Korskin

Well, according to the Bible... ...intelligence is overrated.

All I know is that I would have done a lot of things differently if I had known the outcome of my life in advance. Then again I try not to focus on what my life could've been. Though I can't escape the feeling that I'm not actually living the life I wanted but rather the life I ended up with. The problem with regretting and redoing your life is that you'll never know if you're life would've been better or worse if you did things differently. If I put thing into perspective I'll end up with a different view. As I believe I will have eternal life in heaven, my life on earth is a short span of time and not as significant. Therefore the important thing or what actually defines my life as good or bad would be whether I believe in God or not. And if a more successful or ideal life would mean less need of God, I would definitely choose my current life over it.

Yeah, I get that. If you don't believe in God he must have been created by humans. What I don't get is how us being the image of God means that God was created by man. You can never really be 100% sure of anything. I would say that there are many things pointing toward the existence of a God. The Bible, Jesus, the earth and humans and all religious people just to name a few. However, these so called proofs or evidence doesn't mean much if you don't believe. From my experience God is 100% reliable and is always there when I need him. As sin entered this world it has been an unfair and evil world. Many people might not get the life they deserve here on earth. But that's because earth is broken and ruined. What's important is not how comfortable our life has been on earth. It's whether we end up in heaven or hell that really matters. I'm thinking that if we're supposed to have free will God can't interfere with every wrong decision we make. I can see why you find it hard to combine the world we live in with an all loving God. But look at what God did. He sent his son to die for our sins. We didn't deserve it but he did it anyway because of his love for us.

I don't see the connection between we look like God and therefore we created God. To me it's the other way around. The only thing that's complete and utterly reliable is God. Dawkins and many other atheists tend to rely on science. I choose to rely on something unchanging (God) instead of something changing (science). I also think that non-believers are sometimes guilty of not bothering to find out which religion holds the truth. Instead they'll say: "How am I supposed to know which religion is the right one when there is no evidence?" I'd advice to really know what you're rejecting before you reject it. Sometimes it feels like people are hiding under some quotes or things like: "Religion is illogical", "There is no evidence of God". Most likely you haven't successfully proven religion wrong just because you found a nifty quote. We have free will, so that we can do either good or bad. But God doesn't allow evil, so he will punish evil as a good God would do. That's the downside with quotes. They are often taken out of context and you won't have the whole picture. Quotes are often more witty than substantial.

It didn't have any point other than me thinking the quotes were lacking substance. If your best religious quotes include some from Richard Dawkins you really need to learn more about religion. In my book he's about as competent as the average off-topicer in philosophy and theology. Circular logic or not, faith does not necessarily depend on empirical evidence. You can't attack faith because it's by definition not relying on evidence. To me it's not a slightly higher level of rejection. If I remove God from my life, I remove the most important thing in my life. It was merely a play with words. But sure, it has some flaws.

Hey? I don't quite understand, would you mind rephrasing that? You seem to be saying that atheists are theists and they believe in every god but yours while you believe in every god, including the Judeo-Christian one. I'll rephrase: The initial quote is nonsense and so is my quote.

Christianity is not about being a nice guy in order to escape from hell. Though I pretty much agree with what you're saying here: However, the Bible says that we'll be rewarded in heaven for our deeds on earth. I don't really like that concept as I think heaven alone is a sufficient reward. But what's important to realize is that we won't get to heaven because we have been good since we've all been bad. It's only due to God's grace and because Jesus died for our sins that we're able to enter heaven. The problem with heaven is that it must be completely free from sin in order to be perfect. Regardless of how many good deeds you've done, you'll still be guilty of doing some bad deed. Basically we're all sinners and therefore we can't go to heaven. God punishes evil because he's good, an evil God would accept evil. We can't earn our righteousness by living a good life, the only way to be righteous is through Jesus. You should do good because it's God's will. He knows what kind of life would be best for us. Therefore he has laws and commands so that we know his will and how to enjoy life at its fullest.

Yeah that's correct. But I wouldn't say that they indistinguishable. The most vital difference is probably the doctrine of trinity which Muslims reject. Jesus performed a lot of miracles. Those mentioned in the Bible are only selected parts of what he actually did. So I would rephrase it like this: "Probably everything is false, except for the parts where he doesn't perform any miracles." If we strip down the stories of Jesus and exclude all miracles we're going to end up with a guy saying some controversial things such as: "Love your enemies" etc. Yes, the supernatural parts require faith but not accepting them means that you're undermining of the Bible. I fail to see how a Bible where you reject all things supernatural has any significance or authority today. You're also correct about Sweden. The church of Sweden is a joke these days. It worries more about being politically correct than to tell the truth.

Eastern religions are somewhat overlooked on these forums. Most often we end up with an atheism vs Christianity debate. It's probably because most people here are either atheists or Christian. I guess the question "Is God real?" doesn't stop with a yes or no answer. If your answer is yes, you won't necessarily know which God is the right one. Instead you'll have a bunch of religions to choose from. And if your answer is no, you could still be religious since there are religions such as Buddhism which are non-theistic. A thing that kind of bugs me is that other religions seem to have similar effects on people as Christianity does. Muslims seemingly find comfort in Allah and they are as devoted (if not more) as any Christian. However, I think the key is Jesus. Almost everyone would agree that he really existed. The task is to find out who he was and what he actually did.

The question: "Is God real?" is a rather interesting one. To me it's almost a ridiculous question since my life is devoted to God. I only really have one main goal in my life and that's to remain faithful to God. Whether I succeed with my studies, get a good job or find true love is not as important. To sum it up I'll refer to the Bible and this verse: "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:26 Then again, the initial question might be just as ridiculous for an atheist or at least a strong atheist. You might think that religion is complete and utter rubbish. However, if you're not sure, it's probably the most important question in life. It's sort of a combination of classic questions such as: "Who are we?", "What's the meaning of life?" and "We're do we come from?". So basically my advice is to really think about the question and spend time to find the answer that you believe is the truth.

It's not God's fault that there are people suffering in the world. The path of suffering and evil was chosen long ago by Adam and Eve. We should be thankful that God is merciful and wants to restore the world.

I'd be very surprised and disappointed if they would break up.

I don't see any reason to decide what kind of wedding I want to have before I even have a girlfriend. I'd probably surrender to her will if she has a fixed idea of what her marriage sould look like. The only thing I want is for the people I love and care about to be there. That's probably all that's necessary in order to make the wedding special. During the last six months I've been to two weddings. The first wedding was rather extravagant with great food, live music and dancing. The second wedding was held in a barn and was very basic. To be honest I preferred the first wedding (mostly because the food was delicious) but they were equally special for the wedding couples. From their point of view it was probably the perfect wedding and that's what's important.