Has anyone here looked into the total Historical Origins of your Religion ?

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

"Leave the church and your life will become empty and meaningless? What's that all about?

Bingo?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by JJIII

That reminded me of this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9IfHDi-2EA

Old Johnny makes the rapture sound less like the second coming of Jesus than the resurrection of Buford Pusser.

Chas

[Twodogs]

I think there are things we just won't ever understand. If someone wants to have faith in a higher power that's fine with me, and if they don't, well that's fine too. I do believe in a higher power but wouldn't claim to have a clue what or who it is? I think man has always needed to think there is something more than what we get here. Combine that with with their ignorance of things like the sun and stars early on, and it's easy to see how Gods came about.

[Charles]

Maybe we're an interplanetary prison colony our masters no longer want anything to do with.

Chas

[Big_Bill]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

It's a great mystery. Even Jesus often spoke in riddles only explained to his closest, and Satan would surely like to confuse us. Most of what we think is probably wrong. After all we are corrupt. I wouldn't put too much stock in books, although I really liked 'The Perversion of Christianity'. The key is remembering the scales are balanced, our sins have been atoned by a blood sacrifice. No translation error or misunderstanding will change that. If the good Lord forgives the big stuff he'll certainly forgive the little stuff.

I think the big question is why, why were we created... there is no answer revealed as of yet.

We'll know soon enough So, 'When you reach, that golden city, friends and loved ones you will see. When the saints, come out to meet you.... Shake my mothers' hand for me.'

Cheers!

Pete

That is just the type of answer that I received from a Bishop in the Catholic Church, beautiful but worthless

I do remember reading in the Bible that God became bored with his first creation, the angels, due to their incessant bowing and praising, but after all that was what he created them for ! So he created US, and gave us freedom of choice, to decide if we would bough and praise him all the time, or what.
Now I do not know how that worked out because Eve took a bite out of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and until then I don't remember reading about either of them doing much bowing or praising before that fruit thing. So after the fruit incident pure chaos erupted, and Adam and Eve were cast from the Garden of Edan ! After that time they seem to have spent all their time begating with one another, and that brings up another question, with who ! If Adam and Eve had Cane, Able and Seth ? You know !

Well I am sure that the creation of Man afforded God with quiet a interesting show to keep him amused or annoyed !

So we were an experiment of God, to basically see if Man would worship him excessively as the angels have, or what difference Freewill would have on this creation thing ?

Bill

[painter]

Originally Posted by Big_Bill

Hello Bigerik,

I started off with great FAITH, but wanted to understand the whys and wherefores of the Bible and the teachings of the religion as well. So religions just teach one thing, and practice another. And some religions don't even try to pretend that they follow all of the teachings of the Bible, or the Ten Commandments, or their respective Holy Book ?
And they explain this with FAITH, or Gods directions to the founder of the religion ? DA!

So I went off and read the Bible several times for my own gratification, to try to better understand the 80% of the Bible that they never seem to touch on ?
Needless to say, my education lead me to many questions and a different point of view.

So here I am, with an understanding of the read Bible ? Then I went into every book on Christianity to seek the answers, only to find none ? So I went on to understand the origins of Christianity to better understand all of this, and let me tell you, too much knowledge can be very confusing ! Because the deeper I went, the more questions I had ?

So I am just curious to see if their is anyone out there that has had a similar experience ?

Bill

Yes indeed! I read the bible from front to back. But spent time in the trenches to enlighten myself. Taught CCD classes, was president of a church ladies group whose volunteer work contributed to paying off a church expansion debt. And sadly...found that many who proclaim to be so called Christians...are not so much. Not that I expect perfection in anyone...but I did expect more than what I found.

I will add...sometimes we overthink a situation or problem.
With religion...faith is supposed to be the answer to all unanswerable questions.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by painter

Yes indeed! I read the bible from front to back. But spent time in the trenches to enlighten myself. Taught CCD classes, was president of a church ladies group whose volunteer work contributed to paying off a church expansion debt. And sadly...found that many who proclaim to be so called Christians...are not so much. Not that I expect perfection in anyone...but I did expect more than what I found.

Organized religion, like politics, is a team sport. It's all about identifying with one's team while denigrating the others.

[Big_Bill]

I'm gonna be BAD here,

How many God's are there ? ONE, TWO or THREE ?

You know; The Father, Son and Holy Ghost

Bill

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Organized religion, like politics, is a team sport. It's all about identifying with one's team while denigrating the others.

Not so much of the denigrating where I come from. Maybe that's why I have hung around. We have a pretty much "come as you are" attitude, and frankly, a pretty progressive social conscience. I found it interesting reading some of the early Social Principles of the Methodist Church. The church came out in favor of collective bargaining, against sweat shops and against child labor - and this was around the turn of the century. It's one of those churches Glenn Beck warned people off from.

Regards,

D-Ray

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by d-ray657

Not so much of the denigrating where I come from. Maybe that's why I have hung around. We have a pretty much "come as you are" attitude, and frankly, a pretty progressive social conscience. I found it interesting reading some of the early Social Principles of the Methodist Church. The church came out in favor of collective bargaining, against sweat shops and against child labor - and this was around the turn of the century. It's one of those churches Glenn Beck warned people off from.

Regards,

D-Ray

Are you sure you're not a Unitarian?