What's your Religion?

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My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
- Albert Einstein

 

I was raised Catholic for the first half of my life. Church every Sunday and CCD every Wednesday. When I started being able to make my own decisions in this matter, I actually started paying more attention. I started realizing there were so many different versions of what was being said, even though they are all supposedly rooted from the same writings. I see all of these multi-million dollar churches or houses of worship; priests and pastors driving top-of-the-line Lexuses and Mercedes. And they still ask for more money or second collections for building repairs. It's a business and one that obviously has not taken a hit from our economic dive.

I believe in God or at least a higher power. Everything had to start somewhere. Just not organized religion. Every one of the world's largest wars have been started on disagreements between different versions of religious beliefs.

The extremist version: if you don't believe what I believe, you're wrong and do not deserve to live.

This is ridiculous.

 

One of the more common Atheist sayings I have heard is "When you (i.e. the religious) understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, then you will understand why I dismiss yours."

I think it's a valid point. I've yet to hear a compelling counter-argument, but I'm open to them. Once again, I'm agnostic but highly skeptical and lean Atheist. The faith claims just don't do it for me because that's a subjective personal opinion, not objective supporting evidence.

Is this ok for this thread, or are we not supposed to be inciting loaded discussions?

 

I was raised catholic, but over the years have moved away from religion. Throughout history there has been good done by various religious groups, but many bad acts as well driven by greed, power, and corruption. Look at Pope Pius during WWII or more recently the cover-up of abuse by the Catholic Church where our children were preyed upon and tolerated by the church. My belief is that we should all live by a code of kindness and decency, and putting money in the tray on Sunday’s does not make us a better person. One other thing about religion has always perplexed me from a young age. If you “need” to believe in a specific God described by a religious organization, what happens to all the other people, many of which are as good or better intentioned than you? Remember, religion is a business, and look at what just happened with many businesses that operated without a checks-and-balance system to keep them honest.

 

I am as well.

 

Awsomeness!

 

I'm a "born-again" Christian. There have been too many things that have happened in my family for me not believe that God/Jesus does exist. I hate that there's too many denominations in the world today. All you have to do is to believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose again. There's no "12 step" program for salvation. Faith is all that's required.

 

God doesn't punish people.haha Then the bible would be a lie. I'm christian by the way. AAFJC!! If God punished people, he'd be a hypocrite.

 

i get a little riled when people say that "a loving God would not send anyone to hell." people don't realize that they chose their path as in heaven or hell. wouldn't a loving God let YOU chose your own path? how many people on here would care for someone if they were forced to love them?

 

Catholic

 

But he does let you choose where you want to go. If you want to go to heaven, you have to work for it by being a good person(not getting into detail) and if you choose to disobey, then the default place is hell. And he doesn't send you to hell. You send yourself to hell by your actions and not sincerely asking for forgiveness.

 

being "born again" is the only way into heaven. born again means a spiritual "second birth" after your faith in Jesus. there will be many "good" people in hell because they didn't have salvation. even true christians mess up, but their salvation lets their sins become forgotten after they ask for forgiveness.

 

You have to understand 2 points:

First, even though the Bible was physically written by men, the words were inspired by God and the Holy Spirit, not by the men themselves. There's a scripture that states this: 2 Timothy 3:16 - "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..." If God inspired it, then it contains no lies or errors. God inspired them to write the words as they are written.

Second, yes the Bible as we know it today had to be translated from its original languages, but there are 100's of scrolls of the Old and New Testaments that have been found that are 1000's of years old and date back to when the books were written, and these were used for "today's" translations. The 'King James Version' of the Bible is one the most accurate translations today and matches up with the original Greek, Hebrew and other languages that were used on the original manuscripts.

Unfortunately, there are other very popular "new age" translations out there that do water down the original scripture and change it's meaning in some places. In my opinion, if a translation does not line up with the KJV, then it should be disregarded.

As Christians, we believe that in God's sovereignty, He made sure that His Word survived through all of the past ages so that each future generation would have it as He originally inspired it.

Don't you think if God could handle creating the universe and everything contained within, He could handle a couple of tasks like this?!?!

Also, there are things written in the Old Testament about future events that would happen 100's and 1000's of years later and every one of those prophesies came true, in addition to the ones that will be fulfilled in the future. It's down right amazing how much detail the Old Testament used to describe actual future events and it's proven that it was written way before the events ever happened.

 

Roger that. A person cannot earn his way into Heaven. There's not enough good works that can be done to merit salvation. It's simply by the grace of God and through faith in Jesus Christ that a man can go to heaven. All have sinned and fell short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death. Only the blood of Christ can cover our sin and make us righteous in God's eyes.

 

John 3:16 (New King James Version)

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. but wait...
Acts 2:38 (New King James Version)

38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

works will come AFTER your salvation. it plainly states that Abraham was accounted righteousness because of his faith not because of his "works." we are on the same page. i too agree with the old manuscripts being found that you posted above. there is archeology that backs up the Bible as well.

 

you have to understand the being "baptized" in Jesus is not from water baptism. John the Baptist stated 2 times in the Bible that he baptizes with water, but Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost. Water baptism is not for salvation, only for a public confession of your new salvation. remeber, the thief on the cross believed in Jesus, and he did not get baptized in water nor did he work for his salvation. Faith is what saved him.

 

Yeah I've heard the water is for symbolical purposes only but of course you have to repent and have faith in Jesus. And everyone including satan believes in Jesus.

 

Exactly! "Today you will be with me in paradise" - it doesn't get much clearer than that...

 

Paradise was pretty much heaven, when it used to be underground. Does that mean he still went to heaven afterwards?