Heaven & Hell

[Theland]

Are you hopeful / worried about going to heaven / hell?

[raysparx1]

You are very lucky that you have this deep belief, I cannot accept a lot of what goes on in the name of religion, somebody please tell me Why ? why ? why ?

[Theland]

I also cannot accept all that goes on in the name of religion. That is because religion is MANS effort to reconcile himself to God, whereas the Bible teaches that God, in His love, grace and mercy, reconciled us to Himself, by giving us His Son, to die in our place, taking the just punishment for our sin, so that Gods perfect justice would be satisfied, and we could be offered the free gift of forgiveness.
All you have to do is accept the gift. God did all of the work.

[noxlumos]

I'm honestly not taking the p1ss out of it whiffey, religions of all sorts are of one of my areas of interest, probably because I find it impossible to believe, and I'm not deriding you starting your journey in any way, I just can't understand how anyone when presented with the facts in an unbiased way can honestly hand on their heart identify "God" as being a sentient being who feels for us, and who'm we can have a realtionship with.

[pie+mash]

Charles Darwin - Origin of the Species

Beats the Bible any day.

[raysparx1]

Theland,
That is the bit I find hard,that if there is a God, why doesn't he stop it, children should not be abused,starve to death,get cancer, please believe me when I say I am not mocking you,or making light of your belief, I would love to understand it all and accept it,but I have so many doubts and questions in my head. this is a good thread.

[Carakeel]

Whiffey, but haven't you just made the very point those who do not believe are making? You say this is the stuff of drama ... well, yes it is! Drama is fictional. Drama can include stories that have been handed down through generations ... changed and reinterpreted as it has been passed along ... but drama is just that ... a story that has been made up by man. I believe there may well have been a man called Jesus, who was a good man and preached accordingly, but the rest? Many of the stories surrounding him may well be true or they may have been embellished to keep the ancient stories interesting and alive for future generations. We have no proof that any of the stories in the bible are based on fact. So, we can chose to believe or not to believe. Neither makes us automatically a good or a bad person. It is our behaviour and our actions in life and towards others that decide which we are.

[Theland]

Darwin was wrong! He observed evolution WITHIN species, (longer/shorter legs, colour changes, bigger / smaller beaks etc), but he never observed a new species scoming from an existing species. He thought the cell was a blob of organic matter, not the chemical biological computer/machine we know it is today, where ALL parts are necessary for it to function. It is a fact that DNA cannot cross over the species divide. The Bible is consistent with this, God created, "After their kind", so all birds are one kind, dogs and wolves another, lions tigers etc are all of the cat kind. Yes they can change within the species / kind, but hey! When did you last see a half evolved animal running about with a few extras growing on it? Evolution has never been observed, but is presented as a science. It is not. It is a faith.

[Theland]

Why doesn't God stop kids getting cancer? Why did he laet your loved one die? What about a lightning strike that fells a tree killing a passerby? The Tsunami? Earthquakes?
The Bible tells us that the whole of creation was corrupted when sin entered the world. Not enough room to expound this, but what we observe is consistent with what the Bible teaches.

[Theland]

I do not feel mocked by any comments, and if I were mocked, I would consider it an honour, that God would allow me to feel a little discomfort, while trying to point somebody towards Him.
Do you think you are reading this by accident? Maybe there will be a seed planted in somebodys' heart, that will grow tomorrow, next week/month/year. Who knows the mind of God?

[whiffey]

I stay away from the traditional fights, creation vs evolution, the virginity of Mary. None of them addresses the questions in my head which hover around John 3:16

[RATTER15]

Theland,So how many gods are there, many religions all claiming to have gods, all based on stories handed down over many years, so if there is a god, which one is the real god, just the one you believe in? all the rest are are just stories?

[jump79]

No I dont think anybody worries/cares about that until they reach old age when they start thinking about the past and everything becomes final.

I am not sure heaven/hell exists as such but as I said in another thread earlier, it doesnt hurt to be optimistic and believe in afterlife because even if you're wrong, the worst you already know.

[bobtheturkey]

whifey come back and entertain me :)

[pie+mash]

You have obviously never been to the animal freak show at Arundel.

The Bible is full of contradictions, the church is full of hypocrites (priests etc) going against the so called wishes of God, as stated in the bible that is full of contradictions.

Think I'll stick with Darwin.

[RATTER15]

This is all so entertaining!! lol

[RATTER15]

I will just stick with logical thinking!!

[whiffey]

RATTER, are you taking the pi$$ ?

Just checking.

[bobtheturkey]

ok people its like this - if you believe in god and he exists then your in the money, if you believe and he doesnt exist then nothing lost. if you dont believe and he does exist well you are in the manure so the logical thing to do is?

[whiffey]

Yes bob, except that God doesn't play dice, and can see through pish like that. I think anyway.

How stupid do you think God is ?

[bobtheturkey]

well he created you :)