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Ha ha! I like that term: mega church. I guess this is one point, of many, where one has to have faith in order to "Get it".
I guess its a matter of perspective, then?
For me, there is no getting past the violence. A morality story based upon violence, even if the morality in the story isn't, is too open for misinterpretation and misconstrument for violence and seems inappropriate, especially for a faith which preaches "to turn the other cheek".
Colossians 2:11-23 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.
Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, and who raised Him from the dead.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths,
Which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
And not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations--
Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,
Which all concern things which perish with the using--according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
. . .
Romans 6:8-14 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that he lives, He lives to God.
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
And do not present your members as instruments for unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
. . .
Romans 7:1-6
Or do you not know, brethren, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is freed from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
But now we have been delivered from that law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Ah, but there are consequences other than Hell. The only people who might not think so are those with antisocial personality disorder (people without consciences). I'm an agnostic so I have to find a reason for existence as there is seemingly no creator to have given me one. Now this is a very abstract and difficult subject to relate and one which would require a whole thread unto itself, so let me just make it short: My morality is based on giving life meaning. To act inhumanely or cause harm causes my life to be meaningless, and that is worse than death, even an eternal death (no afterlife). So I am forced to, if I wish to avoid meaninglessness, to act morally (and obviously my morals are different than yours but there are many ways in which they are similar). That is why, even though I don't believe in Hell, I will not commit evil acts.
I think I understand why that would make sense to one with faith, but let me try to explain why it doesn't for someone like me:
I am a person whose mind works to make sense of the Universe, naturally we all are. All the stimuli that my senses encounter everyday are organized in my mind so that I can best understand my perceived reality. Part of the method for doing this is logic and reason, scientific logic and reason. Everything I've been exposed to regarding religion doesn't vibe with my personal experiences thereby making it impossible for me to have faith in any one religion. Sure, I could just choose to "believe" in Christianity but it wouldn't be sincere because I would have to somehow disbelieve or ignore what I've experienced. I would be one of those Christians who is just buying Afterlife Insurance. God would know the difference, would He not? Either way I am destined for Hell. So instead, I will be true to myself and live my life sincerely instead of being disingenous and living as a Christian. Does that make sense?
Couldn't God show himself to people like me, or to each individual on a basis which is most appropriate for that individual that would convince them of His existence? Why not? Why must He rely solely on faith when He gave us the ability to reason, which makes us, human beings, unique from every form on life on Earth? From a non-believer's perspective, this illogic is inescapable and unacceptable.
I think you did. But I also think that for a person without faith and who relies on logic, that is a helluva hump to overcome. Especially when, for me, the "truth" of reality is impossible to know.
Why is God so demanding of His acceptance? Is He really that worried about His popularity? Is He so petty and egomaniacal that his creations must love and worship Him? Now don't take that the wrong way, I'm not trying to insult your God. Its just how I, and many non-believers, perceive Him and why we reject Him.
But you see, its not baseless from my point of view. I don't want to be associated with a faith that is subject to corruption. Another of the many reasons why I, instead, do not have religious faith at all.
My pleasure. And displeasure. Ha!
Okay, but, nonetheless, many Christians have supported these wars (for whatever reason). I thought, and correct me if I am wrong, that Jesus preached to "turn the other cheek".
Not really. I don't think the GOP is the party of the KKK, but the KKK votes Republican. Now why is that?
I don't think science attempts to impose barriers so much as understand the nature of reality. Its a method of taking human perception and aligning it with reality as accurately as it can. To do this it uses mathematics (a kind of language) and language. By default that makes it so we can not actually know reality as it is (that and the fact that we perceive reality through our senses). We can not perceive reality objectively and therefore we can not know absolute truth. I think this is dicomfitting for many people; I know it is for me. But science is just a method of explaining reality so that human beings can understand what is happening around them. I guess God didn't concern Himself with that in the Bible?
Yes. Will you? I don't know. I wouldn't find it easy to forgive someone for doing that to me. But that doesn't change the fact that I should. I even thought that such forgiveness ,"as I forgive those who trespass against me", was a lesson of the Christian faith.
Those acts described above just don't seem that terrible to me. If someone denies me, commits sins without remorse, and ridicules my beliefs, I don't think they deserve to feel as though they are burning alive for eternity. I think mercy should be unconditional. Retribution is not justice, and is not, as I perceive it, right or good.
That, I would think, IS the point of faith and spiritual well-being: unconditional mercy and forgiveness and therefore: love of my fellow man.
There is a branch of philosophy out there that wonders if we really do have free will. Let me explain: if you choose to murder somone, is it simply a decision you made or is it a long string of cause and effect, from your genetic predispositions, environmental factors, life situations etc. Kinda like the butterfly in Africa whose wings cause a hurricane in the Carribean. All the little factors in your life are what affects your decisions, and your previous decisions affect your future ones, even and especially the bad ones. This is a logical hypothesis and one that can't be verified or refuted with science. As human beings who wish to be in control of ourselves and our lives, this idea is repugnant to us. But that doesn't mean that it isn't valid and, to me, there does seem to be some logical validity to it. So I don't know if I am personally responsible for my actions and decisions, but that doesn't mean that I don't take responsibility for them. But, being unsure whether I practice free will or if I am forced, directly or indirectly, to make the decisions I do (not to mention the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics which demonstrates that the occurrences in the Universe are probabilities and not certainties) I don't feel certain that the Creator would send his creations to Hell based upon their decisions.
Are you talking about Christianity being more corrupted than other faiths? The above is a little vague.
Well, that seems to be the nature of life, huh?
You say much and prove little.God will not force Himself upon anyone. People are at liberty to believe in Him or not.
according to the bible, god chooses who will be drawn to god- you have no say, so the 'choice' in meaningless