Questioning Christianity

Praying is nothing more than a reminder to yourself, if your doing it for divine interaction then keep on your knees cause that's where you will always be. I'm from a deistic perspective (which i know most people are not familiar with), to me Jesus was just a wise man during that era, God is not singular but plural, its a collective of people who share Goodness, or what it now has come to God ness. I fail at stopping to understand just 2,000 years ago, when we are still understanding today.

-- Updated July 24th, 2012, 6:15 pm to add the following --

When a Church stops selling a product for the people, to selling a product for the church. Usually it means its outdated, and not evolving. Therefore we need to move on to another higher level of understanding reality.

OnlybutteredPopcorn, I don't know why I need to imagine something in my actual experience in order to address an idea in prayer, but I do. It is impossible for me to imagine something of which I have no experience.

That IS idolatry! You do not need to imagine someone to pray to God. That is ridiculous! You pray to God to pray to God. Why would you need to imagine another figure to pray to something you believe in?

OBP, I think your problem stems from a lack of understanding of how YOU are put together. When you understand that, then you will have a better understanding of how God is put together. After all we are made in his image.

When someone is talking to you, are they communicating with your body? They are talking AT your body because they know your ears are the means by which you receive auditory input, but your body doesn't do anything with auditory data, it just allows it to be collected. Your mind takes the raw auditory data and parses it into words, which are then matched against the dictionary stored away in your memory. It also pattern matches the structure of the words against internalised grammatical rules to further attribute meaning. Sounds just like a computer, doesn't it?

Unlike a computer, though, you have the capacity to determine and pursue your own profit. A computer will just sit idle until a user makes it do something. The user puts the computer to work in pursuit of profit. The user determines WHAT CONSTITUTES profit. This is the function of the third aspect of your being, your spirit. Your spirit is the fundamental essence of who you are, and when you communicate with someone, you are trying to move their spirit to respond.

Now, if you apply this model to God, being careful not to inadvertently limit him by it, you will understand how you can talk to Jesus, or talk to the Holy Spirit, or talk to God the Father himself and not be engaging in idolatry. Jesus is the body of the Godhead (the chief physical manifestation), the Holy Spirit is the mind of the Godhead, and God the Father is the fundamental essence of the Godhead.

Cheers,
enegue

That IS idolatry! You do not need to imagine someone to pray to God. That is ridiculous! You pray to God to pray to God. Why would you need to imagine another figure to pray to something you believe in?

I recall when I was a young Roman Catholic how it always seemed to me that Roman Catholics were so much more comfortable with their faith than Protestants. Of course, this was long before the pedophile scandals that have stressed many American Catholics. The charge of idolatry is a rather obvious misinterpretation to make for those who turned Martin Luther's commentaries on their ear and can only "react" to Catholic ritual rather than make any real attempt to understand it. It's a shame, really. Protestantism had such potential to address the excesses and corruption of the Church, but instead they threw the baby out with the bathwater.

Ok I have been a Christian, and I have stopped because I don't want to follow a religion that contradicts itself. No way am I doubting God or Jesus (I know he is our savior and The Son of God). In fact I consider myself pretty spiritual, more now that I have stopped being a Christian. Anyways, what amazes me is that in the bible, God says to not worship any other man, spirit, idol/figure, that we must only worship him. This is a main rule in Judaism and Islam and supposedly in Christianity and Catholicism. If that's so, why do Christians worship Jesus? Yes we are grateful and thankful to him--he was the Messiah, but he is not God, nor did he ever say he was. In fact, he came to save us from worshiping wrong figures, and to bring us back to worshiping God, not himself. And for Catholics, its worse. Catholics worship Jesus, Mary, and several saints. If you are Christian or Catholic, please don't hide away from this point. I've brought this up to several people who are Christian and they all refuse to answer. Its not a bad thing to question you're religion, after all you should know what you're believing in and WHY. So yah, haha. I just want to know if anyone agrees or disagrees with this.

God is a Trinity. That's why Jesus are worshiped as God the Son. As for the Catholic stuff, you are questioning how come human authorities are corruptible. The answer is that humans are supposed to be corruptible. That's why!

Ok I have been a Christian, and I have stopped because I don't want to follow a religion that contradicts itself. No way am I doubting God or Jesus (I know he is our savior and The Son of God). In fact I consider myself pretty spiritual, more now that I have stopped being a Christian. Anyways, what amazes me is that in the bible, God says to not worship any other man, spirit, idol/figure, that we must only worship him. This is a main rule in Judaism and Islam and supposedly in Christianity and Catholicism. If that's so, why do Christians worship Jesus? Yes we are grateful and thankful to him--he was the Messiah, but he is not God, nor did he ever say he was. In fact, he came to save us from worshiping wrong figures, and to bring us back to worshiping God, not himself. And for Catholics, its worse. Catholics worship Jesus, Mary, and several saints. If you are Christian or Catholic, please don't hide away from this point. I've brought this up to several people who are Christian and they all refuse to answer. Its not a bad thing to question you're religion, after all you should know what you're believing in and WHY. So yah, haha. I just want to know if anyone agrees or disagrees with this.

Religion is something man made, so it is not perfect. It is altered over time and whoever has the loudest voice becomes the face and voice of the God he is teaching about.

I focus, like you, more on God and the bible instead of having it be taught too me. I teach it too myself, get my own understanding, and learn from it.

Christianity is also broken up into different little factions, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. and each of these share there own beliefs.

But what is GOOD about it is the main roots, the basics of the belief are the same general concept. This is good for children because they NEED to know the basics and the classic stories of Jesus and be taught who and what he represents.

If people ask my religion I do not take a bold stand and say "I HAVE NONE " Because that creates conflict and confusion. I say Christian, I still categorize myself as a christian because of the main root belief.

But yes, I agree.

But taking a bold stand of self enlightenment and righteousness like you overthrew some system, and removing yourself from the category "Christian" is not necessary, and a bit silly.

Then SirThinksA Lot thinks he has solved the theologians' perennial problem regarding how God cannot be be both all powerful and also all love ?

Creator God is all powerful in the fact that his creation is a universe to sustain the life and death cycle which mankind wanted to experience. Creator God is pure love in the fact that he has limited mankind's experience in this life /death cycle and takes his created humans back unto himself. It is mankind's dilemma to learn to live and let live and make the best of living on earth. Mankind blames God for the experience to know good and evil. I thank God that his all powerful and all knowing and all loving way that he limited this knowledge and wants us back with him, and has provided us that privilege. It is nothing new to mankind that he/she gives God the "bird" for giving him his wish. As a parent I am sure my children have given me the "bird" for the lessons I have allowed them to learn. Creator God knows his creation better than the created knows itself. Indeed, God is all powerful, but he does not abuse the power given to humans - humans abuse that power. The universe was made by God for man, not for God.

Misty wrote:

Creator God is all powerful ------------------------------------------------------------- It is mankind's dilemma to learn to live and let live and make the best of living on earth. Mankind blames God for the experience to know good and evil.

If Creator God is all powerful how is it that he also expects man to 'make the best of' some of the unspeakably evil horrors which the All Powerful One created in the first place, and presumably, which the All Powerful Maintainer , continues to create ?

Should I make a list of unspeakable horrors? Or does the experience of a sheltered Westerner living in comparative affluence in a comparatively free country count as sufficient evidence that the world is nothing but a place God made so humans could learn to live and let live?

Misty may separate atheists from the group of mankind who choose to blame God for anything. Be assured that we atheists don't blame God.

Ok I have been a Christian, and I have stopped because I don't want to follow a religion that contradicts itself. No way am I doubting God or Jesus (I know he is our savior and The Son of God). In fact I consider myself pretty spiritual, more now that I have stopped being a Christian. Anyways, what amazes me is that in the bible, God says to not worship any other man, spirit, idol/figure, that we must only worship him. This is a main rule in Judaism and Islam and supposedly in Christianity and Catholicism. If that's so, why do Christians worship Jesus? Yes we are grateful and thankful to him--he was the Messiah, but he is not God, nor did he ever say he was. In fact, he came to save us from worshiping wrong figures, and to bring us back to worshiping God, not himself. And for Catholics, its worse. Catholics worship Jesus, Mary, and several saints. If you are Christian or Catholic, please don't hide away from this point. I've brought this up to several people who are Christian and they all refuse to answer. Its not a bad thing to question you're religion, after all you should know what you're believing in and WHY. So yah, haha. I just want to know if anyone agrees or disagrees with this.

How do you know jesus is our savior and the son of god when this information came from a religion that you do not want to follow because of it's doubtful and contradictory nature?

Misty wrote:



If Creator God is all powerful how is it that he also expects man to 'make the best of' some of the unspeakably evil horrors which the All Powerful One created in the first place, and presumably, which the All Powerful Maintainer , continues to create ?

Should I make a list of unspeakable horrors? Or does the experience of a sheltered Westerner living in comparative affluence in a comparatively free country count as sufficient evidence that the world is nothing but a place God made so humans could learn to live and let live?

Misty may separate atheists from the group of mankind who choose to blame God for anything. Be assured that we atheists don't blame God.

I did not separate atheists from the group of mankind - I said "mankind" which includes all humans.

I also think that secular verses religious does not exist except for mankind separating thought. All thought is part of 'whole thought' with all humans trying to put the puzzle together.

And no Belinda, you do not have to list the horrors of our world of good and evil, I think all people who have lived for awhile knows how horrible mankind can be. Live and let live implies co-operation, and yes, mankind has a long way to go to achieve that, if he ever will. I don't know if live and let live is God's agenda for mankind, that is my observation and wish for humans, God simply gave mankind his wish to know good and evil. So, here we are.