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Pontius Pilate asked that very question to Truth Himself. Jesus Christ is Truth.
If you are seeking after Jesus Christ, then you are seeking Truth.
If you are not seeking after Jesus Christ, then you are not seeking Truth.
Everyone, or at least majority of people, seeks Jesus Christ.
And yet.....there are over 40,000 Protestant denominations and a Catholic Church whose own people are fragmented. Fragmented meaning not all Catholics agree with each other.
It's easy to say "We seek the truth" and then call a fellow Christian a heretic if their interpretation of Jesus Christ's teachings differ from your interpretation.
My personal belief which is similar to farm108's post is that my relationship with God is personal. I've had people online call me a heretic and whatnot because of my beliefs.
I remember going to a Filipino baptism and I was one of the ninongs (Godfather in Filipino). We were all asked to sign a paper with our name and religion. I was told to put down the same thing that everyone else put but I refused. I cannot consciously lie about my faith in a sacred place of worship. God knows what my beliefs are and my relationship with Him is personal. In my eyes, we are all Christians whose beliefs have been scattered by all over the place by religious leaders, which is unfortunate.
Everyone, or at least majority of people, seeks Jesus Christ.
And yet.....there are over 40,000 Protestant denominations and a Catholic Church whose own people are fragmented. Fragmented meaning not all Catholics agree with each other.
It's easy to say "We seek the truth" and then call a fellow Christian a heretic if their interpretation of Jesus Christ's teachings differ from your interpretation.
My personal belief which is similar to farm108's post is that my relationship with God is personal. I've had people online call me a heretic and whatnot because of my beliefs.
I remember going to a Filipino baptism and I was one of the ninongs (Godfather in Filipino). We were all asked to sign a paper with our name and religion. I was told to put down the same thing that everyone else put but I refused. I cannot consciously lie about my faith in a sacred place of worship. God knows what my beliefs are and my relationship with Him is personal. In my eyes, we are all Christians whose beliefs have been scattered by all over the place by religious leaders, which is unfortunate.
And yet what I bolded above happens over and over and over since the beginning of Christianity.
And that is religion vs faith. To question the story (religion) is to question the faith to many, many people.
To me, religion is just the story. Faith is completely separate.
And yet what I bolded above happens over and over and over since the beginning of Christianity.
And that is religion vs faith. To question the story (religion) is to question the faith to many, many people.
To me, religion is just the story. Faith is completely separate.
Do you think religion is needed to be "saved" and go to heaven? Is religion necessary? Some would say religion is entirely man-made and gives people a good feeling about themselves.
Everyone, or at least majority of people, seeks Jesus Christ.
My counterpoint would be that many people use the verbiage of "seeking Jesus" while actually, whether consciously or subconsciously, fashioning a Jesus character of their own imaginings and seeking after that.
My counterpoint would be that many people use the verbiage of "seeking Jesus" while actually, whether consciously or subconsciously, fashioning a Jesus character of their own imaginings and seeking after that.
Jesus is not an idea. He is an actual Person.
Good point.
To expound on that, people create their own version of Jesus based on their interpretation of scripture and what they have been taught.
The logic would be like this: they read scripture > goes to Church and hears their church priest or pastor preach about scripture > they combine what they read with what they heard > they form their own thoughts on what Jesus is.
I think there are many Christians who choose to just follow and conform to whatever that are taught. They do not seek the truth. They just follow whatever it is they are taught.
Have you ever met Jesus? Have you ever touched him? Some say they say Him in a vision or in a dream. Jesus was a real person but what kind of a person was He? What did He do? How did He treat people? How would He treat people in our modern society? How would He act in society today? The answers to those questions would be based on what we have read in scripture and what we've been taught.
Do you think religion is needed to be "saved" and go to heaven? Is religion necessary? Some would say religion is entirely man-made and gives people a good feeling about themselves.
the Bible has survived the test of time so far.
That's a meaning in itself.
Religion is man made. The Bible didn't just appear by magic...men wrote it.
It gives some meaning to our belief in a higher power
And the stories have been passed down for over 2000 years.
Many other ancient documents were destroyed completely but not the Bible.
But, as noted above, the divergence comes from interpretation of the book and its meaning.
I believe religion is just a vehicle for you. Find the group you most associate with according to your beliefs and then "be happy".
I was raised Catholic but I'm much happier being a Baptist.
If we all believe in only one God then every religion on earth is praying and worshipping to the same deity in their own way.
I don't see them as doing it wrong. They are just doing it differently.
As far as the Bible, I think there are many messages in there but they are buried under the words of man (if you understand that).
When believers are led by God, then they will follow Him first ...... With God He will judge wicked people like leaders by revelling the wickedness of these people and when people follow them in their wickedness then God knows and the wrath of God could follow them, or people will wake up and follow the people of goodness ...... So with God His bias is for goodness and not wickedness, as God loves all people as He can get people to reject wickedness
In Christianity its the same belief at every Christian Church.The bible is the bible Catholics have a few extra books the people argue how it should be interrupted and apparently that only one way is right and all the others are condemned for interrupting it the wrong way.Politics in religion.Instead of receiving the message from the bible they argue how to understand the content and that there is grave consequences for not understanding. Basically is been a huge fight that ours is right and yours is wrong and because your wrong your going to hell.I saw a Baptist minister on ytube say only 2% of humanity will be saved the rest will not for believing the wrong thing and only his belief is the right one.Hes claiming that Satan won and God barely saved any souls 98% for the devil and a tiny 2% that God barely managed to save.A lot is about control not the message.Some believe they can create heaven on earth. Some believe that what they do gets then in heaven They are not reading their bible it all ends badly many will follow the Antichrist and God puts an end to it when Jesus comes.There are many false prophets According to the bible God has to bring 3 days of darkness to get us to stop doing what were doing.If you understand the message then you have it that message does not change.The bible ends with a invitation to the wedding feast.
How much impact does confirmation bias have on religion? Is it something we are aware of? If we are aware of it, do we acknowledge it?
I think it has a huge impact, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not.
We all defend our beliefs by either quoting scripture or science or both.
I think its the other way around. Religion informs our bias. We then seek to confirm it.
I do think that people vastly ignore/underestimate the role that geography, family and ethnicity play in religion. If you're Scotch-Irish and live in the south you're unlikely to be Catholic or Lutheran. If you're an Italian American in Rhode island you're unlikely to be a Baptist.
One way to check for these things is to shake things up. Stop going to church or go to a different church, shut off some source of information for a few weeks, go into deep meditation with God / Holy Spirit away from everyone and everything, etc. But if people are too lazy to check or review their ways, no amount of talk or discussion will help.
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