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Um, firstly we are real people, the Bible is a book. I'm not going to go through my whole life being unhappy because a storm god created in the minds of people that lived thousands of year ago can POSSIBLY be interpreted to feel a certain way. Real people trump mythological deities in importance.
Then I'm not sure what the issue is here. You apparently aren't Christian and sound dismissive of Christianity. So why is your opinion about a Christian issue at all relevant here?
In any event for those of us who do believe in God he is real and greater than any person. God knows or contains the Truth. The Truth, the Universe, etc trumps any individual person.
Not that I haven't seen this before. I think there was another gay poster who dropped in then basically told us he thinks Christianity is stupid anyway. Which is silly because if you think that don't believe it. It's that simple. We're not going to put a gun to your head and make you be Christian. You shouldn't try to press Christians to think it's okay act on homosexual desires for those of us who have them.
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Originally Posted by Rlarson21
Secondly, gay people CAN get married. The Bible does not mention homosexuality as a sexual orientation WHAT so EVER anyway (not that it matters). The only references to homosexuality are about temple prostitution.
That's one interpretation and it's not universally accepted.
In any event same-gender unions are not deemed marriage in any culture I know of or at least it occurs only in very rare cases. Most same-sex marriages in traditional culture are opposite gender (A couple deemed "Husband and Wife", even if both are biologically male or both female. You see this among American Indians where "She-Males" or "He-Females" had a traditional role) or are "mentoring" relationships not intended to be permanent. (Generally an older male mentoring a teenage boy in how to be a spouse. This occurred in New Guinea and parts of Southern China)
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Originally Posted by Rlarson21
Also heterosexual people (the majority) wrote the myths that are in the bible. Thusly, it was written BY from a BIASED point of view anyway. Imagine if things were reversed and you were told by a religious group that because you are born straight than you are not to marry or EVER have sex.
Again don't be Christian then. Or if you need it find some more secular country if being in a majority practicing-Christian nation is burdensome for you.
Would you give up your spouse and your children? Why would God ever want you to? I think, if God exists, he wants us to be happy. Could you truly ever have a happy life with out your spouse or your children? Why would God let you have a spouse and children but not others. Like I said, I don't think God would be that cruel.
I love God more than my spouse (I don't have children so I can't say, but I'm sure I would love God more than them). My happiness in life is to please God. I would never be happy knowing I'm disobeying God. I believe the Bible is clear that being gay is a sin. I couldn't put God first yet deliberately disobey Him by acting on my sexual desires. I was a virgin on my wedding day because pleasing the Lord is more important than a temporary moment of pleasure. You just don't seem to get that putting God first is what being a Christian is all about. My happiness is second to God's happiness.
Look homosexuality is no worse sin then the ones who are condemning you. We all have come short of the glory of God as Paul states so vividly. As in Isaiah 64:6 where he states our righteousness as humans is filthy rags in original ministration rags. So all you religious morons put that in your pipe and smoke it. Yes you can be a Christian and be a gay even though the religious morons on here think different. Say stupid things like he had a head believe not a heart belief, which these terms are synonymous. The heart is a pumping organ it is the head or heart (center part of mind) that categorizes everything we see feel touch and smell.
By the way if you start learning about God not pleasing him by your human effort God can take away your desire for the same sex. God doesn't see the difference in stealing a paper clip at the office or killing a hundred people. It is all sin to him and punishable by his perfect justice. In other words none of us are any damn good. There are 2 view points human viewpoint which is no view point and does not please God and Divine Viewpoint this is god's viewpoint. If you are a homosexual and adulterer or so called straight we are all sinners and have blemishes and can not match to God's perfect character. The more you learn about God and NOT RELIGION the closer to God you get and he will remove the blemishes Go to R.B. Thieme Jr. and order basic books and mp3 form 1961. They are free including shipping and start learning who and what God is. If you out there think you know
Let me give you some questions:
1st equation GOD is (A+B+C=GOD)
Note if it doesn't fit into this formula then it isn't from perfect absolute GOD
Why did the earth become void and without form?
why was earth tilted?
Why did God destroy the earth with flood? Hint it wasn't evil wicked people, we do sin better now then they could have imagined. They had fire we have everything.
What does 666 mean really?
What does it mean when God stated let's create mankind in our image?
What are the 10 characteristics of GOD?
Why does it state the tree of knowledge or good and evil instead of evil and good? Isn't evil worse then good?
Why does it state in the 10 Commandments number 1 is do not worship another god and murder is 6th? Isn't murder worse then worshiping another god?
Why is Jesus called the last Adam?
Why are we here?
These questions are basic and you will find you or anybody you know can not answer them.
I love God more than my spouse (I don't have children so I can't say, but I'm sure I would love God more than them). My happiness in life is to please God. I would never be happy knowing I'm disobeying God. I believe the Bible is clear that being gay is a sin. I couldn't put God first yet deliberately disobey Him by acting on my sexual desires. I was a virgin on my wedding day because pleasing the Lord is more important than a temporary moment of pleasure. You just don't seem to get that putting God first is what being a Christian is all about. My happiness is second to God's happiness.
We have always had respectful debates in the past. Please don't tell me what I don't get. I understand how you feel about God. What I will never understand is why you would think God would want some people to be unhappy. Don't you think God wants us to be happy? I know that all my parents want is for me to have the best life I can possibly have. I would think that God's love for me would be even greater than that. I think that the happier you are - the more you enjoy this wonderful gift of life - the happier that would make God. I believe that, if he exists - he loves all of us and wants us all to be happy. I do not believe that he would have created some deliberately knowing that they would either be happy and go to hell or be miserable and be rewarded. I will never wrap my head around that.
I also believe that we should love others and treat them the way we would like to be treated. That is what I try to do.
In the long-term deprivation doesn't necessarily equate to unhappiness and gratification doesn't necessarily equate to happiness. I could get pleasure from eating rich food in large portions every day, but in the long-term the weight gain and its effects could negate the fun.
From a Christian perspective as I understand it there are many things that may "make us happy", regardless of orientation, that God does not want us to do. Granted in general I think this is because they involve harm to others, callousness, cause long-term damage, or keep us from fulfilling our responsibilities. Also I think Christianity is in many ways more about seeking virtue than pleasure. The joys in Christianity, as I see it, are probably to be more lasting and sublime than just "being happy."
We know EXACTLY how you feel so what is the point in continuing this?
Perhaps he/she is attempting to get religious folk to expand their minds, to think for themselves, to think logically and rationally, to be compassionate and understanding, to actually live the life Jesus allegedly taught you to live....instead of depending solely on a man made archaic book that you pick and choose from for your bigoted living instructions...just saying.
In the long-term deprivation doesn't necessarily equate to unhappiness and gratification doesn't necessarily equate to happiness. I could get pleasure from eating rich food in large portions every day, but in the long-term the weight gain and its effects could negate the fun.
From a Christian perspective as I understand it there are many things that may "make us happy", regardless of orientation, that God does not want us to do. Granted in general I think this is because they involve harm to others, callousness, cause long-term damage, or keep us from fulfilling our responsibilities. Also I think Christianity is in many ways more about seeking virtue than pleasure. The joys in Christianity, as I see it, are probably to be more lasting and sublime than just "being happy."
For some, it might not be possible to have a sublime life without being allowed to experience true love. And when I say "happy" - I don't mean like eating a donut makes you happy. I mean happiness like when my husband and I cried together after he proposed because our whole lives were changing together. I mean happiness like when my father died, having my husband (who was just my boyfriend at the time) giving up a job opportunity so he could fly out and be at the funeral with me. I mean happiness like watching my husband kiss our little doggy and seeing how much he loves her. I mean happiness like watching my mom stay by my father's bedside and hold his hand while he was dying. I don't see why some people should be denied the opportunity for ever having this happiness and some people would be favored enough to be able to enjoy it. If I truly thought that God was that arbitrarily cruel - it would kind of destroy the way I look at God and life.
Perhaps I should have used a different word so that the intent was more obvious.
The Greek word they use is arsenokoitēs which means "one who lies with a male as with a female, sodomite". There is no way to misunderstand the meaning.
Actually that's not true. The greek word for homosexual is "androkoitēs" not "arsenokoites", and your definition of the word is also erroneously adding a huge number of words to a term that we barely understand. arsen means man, and koites means bed with a slight sexual connetation. We don't know enough about ancient Greek to conclude anything beyond that. Given that Paul was fluent in what well understood Greek was at the time he wrote 1 Corinthians, it's logical to assume that the use of a totally different word was intentional on his part, and the only other time the word is found is in 1 Timothy. Contemporary (albeit secular) philosophers such as 'Philo' ascribe the word arsenokoitēs to the practice of temple prostitution, which likely refers to sexual practices being sinfully conducted as part of ritual worship and having nothing to do with homosexuality directly at all.
And before you get oldschool and OT with me and start talking about the Hebrew word Kadesh, that is a root derivative of the Hebrew word kedeshah which was a female prostitute, thus seemingly once again referring to acts of male prostitution, or temple prostitution, perhaps the reason that Paul used the term in Corinthians?
So I'm sorry to say it, but you're adding a huge amount to known translations of ancient Greek in your assessment. We simply can't translate a single ancient greek word of that obscurity into a sentance of the length you've proposed with any kind of academic certainty. What we can say with certainty is that the word Paul used was not the word commonly accepted as meaning homosexual in ancient Greek.
Actually that's not true. The greek word for homosexual is "androkoitēs" not "arsenokoites", and your definition of the word is also erroneously adding a huge number of words to a term that we barely understand. arsen means man, and koites means bed with a slight sexual connetation. We don't know enough about ancient Greek to conclude anything beyond that. Given that Paul was fluent in what well understood Greek was at the time he wrote 1 Corinthians, it's logical to assume that the use of a totally different word was intentional on his part, and the only other time the word is found is in 1 Timothy. Contemporary (albeit secular) philosophers such as 'Philo' ascribe the word arsenokoitēs to the practice of temple prostitution, which likely refers to sexual practices being sinfully conducted as part of ritual worship and having nothing to do with homosexuality directly at all.
And before you get oldschool and OT with me and start talking about the Hebrew word Kadesh, that is a root derivative of the Hebrew word kedeshah which was a female prostitute, thus seemingly once again referring to acts of male prostitution, or temple prostitution, perhaps the reason that Paul used the term in Corinthians?
So I'm sorry to say it, but you're adding a huge amount to known translations of ancient Greek in your assessment. We simply can't translate a single ancient greek word of that obscurity into a sentance of the length you've proposed with any kind of academic certainty. What we can say with certainty is that the word Paul used was not the word commonly accepted as meaning homosexual in ancient Greek.
Thanks Spank for providing such a fine rebuttal....it's amazing what a little EDUCATION can accomplish.
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Go to R.B. Thieme Jr. and order basic books and mp3 form 1961. They are free including shipping and start learning who and what God is. If you out there think you know 
