you know it, it snowballed into what it is today.

But I don't think it matters, as the bible was never meant to be a complex set of rules on what's moral or not. In my mind it's a basic guide on how to be a good person and love others, it doesn't need to be so complicated, and in that case, it doesn't matter who wrote it. It's message is still the same as it always was.

Well-said.

[TakaTiger]

This thread is rather..uuhhh.. what the word... weird kinda cause not a couplle days ago my dad decided he was gonna Try to convert me i guess, and im a bit frightened at some of his attempts oO

[Dare]

Originally posted by lion_roog

True....but think of this....everything you picture and create in your mind is actually pieces and parts of something you have already seen already. And if you have yet to see something, and you see it, then you relate it to things you know.

Which explains why the Bible contains stories bearing striking resemblence to various mythological themes and legends that were long in place before Christinity was even a blip on the radar.
See something that already exists. Interpret something that already exists. Assimilate and alter that which already exists to fit into own religion.

Of course, the loophole is by saying that the Christian god created the natural disasters and whatnot that caused the stories to be written, and that's a never-ending debate, the final solution of which will only be revealed after we die...or something.

Originally posted by TakaTiger
This thread is rather..uuhhh.. what the word... weird kinda cause not a couplle days ago my dad decided he was gonna Try to convert me i guess, and im a bit frightened at some of his attempts oO

Hehe, now that's quite ironic.
My family used to try to convert me, until I went to the priest of their parish and asked him to tell them to leave me alone.