Do you believe in God or evolution? (Page 14 of 15)

Not at all. If you understand that God is perfect, then you understand that God can't be in the presence of sin, nor can he let sin go unpunished. But because he's also a Loving God, he provided a way out, a way to cleanse the sin from anyone willing to accept it. But so sacrifice less than a perfect one would be acceptable--it would fall short. Thats why Christ died.

Its not cruel, its just God is holy and Perfect. He CAN'T live with sin--and it can't go unpunished. But he gives a way out. He could have said, when Adam and Eve messed up, "Ok, they screwed up, I tried to give them free will, and they abused it. Lets wipe the slate clean and start over."

It all comes down to understanding the core of who God is.

......

Second part--admittedly, many Christians are "holierthan though" and in general arrogant, but none should claim to know it all. We don't. I have NO idea why God has done most of what he has done, or how. But I know enough. Thats it. Christians seem like they know it all because yes, we're confident in salvation. Because faith in Christ simply makes sense once you accept it, or truly realize you need it.

One of my teachers has a friend, she's about 27ish, who came in and shared her story. I'll shorten it, but give the gist.

Junior or senior year of prom--guy she went with raped her. She didn't tell anyone. In college, a guy taking her home from a party also raped her. Again, she didn't tell anyone. Starting in high school, and leading into college and after she left/had to leave (not sure) she was HEAVILY addicted to drugs and alcohol. Her alcohol tolerance is incredibly high. She didn't come out and say it, but indicated she was raped at least one other time. She ended up in the hospital a number of times, and was in jail on suicide watch less than a year ago. She basically said she did things she wasn't proud of for her addictions.

She had a number of Christian friends throughout much of that, who stuck with her even when they found her in horrifying situations. She tried rehab a number of times. And she told us that she eventually realized that she needed God. She knew NOTHING about scripture or theology, or anything, just that without him, she'd destroy herself.

She's not completely clean, but she's improved a lot. It was horrifying to hear what she want through, and see how drastically her life has changed. Thats part of why we are so certain. Miracles like that.

I just dislike orginized religion in general. Its so corrupted. Priests raping little boys, donated money going in the pockets of the preacher rather then the needy.... One thing I just really hate is something I've noticed. Christians will tell you that "Jesus loves you/everyone". But they don't reflect that statement at all. Really, what they're saying is "Jesus loves you...but only if your not poor, gay, a minority, belong to another religion, or think about anything sex related". If Jesus was really the guy they say he was, then he would love everyone, no matter what. Not just pick and choose. =/

As I mentioned above, there are many success stories that do not involve Christ or christianity. In American culture we are programmed to think in Judeo-Christian terms. In another culture, like where I live, people could just as easily claim that Buddha, in some sects, showed them the way. In Pure Land Buddhism Buddha is a lot like Christ. He helps people who are worthy. Yet in India they might claim that Vishnu was there to aid them in their turn around. And as crazy it it sounds, a lot of Scientologists are convinced that they live a better life because they joined the religion.

I mean, there is just no way to be sure. You Have to decide on your own.  And someone telling you that you are going to burn in hell for not believing the way you do  just sounds really closed-minded and self-centered.
And the points raised by CeciliaCrimsondragonFett contribute to my insistence that there is no one way to understand the nature of reality. You can't have it both ways. You can't have a God that is good and omnipotent and at the same time one who allows the terrible things that happen to do so even within the church itself. There is just no logical argument to be made for that.

As for the whole sin thing, everyone sins. It's human nature. You shouldn't go to Hell for being human.

And the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of evidence of God. There is absoutely no evidence, but billions of people believe in a God.

And that's your opinion. Nobody can change it except you. We can't tell you that "God isn't real, get over it kid", but at the same time, you can't tell us "Come worship Jesus or be damned!" because it may be our belief that A) there is no God B) there is no Hell C) Jesus was a loony

Well, what proof have you found? And I mean serious facts, not some hunch or belief.

How do you know everything in the Bible is correct? It could have been written by a crazy hobo guy back a long time ago, and then somebody picks it up and reads it, and goes "Hey I'll believe everything this random book says" I mean, seriously. By the way, the entire Protestant religion was created just so King Henry the 8th could get a divorce from his wife, and now Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland kill each other every day. Then there was the Crusades, the Holocaust, and now Osama bin Laden is twisting Islam into making a jihad against the U.S. All religion does is cause suffering, and waste time.

I could answer you guys, but to what end? We'll just go back and forth into eternity. Oh, wait, you don't believe in eternity. Oh, well. You guys need to be a little more tolerant. We all do.

And yes, the Catholics are messed up(in my view), but I don't know why the people say the Crusades were so bad. I mean, the Muslims invaded in the west, and the Christians defended and pressed forward in the east.

And what "scientific evidence" do you mean?

I hope you know that, since about when the Scientific Revolution began, the question to understand who we are and where we came from (this actually goes back to the Renaissance) has always been attempted to be answered. And in the coming to that answer, loads of information about the rest of the planet has been discovered.

Cece, you talk as if it is fact. We're back to story number one now. It is just a theory as is everything else as to how life began.

As to a record of a ww flood, how about "Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water, all over the earth." And about the ""How are we here?" question, it's Noah's Ark. Well, it was actually God's Ark, but Noah built it.

I told them that like twice now, but they just don't listen to me.