To be honest, I don't personally feel I need a God. It's as simple as that.

May I ask then if you believe in Heaven?

I do not. It seems to me like too much of an incentive to do good in this life; why should anynoe need any kind of prompt?

Ah, this is a big fallacy of, at least Christianity, and something that I've been talking about a lot lately. Everyone by nature is Evil and all our "Good Works" are pointless, because the Price is too high for Heaven, we can NEVER get in on our own Merit. This is why Jesus paid it all FOR us, it's free all he asks for is our faith.

I don't care much one way or the other; I'm far too busy enjoying this life to have thought for another.

oh but we're talking ~90 years out of eternity!

An eternity that might simply be spent in the ground. You know what they say about a bird in the hand.

ok if I'm wrong i do rot in the ground, but if you're wrong I'm afraid that would mean hell. (I'm not into scare tactics but it's the Truth) (and I'm certainly not wishing that you do go to hell, in fact that's why I asked the journal to try and prevent just that from occurring)

It's a truth. Not necessarily the only one.

Oh, I assure you it is the truth. But here I believe we have reached an impasse, so thanks for your time!

I simply believe there is a god, nothing else. I don't believe in any religion really because I don't think any one could have all the answers and that it is better to find the answers inside yourself rather then looking for the answers from others...

not to sound redundant, but (same as above) May I ask then if you believe in Heaven?

If you mean the Heaven/Hell scenario? No, honestly, I believe there is an afterlife and that we are born again. An eternal cycle of rebirth.

and what leads you to this conclusion? or rather cycle as you put it?

It is simply what a believe in, I don't expect everyone I come in contact with to simply throw caution to the wind and accept that as the right answer to life, I could very well be wrong. This is simply my view based on how I feel, nothing more.

hmm, you don't want some basis in something?

Nope, I am content as I am

Okay, if you ever want to have some more basis, I'd suggest the Bible. Thank you for sharing though!

Content, therefore not interested in the Bible or any other religion's holy documents hehe

Very well then.

But what about you? Do you follow a specific faith?

I do, I'm a Christian and have faith in Jesus as my One true Lord and Savior. The Son of the Father and one and the same God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And through the Son I am saved and will forever be in his presence in Heaven.

*nods* It's the belief that there has to be 'something' after we die that makes many turn to religion in the first place, some like myself enjoy their own idea. Others like the ideas that religions have. And then there are those who just believe there is nothing, but the fear of being nothing when we die is something very few ever want to admit to.

I'll admit that there very well could be nothing waiting for us when we die, but believing there is something is far more interesting.

I believe there is something after we die, because I believe in the Bible. On my own wisdom, I would not be inclined to say so. But I do believe because of the Grace that God his given me. Which he only gives me through my faith, which I only have because I accept that I am I sinful person, and that on my own I would surely parish. But by God's grace he forgives me and sent his Son to die in my place, that I shall not parish. My goal isn't Heaven, it is to be with Jesus.

I had another response, but then I totally blanked on my train of thought...

lol it's okay, sometimes my train just zooms past the station

Hahaha puns

indeed

its kinda hard to have faith in science cause science is made by hard effort, not by praying.
Faith is something you believe in blindly without reasoning it and questioning it

Science has several fallacies to it. One: All our predictions based on the past are based on the assumption that everything remains constant.

Some examples: the Big Bang, when we look around the Universe is 'green' but when we 'rewind' the explosion to even a billionth of a hundredth second after it happened, it does not allow enough time for light, let alone the 'blue' and 'yellow' particles to mix. or Global Warming, we assumed that it's been steadily increasing...until recently when we now think that it's a cycle. And then The Big One, about how despite entropy order is suppose to come from chaos?

Scientists don't just get the answers they want through hard work, in fact they usually get the answers they don't want, and more often no answers at all! They lean on theories and assumptions for their work.

Faith itself is hard work, you base your whole life in something that you believe is right. To choose science over religion is placing faith in it. The question is, is you're faith in the right place? Mine is in Jesus, and I'm still a scientist. Just like an Einstein of a man once said, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

in what context do you call your self a scientist. do you have a phd ? or doctors degree

could you post your source of information cause i have to read it in context about big what you wrote about the Big Bang cause its taken way out of context

I'm Junior Undergrad, well on my way to a PhD

I'm afraid I can't get the exact source, but I took it from History Channel's Universe, episode "Beyond the Big Bang"

I find a good mix of science and faith/belief what have you is a healthy thing to have. Its best to keep an open mind to any supernatural scenario, after all there are some things on this earth science cant explain, hell science doenst even know how a bumble bee flies lol.

do you know what evolution is... that explains why bumble bee flies

I'm pretty sure that he means that in a physical sense the muscles that move the wings of a bumblebee are too small to create the lift needed to get the creature airborn, not to mention the fact that the winds themselves are too small to be used to fly.

Very good point.

Umm....not sure how I feel about the word supernatural, but as long as it aligns to a proper faith, and not just random anything goes, yeah.

Well to me, religion is there for moral guidance and semi explanation of the supernatural, thats just my own opinion though.

Religion is greater than any can fathom, and while it can explain the unexplainable and give clear boundaries for our morals, it's about admitting that we are all evil people and left to our own would perish, but then pursuing a relationship with the Man who saved us all from that fate. Faith in the Son of God.

Well to me there is no "correctness" in any religion, its open interpretation. All religions are right and wrong at the same time. We choose to have faith, or to not have a faith. Theres no facts in religion, but its role in society is important.

Hmm, well I believe we've hit a barricade here. Thanks for talking and let me leave you with this; there is an absolute truth and it is important that we all find it.

I am a Christian who doesn't believe in organized religion. Mostly from looking back at the past and seeing the terribly immoral things done by the church in the "name of God". I also think that the Bible should be taken with a grain of salt because it is a product of man, and therefore is fallible.

I also see no reason why religion, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc, etc, and evolutionary theory can't coexist. In fact, I am no scientist, to my untrained eye the two actually seem quite complimentary.

Very true that the church has made some bad choices in the past/still but it is good to find a church so you can be with fellow believers. (wherever 2 or more are, that can count)
As a Christians we are to believe that the Bible is the Breathed Word of God, divinely inspired by God and only written down by man. The other religions can't coexist because only 1 can be correct. As for science, they do compliment each other, most just like to take them to such extremes that they seem to contradict.

I just read this... Who said only 1 religion can be correct? Who says they can't all be correct? Who says they can't all be wrong? hehehe

That is what I say as well. In my honest opinion I believe that all religion is an interpretation of the same idea. At some point in our history men felt the need to explain what they could not grasp. The answer that they came up with is religion.

As to what Antor said. I agree that the bible is a product of divine inspiration but it came through the vessel of man which is corrupt and given to having its own agenda, and all that I mean by that is something may have been lost in translation.

By their definitions alone, each religion claims to be the only "true" religion accepting it condemns the others. And when accept the reality of Heaven, there must be a price or set standard to enter. If everyone got in for just doing what they felt like, (so long as in their minds they thought it good) then there would be no point.

The men whom God chose to write His Word were not corrupt men, they were disciples and prophets men already chosen by Him for greatness. Even if they were somehow corrupt, if they are inspired by God they cannot corrupt His works. If sins could make Him unholy, then He would not be a God who could take away our sins and remain Holy.

They may not have been corrupt by today's standards, but they were still human. And therefore far from perfect. And let's not forget that during the early days of the Catholic Church the upper echelons of that hierarchy edited the bible. Discarding whole books of the Gospel, including those of Judas Escariot, and Meriumne of Magdala *Mary Magdalene*.

And as to religion being mutually exclusive, I don't really think they are. That again may be no more than man's flawed interpretation.

I am not claiming that they were perfect, and indeed we can see that in each author's unique style of writing ie. (Mathew the Tax Collector wrote very logically and categorically). However they were God fearing men, who spoke his message and wrote it down. The Bible is the Breathed Word of God, if it is not then it is no more valid than the Communist Manifesto.
The Bible I speak of was assembled by God under John's instruction, I reject whatever Catholics do to it, although that still does not include the Books you mentioned. (Both Judas' and Mary's coming Centuries after the completion of the Book.)

Truth is not relativistic. There is a very definitive right and wrong, which we can gain from God directly through the Bible.

That is very true my friend. Though the gospels of Judas and Mary Magdalene, and also one written by her brother, were a part of the Bible before the Catholic church was founded. And after that, when the Catholics standardized the Bible all three of those were discarded completely along with several others.

And I'm not arguing with the idea that the Bible is the, as you put it, Breathed Word of God as set forth by his prophets. It's what I believe too, just those parts of it that remain unaltered by the Catholic edit.

So, bypassing the disputed books, we agree that it is the Breathed Word of God. So given that it is His Word, can't we take it, wholly, as the Truth? Believing that all that lays within it's covers are True?

Yes indeed :)

So to get back to your original comment, as long as we align ourselves with what the Bible tells us we are aligning ourselves with God?

Basically yea, that seems about right.

Great! Well we know what we must do then! :nods: thanks for sharing!