K
Kitty Sinatra
No I haven't. Is it a good read (other than the part you've already said you like, obviously)?
Unfortunately, I don't have time to get into the details of my faith, but I don't see religions as being so illogical as many people (even many religious people) would have you believe.[/quote]My reasons for believing in God are fairly numerous, but I think that the core of it can be summed up by this C.S. Lewis quote:
[quote="C.S. Lewis]“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”
Actually, the whole book is about heaven and hell. It's sort of in the vein of Dante's Inferno, in that it chronicles a man's journey through the afterlife. It just takes an entirely different approach to the matter. It's full of great quotes, too.No I haven't. Is it a good read (other than the part you've already said you like, obviously)?
As to whether it's a good read, that depends on whether you like allegorical musings about the nature of heaven and hell. I enjoyed it, myself--C.S. Lewis is a good writer.Look at yon butterfly. If it swallowed all Hell, Hell would not be big enough to do it any harm or to have any taste.
Conflict is good. It doesn't feel good, but those who don't question themselves and their own beliefs are, at best, plateauing, and more likely than not declining spiritually.I've been feeling very conflicted as of late about religion.
I believe in God. I believe He created us, and as such we are His children - and He is our Heavenly Father. I believe he wants us to return to Him, and has prepared a way for us to do so.What do you believe
I have pondered and prayed, and received direct, unambiguous answers regarding God's plan for me. When I follow His teachings I always receive the promised blessings.why?
If you have a desire to know the truth, ask with a sincere heart, and are willing to act on that answer, God has promised that he will answer your prayer. "Ask and ye shall receive, Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Feelings of conflict and confusion will be replaced with feelings of peace, joy and love.What "proof" do you have?
A thread so precise you signed it twice?*stuff*
-Adam
-Adam
You know, one of the funnest things about going further into my study has been the merging of science and my faith. I know many Christians would not agree with me, but I find them to work beautifully together. To be honest, I find much of science to be a wonderful exploration of the "why and how" God has done things.I now believe the scientific ideals of how our world began, evolved, and exists today. But at the same time I can't get past the thought that at some point at the start of it all (pre-big bang, before that?) something had to come from somewhere. It's simply too illogical, to me, to believe that existence could have began without being created.
You know, one of the funnest things about going further into my study has been the merging of science and my faith. I know many Christians would not agree with me, but I find them to work beautifully together. To be honest, I find much of science to be a wonderful exploration of the "why and how" God has done things.[/QUOTE]I now believe the scientific ideals of how our world began, evolved, and exists today. But at the same time I can't get past the thought that at some point at the start of it all (pre-big bang, before that?) something had to come from somewhere. It's simply too illogical, to me, to believe that existence could have began without being created.
You know, one of the funnest things about going further into my study has been the merging of science and my faith. I know many Christians would not agree with me, but I find them to work beautifully together. To be honest, I find much of science to be a wonderful exploration of the "why and how" God has done things.
*is happily closed-minded*I can agree with that, and feel like someone on either side of that debate is being purposely close-minded if they aren't willing to at least give consideration to the idea that it all may be very much intertwined.
You assume the general populous would think for themselves..... I wish that was the case and advertising business would be out of business.The question then arises, though: why would the general population need to believe in something in the first place? Why would they need to seek out meaning in order to function, instead of simply functioning in the meaningless toil of life, oblivious to the fact that there's no purpose to it?
I also think it's important to say that, though I admit that many people follow religion in hopes of getting a reward in the afterlife, receiving an eternal reward is not the actual purpose of religion--or at least not of Christianity, so far as I understand it.
A thread so precise you signed it twice?[/QUOTE]*stuff*
-Adam
-Adam
*is happily closed-minded*
Eh, dude, God didn't come out of nothingness, he was always there... at least that how the Abrahamic religions have it...Really the only reason that I think there could be something out there is the fact that everything had to begin somewhere and the big bang is difficult to wrap my head around. Like God coming out of nothingness is any better, but hey. Even if the space/time continuum is nothing more than an infinite loop it still had to begin somehow, right?
No. The Big Bang Theory is not just a myth copied from older texts, though I was waiting for someone to use this argument in a religion discussion... just wasn't expecting it to be about a scientific theory.And even the big bang thing is just copied after older ideas (greek myths have the whole chaos then something stuff too)
I believe the idea was that we all share our beliefs, not argue about them. Which has been going well so far, so the condescension is unnecessary.Also, talking about religion on a forum is so last week... all of the arguments you're gonna find where already covered like a thousand+ years ago... you know, before the Church went crazy...
I admit to having trouble with that recently, especially with the whole concept of evolution. But after some thought, prayer and some reading on the subject, (I don't claim to understand everything about it.) I can accept it as the most plausible theory for how we got here.You know, one of the funnest things about going further into my study has been the merging of science and my faith. I know many Christians would not agree with me, but I find them to work beautifully together. To be honest, I find much of science to be a wonderful exploration of the "why and how" God has done things.
No. The Big Bang Theory is not just a myth copied from older texts, though I was waiting for someone to use this argument in a religion discussion... just wasn't expecting it to be about a scientific theory.And even the big bang thing is just copied after older ideas (greek myths have the whole chaos then something stuff too)
I admit to having trouble with that recently, especially with the whole concept of evolution. But after some thought, prayer and some reading on the subject, (I don't claim to understand everything about it.) I can accept it as the most plausible theory for how we got here.You know, one of the funnest things about going further into my study has been the merging of science and my faith. I know many Christians would not agree with me, but I find them to work beautifully together. To be honest, I find much of science to be a wonderful exploration of the "why and how" God has done things.
I'm pretty sure that the Catholics don't take the Bible literally as a general rule... and as they don't have sola scritura either some stuff might get explained differently then if one just took the text as it is in the book.Science has yet to exclude god, and if even the Catholic church has said that the Bicle is fallible, and shouldnt be taken literally, there isnt any reason for one to fight against science.
No. The Big Bang Theory is not just a myth copied from older texts, though I was waiting for someone to use this argument in a religion discussion... just wasn't expecting it to be about a scientific theory.And even the big bang thing is just copied after older ideas (greek myths have the whole chaos then something stuff too)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_LemaîtreMonsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître (July 17, 1894 – June 20, 1966) was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest, honorary prelate, professor of physics and astronomer at the Catholic University of Leuven. He sometimes used the title Abbé or Monseigneur.
Lemaître proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe, which he called his 'hypothesis of the primeval atom'.
Ha, i knew it... something had to be going on to be so close... (still, no one came up with any alternatives either, so it's still lack of imagination).It should be fair to talk about the Big Bang in a Religious discussion. It was postulated by a priest.