jsa3mm

No, Geroge Cralin made that one the commandments when he decided to shorten them. The Bible reads:
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
-Matthew 6: 5-8

matt_a

Right. But he's talking about praying there...not someone's faith. He's saying that when you pray to God, it should be a personal thing and not done to draw attention to yourself. Jesus obvioulsy wants believers to share their faith.
The Bible also says in Matthew 5:14-16 - "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

And also in Matthew 28:19 - "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.",

jsa3mm

Ok...but in Matthew 6: 5-8 he is basically saying that there shouldn't be churches, so if you go to church you are going against what Jesus said.

The Bible is clearly saying good/decent action is what is needed not going sit in a pue and worshiping G/god(s).

matt_a

Huh? How do you get that out of those verses? By that logic, we shouldn't have street corners either. If you read Matthew 6:5-8 (keeping the in mind the context of the conversation), you see that Jesus is giving a warning about Hypocricy. At that time there were many "religious" people who used to draw all the attention to themselves by standing and praying out loud with long prayers. God knows the heart of every man. He knows if a prayer is sincere or if it's done for the wrong reasons. This is a warning against hypocrisy, not worship. On the contrary, Jesus sought the peace and fellowship of His father's house many, many times. He taught in the synagogues. Jesus isn't against corporate worship as a group (church), he's against hypocrasy. Read pretty-much the entire book of Hebrews for examples.

matt_a

*oops...double post

jsa3mm

It doesn't say to share your faith! It says to perform good deeds.

matt_a

You're right. Very good point. Of course, the next verse I quoted clearly does. If you would like, I could post more verses from scripture that clearly tell belivers to to tell others about the saving grace of Jesus. The Bible is loaded with 'em.

jsa3mm

I was brought up Catholic. I find myself in a crossroads lately with Christianity as a whole because the Bible was written by man and man is fallible. I've had more than one Christian try to explain to me that they were influenced by God. That's fine and all, but if they were influenced by God then why aren't all of the other books written by other people's accounts of Jesus also placed in the Bible? Because the people of that time didn't think certain people's stories mattered and that in itself isn't Christian.

aen

My bad, I did mean athiest, dunno why I kept typing anarchist. But hey man, religion is all philosophy. And very "stoned out" as it is. I was just sharing an idea, about religion being just an idea, we as humans cannot exist without ideas, if that were the case we would be lumps of absolute nothing. But we aren't. Human nature wants to figure out that of which we don't unbderstand. I can tell this is already a touchy subject for some reason.

scionofPCFL

My point, is that technically speaking, humans can exist without etheral ideas. We do not need mysticism in order to thrive and multiply. However, ideas are inherently dependent on the existence of humans or at the least some other creature capable of imagination.

xlr8tC

so, anybody else up for existentialism? ....me either. the quote is "i think, therefore i am." but you know what, i've met plenty of people that don't think and still exist. go to wal-mart and look at the freaks that didn't even bother to clothe themselves properly or have to scream into their cell phone for everyone to hear. those are stupid people. they don't think, but they still are. they are more than lumps, but less than impressive examples of consciousness. not everything is a methodical, thought out response or interaction. some things/people just exist.

aen

i do have to agree....in truth, we can exist without the ideas of religion. but in reality, it is impossible. human nature states that we question that in which we do not understand.

and generally we chalk it up to religion..or science. which for hte sake of this argument could be considered a religion

y'digg?

i guess human nature moreso SUGGESTS that we question, not states. id change my post but i feel like theres need to see the difference.

aen

i think, therefore i am

haha i like that. and true. idiots at walmart might jusst be the exception

i hope to god that they are the only exception.

aen

according to some the bible is written by man that was influenced by god right? and god being hte ultimate being should have corrected or prevented any fallacies within such a form that represented himself.

so, we can either come to conclusion that
A. Somebody made it up
B. God doesn't care

or (and this is hte one most people stand by)

C. god is all willing and mighty and somehow has a divine plan as to why the bible was written with so much fallible evidence.

now, i'm not saying AT ALL that im not religious, that i'm trying to burst anybodys bubble or anything. but these are all weird little things that people have to consider before they go preaching that god is all mighty.

to tell you the truth, my own beliefs is that god is just chillin wherever he is. marveling at his creation of man. that is able to question, think and are innately able to disprove his existance. even WITH events that have absolutely no explanation.


sorry for the triple triple post. i should put it into one but i kept noticing things after and it's hard to do on a cellphone's browser

jsa3mm

I do believe in God, but I am finding it harder and harder to believe in the concept of Jesus Christ as a divine being. I believe that he was a very inspirational person, but I also believe that he was first human then divine (if divine at all), so that also means I believe that he had human needs that were met. I believe that he was married and had children before he was murdered for saying that he was the son of God. People do that today and we don't kill them in the streets.
I haven't turned away from God because I see that higher being in everyone. He/She is there, but we have to want to find God because if we don't seek we will never find.

aen

correct me if i'm wrong, becaus eim not all that well versed on christianity, purely because it's very hard to actually follow with hte innaccuracies. but.

was jesus supposed to be a divine being? i was under the impression that he was just a messenger

BigMURR

I don't mean to break up the discussion but where have the biggest anti-religion people been: Davetc and Citizen? Have they been kicked out of here; I haven't heard from them in months.

vettereddie

Everyone interprets things differently, for if you were not there to hear the word from Jesus as he spoke it, or his father before him on the mountain top, all information is second hand, written and shaped by different authors and translators and not the true word of god. I myself do not attend a church or other organized religion. I do know right from wrong and simply try to do right in the world. As someone wrote earlier, if god truly knows the heart of every man, prayer should not be needed; my thoughts and deeds will be enough.

Note: Interpretation extends to the concept of Jesus's divinity, I am not one to take things on faith alone. If there is no god, however, it is an amazing occurance againt overwhelming probability that the natural forces of the universe came into being on their own volition and have led to me being able to post this message, in a non-physical medium no less.

EDIT: It just occured to me, what is one considered if they are skeptical on Jesus's divinity and Muhammad's revalation with god, but don't sucribe to Judaism?

Master

for those at the cross roads:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0

backseatchris

good question. these are the topics we had huge discussions about roughly 6-12 months ago. There was a period of a few months or so that we would have 100+ page long discussions about abortion, religion, death penalty. Those were the good old days. i was on the boards for those every 15 minutes it seems. im really really really into politcal and moral issues.

and back on topic, i find it impossible, furthermore, cruel to believe in an infallible god. If god was infallible and knew all, he is an immoral creation.

If god knows all that is and will be, thats saying he knows the future. And in saying that he knows the future, that negates free will. And without free will, every human is inheritantly going to have a predestined life. And pay attention, because here in lies my problem. If god knows the future, then he knows that when he creates someone they will grow up and be a bad human and go to hell. Its unavoidable. So i find it quite wrong that he would create a creature that he knows will end up in the most unsufferable place for all of eternity. So for moral reasons, i dont belive in a god, especially a christian god