Is God real post your thoughts!

[Flyingjj]

Lol.

 

 

 

Lol.

 

 

 

Sorry, I had to say it again.

 

What are you laughing at?

 

Neither of us said there weren't differences between the religions. As for some of the other stuff you posted, I would call that source far from unbiased. Speak with a Muslim about what they believe, then we'll talk.

[Quoi_Tu]

Off-discussion, but I thought I'd slip this in here:

 

[hide=NY Times]GRAPEVINE, Tex. And on the seventh day, there was no rest for married couples. A week after the Rev. Ed Young challenged husbands and wives among his flock of 20,000 to strengthen their unions through Seven Days of Sex, his advice was keep it going.

 

 

 

Mr. Young, an author, a television host and the pastor of the evangelical Fellowship Church, issued his call for a week of congregational copulation among married couples on Nov. 16, while pacing in front of a large bed. Sometimes he reclined on the paisley coverlet while flipping through a Bible, emphasizing his point that it is time for the church to put God back in the bed.

 

 

 

Today were beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex, he said, with his characteristic mix of humor, showmanship and Scripture. How to move from whining about the economy to whoopee!

 

 

 

On Sunday parishioners at the Grapevine branch watched a prerecorded sermon from Mr. Young and his wife, Lisa, on jumbo screens over a candlelit stage. I know theres been a lot of love going around this week, among the married couples, one of the church musicians said, strumming on a guitar before a crowd of about 3,000.

 

 

 

Mrs. Young, dressed in knee-high black boots and jeans, said that after a week of having sex every day, or close to it, some of us are smiling. For others grappling with infidelities, addictions to pornography or other bitter hurts, theres been some pain; hopefully theres been some forgiveness, too.

 

 

 

Mr. Young advised the couples to keep on doing what youve been doing this week. We should try to double up the amount of intimacy we have in marriage. And when I say intimacy, I dont mean holding hands in the park or a back rub.

 

 

 

Mr. Young, known simply as Ed to his parishioners, and his wife, both 47, have been married for 26 years and have four children, including twins. They have firsthand experience with some of the barriers to an intimate sex life in marriage, including careers, exhaustion, outside commitments, and kids, a word that Mr. Young told church members stands for keeping intimacy at a distance successfully.

 

 

 

But if you make the time to have sex, it will bring you closer to your spouse and to God, he has said. You will perform better at work, leave a loving legacy for your children to follow and may even prevent an extramarital affair.

 

 

 

If youve said, I do, do it, he said. As for single people, I dont know, try eating chocolate cake, he said.

 

 

 

The sex-starved marriage has been the topic of at least two recent books, 365 Nights and Just Do It. But Mr. Youngs call from the pulpit gave the discussion an added charge.

 

 

 

It should not, in his view. This is not a gimmick or a publicity stunt, Mr. Young says. Just look at the sensuousness of the Song of Solomon, or Genesis: two shall become one flesh, or Corinthians: do not deprive each other of sexual relations.

 

 

 

For some reason the church has not talked about it, but we need to, he said, speaking by telephone Friday night on his way to South Africa for a mission trip. There is no shame in marital sex, he added, God thought it up, it was his idea.

 

 

 

Those who attend Fellowships location here or one of several satellite churches in the Dallas area and one in Miami are used to Mr. Youngs provocative style. (The real f word in the marital boudoir, he says, is forgiveness.) But the sex challenge was a bit much for some of his church members, who sat with arms crossed in uncomfortable silence, he recalls, while many in the audience gave him an enthusiastic applause.

 

 

 

One parishioner, Rob Hulsey, 25, said his Baptist relatives raised their eyebrows about it, but he summed up the reaction of many husbands at Fellowship Church when he first heard about the sex challenge Yay!

 

 

 

A week later, he and his wife, who are expecting a baby and have two older children, could not stop holding hands during the sermon. His wife, Madeline Hulsey, 32, said she was just as thrilled to spend a week focusing on her husband. Usually, we start to kiss, and its knock knock knock, Mom! she said.

 

 

 

Others found that, like smiling when you are not particularly happy, having sex when they did not feel like it improved their mood. Just eight months into their marriage, Amy and Cody Waddell had not been very amorous since Cody admitted he had had an affair.

 

 

 

Intimacy has been a struggle for us, working through all that, Ms. Waddell said. This week really brought us back together, physically and emotionally.

 

 

 

It is not always easy to devote time for your spouse, Pastor Young admitted. Just three days into the sex challenge he said he was so tired after getting up before dawn to talk about the importance of having more sex in marriage that he crashed on the bed around 8 p.m. on Tuesday night.

 

 

 

Mrs. Young tried to shake him awake, telling her husband, Come on, its the sex challenge. But Mr. Young murmured, Lets just double up tomorrow, and went back to sleep.

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/us/24sex.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=sex%20church&st=cse[/hide]

 

 

 

I see a change-a.

 

 

 

God encourages sex with MARRIED couples. There's nothing keeping married people from procreating, just out of wedlock.

 

 

 

Yeah, it says so in the article:

 

If youve said, I do, do it, he said. As for single people, I dont know, try eating chocolate cake, he said.

 

I just thought the article was interesting since both society and especially churches avoid the topic of sex like the devil.

[Shinjula]

I would think the main reason we havent been debating Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and other religions is simply we havent got anybody from those religions arguing for them, its not really fair to argue against a position no one is able to defend fro a position of knowledge.

 

Although I have put myself up as a believer who isnt a Christian, and we had a little bit of a debate about the evidence of god from the beauty in Mathematics, but it kinda petered out a little while ago..

[kimzon]

personaly i belive in god as much as i belive that there are pink unicorns.

 

God was created to control people, gain money and political purposes.

 

And if there was a god why would he create us? hes perfect without us so why would he need us?

 

And if god is allmigthy,knows everything and good why do people do sin? yeah god gave us free will because of hes nice and stuff, but if god is allmigthy and knows everything he would have known that humans will use free will to do bad things and if he knew that how can he be good?

 

 

 

 

sorry i just had to post this :D

[Shinjula]

http://www.answering-islam.org/Intro/comparison.html

 

 

 

http://www.answering-islam.org/BehindVeil/btv4.html

 

 

 

http://www.answering-islam.org/Hahn/jihad.htm

 

Thanks for those they were quite intersting, although hardly what id call unbiased.

 

And whilst I was aware of 90% of the stuff in there and my considered opinion is that Islam sucks (as opposed to Christianity which is merely completely unbelievable)...

 

 

 

...without someone willing and able to defend the Islamic point of view there is no debate here...

 

 

 

...and it become increasingly likely that this merely turns into Islamobashing.

 

 

 

A purely textual reading of the bible can bring up an awful lot of problematic text, and without someone familiar with its use today as part of their actual lifestyle, the context and meaning will not be known to us.

 

So please, lets not go there.

[Saru Inc]

http://www.answering-islam.org/Intro/comparison.html

 

 

 

http://www.answering-islam.org/BehindVeil/btv4.html

 

 

 

http://www.answering-islam.org/Hahn/jihad.htm

 

Thanks for those they were quite intersting, although hardly what id call unbiased.

 

And whilst I was aware of 90% of the stuff in there and my considered opinion is that Islam sucks (as opposed to Christianity which is merely completely unbelievable)...

 

 

 

...without someone willing and able to defend the Islamic point of view there is no debate here...

 

 

 

...and it become increasingly likely that this merely turns into Islamobashing.

 

 

 

A purely textual reading of the bible can bring up an awful lot of problematic text, and without someone familiar with its use today as part of their actual lifestyle, the context and meaning will not be known to us.

 

So please, lets not go there.

 

 

 

I know they're biased, also, to FlyingJj, while yes, some Muslims are open. Just like how some Christians support Evolution, but the 'true' Muslims follow Shari'a law (which has some disgusting sections) hate Christians. And also, I have spoken to Muslims before.

[Flyingjj]

http://www.answering-islam.org/Intro/comparison.html

 

 

 

http://www.answering-islam.org/BehindVeil/btv4.html

 

 

 

http://www.answering-islam.org/Hahn/jihad.htm

 

Thanks for those they were quite intersting, although hardly what id call unbiased.

 

And whilst I was aware of 90% of the stuff in there and my considered opinion is that Islam sucks (as opposed to Christianity which is merely completely unbelievable)...

 

 

 

...without someone willing and able to defend the Islamic point of view there is no debate here...

 

 

 

...and it become increasingly likely that this merely turns into Islamobashing.

 

 

 

A purely textual reading of the bible can bring up an awful lot of problematic text, and without someone familiar with its use today as part of their actual lifestyle, the context and meaning will not be known to us.

 

So please, lets not go there.

 

 

 

I know they're biased, also, to FlyingJj, while yes, some Muslims are open. Just like how some Christians support Evolution, but the 'true' Muslims follow Shari'a law (which has some disgusting sections) hate Christians. And also, I have spoken to Muslims before.

 

Did they hate Christians? I will not give in to the idea that Muslims (excluding extremists) hate anyone until I have experience showing me they do. I would rather we drop the subject unless a Muslim is present to defend their beliefs, but I still won't stand for negative accusations without first hand / reliable accounts. Oh man, I'm starting to sound like an atheist... (no offense)

[Dreamtongirl]

Mm, i believe he is real. I shan't go into detail or debating now though, can't be stuffed. Next time.

[Obtaurian]

You made these contradictory statement regarding a link to an article.

 

 

 

 

This was pretty good, and it seemed unbiased.

 

 

 

 

 

I know they're biased. . .

 

 

 

And this begs the question of whether or not you know the difference between biased and unbiased sources.

[raven_gaurd0]

Sleepy want me...

 

 

 

There's a massive conjunction of God(s) out there, so it's pitifully inadequate to target any in particular.

 

 

 

Quoi_Tu, try to keep on topic. We're not here to argue how flawed or perfect any mortal religious establishment is. You can prove the Islamic, Christian, or Jewish Churches to be lying scumbags in the guise of piety, but that doesn't prove or disprove God any more or less.

[Saru Inc]

You made these contradictory statement regarding a link to an article.

 

 

 

 

This was pretty good, and it seemed unbiased.

 

 

 

 

 

I know they're biased. . .

 

 

 

And this begs the question of whether or not you know the difference between biased and unbiased sources.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yea, I noticed that. XD I meant to say "it seemed pretty biased, but still."

 

 

 

And do you have anything to add to this? Or will you just flame me for writing posts in the dark? :x

 

 

 

Anyways, ok, FlyingJJ, I'm cool with that.

[Ginger_Warrior]

And also, I have spoken to Muslims before.

 

Well done? I like the way you make it sound like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. :?

 

 

 

I've lived my whole life around Muslims. Can't say any more than two of them ever stated that they "hate" Christians or Christianity, and they were both general idiots anyway without the religious side. I imagine they only "hated" Christians to fit in with their adolescent hard image (they acted like right gangsta wannabes). God is ultimately the same entity as Allah, it doesn't make sense to rubbish all Christian beliefs when the fundamentals are basically the same.

 

 

 

Incidently, I've not heard of anything in Sharia Law which states all Muslims must hate Christianity. This 'lack of respect' for each other seems to be a myth perpetuated by the extremists in both religions. Hell, even the Pope accepts Allah and God are the same entity, and Muslims and Christians should work to repair the wounds in relations between the two religions made over the last few years thanks to the 9/11 attacks and the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

[BlueLancer]

And also, I have spoken to Muslims before.

 

Well done? I like the way you make it sound like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. :?

 

 

 

I've lived my whole life around Muslims. Can't say any more than two of them ever stated that they "hate" Christians or Christianity, and they were both general idiots anyway without the religious side. I imagine they only "hated" Christians to fit in with their adolescent hard image (they acted like right gangsta wannabes). God is ultimately the same entity as Allah, it doesn't make sense to rubbish all Christian beliefs when the fundamentals are basically the same.

 

 

 

Incidently, I've not heard of anything in Sharia Law which states all Muslims must hate Christianity. This 'lack of respect' for each other seems to be a myth perpetuated by the extremists in both religions. Hell, even the Pope accepts Allah and God are the same entity, and Muslims and Christians should work to repair the wounds in relations between the two religions made over the last few years thanks to the 9/11 attacks and the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

 

 

They are not the same "entity" or "concept"; Allah is literally the arabic word for "God" (which comes from the german word for deity, "Gott") and Yahweh in hebrew. They are completely interchangeable with each other and mean the same thing. All 3 words have been used prior to organised religion in a pagan context in their own languages for thousands of years.

 

 

 

I just laugh every time some racist or islamophobic person mentions how "allah sucks" or "allah is a terrorist". Maybe it's about time these idiots realize God, Yahweh and Allah mean the exactly same deity, in their own respective languages. They are not separate gods. Jews, muslims and christians worship the same god.

 

 

 

Christians in Israel refer to God as Yahweh. Christians in Lebanon refer to God as Allah. Christians in germanic-speaking countries refer to him as God. I only mentioned christians because they are usually the ones mocking islam or trying to make fun of it.

[Saru Inc]

And also, I have spoken to Muslims before.

 

Well done? I like the way you make it sound like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. :?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, no, sorry I didn't mean for it to sound like that. There's not many around here, but I've talked to quite a few.

[Bunnies]

Personally, I do not believe God is real. Never have.

 

 

 

This applies to not only the Islamo-Judeo-Christian [big 3] concepts of a personal God, but also to polytheistic beliefs such as Hinduism and 'Spiritualist' conceptions of an overmind/oversoul/life force/pantheistic-esque God.

 

 

 

On Islamophobia - Christians, Jews and Muslims are just as wrong as each other [theistically].

 

 

 

My personal concern over Islam is that predominately Muslim countries seem to have weaker barriers between the church and the state [Turkey is a rather large and admirable exception] and as a hard line secularist, i'd rather that this didn't transfer to other countries, especially mine.

[Lenticular_J]

Yeah, his post wasn't so bad, but the storm is soon to come.

[Joes_So_Cool]

Wow this thread has come along way.

[Saru Inc]

Wow this thread has come along way.

 

 

 

No thanks to you.

[l0rd]

personaly i belive in god as much as i belive that there are pink unicorns.

 

God was created to control people, gain money and political purposes.

 

And if there was a god why would he create us? hes perfect without us so why would he need us?

 

And if god is allmigthy,knows everything and good why do people do sin? yeah god gave us free will because of hes nice and stuff, but if god is allmigthy and knows everything he would have known that humans will use free will to do bad things and if he knew that how can he be good?

 

 

 

 

I happen to be an Atheist also, but all of your arguments against theism are totally baseless and mostly untrue.

 

 

 

Do you honestly believe that people fabricated the idea of god to "control people, gain money and political power"?

 

 

 

Since the dawn of mankind people have pondered and believed in the idea of a Deity in one way or another, before politics, common-currency and propaganda existed.

 

 

 

 

 

If your speaking specifically towards the Abrahimic god, please enlighten me on how one could go about creating such a philosophy and go about at profiting at it when there is no charge or payment of any kind. Also, at the birth of, and still, there is no political mass which can call itself ruling power of any of the Abrahimic religions, so I don't see who would be gaining political power or controlling people by a creation of a truly sincere philosophy.

 

 

 

As for your argument as to "why do humans sin if god created them". Well, there can be many interpretations of this depending on the point of view. In this case I will the view of the believers in the validity of the Old Testament, specifically Genesis. According to Genesis, god first held Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where they were constantly supervised and talked to by God. Eve then ate from the Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil (if i remember correctly), being the first sin of humanity. They were then kicked out of the garden, still retaining the power in which the fruit provided them - true free will - as well as the different relationship to god. My interpretation, and a common one, is that God had originally intended for Adam and Eve to eat the apple, and didn't want them to always be watched over. He wanted them, and their fellow humans, to be the rulers of the earth, comparably as he is the to the universe. He gave them the privilege to sin or do good, because of their ability to distinguish the good from the bad.

 

 

 

[hide=Side note]I'm starting to tire of all the encounters I have with "Atheists", mostly on the internet. It seems as though there are an increasing number of younger Atheists, around teenager age, that state that they are an "Atheist", and like the idea of being an "Atheist" yet don't really know why or what their motives are for being such - this is the very reason I use quotation marks. What I believe is that rebellious teens/tweens take it as a way of not-conforming which is totally the coolest thing to do, especially in such profound areas such as religion and theism. This isn't only true for Atheism, but for other things, and for other motives. Where people really don't know their true reasons for belonging in a certain group or having a certain philosophy. I don't want to only single out the younger of us, as I know many young people have the capability to have real objective opinions.[/hide]

[Rebdragon]

Wow this thread has come along way.

 

You're a tool. You know that, right?

[Joes_So_Cool]

Obviously. ;)

[zunee_boy]

I believe in 2 highly contradicted theories...

 

 

 

1.) A higher entity is out there, but sits back and watches. Kind of the deist theory.

 

 

 

2.) We created it in our minds as a way to trick ourselves into being right and just. We created Santa Claus to keep children from being naughty. We created the Boogieman to scare kids. Now, this doesn't explain creation, or any of the trick questions used, but it does explain some things. Where did the variations in religion come from? Well have you ever played the telephone game with a lot of ill-informed people; the story changes. One person hears about Jesus, the other doesn't. This can be proven just by looking at Romans, did they have any Deities before conquering lands? Not really. When they picked up the stories of the Greeks they got more Deities.

 

 

 

That's my opinion. I know it's highly flawed, and I am a Christian, but I've seen some flaws with the Christian belief (markedly Sol Invictus and Marduk) so I changed my opinion on the "true religion".

[Serpent Eye]

I... honestly don't know.

 

 

 

I was raised in a Christian home, but I don't think that means much now days. There's a difference between being raised to think something, and actually believing it.

 

 

 

Our family ran into some hardships a few years ago, and no one from our church reached out to help us in our time of crisis. As a consequence of our troubles, we were forced to move to another state. I haven't been to a church ever since that day. I've lost all faith in any sort of church.

 

 

 

That pretty much led to my losing faith in any sort of God - or at least, I stopped believing in the God that I was raised to believe in.

 

 

 

Is there a higher power out there? Maybe. But I haven't run into her/him yet. I have my whole life ahead of me to find out the answer to this question, as well as time to actually decide what it is I believe in.

[zunee_boy]

That happens a lot in established churches... They lose sight of the "Did thou clothe me whilst I was naked" quote. It also reinforces a deist theory that God just chuckled and sipped some coffee while pondering about the rock paradox.

[Serpent Eye]

That happens a lot in established churches... They lose sight of the "Did thou clothe me whilst I was naked" quote. It also reinforces a deist theory that God just chuckled and sipped some coffee while pondering about the rock paradox.

 

 

 

Agreed.

 

 

 

I don't really have a problem with any sort of organized religious group.

 

 

 

It just bothers me how some Christians lose sight of the fact that they need to be Christ-like.

 

 

 

I don't mean to imply that all churches are like this. I think this one in particular was just... skewed.