During the fishbowl we got talking about christianity and the meaning of life. We had a really good conversation and I would like to continue that here.
So i am curious what you view as the meaning of life? then also i think that there is no meaning of life except what you as a human being decide. I myself am not a christian but i believe that Christianity was the best thing that could have ever happened to society. The morals, codes, and just general deep thinking make the world a better place daily whether there is a god or not. Doing things for him that make the world a better place are excellent wisdom and very good way of living and they make life almost simpler to because here is whats good and here is whats bad and if there are people following the christian religion it feels as if they are good people. But the theory of intelligent design i disagree with but i see what society would be like without the teachings of Christianity and it is unproductive and a poor way to make your life work so science should not be the most important thing in life but a balance between the teachings of science and Christianity make for a better life for someone like me.
So you think that Christians don't focus on science? I went to a private school all my life untill now. Private schools have a rep as being really closed minded. But we learnt about world religions AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. I would like to see a public school that teaches anything but evolution.
If you really want a rant about how, erm, *cough* flawed the theory of evolution is i could shure give it to ya. I'll keep it to a bare minimum for now.
Ever think about giraffes? Because of their long necks they have to have special sponge type things in their heads so that when they bend down to drink all the blood rushing to their head doesn't make it explode. Now say a "giraffe" had partially evolved from a zebra or whatever. First time this giraffe type thingy leans down to take a drink *KAPOW* his head explodes. No more giraffe thingy. how sad. Now it's offspring can't evolve into things closer to the giraffe we know today. Think about it.
Also, with the big bang, it states that all the matter and non matter and everything in existance was in a speck so small it wasn't a speck. Think about how impossibly dense that would have to be! we take even a tiny fraction of the universe's matter and compress it to a small size and then you have a black hole. How on earth could you possibly fit infinately more matter in an infinately smaller space without causing a black hole? And even if that was possible what caused the explosion? magic? Think about it.
I was camping in Moab, Utah over fall break and i decied that i wanted to climb a cliff. Well that wasn't the smartest decision of the year, and i have a scar in te making to prove it. However, once i got up there, it took my breath away. Seriously. Once you're up that high at sunset with all the improbable shrubs looking like pinheads, there is no way that you could possibly dbout that there is a God. I sincerly wish you had been there.
Let me know if you come up with an argument for evolution that i could help with.
Sorry to blow you over, but i really like to rant. really really like to rant. In fact, if i have a point to prove, i usually yell(unfortunately), so sorry if that came off a bit odd.
However, i do know quite a lot about bolth sides of "the argument", so I'd like to help.
Wow that was kind of funny but it makes sense i know exactly what you mean about the camping. Every time i go to my cabin in the mountains i go fishing by myself and just sit there sometimes and soak up the scenery and then and then when i ski the back bowls at vail colorado it does just take your breath away and it feels like some other power is at work besides nature. So i have a question in the bible (which forgive me i haven't read) does it ever mention why God got rid of the dinosaurs or why he ordered the crusades. I also want to know why the middle east is where Christianity began or is it because im not totally sure. Then to your giraffe explanation i think its true but the giraffe wouldn't grow its long neck overnight, It might have been a gradual genetic mutation throughout thousands perhaps millions of years. I mean are humans of this age exactly the same as humans of maybe 2000 years ago? I would think they are not but maybe they are no way to tell. Also, Leslie i think you have a great point about public schools teaching only evolution despite most of the government officials being christian and i regret greatly that i was not exposed the religion when i was younger because i don't know any story but that of evolution so i choose to believe that, my teacher from 7th grade was the only teacher i have had that has discussed religion in class and he was my favorite teacher. But i still don't see why a god would choose to just randomly create things or why we have any purpose at all i guess but it's these questions that separate me from an ape i suppose. Last of all i think that this earth is the best thing in the universe but why would he give it to only us and make so many other planets ice balls, fire balls, and gas balls and make humans (so far) the only intelligent creatures in the universe. What makes us so special and what gives us the right to be the recipients of this amazing thing? i leave you with that.
Well, i used to know this answer inside and out. Once i remember the rest i'll tell you. There is some story about the middle east and I think that God promiced that they would never have peace. I forget what they did. And also, have you ever played war? "the game of world conquest". I can tell you from experiance that the countrys that changed hands most often were all in the middle east.
I'm not shure exactly where christianity itself started from, but you probably get your middle east idea from ancient judiasm. However, i dbout that there were biblical terrorists. Judiasm certainly origionated in the middle east. The Jews were Gods chosen people untill Jesus came and died on the cross for our sins. They didn't believe that Jesus was the promices savior, so they are still waiting. A christian is someone who believes in christ. In church, we usually say the apostle creed, which basically sums up what we believe in. "I believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son our lord. Who was concieved by the holy spirit, born of the virgin mary. Suffered under pontious pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried. He decended to the dead. On the third day he rose again, and is seated at the right hand of the father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of sins, the resurection of the body, and the life everlasting."
That won't make a lot of sence untill you understand the trinity. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one. the "three in one". pretty deep stuff huh?
For the creed to make even more sence, you should read luther's explinations of the apostles creed.
You're right, the giraffe thing is really not a good example. I know of lots more, but of course i can't think of any now. My dad became a christian when he saw how *cough* flawed the theory of evolution is. I'll ask him for some facts that he liked.
I dbout God ordered the crusades. That was probably the catholic church using the pretence of God's will as an excuse to go get rich. Kind of like manifest destiny. God is the ultimate authority, so people tend to listen when they think he wants something.
The creation story says that God created the world in 7 days. Each day he created something. land and sea, dark and light, animals etc. Now, there is lots of squabble among philosophers as to how much a day is to God. For the dinosaurs to have lived and died, a day must have been really long. Dinosaurs were probably killed off because God didn't want them eating his people :). Also, the death of dinosaurs created the fossil fuels we use today. Talk about preparing for the future.
Connor we don't need anything to be worthy enough for the greatest treasures of all. Because there is no possible way we can. We are flawed beings, who sin. We are born sining! We could never deserve Jesus. He indured massive mockery, died in the most painfull way possible, spent 3 days in the worst torture imaginable, and came back to live just so we wouldn't have to spend an eternity in that torture. Not to mention, he had to become human to do it. If i was a great spiritual bein i shure wouldn't want to be human. You have to eat, breath, go to the bathroom and feel pain when you break bones. And then you have to deal with all the other humans. And then God gave us the earth, air, food, and all that good stuff. There is no way we could deserve or earn any of that stuff. God did all of this-because he loves us.
Thank you so much for explaining that because no one ever has before to me. Now there are two reasons why Christianity has angered me before. Actually three. First, i once went to my friends youth group to hopefully learn something about well christianity, and the well im not sure what they are called but the leader said that it was unhealthy and would more or less upset god if u had any kind of relationship with a non-christian. I personally took that in a very bad way and was furious with the guy because just because i don't believe in god doesn't make me a bad person. Then maybe a month or two later i went to my friend's church seeking the same information as before and heard the same thing again from a different person. That non-Christians are bad to basically be friends with. This is a ridiculous thing to say and it just made me think that if this is what christianity teaches then i want no part of it because it is a wrong way to treat people. Second, the way people use God as a almost to to get or keep what they want. As you were saying about manifest destiny and that but i have other examples as well. My friend had a girlfriend who he well "loved" very much and she couldn't return the feelings so he brought god into the picture to both keep them together and to keep out others. He began to think that this girl liked hid best friend so he began telling his friend that he was angering god by getting this girl attracted to him (sketchy wording there) and made him completely focus his life on God instead of his well social life. He even did this to the extent of having a daily lunch prayer at school for like 10 minutes and when i was having a conversation with this kid his friend made him go away for the lunch prayer because he needed to focus on God and not his gf. All those things angered me unbelievably. Now my 3rd point is that there are radical Muslims in this world that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan that could represent the Muslims from 500 A.D. and we the Americans with christianity being are prime religion send troops to fight these Muslims. Its like history has repeated itself almost except not to as great and extent as the crusades. These are why i personally think that coming up with theories of how we were created and why we are here ruin our civilization but the teachings of christianity have brought amazing progress to our world to but, i think it is also time for some change and that's why i think evolutionary theory could be considered challenging the system.
I also want to thank you so much for telling me about christianity and being open with your opinion and letting me do the same.
That is unbelievable! sheesh... Churches generally discourage marrying people with different religions because that creates issues with wether their children will go to church and wether the person will continue to. But that is utterly reduculous! There is nothing wrong with being friends with non-christian people as long as they don't try to drag you into some not-so-good situations. (sacrificing black cats, pre-marital hanky panky etc.) I'm very sad that you have been to such churches.
I honestly have no idea what you are trying to say with the 500 ad muslim thing.
So you say Christianity is a stoy about how we are made? If you look, tons of the places mentioned in the bible have actually been found arciologically. The people's existance has also been acknowledged by history. There are 4 different sections of the bible that are 4 different people's account of the exact same thing. They were deciples of Jesus when he walked the earth, and traveled with him. A lot of people make the argument that these views contradict slightly. Well, if the bible were made up, then whoever was in charge of the scheme would have made shure that the storys matched. Everything in the Bible is 100% true, and a lot of it can be verified "scientifically".
I'd invite you to come to my church, but i really have no idea what is going on right now. Perhaps if you'd like to give it another go you could talk to Peter.
I hope you can think, or rethink about this. If you want to look into it further, there are a couple books i can recomend. "The Case for Christ" is a short one. Remember God loves you no matter what and he wants you to live forever with him. thanks for talking.
I'm sorry never meant to claim that the bible was made up and i wasn't trying to say that at all and that brings up another question of mine who is the author of the bible?
Well, many many different people. Paul and David and prophets and deciples and just a bunch of anonymus people. In the bible it is divided up into books, chapters, and verses. Diferent people wrote different books.
Wow, guys, this is an awesome conversation here. There are a lot of points I'd like to make and some I'd like to change a bit, but with homework still to do I'll make them quick. Okay! So I'll sum up history and the Bible in a short paragraph. It's not perfect... In the beginning, there was God. God is so big we cannot even imagine it. Here's the Old Testament part of the bible, written mostly by Moses. God created the earth, like Leslie said, in seven days (on the seventh day he rested). He made Adam first and then Eve, and they lived in the awesome paradise of Eden. However, Satan, the devil, tempted Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and Wisdom even though God had said not to. When she did, it brought "wisdom and knowledge", but other bad things too, like fear and evil. Adam ate too. God was mad that they blew it, so he banished them from Eden forever. They lived a miserable life, working to feed themselves. They had children, but after many generations things got really ugly. People did lots of horrible stuff, ignoring God and leading empty lives. God was mad with his creation, so he saved a good guy named Noah and his family, along with animals. God flooded the earth and re-started (maybe that's where the dinosaurs were lost). People lived and many great things happened. Read the Old Testament to find some great stories. They were about God's chosen people, the Jews. So then comes the New Testament. God knows that there is tons and tons of sin in the world. People that have sinned must pay for their sins by going to you-know-where when they die. Sin seperated us from God like a gigantic canyon with us on one side and him on the other. God loves us, so he sent his innocent son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay for everyone's sins. He did, and everyone's sins are forgiven if they accept Jesus as their savior. This story is so important that four different people wrote it in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's the best place to start if you read the bible. If you are a Christian, you have accepted Jesus as your savior and know that he paid for your sins. That doesn't mean you can keep on sinning. We've got to honor him with our lives and be examples to others. Jews are people that believe that Jesus wasn't the right person and are still waiting for a "Messiah". In the bible, there is also a super cool book that describes the future. Yes, the future is written down in the last book, Revelation. It talks about heaven and the Antichrist and all sorts of other things that will happen soon. That's a lot to swallow in one blogger comment, but I hope you now have a better idea of the history of the universe.
The bible is, in a sense, the ultimate history book. It describes all of eternity. It's often referred to as God's Word because all of it is influenced by God himself.
God has a plan for everyone and everything, and he loves you.
Better than reading part of the new testament, go to www.biblegateway.com. You can search topics and it will give you aplicable verses. It's a really cool cite. You can even pick versions.
Connor- With your first post, you were talking about how you agree that the teachings are a good code to live by, but you have trouble with intelligent design. First of all, this is great that you're so open to changing your ideas. What kind of questions do you have about intelligent design? With the destruction of the dinosaurs, People back then were doing a ton of bad stuff, a lot! So God talked to Noah, and told him to build a big boat, and to take two of every animal on it. (it was a really big boat) You can find this all in Genesis 6:1 Through 9:17 if you have any more questions, or would like to know where you can start to learn more about the teachings.
With the gift of Earth: God gave us this gift because he loves us! He wants to teach us about all the things he made for us.
Relationships: I consider you my friend. I am trying to answer your questions so that you can see all that you can have in life. If I refused to associate myself with non-christians, how am I supposed to follow out His Great commission? (to go out to every corner of the earth, and spread his love) I don't know what they were talking about, there are a lot of different denominations, these can be very confusing sometimes.
And the whole history thing, I still keep my same opinion, Some people do "use" God to get what they want. I think this is horrible! just like using people to get what you want. This goes back to the whole denomination thing.
I'm always open to talk to you more about this, and im so glad youre willing to learn about this even with those bad experiences youve had with christians. (and biblegateway.com is great!)
15 comments:
So i am curious what you view as the meaning of life? then also i think that there is no meaning of life except what you as a human being decide. I myself am not a christian but i believe that Christianity was the best thing that could have ever happened to society. The morals, codes, and just general deep thinking make the world a better place daily whether there is a god or not. Doing things for him that make the world a better place are excellent wisdom and very good way of living and they make life almost simpler to because here is whats good and here is whats bad and if there are people following the christian religion it feels as if they are good people. But the theory of intelligent design i disagree with but i see what society would be like without the teachings of Christianity and it is unproductive and a poor way to make your life work so science should not be the most important thing in life but a balance between the teachings of science and Christianity make for a better life for someone like me.
So you think that Christians don't focus on science? I went to a private school all my life untill now. Private schools have a rep as being really closed minded. But we learnt about world religions AND THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. I would like to see a public school that teaches anything but evolution.
If you really want a rant about how, erm, *cough* flawed the theory of evolution is i could shure give it to ya. I'll keep it to a bare minimum for now.
Ever think about giraffes?
Because of their long necks they have to have special sponge type things in their heads so that when they bend down to drink all the blood rushing to their head doesn't make it explode. Now say a "giraffe" had partially evolved from a zebra or whatever. First time this giraffe type thingy leans down to take a drink *KAPOW* his head explodes. No more giraffe thingy. how sad. Now it's offspring can't evolve into things closer to the giraffe we know today. Think about it.
Also, with the big bang, it states that all the matter and non matter and everything in existance was in a speck so small it wasn't a speck. Think about how impossibly dense that would have to be! we take even a tiny fraction of the universe's matter and compress it to a small size and then you have a black hole. How on earth could you possibly fit infinately more matter in an infinately smaller space without causing a black hole? And even if that was possible what caused the explosion? magic? Think about it.
I was camping in Moab, Utah over fall break and i decied that i wanted to climb a cliff. Well that wasn't the smartest decision of the year, and i have a scar in te making to prove it. However, once i got up there, it took my breath away. Seriously. Once you're up that high at sunset with all the improbable shrubs looking like pinheads, there is no way that you could possibly dbout that there is a God. I sincerly wish you had been there.
Let me know if you come up with an argument for evolution that i could help with.
Sorry to blow you over, but i really like to rant. really really like to rant. In fact, if i have a point to prove, i usually yell(unfortunately), so sorry if that came off a bit odd.
However, i do know quite a lot about bolth sides of "the argument", so I'd like to help.
Wow that was kind of funny but it makes sense i know exactly what you mean about the camping. Every time i go to my cabin in the mountains i go fishing by myself and just sit there sometimes and soak up the scenery and then and then when i ski the back bowls at vail colorado it does just take your breath away and it feels like some other power is at work besides nature. So i have a question in the bible (which forgive me i haven't read) does it ever mention why God got rid of the dinosaurs or why he ordered the crusades. I also want to know why the middle east is where Christianity began or is it because im not totally sure. Then to your giraffe explanation i think its true but the giraffe wouldn't grow its long neck overnight, It might have been a gradual genetic mutation throughout thousands perhaps millions of years. I mean are humans of this age exactly the same as humans of maybe 2000 years ago? I would think they are not but maybe they are no way to tell. Also, Leslie i think you have a great point about public schools teaching only evolution despite most of the government officials being christian and i regret greatly that i was not exposed the religion when i was younger because i don't know any story but that of evolution so i choose to believe that, my teacher from 7th grade was the only teacher i have had that has discussed religion in class and he was my favorite teacher. But i still don't see why a god would choose to just randomly create things or why we have any purpose at all i guess but it's these questions that separate me from an ape i suppose. Last of all i think that this earth is the best thing in the universe but why would he give it to only us and make so many other planets ice balls, fire balls, and gas balls and make humans (so far) the only intelligent creatures in the universe. What makes us so special and what gives us the right to be the recipients of this amazing thing? i leave you with that.
Well, i used to know this answer inside and out. Once i remember the rest i'll tell you. There is some story about the middle east and I think that God promiced that they would never have peace. I forget what they did. And also, have you ever played war? "the game of world conquest". I can tell you from experiance that the countrys that changed hands most often were all in the middle east.
I'm not shure exactly where christianity itself started from, but you probably get your middle east idea from ancient judiasm. However, i dbout that there were biblical terrorists. Judiasm certainly origionated in the middle east. The Jews were Gods chosen people untill Jesus came and died on the cross for our sins. They didn't believe that Jesus was the promices savior, so they are still waiting. A christian is someone who believes in christ. In church, we usually say the apostle creed, which basically sums up what we believe in.
"I believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son our lord. Who was concieved by the holy spirit, born of the virgin mary. Suffered under pontious pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried. He decended to the dead. On the third day he rose again, and is seated at the right hand of the father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of sins, the resurection of the body, and the life everlasting."
That won't make a lot of sence untill you understand the trinity. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one. the "three in one". pretty deep stuff huh?
For the creed to make even more sence, you should read luther's explinations of the apostles creed.
You're right, the giraffe thing is really not a good example. I know of lots more, but of course i can't think of any now. My dad became a christian when he saw how *cough* flawed the theory of evolution is. I'll ask him for some facts that he liked.
I dbout God ordered the crusades. That was probably the catholic church using the pretence of God's will as an excuse to go get rich. Kind of like manifest destiny. God is the ultimate authority, so people tend to listen when they think he wants something.
The creation story says that God created the world in 7 days. Each day he created something. land and sea, dark and light, animals etc. Now, there is lots of squabble among philosophers as to how much a day is to God. For the dinosaurs to have lived and died, a day must have been really long. Dinosaurs were probably killed off because God didn't want them eating his people :). Also, the death of dinosaurs created the fossil fuels we use today. Talk about preparing for the future.
Connor we don't need anything to be worthy enough for the greatest treasures of all. Because there is no possible way we can. We are flawed beings, who sin. We are born sining! We could never deserve Jesus. He indured massive mockery, died in the most painfull way possible, spent 3 days in the worst torture imaginable, and came back to live just so we wouldn't have to spend an eternity in that torture. Not to mention, he had to become human to do it. If i was a great spiritual bein i shure wouldn't want to be human. You have to eat, breath, go to the bathroom and feel pain when you break bones. And then you have to deal with all the other humans.
And then God gave us the earth, air, food, and all that good stuff. There is no way we could deserve or earn any of that stuff. God did all of this-because he loves us.
Thank you so much for explaining that because no one ever has before to me. Now there are two reasons why Christianity has angered me before. Actually three. First, i once went to my friends youth group to hopefully learn something about well christianity, and the well im not sure what they are called but the leader said that it was unhealthy and would more or less upset god if u had any kind of relationship with a non-christian. I personally took that in a very bad way and was furious with the guy because just because i don't believe in god doesn't make me a bad person. Then maybe a month or two later i went to my friend's church seeking the same information as before and heard the same thing again from a different person. That non-Christians are bad to basically be friends with. This is a ridiculous thing to say and it just made me think that if this is what christianity teaches then i want no part of it because it is a wrong way to treat people. Second, the way people use God as a almost to to get or keep what they want. As you were saying about manifest destiny and that but i have other examples as well. My friend had a girlfriend who he well "loved" very much and she couldn't return the feelings so he brought god into the picture to both keep them together and to keep out others. He began to think that this girl liked hid best friend so he began telling his friend that he was angering god by getting this girl attracted to him (sketchy wording there) and made him completely focus his life on God instead of his well social life. He even did this to the extent of having a daily lunch prayer at school for like 10 minutes and when i was having a conversation with this kid his friend made him go away for the lunch prayer because he needed to focus on God and not his gf. All those things angered me unbelievably. Now my 3rd point is that there are radical Muslims in this world that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan that could represent the Muslims from 500 A.D.
and we the Americans with christianity being are prime religion send troops to fight these Muslims. Its like history has repeated itself almost except not to as great and extent as the crusades. These are why i personally think that coming up with theories of how we were created and why we are here ruin our civilization but the teachings of christianity have brought amazing progress to our world to but, i think it is also time for some change and that's why i think evolutionary theory could be considered challenging the system.
I also want to thank you so much for telling me about christianity and being open with your opinion and letting me do the same.
That is unbelievable! sheesh... Churches generally discourage marrying people with different religions because that creates issues with wether their children will go to church and wether the person will continue to. But that is utterly reduculous! There is nothing wrong with being friends with non-christian people as long as they don't try to drag you into some not-so-good situations. (sacrificing black cats, pre-marital hanky panky etc.) I'm very sad that you have been to such churches.
I honestly have no idea what you are trying to say with the 500 ad muslim thing.
So you say Christianity is a stoy about how we are made? If you look, tons of the places mentioned in the bible have actually been found arciologically. The people's existance has also been acknowledged by history. There are 4 different sections of the bible that are 4 different people's account of the exact same thing. They were deciples of Jesus when he walked the earth, and traveled with him. A lot of people make the argument that these views contradict slightly. Well, if the bible were made up, then whoever was in charge of the scheme would have made shure that the storys matched. Everything in the Bible is 100% true, and a lot of it can be verified "scientifically".
I'd invite you to come to my church, but i really have no idea what is going on right now. Perhaps if you'd like to give it another go you could talk to Peter.
I hope you can think, or rethink about this. If you want to look into it further, there are a couple books i can recomend. "The Case for Christ" is a short one. Remember God loves you no matter what and he wants you to live forever with him.
thanks for talking.
I'm sorry never meant to claim that the bible was made up and i wasn't trying to say that at all and that brings up another question of mine who is the author of the bible?
oh, salright.
Well, many many different people. Paul and David and prophets and deciples and just a bunch of anonymus people. In the bible it is divided up into books, chapters, and verses. Diferent people wrote different books.
hmmmm interesting but yet makes its a much more i hate to say believable history than one person.
Wow, guys, this is an awesome conversation here. There are a lot of points I'd like to make and some I'd like to change a bit, but with homework still to do I'll make them quick.
Okay! So I'll sum up history and the Bible in a short paragraph. It's not perfect...
In the beginning, there was God. God is so big we cannot even imagine it. Here's the Old Testament part of the bible, written mostly by Moses. God created the earth, like Leslie said, in seven days (on the seventh day he rested). He made Adam first and then Eve, and they lived in the awesome paradise of Eden. However, Satan, the devil, tempted Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and Wisdom even though God had said not to. When she did, it brought "wisdom and knowledge", but other bad things too, like fear and evil. Adam ate too. God was mad that they blew it, so he banished them from Eden forever. They lived a miserable life, working to feed themselves. They had children, but after many generations things got really ugly. People did lots of horrible stuff, ignoring God and leading empty lives. God was mad with his creation, so he saved a good guy named Noah and his family, along with animals. God flooded the earth and re-started (maybe that's where the dinosaurs were lost). People lived and many great things happened. Read the Old Testament to find some great stories. They were about God's chosen people, the Jews.
So then comes the New Testament. God knows that there is tons and tons of sin in the world. People that have sinned must pay for their sins by going to you-know-where when they die. Sin seperated us from God like a gigantic canyon with us on one side and him on the other. God loves us, so he sent his innocent son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay for everyone's sins. He did, and everyone's sins are forgiven if they accept Jesus as their savior. This story is so important that four different people wrote it in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's the best place to start if you read the bible.
If you are a Christian, you have accepted Jesus as your savior and know that he paid for your sins. That doesn't mean you can keep on sinning. We've got to honor him with our lives and be examples to others. Jews are people that believe that Jesus wasn't the right person and are still waiting for a "Messiah".
In the bible, there is also a super cool book that describes the future. Yes, the future is written down in the last book, Revelation. It talks about heaven and the Antichrist and all sorts of other things that will happen soon.
That's a lot to swallow in one blogger comment, but I hope you now have a better idea of the history of the universe.
Hey, Connor, I can also bring in a copy of the New Testament I have tommorrow. It makes a lot more sense than my summary above.
The bible is, in a sense, the ultimate history book. It describes all of eternity. It's often referred to as God's Word because all of it is influenced by God himself.
God has a plan for everyone and everything, and he loves you.
Better than reading part of the new testament, go to www.biblegateway.com. You can search topics and it will give you aplicable verses. It's a really cool cite. You can even pick versions.
Connor- With your first post, you were talking about how you agree that the teachings are a good code to live by, but you have trouble with intelligent design. First of all, this is great that you're so open to changing your ideas.
What kind of questions do you have about intelligent design?
With the destruction of the dinosaurs, People back then were doing a ton of bad stuff, a lot! So God talked to Noah, and told him to build a big boat, and to take two of every animal on it. (it was a really big boat) You can find this all in Genesis 6:1 Through 9:17 if you have any more questions, or would like to know where you can start to learn more about the teachings.
With the gift of Earth:
God gave us this gift because he loves us! He wants to teach us about all the things he made for us.
Relationships:
I consider you my friend. I am trying to answer your questions so that you can see all that you can have in life. If I refused to associate myself with non-christians, how am I supposed to follow out His Great commission? (to go out to every corner of the earth, and spread his love) I don't know what they were talking about, there are a lot of different denominations, these can be very confusing sometimes.
And the whole history thing, I still keep my same opinion, Some people do "use" God to get what they want. I think this is horrible! just like using people to get what you want. This goes back to the whole denomination thing.
I'm always open to talk to you more about this, and im so glad youre willing to learn about this even with those bad experiences youve had with christians.
(and biblegateway.com is great!)
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