Sure, anyone can PM me anytime. I don't mind. I can only answer when I have the time though.
Ava, I agree that sin might bring about the bad things in life, but then again, look at a LOT of "bad" people that have great lives. And there are a lot of them.
I have to say, I don't believe in "original sin". What Adam and Eve "supposeddly did", was one "minor" little thing, and I can't "love" a god that can't "get over it" already! THEY did that sin, NOT me! If god can't figure THAT out and he has this thing about wanting to punish ALL of his "children" for something they had no say or partaking in, than it should be OK for US to beat the hell out of ALL of our kids when one does something wrong, right? Let's BLANKET punish everyone when someone does something wrong and call it "original crime". Let's put EVERYONE in jail and that'll be the solution, OK?. After all, EVERYONE is born "condemned UNTIL you get baptized and KNOW god, so what's the difference?
I used to wear a shirt that said "Kill 'em all... Let God sort 'em out!" Isn't that kind of what God himself is saying. "Know me or you will rot in hell"??? Get rid of your "original sin" (that someone else did) or you will rot in hell!
Why would a "loving" and "forgiving" god punish ALL of his so called children since the beginning of time because of one minor little thing? I don't even like fruit!! Give me a Twinkie anyday!
Good people are good people, and there are good people all over the world that have never even heard about religion, (nor Christianity anyway), and if no one teaches them about it, how are they supposed to be able to go to heaven under god's name?
To me, what Christianity says is that even if you are the best, most giving, loving person in the world and you don't get baptized to make-up for some minor little furit eating thing that happened in the beginning of man kind, and you happen to not be taught about Christianity, you will rot in hell for an eternity. That to me, I have to say is complete BS.
If that were true, I wouldn't WANT to be with some "god" like that. What other little stupidities are you going to learn once you get to heaven?? You can't say one way or the other! What if you get to heaven and there's yet ANOTHER bible filled with all kinds of HEAVENLY accounts and it's an eternity of whacked-out, "mysteries", because afterall, it does say "God works in strange ways", right?
So, if a person is a good person yet never had the opportunity to learn about god, you mean he can't SEE that that person was a great soul, and he will condem him to hell anyway, just because he never got a chance to read some over exaggerated book and have a few drops of water poured on his forhead?
You also mean that God, the All mighty, loving one, who can FORGIVE a person for unbelievable sins (murder, adultry, stealing, etc.) just for asking for forgiveness, but he won't forgive a VERY good person for not having the OPPORTUNITY to know him? Or he can;t forgive EVERY SINGLE ONE of his children since Adam and Eve ate some fruit? That's the god the world loves? Real forgiving, isn't he! No thanks!
This is just MY opinion. If YOU want to believe that, that's your right. I am not slamming anyone or demeaning anyone for doing so. It is just as much your right as it is mine to believe what I want, and I won't make fun of it or demean you for it, nor would I expect to be made fun of myself, but I DO have questions and "issues" with things that just don't seem right, and I can't sit-by and not question things, so please don't take MY questioning as slamming. I am simply stating MY opinions and views on the matter. I have no problem what so ever with ANYONE believing what they want. You want to go kill yourself so your soul can go fly away to some UFO hidden in the Hale Bop commet's tail? Go right ahead. Can I have your car and jewelery after you're gone though?
Afterall, you won't be needing any of those anymore.
Also, on praying. Is it safe to say that If I robbed a bank and while being chased in my get away car, I keep saying out loud; " God, don't let them catch me, God let me get away!", and if I do get away, were MY prayers answered?? Think about it. So... I am going to rob someone so I can get some more drugs because I need another fix, and I say, God don't let me get caught or hurt. All I want is some more drugs", and I rob and stab someone to get their money. Did God answer my prayers? I mean, come-on! People will say, "God will take care of me" or "Its' all in god's hands now". So I guess God takes care of loser druggies, thieves, rapists and murderer's too because they pray???
Afterall, "it's all in HIS hands", right?
A LOT of drive-by gang banger's wear crosses around their necks, go to church on Sunday and are VERY religious, to the point where usually only a padre can venture into their turf without concequences, yet they steal, rape, kill and do all kinds of other bad things to innocent people, including children, so because they pray and go to church and all of that hokus pokus, they are going to go to heaven because they ask for forgiveness? I'll tell you what then, I'll be the baddest, meanest, thug on the planet and do what I please at the expense of everyone else, and at the very last minute, before I take my last breath, I'll say I love God and ask for "forgiveness" and see where I end-up.
It just doesn't make any sense to me, and if God wants people to know him and to love him, he needs to make things a little more clear and not by some old book that's been rewritten a thousand times, mis-interpeted by laungages that don't have vocabulaires like we have today, and full of "fish stories" that get exagerated everytime someone re-tells the story. How big was that fish again? Yeah, I didn't think it was THAT big! EVERY story get's exaggerated. You can't even tell one small sentence to 10 people in a circle and have it come back the same, so how can you say that what someone said 2,000 - 4,000+ years ago even happened? Especially since way back then, people were REAL naieve, uneducated and un-worldly. What maybe have seemed like a "miracle" to them, might have only been a small scientific phenomenon or some Las Vegas illusion of some sort. We weren't there, so we can't say for sure.
Ever see a car accident and hear the stories of how it happened? You'll ask 10 people the same question and they all saw 10 similar, yet completely different things. Doesn't it seem logical that this very same thing is how the bible miracles have happened? Why did so many things happen so long ago, and nothing "substantial" has happened since then? Could it be that we are wiser now and don't view lightning or some burining bush as a godly event? After all, it strikes the earth some 6,000,000 times a day on average and causes major forest fires, not just some small bush in the middle of the desert. So what else was supposed to burn around it, the sand? If you saw an airplane back then, they would have thought it was god.
Again, I'm not saying there isn't a god or some kind of higher being, but I think were here on our own and it's up to us to be as good as we can to each other. I do believe though, that the bible is a little far fetched and has quite a few "fish stories" in it. After all, it was written by PEOPLE that either saw the accounts or "heard" about the accounts.
Ask your husband how big that fish was that got away, or how fast his car was when he was a kid, and see how his own stories change, now turn that into a "godly" story about a "miracle" and see how awesome it becomes. Then have your foreign friend translate it into their language, then into another one and back to English again and see what has become of that story. Now print, reprint and re-write it over and over again and see how more off the truth it gets. That's all I am saying...
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