Posted by Eddo:
I do however believe that **** is eternal separation from ***, and that is very real.
I heard this before. A solemn man I once worked with many years ago was talking religion with me. Hes a devout Christian. I asked him what is ****. He explained that **** is a place where *** cannot help you. A place where he has no power. My only thought was, if this is the case, are we not in **** now? *** cannot help you here. Try and tell me he can and I wonder. I wonder about all the horrifying tales of pedophile killers that tie children to wooden post. Then repeatedly sodomize them with a boot knife until the hours of sexual sadistic torture kills the child. A child. Presumably gods child. As it is explained *** sees all and knows all. Thusly he knows of this horror as it transpires. Yet the child is allowed to inherit the unimaginable suffering. The perpetrator is free to dispose of the corpse and do it again and again. *** did not help the child. Even though he knew of this child's need for help. Why not? It was his plan perhaps? Part of the eternal scheme laid out at the inception of creation. That this child would be born unto this world. Live a short 5 years only to die a death more horrible than most.
I say all this not to be macob and disgusting, as I realize such a statement is such. Reality shows, however, that these sorts of things happen all the time Possibly it is occurring as I type. Somewhere, another one of ***'s children is dying at the hands of evil.
So I submit to you, or anyone of like thinking, that if you truly believe **** is a place without gods hand, than we are there.
If you have not heard about Jesus, then you are judged based on how you know ***, and everyone knows about ***:
What I know of *** has been recited to me from people. People have also told me of the Quran. People have also told me of Satanic worship. People have told me of Witchcraft. People are not to be trusted. They are, as *** purportedly stated, born into sin and inherently evil. Washing themselves of this only through acceptance of ***'s way. However I come to know this from only the word of man, not by word of ***, as he does not speak. According to lore, he gave me a logical mind. He gave me the ability to utilize this logic to decipher facts from fiction. He gave me the ability to doubt the word of man. Even if man speaks his words. A paradox? Perhaps.
Because Genesis said it only took 7 days to make, and if I believe that *** is who he says he is (which I do,) then I have no problem believing that the biblical account of creation is accurate. If I am wrong, and each biblical "day" is intended to mean millions of years, then no biggie.
Okay, I'll field this and allow the theory you suppose. That the relativity of 'gods' time is out of context with that of how man knows it. A day as spoken biblically in Genesis, may be millions of years.
I'll grant you that. However, if I allow that than I must say I cannot allow this>>>
Honestly, I believe the earth is only a few thousand years old.
Despite the allowance of perspective of time in creation (Genesis), The earth is however old that it truly is. This is not up for review. It is either X number of years old, or Y number of years old. Time for the creation is over now, and it is done. So here is the mighty Earth. It begins. Can we say it is only a few thousand years old when I can produce a rock from my back yard that predates your estimate? You can adjust time's context before the earth was formed, but you cannot molest these figures after it is done. Human skulls are found from pre-Cambrian man, Neanderthal and many other variations of the human form. These are fossilized and can only be tens to hundreds of thousands of years old. Not a few thousand. If this was true our homoerectus would have crossed paths with them during recent history.
The unfortunate thing for those men whom wrote the books of the bible is that inevitably the future would disclose facts that counter the writings. We see errors like this in many cultures stories of lore. The Greeks, whom dreamed up such beings as the cyclops, for example. The cyclops was a beast that they truly believed existed. But why? It is believed that they came up with the stories of these beasts, and many others, based on dinosaur bones found scattered all throughout Greece and its various Isles. The skull of a woolly mammoth has a large opening for its nasal cavity. This was mistaken when found as the orbital socket, thus the cyclops was not myth to them, it was fact. They had the bones to prove it. However the reality that would be shown in the future was drastically different then their own.
Take these same misgivings and translate them to the Christian beginnings and you see the same misguidance that trickled down from ignorance of scientific fact, fact that was not privy to them at the time. Heaven was depicted as clouds and wreaked of an earthly atmospheric setting. Why? Because thats what they saw when they looked up. Its all they had to work with. How were they to know that one day man would fly far beyond these clouds, and there they would find no heaven. Just hydrogen, oxygen and other earthly elements.
It depends on the individual person as to who is or isn't going to end up separated from ***. Many, many Catholics that I know (and I have many, many Catholics in my family- heck, my dad's uncle is a Catholic priest) do not worship *** and Jesus, but instead worship Mary or the priest themselves. This is wrong, and will separate you from ***.
There are and have been thousands of religions throughout the history of man. It started with the obvious. The sun. The moon. The stars. As man evolved so did the level of his religion. Yes, religion evolved (how bitterly ironic for Christians). Then why is Christianity so popular? Simply put they won the war. Blood was spilled, kingdoms were built, then fell. At this point and time Christians rule the predominant sectors of earth, by way of taking root in the countries that own the power. America. A Christian empire. We are right because we are many and we are powerful. That is why our *** is righteous, and yours is a fallacy.
Eddo, I say these things for the sake of a spirited debate, not to insult your personal beliefs. So please do not take it thata way, aye.