Thread: God's Name

Originally Posted by Hanna
I don't think anyone in Europe is fanatical about religion these days..

Originally Posted by Ramil

And suddenly Sgt. Cold steps in )))

100-1, he is American.

Sgt Cold - I hear you, but this is an open forum and you are more likely to put people off by this kind of talk, than attracting them. Generally in Europe, the type of view that you express is considered totally un-PC and even un-Christian. It's pretty unusual among Christians here. I don't adhere to it and I respect Moslems.
Out of interest, are you a King James bible only supporter too?

There ARE some (very few!) Europeans with protestant fundamentalist Christian views, but they almost never preach it to others. I have come across it in the North of Scandinavia, and in Scotland. There was such preaching in the village where I went to school for 6 years. But this old-fashioned protestantism is totally different from American Evangelicals (who can be cool, I think, apart from their political opinions). I don't think Catholics are generally fundamentalist in the same way as some Protestants are. They seem to have a more relaxed view, even those who are quite observant.

Dear people! Please do not make me to lock this topic.

I'm not religious, but I believe in God. If it was all up to me, if I were asked to choose whether I want to live in a world with a God or a world otherwise, I'm sure I'd pick the one with a God.

Originally Posted by Misha Tal

I'm not religious, but I believe in God. If it was all up to me, if I were asked to choose whether I want to live in a world with a God or a world otherwise, I'm sure I'd pick the one with a God.

+1.

Originally Posted by Misha Tal

I'm not religious, but I believe in God. If it was all up to me, if I were asked to choose whether I want to live in a world with a God or a world otherwise, I'm sure I'd pick the one with a God.

This looks like a first stage. It makes one's usual life more comfortable but may fail to help in a harder situation.

One recipe to go further is:
- to "look into the abyss until the abyss starts to look into you" (hi to Nietzsche!);
- to catch the glance (usually it requires many attempts) and keep it until you feel enough comfortable;
- to try to review your beliefs while keeping the feeling.

This kind of training usually leads to the faith of better quality but has a risk to obtain unexpected shift in beliefs, which may be in bad agreement with the traditions of your society.

Миша, зачем ты свой пост вытер? Там ничего, на мой взгляд, недопустимого не было. Хочешь я его восстановлю?

Originally Posted by Sgt. Cold

When you look at the big picture the Bible tells the story of the battle against God by the Luciferian forces who want to destroy God's creation, Man. Lucifer was kicked out from the place of God and condemned to roam Earth "seeking whom he may devour." In doing so you will see that we on Earth must make choices and be ready to discern between truth and the counterfeits that Lucifer has made as traps for us.

Funny enough, 90% of the Christian fundamentalist image of the devil and of hell come directly from Dante Alighieri and Milton, and not from the Bible. And their sources are also mostly apocryphal and not in the Bible.

Originally Posted by Hanna

An atheistic world doesn't appeal to me. What is there to aspire to other than materialism and physical gratification? Who is to say what's right or wrong if there is no religion? Then it's all subjective!

Well, as there is nothing all religions agree upon, it's subjective in religions as well. And as I said, I see no religion which does not produce hate towards others. You can easily come to ethical conclusions by philosophy alone, you don't have to fear any higher presence to be able to do that. Human rights are certainly no religious achievement but a humanist one. Our high general moral standards today, which allow for general human rights, freedom of religion, freedom of movement and so on were brought about because of the work of humanist thinkers but in spite of religion.

Not to mention that your life and how you live it is meaningless.

No, I can assure you, it's not. I see a lot of meaning in my life. A lot more than when religion tried to make me believe I was a worthless sinner capable only of sin and reduced to hoping fervently for absolvement after death.

Another thing you'd miss out on is Christian love (I assume there is something equivalent in Islam and Judaism).

No idea what "Christian love" is supposed to be.

I choose to believe that there is something more, and a power wiser than man; plus that the world is designed and not a spectacular but ultimately meaningless and random chance.

That's your right.

I can't understand people who aggressively campaign for atheism.

Well, there are people campaining for their religion to govern human life. I certainly don't want any religion to govern my life and cut down my freedom, so I am vocally (though not, I think, aggressively) against that. In my opinion, the world would be a much better place if we got rid of religion. I might be wrong on that count, but it would mean that man is even more worthless than religions make him out to be. I'm optimistic that education and a sound grounding in ethical thought without having hate groups like other nationalities or faiths to direct the aggression against would ultimately improve humanity.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Миша, зачем ты свой пост вытер? Там ничего, на мой взгляд, недопустимого не было. Хочешь я его восстановлю?

Ничего особенного. Спать хотелось, подустал от сотрясения воздуха. Не восстанови, пожалуйста.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Dear people! Please do not make me to lock this topic.

I was amazed at how this thread lasted as long as it did in such a polite and respectful manner on firestorm of a topic. Passions run deep and generations of old teachings and behaviors are hard to change; however, in the famous words of Rodney... Can't we all just get along?