I hate the abbreviation...X-mas....

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by Mimzy
http:///forum/post/2833948
i can't speak for anyone else but the religions im talking about are Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity; those are the religions about which I can speak with any level of education.
And yes, I am blaming the messenger. absolutely. i've said it myself a hundred times and I'll say it again if I have to. But until the Source comes to me personally and tells me He's out there, I'm Agnostic.
Remember what I said at the very beginning of this thread? ....
Originally Posted by YearOfTheNick
http:///forum/post/2831393
I agree that everyone struggles with faith... it's faith. If it were fact, there would be no struggle, just insanity if you didn't believe in facts. That's the beauty of faith... the truth is out there (no X-Files pun intended) but it's ultimately up to you.
You are asking for a fact to be shown to you that God does exist. Everything I know about religion tells me that will simply never happen. It's a part of what makes faith, faith. Again, if you had a God that came down and made it clear to you he was alive and well and told you how to live life, we'd be robots. We wouldn't have to make any of our own decisions anymore, because God is pulling our strings for us. I'd rather have the freedom to choose than to become a robot.

 

[mimzy]

Originally Posted by YearOfTheNick
http:///forum/post/2833952
Remember what I said at the very beginning of this thread? ....
...mm... to which statement are you referring? there were many, many statements

You are asking for a fact to be shown to you that God does exist. Everything I know about religion tells me that will simply never happen. It's a part of what makes faith, faith. Again, if you had a God that came down and made it clear to you he was alive and well and told you how to live life, we'd be robots. We wouldn't have to make any of our own decisions anymore, because God is pulling our strings for us. I'd rather have the freedom to choose than to become a robot.
right. and that's great! I don't know what Christianity says about questioning, but I do know that Jews are told to question everything; that G-d does not WANT blind faith; that blind faith is meaningless. He does not want fools who just follow and do what they are told; that is without meaning. there HAS to be a conscious CHOICE to believe.
So good on you for believing, man. That's cool. And good on you for being inclusive. And good on you for trying to spread your attitude around. I actually have an Xstian friend who belongs to a Church that sounds a whole lot like yours... he also calls himself "Non-denomenational." ...new to me. i'll ask him more about it next time I see him, he's in Jersey.

 

[sepulatian]

"Non-denomenational
That would mean no denomination. He is religious in his own right without belonging to a particular group...

 

[mimzy]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2833957
That would mean no denomination. He is religious in his own right without belonging to a particular group...
right. i see it popping up everywhere. people that want to distance themselves from the "original" Church and make a more inclusive, friendlier version of religion. there are non-denominational synagogues now too. to each their own.

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by Mimzy
http:///forum/post/2833956
right. and that's great! I don't know what Christianity says about questioning, but I do know that Jews are told to question everything; that G-d does not WANT blind faith; that blind faith is meaningless. He does not want fools who just follow and do what they are told; that is without meaning. there HAS to be a conscious CHOICE to believe.
I agree with you, but my understanding of "blind faith" is faith that makes you drink the kool-aid. Blind faith means you don't care about what the beliefs are or what they mean, you're just going to aimlessly follow them. I don't think that's the case with me, and I too believe that you should always be questioning what you believe. Actually, I don't even go to church because so many of them are messed up. I have found a church that I might start attending... guess what? It's non-denominational haha.
To give you a more elaborate perspective of the denominations, all of them are basically Christian. They all believe in God, they believe Jesus died for their sins and rose again, Jesus was the son of God... all that. But the details are the biggest dividing factors that cause denominations to emerge. In fact, I don't even like calling them denominations... we should call them divisions, because that's essentially what they are. There's the baptist denomination, the Presbyterian denomination, the Assemblies of God denomination, Foursquare denomination.... I could go on and on. I don't even know how they name them... foursquare? Isn't that a schoolyard game? Anyway, each of them believe different aspects of christianity and how they are to be implemented or respected, mainly concerning whether or not to drink, or how baptism should be handled... they even divide themselves on whether dancing is right or wrong!
I believe it's the baptists that believe dancing leads to pregnancy.... HAHA!!!! I couldn't believe it myself. I went to a baptist school for a year (and had to get out of there, it was a joke) and they didn't have school dances, they had school banquets... you basically sit and eat dinner for 4 hours. LAME!
Sorry, little tangent. Anyway, long story short, the devil is in the details and I think we've messed up religion yet again by dividing ourselves from each other based upon the minor details. To each his own, IMO.

 

[yearofthenick]

Man, I'm so tired, I need to be getting to bed. I've got to sleep, it's way better than joking with you clowns!

Just kidding.

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by Mimzy
http:///forum/post/2833956
right. and that's great! I don't know what Christianity says about questioning, but I do know that Jews are told to question everything; that G-d does not WANT blind faith; that blind faith is meaningless. He does not want fools who just follow and do what they are told; that is without meaning. there HAS to be a conscious CHOICE to believe.
We are taught to question everything and refer to Holy Scripture for the final word on a teaching.

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by Mimzy
http:///forum/post/2833960
right. i see it popping up everywhere. people that want to distance themselves from the "original" Church and make a more inclusive, friendlier version of religion. there are non-denominational synagogues now too. to each their own.
This is actually a return to the original church...before all the goofy denominations were created. The Christian "church" is the living body of Christ, not a sect or a building. Christian people are the church, regardless of what denomination some may claim.