Life Priorities

[Wanksta]

I bet hells a nite club...just watch...i am catholic but i dont go to church on sunday so im kinda not very good at it.:unsure:

[PIX]

Not to turn this into a debate on religious paths...that could be a whole new Thread...but you can't just pick and choose out of the manual for what you want to use. The Book says that if you are righteous (good), that alone will NOT get you into heaven. There will be alot of 'good' people in the hot zone wondering why they were dismissed. You will NOT get to heaven by simply telling a priest all your detailed sins you committed the previous week. Everyone is born with a mark against them...and that mark is called sin. And that mark, unless removed, will keep you out. The Book says that the ONLY way is through redemption through Christ. There is no getting around this. You ARE suppose to live a righteous life in addition to this redemption. Faith is a funny thing....defined at the belief in something where the evidence can't be seen.

Some people will still deny this and trust their human nature. I, however, am not taking any chances. I could die in a car wreck today and NEVER have the chance to redeem myself. Eternity is a unconceivably long time and EVERY religion describes Hell as pretty much the worst thing you could imagine. Forever in torment is not my idea of fun. Yes, I might die and find out that it was all a sham...a black void. But what have I lost? Nothing. I can only win.

If you want to read a good book series...believer or nonbeliever....get a copy of Left Behind. It is like a Tom Clancy book with a religious twist. It might change your perspective on things and if not...you will still like the action.

[Wanksta]

Whats purgatory for i always wondered but no one ever tole me what it really is?

[g-boy]

That was sorta the point of what I was saying pix... that sorta cuts out Jews and Muslims and every other religion, making Christianity the only "right" way to go... which is arrogant and no offense, but probably wrong. I can't imagine God gives a shit what religion you are. And the Bible was written by people... not God himself, so it's not his word, it's what people think his word is.

[PIX]

The Jews ARE still God's chosen people and will forever be even though they rejected his Son. The Bible predicts that in the end days, there will
be a MASSIVE change in the Jews and they will convert to believing in Jesus as the Messiah. Sure Christians think our religion is the right way. Muslums
think thiers is the right way and so forth. I honestly can't imagine being an athesist and knowing the every day was a step towards the nothingness to come.

As for believing the Bible...that's up to you...the person. Here is a link to a few interesting views on this. Views

[g-boy]

The fact that everyone thinks their way is the right way is exactly why I'm agnostic. I'm open to the idea of an afterlife or nothingness, I'll find out I suppose. In the meantime, I just have beliefs on the world in its current and past state, the patterns, and the evident intelligent design. I believe there is SOMEthing, whether it be one all powerful God or several (hundreds... millions... billions... more?) beings or energies or whatever you may call them (gods I guess) that created perhaps, made the rules perhaps. None are really secure beliefs, it's what I like to ponder. So I'm not exactly an atheist, but I don't necessarily have a fixed deity(ies) that I believe in.

I respect atheists for that very reason though... if you can live a moral life, be a good human being, and be happy without the need of guidance or knowledge of an afterlife, then that's awesome. Personally religion does nothing for me, I was raised with it, saw flaws, and now adhere to my own ideas. If I go to hell... sobeit. Also, living towards a nothingness can make life quite productive... if you think this is the only life you have and there is nothing afterwards, you make the best of it, whether for yourself or for others.

[PIX]

Well....we got you believing in the Higher being thing. That's a step....
I'll have to get to work on the next things...:P

[Sockhole]

Conan's philosophy still sounds like a lot more fun than this whole Bible business.

I think it would be pretty funny if God (or the Gods) was an ***I'm Stupid for Swearing*** playing a trick on the fearful Bible followers and Heaven really turned out to be pretty Hellish. And all the purer people who didn't need some silly book to be nice got to go to the real Heaven. I like that kind of irony:)

[PIX]

It's your life and you can gamble with your soul if you like, being that you believe that you
have a soul. I personally don't find any humor for playing with your eternal future. The older
you get the more you think of your finite existance on this Earth. You start to realize that you WILL die
one day and there's nothing you can do about it. You need to believe SOMETHING and be ready to go
to the grave with those beliefs. You could die in the next minute from ANY life affliction (stroke, annurism, heart malfunction..etc). Are you ready to face what's on the other side or are you just gonna play it 'safe' and wear your armor of invincibility? You can do what you like. I am gonna believe what I think is the right way for my life and take my chances.
Religion is not the source of strife and pain in this world as so many have said. Man's nature and self-absorbed plans are the source of this. Some people have said that the Bible is just another book...a fantasy storybook...written by man. The Bible is written by man; copied and distributed by man all over the world, but it is the Divine hand down of God. The Bible is proven divine by being filled with prophecies in the Old Testament and the fullfilling of these prophecies hundreds/thousands of years later in the New Testament and present time. There are over 500 prophecies listed that have came to pass. You might think that Christ was just a man...a philiosopher? I don't think that anyone can deny that Christ was really here on the Earth 2000 years ago. There wasn't anyone who ever lived who made a bigger impact on our chronological history. Christ was prophesied thousands of years before he even came....even before the Bible you see in the bookstores was written.
All in all, we will have all the answers one day when you leave this life. Do what you want. They don't call it a 'personal choice' for nothing.

Peace

[[CAKE]anonymity]

The bible wasnt written in english and if it was, it was deffinatley not in the style that is written in (hence the new testiment). It would have been inturpreted by someone if not more then one person and I think that we decided that humans couldnt be biased and that bias would show through in the bible in some form. We know the bible was written by humans about their certina journeys and encounters with god. We know it changed form to become the new testiment, so basically we have a broken telephone here.

There is also the church which has a vested intrest in what the bible says, and they wrote and inturpreted it. The church has had wars because of a group of people who didnt share the same beliefs, a belief which isnt all that diffrent mind you. Judaism belives that jesus hasnt come yet and will, christanity belives that he did come. In the catholic church their is a saying that is very important. You have to state "god is my shepard, their is nothing I shall want." Does anyone else find a problem with this? A religion wanting you to blindly follow and give up all your possesions to the church, conflict of intrest perhaps? That is the reason they put in the bible that you have to be of their religion and follow it to the letter in order to get into heaven.

FYI its also very hard to get into heaven right off the bat. Most people spend a few 100 years in purgatory before heaven. For wank, purgatory is basically the journey to heaven. The waiting room with really old magazines. Guess who is on the cover of people.

Its described as a very large mountain that takes 100's of years to climb and when you eventually do reach the top, that is when you get into heaven.

[Wha?]

Sounds fun.. wonder if it's not all that big and is just 5.13 (outdoor rating too, mind you) or really huge and a 5.3...

[PIX]

Uhh...Anon...if you are trying to explain the 23th Psalm...it is

Psa 23:1  <A Psalm of David.> The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psa 23:2  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Where do you get "give up all your possessions" in THAT? It means...The Lord is my caretaker....He will provide me with what I need.

We don't give ALL our possessions...we give our hearts, minds and souls to Him. We tithe 10 percent of our income giving it back to God in thankfullness. Of course God
doesn't need money or have a checking account, but that money goes to your Church and pays for it's existance.

Purgatory is just about completely a Catholic doctrine. Protestants don't believe you have to wait in limbo before heaven nor do we believe you have to go through a priest to get to God.


The Bible was translated from many different languages such as Greek and Ariamaic but all the translations came to mean the same thing. It never deviated from it's original form. The New Testament is generally NOT believed by Jews. It is the account of Jesus Christ, his life, death, ressurection and the days following these events. How can the Bible be broke becuase of 2 different periods described in one book?

[[CAKE]anonymity]

Thats the one, I dont remember the second part of it. And I'm pretty sure he said there is nothing i shall want, but oh well. I did get the hole possesion thing from that part of it. I just read it as the church wanting us to think the possesions we worked for weren't worth anything so give it to the church kinda thing. Might have something to do with the fact that i was at a funeral so I would have already been upset. I just thought of that as propoganda and i am quite resistant to that.

I think anything translated from one language to another is bound to lose something. You know all the chinease words when directly translated makes something completly diffrent? Its like that with quite a few languages. Its just another flaw that can be exposed.

[PIX]

True Anon....true.

The 23rd Psalm are verses of comfort....nothing more. That is why they like to recite it in times of sorrow.
You see people in movies recite it right before they feel they are in danger or about to die.

[g-boy]

I like the 23rd psalm... although more as a piece of literature in my view, it sounds quite excellent in English. Not sure about other languages.