I saw The Passion of Christ today.

[Oscar]

Don't diss science, they both go hand in hand, if something isn't explainable, chief guy did it then. Also, who made him? I don't assume he just popped up. Also this whole being saved thing, if Jesus died to save us allk, then we are all saved and no one is condemmned to hell. If the story is true. Then again I don't know much about the story, just from what I've heard and discussed in other sites about this.
The world started and that's that, we're here, forget the past, live your life to the fullest extent and be thankful that you're alive. Believe what you want to believe is my motto, just don't go try forcing something I don't believe into me cuz you just gonna get slapped. Like Jebus or God or Buddah, or Allah, or all other Gods said, we have the right of choice and the right of opinion. Everyone has to accept that fact and stop criticizing one another. Also what I hate about religion is how hypocritical it can be that it says to love one another, yet there is hate and disgust amongst the various different religions and I also hate some very religious people are so big hypocrits sitting in church on hands and knees praying and what not and the minute they get out they are cursing and downing other people and treating them as other poop. I am saying this from experience of constantly getting put down by that kind of people. I know not all are like that, but I have crossed many that are, enough to make me not believe in a religion. Rather believe in my self, live my life good and that's that.
Critisize me away now.

[Oscar]

Originally posted by IntaminFan397

Originally posted by WeeWeeSlap

also don;t forget, there are religions that exploit the people. They ask for X percentage of their weekly work checks and what not. I know this cuz I have a few relatives that have come across this.

Only a VERY small percent, mostly everyone gives them $1/week, and thats just optional if you want to donate money to help the church with their financial expenses.

none should require money at all if their true purpose is to teach the word of religion or god in my opinion. donations is fine, give what you want. but requiring a fee to attend, that's just hypocracy. Plus the churches have tons of money already from the other business they own. None are dependent on the people to keep them open either. i.e. BofA

[coolbeans326]

who created God's creater weeweeslap??? All I know is that if it weren't for other events that happened, I probably wouldn't believe in a god. Because I've been thinking this for a while but wouldn't the big boom theory be just as good as Creationism??? I mean if a god can "accidently" appear, why can't matter??? Well, when I look at religion, I don't look at the scientific point of it, really it doesn't really matter...Religion is more of a belief that there are forces higher than you and that you gotta do whatever it demands, or something bad will happen. Also, my church doesn't demand money, it just takes donations. And also, my church is poor, and it's there own damn fault. Oh well, not much longer before the youth is in control because most of the members are about to kick the bucket anyways,

[coolbeans326]

but...this was suppose to be about the Passion, so go see it and grab a bible, watch the history channel, and a ton of other stuff and I garantee you will change your mind about religion. Also, Edge Science does state that there was a great flood, most of which came from underground springs and stuff like that. It was like a big giant gyser. And then there was the rain too. Sounds pretty cool, dont it???
Also the movie is probably bloodier than what happened in real life, but hey, it's a movie and they have to sometimes stretch the truth a lil bit. Because I know for a fact that blood can not squirt form your hand like that because there are no where near enough arteries. But the scourging, I think, is pretty realistic, lot of blood in that seen too.

[Oscar]

I can give you 50,000(exaggerated) reasons why I wont believe in a religion. All these reasons are from personal experience. I can give you just as many to believe in one. But the negative ones are the ones that affect my personal beliefs more than the benefits of believing in a religion. So liek I said, I prefer to believe in my own thing. I respect others and they respect me. Note: I have not called anyone dumb or have called people out of their name here. All my replies have been done so far in respect of other people's opinions abd beliefs as I want mine respected too [:)]

I mean if a god can "accidently" appear, why can't matter???

I 100% agree.

Also can't watch the history channel, no cable. Too busy with real life for TV actually. Can't remember that last time I saw TV

[Oscar]

well, I gotta go to work now, I'll check back later to see what discussions comes up.

Originally posted by IntaminFan397

Originally posted by WeeWeeSlap

also don;t forget, there are religions that exploit the people. They ask for X percentage of their weekly work checks and what not. I know this cuz I have a few relatives that have come across this.

Only a VERY small percent, mostly everyone gives them $1/week, and thats just optional if you want to donate money to help the church with their financial expenses.

Uh, what religion are you talking about? No offense, but the general Catholic rule is 10% of your income before taxes! That's a LOT of money! The priests at the Catholic church by my old house all drive BMW's and Mercedes...so much for their "vow of poverty..." And the Methodist church I went to when I was young generally got about $100 a week per family. You may see $1 bills in the collection plate, but that's NOT the only way money goes from the people to the church.

Many of the comments about science here have been grossly misinformed as well. Scientific theories are based on hard evidence, not "faith." There is no mention of dinosaurs in the Bible - according to it, the Earth was created about 4000 years ago and fossils were placed in the ground by God to make us "wonder at his mystery" or some other lame excuse. About the "where did God come from" thing, I am working on a resolution to this (haha), but I think some sense can be made if you think about how time is simply another dimension of existance, and a supreme being would be outside of it. It would be hard for us to comprehend, but in a world outside of time, there is no beginning or end, and something that exists always has and always will - there is no "start point" where a creation of the God could take place.

Also, watching the history channel might change YOUR thoughts about religion, cool326, because history does not support the Bible in many, many, many places, one of them being the story of the Passions itself (at least as it is depicted in this movie). Yes, there was a flood, but it did not cover the whole earth, it did not "shoot out from the ground like a geyser," and it did not wipe out the sinners of the earth.

Here's a novel thought - the Bible wasn't meant to be taken literally. It is not a historical reference book. It is a story that teaches us how we should live. It has been manipulated by people to justify their own causes. Christianity was originally supposed to be about love, acceptance, and forgiveness. That original message has been turned into one of intolerance, stubbornness, and righteousness that Jesus would not have wanted. Don't get me wrong, I have friends and family who are religious and they are wonderful people. It is just that, as I said before, religion is more about people than it is about God. Take waht you hear at Church and in the Bible with a grain of salt, and ask yourselves if your beliefs are motivated by love or fear and intolerance.
A lot of what has been said here sounds like some of you are pretty young, but you sound like you have already made up your minds. Just keep your eyes open and do some thinking - the answers we look for in religion are far too important to just be accepted in a neat little package. I'm not saying renounce God or anything, just that faith with an open mind and heart is far better than blind faith, i.e. "my pastor said this, so..."

Who would read that book? How do they know the bible wasn't meant to be taken literally. And do you not believ (sorry for spelling) in god? Trust me, he agsist, just ask me brother. He was saved, he is completly different now. He used to be so mean to every one. Now he is the complete oppisite. He still does the stuff he used to do ( snowboard and stuff) I'm not tring to be mean or any thing, but it seems like your trying to convert people to cotholic. Cothlic is not like athor religions. You don't have to pay the church (unless it's cathlic, aparently) And the origanle 10 commanments have a certant amount of words and the cathlic cut out a whole bunch of them.

okay, for those non christians (im not trying to start something) but how did the Dead Sea (im pretty sure it was the dead sea) split in half. A christian scientist said and PROVEN that it would take winds in excess of 5000 MPH to seperate a sea that deep. No one can explain that other then that God worked his magic. Also a personal experience......Last year my dad died of cancer, and he (God) told me that my dad was gonna be in a better place and not go thru all the pain's of cancer. I barley cried the night he died, and even my mom asked why i didnt cry to much.

Where did you get that I'm trying to convert people to Catholicism?[lol] Technically, I am an agnostic - I believe in God, but do not belong to a religion. I don't believe because someone told me to, I believe because I have seen and learned about so many amazing things in my education and research as a scientist, and the more patterns we uncover, the more connections we see, the harder it is to believe that it all came together randomly. The common belief that sceintists are all atheists is really quite misguided. Some of the most spiritual people I know are that way because of science.

As to answer your "Dead Sea" question - this is exactly what I'm talking about - maybe it never parted! [:O] To relate it to my last post, you are basically saying, "My pastor told me the Dead Sea parted, so it must be true." That is blind faith. To me, it is a story that shows that God will help those who believe in him. You only need to try to explain it if you take the story literally, which I don't. Just like the Noah's Ark story, it is not meant to be taken as historical fact. You don't need to believe that all these crazy things happened to believe in miracles. God works miracles through the laws of nature, not against them. Your heart has been beating non-stop since you were born - that is a miracle. You can have friends and children and fall in love - those are miracles. This is the God you can see and feel, not the one you hear about in some old book. This is the God that comforted you when your father died. This is the God that I believe in.

again i dont beleive that the water of the 'dead sea' just split apart... i mean...just no. I see religion as restraint on life. People send there whole lives praying to god just so they will go to a better place. I mean who the hell cares...hell could be a nice place, well as-long as the devil isnt you know [;)] It seems the purpose of life is to get into 'heaven' But yet an extreme example is people such as the suicide bombers. Is it right to kill or ingure thousands of civilians and also taking your own life to get into heaven. But yet suicide is frowned upon by religion, and also those who takes ones own life is sent to enternal damnation... Also if we were another species say apes for example, would you beleive in god if knowone ever told you about it. In my honest opinion religion is what is wrong with the world. Religion causes pain, suffering and WAR's just because one religion is better than the other. If there was no such thing as catholic and protestanst thousands of irish (or whomever) wouldnt have been murdered. If we didnt have religion would there be fighting in the middle east.

Also the thoery (cant remember the name) that in fact we are a computer program capable of independent thought which is run in the future. Kinda like the Matrix but i cant remember the physist who made the theory. He stated that modern technogly could advance some much and be so quick within a couple of hundred years. You could literaly program a whole world and run it. It was also stated that we could just be a program of someones past...

I also think the theory of our world being in another world is quite intresting concept. Are universe may just be some atoms in another world and stuff.

Im not even in a typing mood tonight, so ima gonna stop

Sorry about the conversion thing, I though wrong But Edge, I agree that there is no "religion" But since some people belive in different things, they try and stay in there own groups. (just an ex)Like the punk people stay with the punk people and the "gansta's" lol stay with the "gangstas" And my dad told me that some where in africa, a group of marines or something were flying over some little city or something and drop a soda can from the sky, it landed in front of an african trib (who have never seen a pop can befor) and they "worshiped" it. But they would still go to heaven because they have not heard of "the word" and stuff. And once again sorry for that cathlic thing

We christians still believe in purgatory, or as I like to put it, Limbo, a middle world where people who don't quite qualify for heaven, but after thousands of years will eventually be able to to heaven after their souls have been cleaned, I just came up with this. A writer, I don't remember his name but he was a writer some time ago, said that earth is hell. And after earth we ultimately reach our goal of heaven. My History teacher said that the bible isn't all true, that it is actually a bunch of parables to help us live out our life. The bible shouldn't be taken literally.

Originally posted by RCTandy

Where did you get that I'm trying to convert people to Catholicism?[lol] Technically, I am an agnostic - I believe in God, but do not belong to a religion. I don't believe because someone told me to, I believe because I have seen and learned about so many amazing things in my education and research as a scientist, and the more patterns we uncover, the more connections we see, the harder it is to believe that it all came together randomly. The common belief that sceintists are all atheists is really quite misguided. Some of the most spiritual people I know are that way because of science.

As to answer your "Dead Sea" question - this is exactly what I'm talking about - maybe it never parted! [:O] To relate it to my last post, you are basically saying, "My pastor told me the Dead Sea parted, so it must be true." That is blind faith. To me, it is a story that shows that God will help those who believe in him. You only need to try to explain it if you take the story literally, which I don't. Just like the Noah's Ark story, it is not meant to be taken as historical fact. You don't need to believe that all these crazy things happened to believe in miracles. God works miracles through the laws of nature, not against them. Your heart has been beating non-stop since you were born - that is a miracle. You can have friends and children and fall in love - those are miracles. This is the God you can see and feel, not the one you hear about in some old book. This is the God that comforted you when your father died. This is the God that I believe in.

"some old book"?
The Bible was written from people who were followers of Jesus, it isn't just some old book but a collection of things that Jesus said that told us how to live life, and stories that he told that taught us about God. The Bible told the truth about Heaven and God, not "natural miracles" in our everyday life. God did things that weren't possible for nature to do or humans to do. If you can't believe that he can do them, then you are obviously missing the point that God isn't limited to what only humans can do.

And for something on topic, I just got back from seeing The Passion of the Christ. I completely agree with you thecool about all of the emotions it caused. I cried almost the whole time...the movie really is a life changing experience.

Originally posted by IntaminFan397

And for something on topic, I just got back from seeing The Passion of the Christ. I completely agree with you thecool about all of the emotions it caused. I cried almost the whole time...the movie really is a life changing experience.

We are finally going to go this week. And looking at the previews its looks like an amazing movie. I heard the end is one of the best parts of the movie.

[coolbeans326]

lol, I write a topic on a religious movie and a giant relgious debate takes place. Any ways back on to the Passion, it's the wierdest thing when you leave that theater, it's so quit when you leave, and there are no previews before the movie. , because they wouldn't wanna show a commercial for Dawn of the Dead before for a religious movie. And the last part about the movie is that if you have little whiny 3 or 4 yr old in your theater, don't worry. I had a couple of whiny kids in my theater, they cried a lot befor the movie began, but once it started, they shutted up, amazing. so go back on to your religious debate if you must, but my final argument is that science is against religion, my dad is a geologist and he doesn't deny the the earth created some marvelous things by itself, but he doesn't deny that God might have done it either, ex. Grand Canyon, how was it created? Dunno, but really does it matter? Religion is just a belief in a higher power, and in the Christian religion, it doesn't matter, all that we need to believe is that things were started by God, and we can be saved by God through Jesus Christ. Now I end what I have to say and will only answere topics regarding movie. The rest can argue on some more if you want

Originally posted by thecool326

my final argument is that science is against religion, my dad is a geologist and he doesn't deny the the earth created some marvelous things by itself, but he doesn't deny that God might have done it either

But my whole point is that science doesn't have to be against religion! [xx(] If your dad can believe in both, then where is the conflict? It just matters on how you look at things.

And Intamin, I'm sorry if I offended you by calling the Bible an old book. It is certainly an important piece of cultural literature. (Only half of it was written by followers of Jesus though...couldn't resist[;)]) From your post, I see that you take the Bible's words literally, and that's fine. Let me just clarify that I am not saying what God can and cannot do, I just think many Biblical stories are metaphorical. Until I see one of these supernatural miracles myself, I will be content with the natural miracles that surround me every day. I find it more fulfilling to believe in response to what I myself have seen and experienced rather than what I read in a 2000 year old story. But that's just me.

And in the interest of fairness (haha), I want to point out to TheEdge that although religion has been a factor in virtually every war, there are always other factors at work as well. There were many political and economical forces behind the Crusades, and the Middle East is a religious mess, but it also suffers from extremely restricted liveable land and patchy, very unbalanced resources (especially water and oil), which would probably make it a warzone anyway. The decisions to start wars are usually made by a few people in power, which make those decisions to gain personal, political or economic power. They then use religion as a tool to recruit support and/or soldiers. Bush is a great example of this in Iraq - the war was waged for political ("revenge" for 9/11 and more presidential support during wartime) and economic (oil) reasons, but many of Bush's speeches implied that he was doing God's work and "smiting the unbelievers." This is why I am against organized religions, because they are used as tool to sway public opinion. After 2000 years of this kind of abuse by those in power, how much of the original message of traditional Christianity remains intact? No one can say for sure.

[Oscar]

"some old book"?
The Bible was written from people who were followers of Jesus, it isn't just some old book but a collection of things that Jesus said that told us how to live life, and stories that he told that taught us about God. The Bible told the truth about Heaven and God, not "natural miracles" in our everyday life. God did things that weren't possible for nature to do or humans to do. If you can't believe that he can do them, then you are obviously missing the point that God isn't limited to what only humans can do.

People can lie and write lies. Don't believe everything you believe. Just like TV news, people lie in it. Just like newspapers, people make up stuff, i.e. The Enquirer, etc etc etc

Yes people can lie, but The Bible wasn't just written by one person...their information about the subjects the Bible contains was from their experiences and what Jesus told them, and Jesus never lied during his lifetime.

geez, this is turning into a holy war. it goes from the question of did you see a certain movie to war[devilish][xx(][pdie][stoning]. Well, im pretty much done posting in this topic, i dont wanna be hatin.

I meant to say that im cathlic, but that doesent make much difference, anyway, how in the world did this topic change into a religion subject matter? I think that we should drop the subject. Pacocoasterrider, how did you get those smiley's on there, when I try, it just puts someting like this on or :0. Not those cool smiley's.

masterchief101: To put the smilies on, you click reply to topic and typ your message in, there are little smilies you can pick out.

[coolbeans326]

lmao, pacoasterrider
I like your simulated war.
I screwed up on my second to last post, I meant science is not against religion.

its off topic discussion so anything goes [;)][flush]