The Stoned Philosopher

My view of the "afterlife" is the buddhist reincartnation model,
when you pretty much go through many lives learning and becoming more enlightened untill you reach nirvana.

The Stoned Philosopher

robb

Faith is a very powerful thing, the Lord himself said that with only the faith as of a grain of mustard seed you could move mountains. Now thats pretty powerful if you ask me, now moving mountains can be like a problem or a struggle your going thru so its nice to know that with a little faith it can be overcome.

Faith is what saves you also, "For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God"

so where do you get faith, "for faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God"

I am very thankful for the faith God has granted me but i always pray for more because you can never have enough, if I hadn't had faith when i began to learn of the Lord i would not have beleived that he could deliver me and restore me. Praise God every day for your Faith.....

My.. I'm speaking to myself also when I say all this because sometimes it's not easy to trust completly in God but i know by experience that He take care of our every need if we only have faith...

Robb,

suresmokesalot

thats really deep!

I_like_pot

its hard to believe that so many people in this world follow religion. i see life in a wider point of view, a point of view not many people are willing to accept. throughout history mankind has ALWAYS questioned his origin, from the days of neanderthals to now.

the truth is, we will never know 100% "why" we are here. but what we can do is look around us. we are built just like every other animal on earth, except we are doomed to destruction(but thats another conversation). we are born in a bloody, screaming mess, we live,we reproduce-pass on our genes, and we die. there is no higher being. there is no magical place that we go when we die. religion is one of the major causes of war. war causes death, destruction, hate, sadness, poverty-just because our religions tells us to go to war. christianity is the worst. how can any resonable person believe that if you worship this "higher being" then you will go to a eternal paradise, and if you dont, you will be eternally punished by pitchfork weilding demons in a fiery cave.

good girl, you say dont go around proclaiming your faith........then why then hell did you make this thread? christianity can make good people, but historically, it has only caused death. the crusades, the spanish inquisition, all of it, because of a guy named jesus. i have no doubt jesus existed, he came from an oppressed people in a land controlled by at the time, the most powerful empire on earth.so when he went against them so he was publically executed. any thief, murderer or common criminal was crucified on a cross in those times.

we only live life once.............reproduce-smoke some weed-and die. we have no other purpose

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Or what? You'll release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you!? Well go ahead, DO YOUR WORST!

DonkeyPunch

Um, did you read what she wrote? Seems to me to be a very well written response to a lot of the hostility religion can get in these forums. Matter of fact, it is a reaction to posts like yours, which makes judgments on what reasonable people should and should not believe. Do a quick search on GG's posts, and you will find that she appears to be quite reasonable after all. (Also, look towards some of the most developed minds we have ever known, like the Einsteins and Stephen Hawkings of the world, and you'll find some very strong religious beliefs.)

Not very long ago, I would have thought a lot of the same things that you wrote, i_like. However, I am happy to say that the more I grow up (27 now, with quite a ways to go...), the less I am willing to say I know anything for certain.

And Cassius, you say that you do not have all the answers. Some atheists believe they do, and you are obviously not one of them. By the same token, some religious people will also claim to have all the answers, but the overwhelming majority of them will admit the same thing you did. Can't say I know her, but I would be willing to bet that GG would be part of the majority here.

BTW, just for curiosity, which Cassius are you named after? The boxer? The historian? Ceasar's former buddy? Just curious...

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Cassius

Ah, but most religious people claim to have *some* answers. A lot of answers, actually, if you pretend like they're hooking you =). We atheists have only one answer: "All the religious nuts are wrong."

Really, in my mind, being atheist is only one step further than being agnostic. If we were all honest with ourselves, we'd all be agnostic. But I choose to be atheist just to balance out all the religious nuts in the world =).

And I'm named after Caesar's conspirator. =)

Cassius

Put another way, faith is an assumption.

I am the first to admit that I don't have all the answers. Whoever said that atheists think they know it all? Looking at it another way, why does the realization that we don't have all the answers in life necessitate the conclusion that there is a God? Does it give you a great deal of satisfaction to take all the questions you can't answer throughout your life, tie them up in a big bundle, and write next to it "The answer to these is 'God.'"?

Exactly my point. There are lots of things in life that are more than the sum of their parts, like your son, your self, and the people that make up your church. When you look at these things, you can tell that you don't know all there is to know about them. So you call this unknown factor "God". I could call the answers to all the questions in my life Allah, or Buddha, or Macaroni and Cheese, but that doesn't change the fact that I still don't have the answers. What purpose does it serve to label all the unknowns about the universe "God", except to make it seem like you know something about them, when by definition you don't?

Furthermore, your labelling of these unknowns as "God" assumes that they are all interrelated, when in fact you know no such thing to be the case. I don't know what makes the sun rise, and I don't know who gave you that beautiful son that you see the face of God in. But (and this is important) I also don't know that the answer to both is the same. By labelling these things God, you are assuming that. For all your protests of nonbelievers "shrugging off the possibility that they don't have all the answers", you seem to be the one pulling answers out of thin air with no rational basis for believing them. You probably aren't even aware that this is a big assumption to make, being a Christian, but I assure you that not all religions are monotheistic.

I can see why you see the face of God in your son, although I don't choose to call it that (or anything else). I can see why it makes you believe in "something" more than just what we can see; I can see why it makes you realize you don't have all the answers. But why do you believe certain answers over others, when you have no basis for choosing one over the other? Why a monotheistic religion, for example? I don't know the answer to that question, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was "because my parents/peers/society are monotheistic."

I feel it is arrogant to assume that the answer to all the unknown questions is life is one particular superbeing, but that is neither here nor there. I applaud you for at least considering your own beliefs and their verisimilitude -- that is more than most people do.

I can see why people would say that, having been raised in a very conservative Christian faith myself. You didn't seem to answer their accusations though, at least not in this thread. You state that they can't measure it, but Jesus himself preached that you would know people through their actions. I'm sure these same people that claim you're not a true Christian also have something to say about you claiming Christianity is about taking control of your life, rather than giving it up. I bet a vast majority of Christians would have some reservations about that, even.

I don't know who you're addressing here, since you started this thread. But let me take this opportunity to say that I have the utmost respect for other people's beliefs, however ill-founded I might think them to be, and that any arguments purported herein or elsewhere is merely an attempt to expand my and others' horizons and introspection, nothing more.

Well, either that, or I'm going to hell in a handbasket for my heathen beliefs and I want to take as many of you sheep with me as I can when the angel puts one foot on the land and one of the sea and declares time to be no more. Just kidding.

Great, I'm waxing biblical -- look what you've done!!

aikibum

I see faith as a family relationship with God. When approached from a Judaic perspective, an A.J. Heschel perspective, walking with God means at times you get mad at Him, at times you don't understand Him, and sometimes it means saying sorry for being a putz.

But the underlying factor to all of this is love. Even when somebody you love or are close to pisses you off, or they piss you off, you still deeply love that person. So it is for me and God.

"May all sentient beings enjoy happiness
and the causes of happiness;
Be free from suffering and the causes of suffering."