Yes? How d'you come to this conclusion?by answering your first question
Like I said earlier the early civilizations beliefs always use nature as a description of the unknownthat is exactly what a lot of different culture had in common even if they were continents apart.
the belief of a flat earth was the construction of the church.
The Concept of Heaven
although the belief that there is a heaven is most to some, there is an argument about what heaven is really like, the Bible says it perfect (forever), and the most common debate states that staying in perfection for so long will turn into an imperfection, because of the basic human need for tribulation. Anyways, since we right now do not know what perfection looks or feels like then how are we to say what it does, or how it works?
But to get to the point, from what i've heard, and understand as logic, Perfection is perfect, always perfect, always. So know matter how long your in heaven everyday, every month, every year, everytime, is perfect, therefore it will not turn into hell, because it's perfect and you've been there to long. Case and point.
Also just to add something in, from the biblical point of view, perfection on earth, is to be without sin, i.e. so Jesus was the only perfect person, on earth.
The dictionary defintion. Points more to the physical and the best.
Anyways what are your thoughts or comments?
For me heaven is not a state of perfection, but a state of pureness. I tend to think that the soul is pure before entering the flesh during birth. Depending on the actions and behavoir of the individual it will be determine at the end of his/her life. If he/she lives a life of good then is fit to enter into a state of pureness again (in other words enter heaven). Some christians beliefs regard the human body as a test, if you commit sin (the word "sin" is a bit complicated I'm not going to defined yet) or you live a life of evil you don't get to go to heaven. Which in my view it has something to do with pureness. By pure I mean someone that is like a humanitarian. Who helps others without asking for rewards and merit. That person is a indeed a humble person. Humbleness is also a big part of pureness.
Ok i was watching something on the history channel that addressed books taken from the bible by the original church and one was about Peter's Apocalypse which basically sumed up to the idea if those saved looked upon those traped in the depths of heck and took pity upon them and asked God .... those in the depths of darkness could be saved.... therefore EVERYONE is saved no matter what..... now thats a mind bender.
what i'm telling you is true, haeck if marilyn manson decided to one day stop being a satanist and become a christian, he could get into heaven, that's all it takes, for your life to be changed.
anyways with the Jesus thing, what he did was basically made himself a way for us to get into heaven, otherwise that we'd all be in hell, without choice, but since Jesus came a died, he have a choice, to either go to heaven or hell.
I believe in God, however i dont think we can even begin to understand what God is. there are many things i believe we can never understand, atleast not at this stage in humanity, maybe with the next step of evolution, when we dont kill each other over tennis shoes. Using 8% of our full brain capacity i think there are many things we will never understand untill we are chosen to. Everytime humanity finds an answer to questions,we find more questions for that answer, and this continues on in an endless cycle, but that is the beauty of mankind. we are never satisfied, so we keep finsing ways to drive ourselves, this is why there is always questions to answers that have been answered many times.
However it seems lately that we have all been becomming more lazy, relying on word of mouth for our source of information, this grows into stupidity, stupidity (ignorance) is one sided, so essentially as we all make exceptions in reasoning, we lose drive and ambition, slowly but surely, we keep making exceptions and we eventually become ignorant for not questioning the answers any more, so we all become ignorant, we all become the same
i feel awkward coming in so late when the body of the discussion is made up by five or six the entire way, but whatever.
i have to agree with ragesRemorse in that we cannot understand, at this point, who and/or what God is, truly. i like to think that i am i student of truth and that all gods are one god, male or female, and that we consider them to be different entities because our tiny minds cannot comprehend something like that. but i have to admit, sometimes it is hard to imagine. maybe it will take another generation or two or three before we can begin to understand.
Originally posted by The Omega
But that requires knowledge. If you look at Earth if LOOKS flat – logic would dictate that it is flat – only we KNOW better today.
"well it doesn't matter if you live a life of good or evil"
I'm sure Moses would be having a right party if he thought he trekked up Mt.Sinai to retrieve the Ten Commandments only to find out they'd be overlooked.
I don't buy the BS about living a certain way. If God wants true people in his kingdom he'll surely prefer those who did what's right by them and lived their own way than those who blindly followed what is essentially a rule book.
"what i'm telling you is true, haeck if marilyn manson decided to one day stop being a satanist and become a christian, he could get into heaven, that's all it takes, for your life to be changed."
A) Marilyn Manson is not a Satanist just because he has views that challenge your own.
B) I've never been that confident to the point I'd try to change what is said to be the word of God.
So God made the ten commandments knowing that on "Judgement Day" he would just go "Ahh shuck ya little bastards. You promise to be good? Then come on in." Yes, exactly.
I have two questions for you as you are a Christian. Because you claim you are no blind follower.
A) Do you believe God listens to all our prayers, if he answers them or not. Yes or no?
B) Do you believe priests have a place in Christianity?
-AC
Originally posted by The Force
well it doesn't matter if you live a life of good or evil, what matters is that if you repent and believe that Jesus died for you. That's just the way to get into heaven which is an "afterlife"
What were Jesus teachings? He asked us all to love and care for each other. JC message was of love. You can be a faithfull Christian, but without love, care, and peace for others you don't get into heaven. Jesus died for us because he love humanity and wanted to save humanity by teaching peace and love. If you ain't got no love or care for your fellow human beings you don't get into heaven.
Being a Christian doesn't automatically give you a ticket to heaven. You must earn your right to enter the kingdom of heaven. If you ain't got no love or don't like peace JC won't let you into heaven (actually St. Peter don't let you in...j/k)
I think heaven resembles a form of "surrender"
Its not so much a place as it is a state (of mind)
Heaven is the end and the beginning because there is no time
Heaven is the awnser and the question because there is only truth
that sort of thing....
I think "Heaven" is there only in our minds. (and our soul) everything that takes place there is a form of thought. As a sort of everlasting dream. That's how I think you'll be reunited with your loved ones etc.
AC> Exactly what I think, I agree with you completely.
I don't believe you have to be a Christian to live a good life in God's eyes... There have been plenty of people who did nothing but good for the rest of the world and were not Christian.
Also, about the whole "using the Lord's name in vain" thing... It doesn't mean that you can't say "god dammit" or "oh my god". What it means is that you can't pretend you know what God wants or what he/she/it is going to do. So Force, saying Hitler could get into heaven is using the Lord's name in vain, because none of us here on earth really know what God is going to do.
I can't believe that out of all the people in this world who have done TRULY evil things, (Hitler, Saddam, etc) you picked Marilyn Manson. For Christ sake, the man has never done a goddamn thing to harm society, at least not intentionally. Being a Christian is overrated. Hitler was a Christian. He killed millions of people. And encouraged his countrymen to do also kill people who weren't Aryan. Marilyn Manson belongs to the Church of Satan (even though he doesn't believe there is a Satan). He's never killed anybody. Nor does he advocate doing so.
Originally posted by Reborn Again
Without faith, we'd all go insane.
I disagree. Like Omega said, people who are not religious aren't necessarily insane...
It's different for everybody. Some people need something to believe in, other than what goes on in our mortal lives. People's reasons are also different... Some people are afraid of the idea of nothingness, the idea that after you die, there is no afterlife, no reincarnation, no anything. Other people genuinely believe in a God and believe they've seen his doing somewhere... I said this somewhere else, it's hard for me to imagine the human race having evolved without some concept of religion.
Calenlass> But before you can answer what “God” is, shouldn’t you know – first of all – if god even exists?
And the “Flat/Round Earth” was merely an example on how knowledge may contradict the obvious.
Darth> That our early ancestors all seemed to give what they saw around them some spirituality is probably only logical. Our minds seem to evolve around explaining – finding the reasons – answering the why’s.
This shows a universality in our reasoning and conscience, which is perhaps not so odd – seeing that we’re the same species.
But to see this as the fingerprints of the Christian god is just so far-out. Why didn’t our early ancestors then “invent” the concept of this one god? Why couldn’t the Muslims be right? Or the Ancient Greeks? And why did the Christian God allow for his words to be written so weakly in a book, that today you have people who believe the Universe is 6000 years old?
Do we have a religious instinct? Or are we just equipped with an insatiable curiosity?