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Originally Posted by awe of he
Here's my theory on the whole "God" thing.
Why can't religion and science go hand-in-hand.
Because religion is based on authority, tradition and faith, while science is based on rationality, disregard for tradition, and evidence-based belief. Religion tends to be fixed, dogmatic and conservative, while science is constantly trying to disprove its basic tenets in order to improve its understanding of reality. They are two fundamentally opposed ways of thinking, and will never go hand in hand. However, there are a lot of people who believe in both and actually manage to ignore one when thinking about the other.
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If you think of the bible as literal then yes science does contradict it. But if you think of the Bible as a piece of literature which it is, you can assume it has metaphors and other figurative language.
I don't think the Genesis story is a metaphor. The writers of the Bible probably literally believed this to be the story of creation. Every pre-scientific culture has had some kind of creation myth, and the Genesis story was simply the Jewish creation myth written down. And I can't really blame them for believing it, considering they could not have known what geology, paleontology and astronomy would one day teach their descendants.
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I believe that God is a smart being. He knows how things work, so why wouldn't someone call evolution a "divine" thing?
Because there is nothing divine about it. Yes, it's wonderful and all, but it all just seems to be atoms moving about according to the laws of physics.
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The fact that we came from amebas and from single-cell to trillion-cell organism is just amazing or just simply, divine!
No, it's just natural selection. There's a reason we don't call it divine selection. Genes that were good at passing themselves on survived, and over geological timescales the genes had to compete with each other and they ended up creating a huge network of incredibly complex bodies they use to propagate themselves. It's all just a very complex chemical reaction.
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The fact that we as human beings are the ONLY species of our kind is simply divine.
No, it's simply logical. The mathematical probability of another line of species independently arriving on the same DNA patterns as ourselves are extremely tiny.
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THe fact we are the only species who are very aware of our emotions and are so intelligent to where our technology is just amazing, isn't that divine? Compared to other animals, are we not "in God's image?"
We are the only species on this planet that has achieved this level of intelligence and consciousness. That's great and all, but I don't see it as evidence of God's existence.
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There is a theory that time in heaven goes a lot slower than on earth,
Who came up with this theory, and where did they find the supporting evidence?
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now if you go by that theory the whole "seven-day" thing can be any time spand. But what is important that God made the earth in a cycle, for seven days is a week.
I have a hard time believing this extremely weird rationalization. If the Bible said the earth was created in 700 trillion trillion years, Christians would be saying "oh, it's all a metaphor because there's this theory that time in heaven goes a lot faster". If the Bible says the Earth was created in seven days and science says the Earth was created in nine billion years, then the Bible is just plain wrong.
And understandably so. The Old Testament is not the word of God, it is the word of some ancient Hebrew authors who had no reason at all to suspect that the Earth had been around for very long. And they had to come up with some explanation for how it all got here since we humans have a hard time saying "I don't know".
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Evolution, creationism, doesn't give a crap. Forget if you can't believe that God couldn't make the earth in seven days. The bible is all about forgiveness, compassion, and loving everyone. Why do we have to worry about the "little things?"
The New Testament is about forgiveness, compassion, and loving everyone. The Old Testament is about ritual animal sacrifice, genocide in the name of the Lord, stoning adulterers and gays and people who work on the Sabbath, staying away from unclean things like shellfish and menstruating women, and bringing the wrath of God upon the sinners. There really isn't much in the way of forgiveness, compassion and loving everyone to be found in the Old Testament, which makes up the majority of the Bible.
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The Bible gives the fundamentals of living a happier life. Anger, jealousy and other irrational emotions only causes us pain,
In the Old Testament, does it not say that God is an angry and jealous God? So even God can't figure out the fundamentals of living a happier life...? :confused:
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and the sooner you forgive someone the happier you will be because when you TRULY forgive someone all that anger, that negative energy, turns back into positive energy.
Well, I for one think that forgiveness is not always the best strategy. Sure, it's a good idea sometimes, but we would be much worse off if we had just forgiven Hitler for taking over Europe.
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Does it really matter if God exsist?
Yes, it does.
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Personally, it helps me to believe in a God because now I know I will never be alone. Knowing that fact (whether its truly fact or not a fact) makes me happy. It gives me hope. That's the whole reason for faith.
I guess I'm one of those people who prefers to know the truth than to persist in delusion, no matter how comforting. If I had terminal cancer, I would rather my doctor tell me than lie to me so that I can be happier with my life.
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Now I am definately not a "normal" Christian. I dislike going to Church due to the hypocracy within it. Gossipers are a prime example along with the fact that my pastor teachings seems very staged, and not geniune at all. Oh yeah, also for the fact that there is obvious animosity within the members of the church, so the little thing called "love thy neighbor" goes out the window.
Most Christians don't go to church these days. I wouldn't call that abnormal.
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I consider myself an Independent Christian. Is it wrong? No. Yes, there might be something in the bible saying that you have to go to church to be a better christian but I don't think that meant go to a church filled with false Christians.
I find it comical how many Christians are sure that most Christians are not "real Christians".
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Until I find a group of people who have similiar beliefs about Christianity as I do then I don't think I will ever go to a "church," or a place where christians gather.
Good for you.
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Oh yeah, I believe that marijuana is acceptable in Christianity. Its a fact that marijuana relieves stress, and stress is a major factor in premature death. THe only time marijuana becomes a problem is when you abuse it, like any substance such as wine or alcohol.
The Bible, as far as I can tell, says nothing about marijuana. It seems to me that the conservative types who are sure that God is against drugs are just assuming that whatever political beliefs they hold must also be the beliefs that God holds.
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In summary, I consider myself an Independent Christian who lives my life by the 10 Commandments and loving life.
Eek, don't even get me started on the Ten Commandments. The only good ones are the ones that say not to steal and not to kill. And then in the very next chapter of the Bible (Exodus 21), God tells Moses the rules that govern selling your daughter into slavery! How can you honestly trust a prophet who comes up with these ten supposedly perfect divine moral guidelines and then right after that says God told him it's okay to sell your daughter into slavery? That's just ludicrous. Selling your daughter into slavery is not cool!
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When I say Christian, I don't necessarily mean I believe in Jesus for I still question some things on that. But life is meant for a learning experience and I haven't even reached 20 yet so I have A LOT A LOT A LOT to learn.
How can you call yourself a real Christian if you don't necessarily believe in Jesus? I think if there's anything that defines Christianity, one of those things has to be belief in Jesus Christ.
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I'm not trying to push Christianity on people. If there is one thing I learned, humans are naturally reluctant to do things when it becomes an obligation. An obligation to go to Church, an obligation to read the bible everyday, an obligation to give tithes and offering. If you go by the 10 commandments, a fucking great way of living, what's the problem?
The problem is that the ten commandments are not a fucking great way of living. Sure, not killing and not stealing are good ideas, but what's the point in the prohibition on graven images? Or the one that says you can't work on the Sabbath? And then there's the problem that you're ignoring all the other commandments that God sets down in the Old Testament which can't be any less divine.
