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Special; What?!
Topic Started: 19 Aug 2010, 09:45 PM (3,258 Views)
Concolor
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Barabbas
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Funny, because I have many of the same questions that Vampira is posting, and I am very interested in learning about religions. If you read books by priests and theologians you will see that even they struggle with these thoughts. I agree that studying holy texts is interesting when learning about a particular religion, but pointing this out does not really answer the questions posed.
dragonshardz
 
The best way to understand something is to go to the source. In this case, the source is the Bible, and churches, and so on.
Interesting, wouldn't God be the source?

There is obviously no agreement between the different churches as to how to interpret the Bible, and reading it directly will probably give you your own interpretation, different from all the churches (otherwise churches wouldn't need to spend so much time on preaching and study-groups, and only recite from the Bible). People pick and choose what they want from these holy texts, and discard what they don't like. Two people who both claim to be Christians and follow the Bible can have radically different religions in practice. Therefore, pointing to the Bible does not tell me much about what you believe in, only you can do that. Vampira is going straight to the source, because she is asking about your religion.
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If you are so concerned about the bad things happening in the world today, do something about it!! I challenge you to fix a problem instead of whining about it.
Fixing problems is immensely important, but not a substitute for asking questions. After all, how can you know that you're helping unless you understand how the world works?
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Honestly, that's the entire point of most religions. Be good to others, help your fellow man, and so on.
I'm relieved to see that you have this interpretation, but you do know there are other interpretations out there? And you speak about the "point of most religions" as if there was some board meeting at which these religions where put together, where the motto on the board was: "Our goal: make people be nice to each other". Do you think this is the case for most religions, or could their origins be more organic and chaotic?
Edited by Concolor, 22 Aug 2010, 09:40 AM.
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Luemas
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Well. Dragonshardz had the guts to put into words what I'm not quite as, brazen? to say.

No offense.

I remember, my grandmother quoted Saint Augustine in this, and paraphrase ahoy!

A man can have all the eloquence and speak alot, and still say nothing.

Ok, Saint Augustine had cooler adjectives then I did.

But then again, that's why the Bible says, Faith without works is dead.

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Midst Of Vampy
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Believe it or not, I have TRIED to read the Bible. Don't even ask what happened.
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Midst Of Vampy
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And thanks for getting my back Concolor ;)
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Luemas
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Ah, I take it your mother didn't take too kindly to it?

That would explain why you would refuse to read the bible, but you could always read it online.

Biblegateway.com has the entire bible online.
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Midst Of Vampy
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Nope, not even close. :D
Much, much worse.

and thank you to whomever changed the misspell on "Special."
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Luemas
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That was me.

Your undying gratitude and subservience would be a fitting gift.

Or not.

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dragonshardz
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Quote:
 
Interesting, wouldn't God be the source?


Well, yes, but unless you have a direct line to him...

Quote:
 
There is obviously no agreement between the different churches as to how to interpret the Bible, and reading it directly will probably give you your own interpretation, different from all the churches (otherwise churches wouldn't need to spend so much time on preaching and study-groups, and only recite from the Bible). People pick and choose what they want from these holy texts, and discard what they don't like. Two people who both claim to be Christians and follow the Bible can have radically different religions in practice. Therefore, pointing to the Bible does not tell me much about what you believe in, only you can do that. Vampira is going straight to the source, because she is asking about your religion.


The entire point of telling her to read the Bible is that I want her to come to her own conclusions. As for the picking and choosing, yeah, I admit it, I'm guilty of that.

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I'm relieved to see that you have this interpretation, but you do know there are other interpretations out there? And you speak about the "point of most religions" as if there was some board meeting at which these religions where put together, where the motto on the board was: "Our goal: make people be nice to each other". Do you think this is the case for most religions, or could their origins be more organic and chaotic?


Most likely more organic or chaotic than a board meeting. This is coming from my interpretation of religions I have studied. I'm aware that there are discrepancies and alternative interpretations, but this is how I view things.

Anyway, I did sort of answer the question of what I believe in my post. It's not too hard to extrapolate my beliefs from what I have said.

Vampira, why did reading the Bible "not go well"? It's a just a book. I know there are some people who ascribe supernatural powers to it, but it's just a book.
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Midst Of Vampy
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Ah...Don't ask. It's worse than you could think. :sweat:
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Midst Of Vampy
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Luemas
22 Aug 2010, 11:18 PM
That was me.

Your undying gratitude and subservience would be a fitting gift.

Or not.

I don't think so, Lue. :D
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Midst Of Vampy
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dragonshardz
23 Aug 2010, 12:12 PM
Quote:
 
Interesting, wouldn't God be the source?


Well, yes, but unless you have a direct line to him...

Quote:
 
There is obviously no agreement between the different churches as to how to interpret the Bible, and reading it directly will probably give you your own interpretation, different from all the churches (otherwise churches wouldn't need to spend so much time on preaching and study-groups, and only recite from the Bible). People pick and choose what they want from these holy texts, and discard what they don't like. Two people who both claim to be Christians and follow the Bible can have radically different religions in practice. Therefore, pointing to the Bible does not tell me much about what you believe in, only you can do that. Vampira is going straight to the source, because she is asking about your religion.


The entire point of telling her to read the Bible is that I want her to come to her own conclusions. As for the picking and choosing, yeah, I admit it, I'm guilty of that.

Quote:
 
I'm relieved to see that you have this interpretation, but you do know there are other interpretations out there? And you speak about the "point of most religions" as if there was some board meeting at which these religions where put together, where the motto on the board was: "Our goal: make people be nice to each other". Do you think this is the case for most religions, or could their origins be more organic and chaotic?


Most likely more organic or chaotic than a board meeting. This is coming from my interpretation of religions I have studied. I'm aware that there are discrepancies and alternative interpretations, but this is how I view things.

Anyway, I did sort of answer the question of what I believe in my post. It's not too hard to extrapolate my beliefs from what I have said.

Vampira, why did reading the Bible "not go well"? It's a just a book. I know there are some people who ascribe supernatural powers to it, but it's just a book.
Well of course I don't have a direct line to him.

I HAVE come to my own conclusions, but I'm asking what YOU think. Don't you think that's okay? I mean, I know what I believe, I know what I think is true, but now I want to know what you think about it.

As far as studies go, how can you study facts about religion when most of them are beliefs? :blink: I understand that you CAN study religion, but can you make an entire religion fact?
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Patrick Majewski
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For Christians to assume that God will simply protect you from suffering, is simplistic, and a bad reading of Scripture.

We are special because we are empowered to function and discover cures and the like...but at the end of the day...your belief or dis-belief in God has done NOTHING to ease your pain.

Of what connection is there in the concept of life and death as a consequence and reward for who is least and most special? Because I'm hearing this:

Special people live longer
Non-special people live lesser
Therefore, God loves special people more

This makes no sense at all...

Let's say for arguments sake that God doesn't exist. This does not change the fact that people are still suffering, children are dying of hunger...

Great...now you're angry at a God that may not exist...and you don't even have a justification for being angry anymore. Shit, the fact that you are alive is a random oddity. Why should our emotions be anything but more of the same?
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Midst Of Vampy
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Exactly! :hug:

Okay, THIS is a great answer.

It truly is random that we're even alive right now, Though I am glad to be alive.

Pat, that;s what I have been trying to say the whole time that I was here, is that GOD IS A BELIEF. He may, or may not exist.
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Midst Of Vampy
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Oh and Patrick, for some reason I can't pm you back, so that's why I haven't sent the message. :(
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Concolor
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@dragonshardz:
Quote:
 
Well, yes, but unless you have a direct line to him...
That would most certainly help
Quote:
 
The entire point of telling her to read the Bible is that I want her to come to her own conclusions.
Sure, but that's a different discussion altogether no?
Life is beautiful, love heals, people come through.

Reason, compassion and love comes first. Everything else is secondary. Except for Skittles. - And emperor Cheezy! Posted Image
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