Spent the last 4 days in Vegas so can't say that I thought about God all that much, but here we go...
Kelvy wrote:
You are the one judging unfairly because you have not studied the facts honestly and like most people (including myself); you approached the subject with the presupposition of a false a priori; beginning every thought on the subject matter already believing that it is a lie; you are lying to yourself and now you find yourself locked into a position where you have already convinced yourself that you are right without exploring properly and anything that challenges that you have to meet with hostility because you are too proud of yourself to allow yourself to second-guess and to admit that you possibly might be wrong about something that matters so much.
I studied the stories in the Bible as they were presented to me & when I became an adult in the Church, what we call Confirmation in Catholicism, I decided I didn't want to be associated with it anymore. There wasn't any one thing, but more a combination of things (Buttsecks scandals, Fred Phelps, my Priest retiring and a more...conservative Priest taking over the congregation, finding out how awesome sex is, et. al) that lead me to rethink my own views on religion & God in general. I then studied other religions, for comparisons sake, but didn't really feel called to any one thing. What I did decide is outside of experiencing anything supernatural, nothing was ever going to convince me that the supernatural is real (And as a geek, I actually would LOVE for some supernatural stuff to be real. Ghostbusters, for example, IRL would be ******* awesome).
But just because I believe that, I'm not so elitist to think it means that people who do believe in the supernatural are wrong.
Kelvy wrote:
heh; good analogy and I agree. If I actually thought that you believed in any of it I may be inclined to try to show you; but other than that it is akin to what you say. I get to pick and choose because the Bible says I do. It says that you will know false teachings by their results.. Why did you reject it?
Most ex-Catholics seem to have difficultly accepting that the Catholic views that they have been taught are actually not the Christian views. When the Catholic church got into full swing they didn't even ALLOW peasant to read the Bible; hardly anyone knew what the truth was.. and I would even go as far as to blame the dark ages on the Catholic Church.. but I really try not to judge the actions of man.. I do.. yes it i not for me to judge.. but I will call it like I see it and not hide it. My real opinion is the Catholic church was just Satan hi-jacking Jesus' real teachings and trying to run it aground.
And here you are defending it.. you defend it and you don't even believe in Jesus.. so what are you defending?
I believe in Jesus. I believe he existed & had some pretty awesome ideas. I believe that he believed he was the son of God (& I believe if God does exist, then we're all his sons & daughters so Jesus wouldn't of even had to of been immaculately conceived to be the son of God) Instead of spreading those awesome ideas like he wanted you too, however, you'd rather have a pissing contest over which flavor of his teachings is the correct one. I don't think that's what Jesus would have wanted & people like yourself are douchebags for your elitist views on the subject.
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What's that you were saying about vampires and werewolves?
May I ask if you take the Humanist viewpoint of God?.. in that God is just an absentee land-lord and doesn't care about the things that he created and takes no part in them... Doesn't it seem in the least bit unlikely to you that an omnipotent and all-knowing Creator created us for no real reason and with no real communication or message? I suppose you answer would be "well it could if it wanted" but that makes absolutely no sense at all and believing that is a shortcut to blind denial. It is pure anthropomorphizing. Limited human beings may do things that have no meaning and that they forget about.. but by definition anything omnipotent would never do such a thing; EVER.
"Can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it?"
Honestly, the whole concept of God doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but since I know & have experienced some of the benefits that come with being religious I'm not going to knock someone else for believing.
Kelvy wrote:
However, I can understand how it would be comforting to believe that because it gives you a way out of believing that there actually is a reason for things and that our thoughts and actions actually do matter.. because the only alternative is that God is real and that God does care; and to some people that thought is more horrifying than any form of materialism.
I think there's a reason for things. A few billion years ago something happened to create the universe (The Big Bang) & we're a result of it. We, as a species, have a pretty good grip on how things came to be the way they are since the first few moments after the big bang until now, but can't quite figure out (yet) the first few moments after it nor how the big bang happened in the first place.
Until we can, "God did it" (While a cop out), is every bit as valid as M Theory. As a Catholic, I was even able to reconcile the beliefs I had with that & look at things like the story of creation as allegorical instead of literal. It's too bad other people can;t seem to do that.
Kelvy wrote:
I suggest that you redefine your qualifications for historical facts. That link that you provides are a glorified advertisement for a book written by an ardent anti-Jew and anti-Christian named Moustafa Gadalla. He is clearing pushing his particular agenda, bending and twisting history to suit what he is selling and pulling so-called facts out of his ***. You will find that he has as much true credibility as the Naked Archeologist; though I admit that he has quite a following.. however most that take him seriously are those that like to have their own views validated by whatever tripe they can find.
Find me a non-christian reputable scholar on ancient Egyptian mythology that doesn't believe that their allegorical stories weren't picked up by Christians & you might be able to dispute my sources. EVERYTHING I've ever read on the subject, by any expert on Ancient Egyptian Mythology's similarities to latter day Christianity, seems to disagree with you that they are lies, however.
I know it's tough for you to swallow, but Science may be on to something since it has yet to show that God is absolutely necessary for anything.
Kelvy wrote:
The Catholic church is a reincarnation of the pagan Roman religious institutions.
And Christianity is just another flavor of it inspired by ancient Egyptian allegory & the teachings of a guy named Buddha.
Kelvy wrote:
God did come down to tell us otherwise and we murdered Him by nailing Him to a cross.
I thought that was His plan?