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But you seem to just assume that the ancient texts are correct and that we should accept them at face value.
Those "ancient texts" have stood the test as most epic and prolific writings in human history.
When you can present something with that kind of mojo...then, do it.
Until then, they will retain their status as (cue Michael Buffer voice), THE REEEEEEEIGNING AND DEFENNNNNNDING, UNNNNNN-DE-FEATED, CHAAAAAAAM-PI-OOOOOOON WRITINGS, OF ALLLLLLLLLL TIIIIIIIIME!
It would certainly figure that people would give them more credence than anything you all have to offer.
Who is the we that are being asked ANYTHING? WE, the spiritual and believers, DO NOT CARE what you accept or or not accept. You are not even in the periphery of our consciousness. We simply wish you would not be so loud and intrusive.
As for sharing your knowledge with us, you can't. You have nothing to share that we don't already know. Some atheists seem to believe we don't know science. They forget, in denial, or simply in ignorance, that many scientist are also religious. Spirituality has no conflict with Science, none. It honors all knowledge. Knowing is Divinity.
Neither does Science have any conflict with spirituality. Science does not PROVE anything. It observes, measures, and formulates a theory. Science libraries abound with theories that have not worked out. Scientists have been discredited Science accepts there are somethings it simply does not know.
Who is the we that are being asked ANYTHING? WE, the spiritual and believers, DO NOT CARE what you accept or or not accept. You are not even in the periphery of our consciousness. We simply wish you would not be so loud and intrusive.
As for sharing your knowledge with us, you can't. You have nothing to share that we don't already know. Some atheists seem to believe we don't know science. They forget, in denial, or simply in ignorance, that many scientist are also religious. Spirituality has no conflict with Science, none. It honors all knowledge. Knowing is Divinity.
Neither does Science have any conflict with spirituality. Science does not PROVE anything. It observes, measures, and formulates a theory. Science libraries abound with theories that have not worked out. Scientists have been discredited Science accepts there are somethings it simply does not know.
Christians tell atheists that God is going to send them to hell. Religionists tell atheists they are responsible for evil in the world. Religionists tell atheists they are the most "disliked" people in the world. Religionists tell atheists they are immoral. Religionists tell atheists that they "hate" God. Religionists tell atheists that they are atheists only because "they want to sin"...
Why should atheists have any respect for religion or Gods considering all that?
Only those who haven't understood what they were reading in the Bible.
That's what we were taught, growing up. "If you don't do this, and you do this, and you don't follow this, but you follow that, you're going to hell!!!!"
I was an atheist for some time, starting in my childhood. I had stolen a quarter from my brother, and there's the preacher on Sunday giving a sermon about how we would go to hell if we stole anything. Well, what's the point then? I'm 8 years old, and it's already over for me.
I eventually went to agnostic - which was really still unbelieving, but wondering if maybe?
In 2020, I became a Christian. I was just looking things up because the Bible made no sense to me...not how I was taught in church that we were forced to go to every Sunday.
But one day, I found a 3 + hour long video going over Genesis to Revelation. For the first time, it all made sense. And then I found more and more who were teaching the same way. I even bought my very first Bible, ever.
No, there are no contradictions, people aren't reading it correctly. The Gentiles were not, and are not, under the law. The law was for the descendants of Abraham, not 'everyone'.
It wasn't until Paul (Saul) came along that things changed for those who were not the Jews. And, in most books of the Bible, you learn WHO the disciples are talking to. Hint: Not the gentiles.
Paul said he had a vision, immediately changed his ways, and spent the rest of his life telling people about Jesus, and the FREE GIFT of salvation. 'The Church' is not 'the Jews' from the Old Testament nor when Jesus was still walking around on the earth.
The entire Bible is FOR you, but the entire Bible is not TO you.
Most preachers/priests/ministers do what they were taught in school: Jump around the Bible, pick out versus here and there, and claim that they are for 'everyone' to follow. That's simply not true.
If you're gay, it does not mean you're going to hell.
If you murder someone, it does not mean you're going to hell.
If you're a liar, a thief, an adulterer, etc, it does not mean you're going to hell.
There is one reason, and one reason only for that, and all anyone has to do is accept it, believe it, and that's it. That is literally it.
Now, not going to say that was easy - because it's not. I don't have faith in dang near anything. I don't have faith in people, I don't have faith that I will just be here tomorrow - anything can happen - I don't have faith that everything will work out - I hope. I've always relied on 'hope' more than anything.
Jesus was on this earth. Jesus was crucified. Jesus was buried. The hard part was: Resurrection. It didn't happen overnight, my faith. It took a long time.
But what took more faith than that? Believing in a 'big bang' theory. How do you have something come from nothing? You can't! If there's nothing there, there's nothing to 'bang'. And the idea that we came from single cell organisms, then turned into fish, then the fish walked out of the water, then eventually they evolved to neanderthals (of which many of those 'displays' have been debunked as fakes), that eventually evolved into man....no. That takes a whole lot more faith than anything I've read in the Bible.
God is not an angry God. He's not a mean and hateful God...which is what many are taught. It's wrong.
RELIGION is a big, fat problem because people use it to try to control others. The Bible - no, it's not trying to control others, like so many believe. It's telling you a story, from beginning to future end. Everyone, right now, including the Jews, already have salvation locked up by doing one simple thing: Accept and believe that Jesus was alive, crucified, buried, and resurrected. The majority of the world, including scientists, say that Jesus did walk this earth. They agree he was crucified. They agree he was buried. The problem comes in when people argue if Jesus was the son of God, and whether or not he 'resurrected'.
That's literally it.
And you will know which 'Christians' haven't read their Bibles because they will argue until the cows come home, that the entire Bible is TO us. They always throw out versus from all over the place in the Bible, including the Old Testament, as their 'proof'.
They will say the exact same thing to those who understand the Dispensation of Grace as they do the atheists. 'You just want an excuse to sin!' What is sin? What laws were the Gentiles given? They weren't given any laws. Being a better person benefits YOU! A lot of those laws that people follow are not to 'control you', it's to make your life a whole lot easier without all the drama. You don't tend to get into trouble when you don't steal, don't murder, don't go having flings with people who are not your spouse, etc.
They are wrong. Just sit down and read it, front to back, even the boring 'begats' and the nauseating Leviticus. Just do it. Pay attention to who is talking to who, WHEN, and why.
Most people don't do that.
The biggest scam ever perpetrated onto the people, past, present, and future, is using the Bible to tell them that everything they do is wrong, God is angry, and everyone is going to burn in hell. It's. Not. True!
The forum title is "Religion & Spirituality." A large contingent of people have a deep, abiding spiritual connection to God, myself included, but are abhorred by how organized religion has descended into something that has nothing to do with any of their origins.
My God is too big to fit into such a small, petty group of people who seem more concerned with foisting their world views on others. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. There is nowhere that God is not, and we all have our very existence in that presence I call God. Others call this Universal Consciousness by other names. Regardless of the term of identification, across all the original "religions" the basic message was the same. Love all others as you would wish to be loved. God loves us all, and holds no special attachment to one over another. Present day religions have no indication of this in any of them. God doesn't fight wars, grant special favors.
Every so often, one of us -- like me, now, come here to try to open others hearts to the true belief: We are all one in God. There is no "they."
Last edited by LookinForMayberry; 07-09-2022 at 10:23 AM..
Reason: Spelling and punctuation correction. LFM
Who is the we that are being asked ANYTHING? WE, the spiritual and believers, DO NOT CARE what you accept or or not accept. You are not even in the periphery of our consciousness. We simply wish you would not be so loud and intrusive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry
Every so often, one of us -- like me, now, come here to try to open others hearts to the true belief: We are all one in God. There is no "they."
Only those who haven't understood what they were reading in the Bible.
That's what we were taught, growing up. "If you don't do this, and you do this, and you don't follow this, but you follow that, you're going to hell!!!!"
I was an atheist for some time, starting in my childhood. I had stolen a quarter from my brother, and there's the preacher on Sunday giving a sermon about how we would go to hell if we stole anything. Well, what's the point then? I'm 8 years old, and it's already over for me.
I eventually went to agnostic - which was really still unbelieving, but wondering if maybe?
In 2020, I became a Christian. I was just looking things up because the Bible made no sense to me...not how I was taught in church that we were forced to go to every Sunday.
But one day, I found a 3 + hour long video going over Genesis to Revelation. For the first time, it all made sense. And then I found more and more who were teaching the same way. I even bought my very first Bible, ever.
No, there are no contradictions, people aren't reading it correctly. The Gentiles were not, and are not, under the law. The law was for the descendants of Abraham, not 'everyone'.
It wasn't until Paul (Saul) came along that things changed for those who were not the Jews. And, in most books of the Bible, you learn WHO the disciples are talking to. Hint: Not the gentiles.
Paul said he had a vision, immediately changed his ways, and spent the rest of his life telling people about Jesus, and the FREE GIFT of salvation. 'The Church' is not 'the Jews' from the Old Testament nor when Jesus was still walking around on the earth.
The entire Bible is FOR you, but the entire Bible is not TO you.
Most preachers/priests/ministers do what they were taught in school: Jump around the Bible, pick out versus here and there, and claim that they are for 'everyone' to follow. That's simply not true.
If you're gay, it does not mean you're going to hell.
If you murder someone, it does not mean you're going to hell.
If you're a liar, a thief, an adulterer, etc, it does not mean you're going to hell.
There is one reason, and one reason only for that, and all anyone has to do is accept it, believe it, and that's it. That is literally it.
Now, not going to say that was easy - because it's not. I don't have faith in dang near anything. I don't have faith in people, I don't have faith that I will just be here tomorrow - anything can happen - I don't have faith that everything will work out - I hope. I've always relied on 'hope' more than anything.
Jesus was on this earth. Jesus was crucified. Jesus was buried. The hard part was: Resurrection. It didn't happen overnight, my faith. It took a long time.
But what took more faith than that? Believing in a 'big bang' theory. How do you have something come from nothing? You can't! If there's nothing there, there's nothing to 'bang'. And the idea that we came from single cell organisms, then turned into fish, then the fish walked out of the water, then eventually they evolved to neanderthals (of which many of those 'displays' have been debunked as fakes), that eventually evolved into man....no. That takes a whole lot more faith than anything I've read in the Bible.
God is not an angry God. He's not a mean and hateful God...which is what many are taught. It's wrong.
RELIGION is a big, fat problem because people use it to try to control others. The Bible - no, it's not trying to control others, like so many believe. It's telling you a story, from beginning to future end. Everyone, right now, including the Jews, already have salvation locked up by doing one simple thing: Accept and believe that Jesus was alive, crucified, buried, and resurrected. The majority of the world, including scientists, say that Jesus did walk this earth. They agree he was crucified. They agree he was buried. The problem comes in when people argue if Jesus was the son of God, and whether or not he 'resurrected'.
That's literally it.
And you will know which 'Christians' haven't read their Bibles because they will argue until the cows come home, that the entire Bible is TO us. They always throw out versus from all over the place in the Bible, including the Old Testament, as their 'proof'.
They will say the exact same thing to those who understand the Dispensation of Grace as they do the atheists. 'You just want an excuse to sin!' What is sin? What laws were the Gentiles given? They weren't given any laws. Being a better person benefits YOU! A lot of those laws that people follow are not to 'control you', it's to make your life a whole lot easier without all the drama. You don't tend to get into trouble when you don't steal, don't murder, don't go having flings with people who are not your spouse, etc.
They are wrong. Just sit down and read it, front to back, even the boring 'begats' and the nauseating Leviticus. Just do it. Pay attention to who is talking to who, WHEN, and why.
Most people don't do that.
The biggest scam ever perpetrated onto the people, past, present, and future, is using the Bible to tell them that everything they do is wrong, God is angry, and everyone is going to burn in hell. It's. Not. True!
Quote:
Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry
The forum title is "Religion & Spirituality." A large contingent of people have a deep, abiding spiritual connection to God, myself included, but are abhorred by how organized religion has descended into something that has nothing to do with any of their origins.
My God is too big to fit into such a small, petty group of people who seem more concerned with foisting their world views on others. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. There is nowhere that God is not, and we all have our very existence in that presence I call God. Others call this Universal Consciousness by other names. Regardless of the term of identification, across all the original "religions" the basic message was the same. Love all others as you would wish to be loved. God loves us all, and holds no special attachment to one over another. Present day religions have no indication of this in any of them. God doesn't fight wars, grant special favors.
Every so often, one of us -- like me, now, come here to try to open others hearts to the true belief: We are all one in God. There is no "they."
I just want to thank ThreeWolvesInSnow and LookinforMayberry for their beautiful posts. They were a pleasure to read.
Yesterday I was ready to leave this forum.
I was so sick and tired of the supposed spiritual people picking holes, pointing fingers and throwing insults. It seems that's what this forum had been reduced to .
You two, on the other hand are shining examples of humanity.
I'm not on the same page with either of you but I appreciate what you both wrote, non judgemental, no nastiness, just sharing your worldview. This is what this forum should be about.
I just want to thank ThreeWolvesInSnow and LookinforMayberry for their beautiful posts. They were a pleasure to read.
Yesterday I was ready to leave this forum.
I was so sick and tired of the supposed spiritual people picking holes, pointing fingers and throwing insults. It seems that's what this forum had been reduced to .
You two, on the other hand are shining examples of humanity.
I'm not on the same page with either of you but I appreciate what you both wrote, non judgemental, no nastiness, just sharing your worldview. This is what this forum should be about.
I second that. Those two posts restored my belief in humanity, or a tiny part of it. I may disagree about evolution, but that's not central to salvation.
You two nailed it. Good job!
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