Is Jesus Lord?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison


You've never experienced any of the Catholic Sunday schools in Hull circa 1980s

No I didnt. And I respect your experience and where its led you. I think we are all conditioned to rule out or be open to certain ways of looking at the world by our own life experiences, I beleive William James spoke to that. I would only suggest that each one of us not judge what others believe without understanding the diversity of life experiences.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by CyberShy
Christianity can be teached within 30 minutes I think.
The rest is commentary, if I may quote Lord of the Marks Rabbi

Ah, but the full story, which is sometimes forgotten in the telling is this "the rest is commentary - now go study"

IE while hes given the gist of Torah, the gist isnt enough - you must go study the commentary, because without it you dont have Judaism.

[Robert]

With christianity it would be: now start living it, rather then 'now start studying it'.

Studying it is still a lot of fun though

[Robert]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


That's an explanation of Christianity.. that doesn't tell you what Christianity is... It is also colored by your brand of Christianity, others will disagree.

Jon Millerl

Nah, the explanation I gave is quite brand-free and I think accepted by 99% of all christians that take the Bible seriously as a divine inspired book. Of course the word-use would be different.

We start to disagree about the commentary, who should wear what clothes, who should be baptised, what can christians do and what can't they do, saints, predestination, homosexuality, position of the women, etc. etc.

[Elok]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
The fact that all the Christian spin-off cults believe different stuff despite having the same origins should provide a massive clue to the stupidity of actually believing in organised religion...

As opposed to secular ideologies and belief systems, which never form splinter groups, ever. All capitalist economists follow Adam Smith to the letter, and biologists are all 100% behind one specific model of evolution.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by CyberShy
With christianity it would be: now start living it, rather then 'now start studying it'.

Studying it is still a lot of fun though

Studying and practicing are required, and there are lots of interesting discussions of which is more important, and how they relate to each other. But the person who came to R. Hillel didnt have enough to start practicing yet.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Elok


Oh, being an atheist doesn't make you irrational. The convoluted Bertrand Russell-style Promethean masturbation fantasy you're apparently living in, on the other hand, does. Y'know, the one where all the world's religions are headed by James Bond villains out to brainwash the world and stomp on kittens. And the world's only hope is (surprise!) the forces of Reason and Progress, represented by you and various other whinging skeptics.

I've said religion is a load of old crap...I certainly don't recall ever calling it anything quite so convoluted

[MrFun]

Re: Is Jesus Lord?

Originally posted by Japher
I've been going to church lately cause I wanted Josie to have religion in her life and wifey grew up in a church. So, we are going to a Vineyard church which is pretty much just coffee and a sermon from a pastor who wears sandles and sounds like Jeff Foxworthy... rather intertaining.

One thing I've wondered for sometime now is; If God is God, and God is Lord, why the heck do people say Jesus is their lord and savior? I get the savior bit, but am confussed on the whole heirarchy. Did God give Jesus, his son, to the people to rule over them and then step aside? If so, then why do people still even bother with God?

Anyway, thank god I'm not Catholic; I wouldn't be able to figure out the whole idol worship thing of theirs, what with all the saints. Never understood the whole worshiping of Mary thing either.

Idolatry is one of the things that is prohibited by God, so no, Catholics do not practice idolatry.

[Provost Harrison]

Except for of God himself...he's very greedy...it's all me, me, me with some deities

[MrFun]

Catholics worship God; they do not worship images of God.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by CyberShy
Christianity can be teached within 30 minutes I think.
The rest is commentary, if I may quote Lord of the Marks Rabbi

I think it should be able to teach christianity in 5 minutes. If it takes more then the faith can't be token seriously. If one needs to study for years to know how to be saved then only the smart ones can be saved.

Explanation of christianity as short as possible:
- The world is a mess because mankind is not able to make the right decisions between good and evil and oftenly messes things up
- Therefor mankind was heading towards the wrong end of the tunnel.
- Since God loves mankind he came down to earth to become man and to show how to seperate good from evil and live the perfect life (Jesus)
- Since God hates sin, for it destroyes good, he hated Jesus when he took all sins on him.
- Now everyone who admits that he's not able to seperate good from evil and that he's corrupting good but trusts God through Jesus to save him from the death end of the tunnel will be saved.
- If you trust yourself upon God he'll change you and he'll lead you in this life.

That's like 5 minutes I think.
Of course a lot of questions can be raised, but like I said: that's all commentary.

Sounds like a con.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by CyberShy


Nah, the explanation I gave is quite brand-free and I think accepted by 99% of all christians that take the Bible seriously as a divine inspired book. Of course the word-use would be different.

I don't think it is brand free.

JM

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Elok
As opposed to secular ideologies and belief systems, which never form splinter groups, ever. All capitalist economists follow Adam Smith to the letter, and biologists are all 100% behind one specific model of evolution.

So? That statement just adds to the absurdity of religion if you seek to justify it like that...

One of the central absurdities of religion is that each and every religion teaches you that only theirs is the true way and all others are false.

Tell me Elok, which is the correct religion? The one everyone should believe in, and more importantly, why?

It's just that all religions on their own represent a minority of the total numbers of religious people in the world - so that means even in the best case scenario and there is a God(s), most people are wasting their time backing the wrong horse (which usually means an afterlife of eternal damnation!!!

So come on, which is the one, TRUE, religion!!?

[Jon Miller]

You statements don't make sense.

The differences between Christians sects, while significant.. and important.. doesn't mean that a different God is being worshiped.

Jews and Muslims are worshiping the same God also.

It is like reading a book, there is the Marxist interpretation, the Feminist interpretation, the Historic Interpretation, etc.. And while I might think that my interpretation is the most valid, and there might be some interpretations which (I think) are bull****, it doesn't change the reality of the book. And it doesn't make all interpretations which aren't mine valueless.

JM

[Elok]

Yeah, JM pretty much hit it on the head. Not all of us believe that all unbelievers are headed straight to Hell anyway. And if you're suggesting that the multiplicity of opinions on a subject implies that the study of said subject is irrelevant...that just doesn't follow. "There are thousands of different theories as to how birds fly. They all contradict or disagree with each other. Therefore, birds do not fly."