Only read if you are NOT religious and/or do not believe in any 'supreme' being (othe

I live in a free country in which the money has "In God we trust" written on it and the judicial branch relies on the Christian bible to represent truth telling... you talk about straw men, slippery slopes get me too... how many little ways can religion be a facet of non religious portions of life before it should concern you?

I would never say that, but I would love to opportunity to pick your brain and ask questions you might not have thought to ask... who knows what we both might learn.

No, I prefaced my first post in this thread by saying I hadn't read the first 44 pages... it is a bit much to catch up on.

Hey, did you ever buy that book or did you just look through it? I wonder who it's by.... And I wonder what they have to say about who Jesus is.

Is it ok with you if I pray for you? Don't worry, I won't make you my pet project or anything. But I guess it can't hurt.

And no, I promise I'm not crazy.

Well, that is when one should get into the study of the evidences of who Jesus was... which is another debate altogether.

I think a few people touched on it earlier in the conversation.

Hey, did you ever buy that book or did you just look through it? I wonder who it's by.... And I wonder what they have to say about who Jesus is.

Quote from PassionateGray : You know, you're right... if you haven't experienced God's presence, then it is difficult. But one thing that the God of the Bible loves is sincerity. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you were insincere before... I don't know the exact situation. But maybe one day you can just try it. You might feel crazy, but if you really want to know and you really are sincere, just ask him to show you that he's real. And then keep your eyes open and wait... it may come in a way you don't like, or it may be something really quiet, but he will. The Bible says, "Knock, and the door will be opened." If you really don't think that it will happen, then it probably won't. But if you are sincere and you really want to know, I believe that it will happen. And none of that above was scientific, I know. But still, it doesn't hurt to try.

And that's the part that sounds a lot like "concentrate and you can control the roll of the dice. If they don't come up a winner, you didn't concentrate right."

If I told you that what would you say?

I was sincere, I wouldn't bother if I wasn't... maybe I wasn't sincere enough, but I really can't think I had any reason not to be... as far as I am concerned, I knocked, rang the bell, peeked in the window, huffed and puffed... it's not enough to stop me from trying, but I am comfortable saying I already came up empty handed at least once...

I dunno... maybe its me, but I've always felt that it took WAY much more balls NOT to believe in God - then it does to believe that there is a God, and He exists...

PG and I were actually talking about this thread a bit earlier. We were saying that a lot (NOT ALL) of unbelif is because one will have to change their lifestyles once they believe in an eternal omnipotent being that has control over everything... And not only that, its also very hard for a human being to acknowledge that they ARE NOT in control of things.

I don't want any hate-posts from those that will try to say that I'm effectively saying that ALL unbelievers are immoral, bad people - BUT there are a lot of them out there...

It comes down to this... Have you guys seen the movie, Matrix??? Remember the part where Neo is given the option of either choosing the red pill, or the blue pill... Before his choice, Morpheus tell him that once he makes a choice - there is no going back... Well, in my opinion that's kinda what true belief in God is... Once you take that red pill, you wake up to see the truth - and nothing is ever the same again... A lot of people choose the blue pill; there's a quote in the movie about what if they would have taken the blue pill: "ignorance is bliss"...

^just quoting the movie guys, I'm NOT trying to imply that people that don't believe in God are ignorant people... We were all non-believers at one point (unless you grew up w/ a family believing in Christ). But even growing up as a child in a home that is Christian, that child still has to make the choice to believe in God. I've seen MANY-o-kids that were children of pastors/missionaries/etc. that grew up in a family believing in God - yet they grew up and made the choice to not follow the rules God has given us...

The one thing I do find very particularly strange is the people that I have talked to, that grew up in a Christian household, and now have abandonned their faith; is that they still feel convicted and guilty about their choices in life... They still feel the call in their life to come back to God... Even those that didn't grow up in a Christian home as kids, but later went on to follow the Lord, then later on stopped being "religious"; felt the very same conviction to start their relationship back up again, and had this, at times, overwhelming feeling that they are not doing things right...

Like I said, once you take that red pill - expect to see the truth about yourself, and the truth about life - no matter how much you might not like what you see (because you'll then have to make changes to your lifestyle); you will forever be changed by it.

If I can bring up an example I used a couple pages back where covertcelery laughed at me, I want to see what your opinion is Deve.

I said something along the lines of "the human brain is a very powerful thing, to me it would be more believable that the human brain can do telepathy than that I'll see proof of god in my lifetime" To which covertcelery said "telepathy? Like the brain text messaging "

People only use a small part of their brains, we all have some sort of 6th sense. The religious attribute this 6th hand as god, the non-religious attribute this 6th sense as ____ (could be telepathy, could be luck, could be foresight, could be something else).

Religious christian people I have a question for you:

Who did you believe to be god before jesus (since I believe it's a known fact that jesus was born jewish)? Did you believe in the jewish god?

Because even from the time of adam and eve and abraham god spoke to the people, and jewish religion pre-dated christianity?

If you didn't believe in the jewish god, then there had to be polytheism, and christianty does not believe in polytheism. Just a thought.

Religious christian people I have a question for you:

Who did you believe to be god before jesus (since I believe it's a known fact that jesus was born jewish)? Did you believe in the jewish god?

Because even from the time of adam and eve and abraham god spoke to the people, and jewish religion pre-dated christianity?

If you didn't believe in the jewish god, then there had to be polytheism, and christianty does not believe in polytheism. Just a thought.

And who's to say that those who have "found" God have not simply unlocked a portion of their potential that some of us haven't? As if some people managed to activate another set of cones and rods in their eyes that allowed them to perceive more colors than the rest of us?

Those of us who couldn't see would claim there was no proof and it didn't exist, and those who could see would proclaim how amazing it was we couldn't see what was in front of our own eyes

I believe the christian thought is that Jesus is the son of g_d.

So by that theory, the Jewish god (the first one, and original one) is the real god. Thus believing in god (in either the jewish religion or christian religion) would mean that they're going to heaven. (because IIRC BrgnHtr said that unless you're christian you're going to hell).

So I was doing a little bit of research... and I go to a site I found via google.. and it brings me here. http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm

Does anyone else get a popup type window to watch the trailer for "The Golden Compass"??
That's kinda funny.. isn't it?