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#11 |
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I have nothing against Arianism. Or against the OP's idea which is similar.
I think it takes very little to be a Christian-----a belief that Jesus did live, that He was born of God and the Virgin Mary, that He died and was resurrected. The rest of it is up for grabs and all can be considered Christian. It is only the natural and very "human" idea of "there must be an absolute concensus of opinion or all is lost" that has always screwed up Christianity historically and caused such division and bloodshed over the centuries. |
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#12 | |
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-Mike... |
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#13 |
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Sure ---
I'm pretty easy-going on what it takes to be a Christian. I do like the idea of Christ being half-God, half human though. And I like the idea of a resurrection--(not sure if it is important whether a spiritual or physical resurrection)-----------since it means to me that life after death is possible for all of us. I consider the idea of "original sin" to be probably bogus. Got to be a large stretch to find either that idea or the idea that Jesus died for our sins (original or otherwise) in the Bible.---------at least in the 4 Gospels. I am a cherry picker so I throw out what I don't accept in the Bible anyway. |
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#14 | |
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Boy is she pretty, I'll ignore the fact that she's a mass murderer and marry her because she's sooooo good looking. See what a wonderful person I am, I only see beauty, where others see evil. :banghead: |
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#15 | |
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#16 | |
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I think this idea of Christ's dying to save us from our sins (original or otherwise) was just tacked on to Christianity many centuries later (by committee urged on strongly by the Romans to make a unanimous position about the whole confused idea of Christianity ---and most certainly for political reasons------300 years after the fact---- to make the OT agree somewhat with the NT. Hey---we are all free thinkers, I hope. We can all read the Bible, especially the words of Jesus and make sense of it how we can. And we are just as smart as those members of the Council of Nicea and we have the advantage that no one is going to look over our shoulder and tell us "we are wrong and therefore can be fed to the lions" Hey-------- Read the Bible with a skeptical outlook. (Especially read the 4 Gospels and read them much more seriously than Paul--- and throw Revelations in the trash can where it belongs) Pitch out what does not make any sense and keep what does. And in doing that will you be a true Christian--unencumbered by centuries on centuries of mayhem and bloodshed and falseness. Just shows how mankind can screw up a wet dream if given half a chance. Christianity can be very simple. Jesus wanted it so. |
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#17 | |
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rational BAC
And I like the idea of a resurrection--(not sure if it is important whether a spiritual or physical resurrection)-----------since it means to me that life after death is possible for all of us. Would it be fair to say that the possibility of an afterlife is the largest factor which draws you to Christianity? Quote:
-Mike... |
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#18 |
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Do you like also the concept of "the Square Circle" for example, to lay beside your pleasure in the idea of "the Half-God half-human"?
Doing that/those is certainly your privilege, of course; as playing with (mental & other human) toys always is. Life wd be unspeakably-boring were it not for all those great TOYS available to us; shit, we'd have nothing to do but watch ballgames & sit-coms and pick our fur for lice & salt. I am troubled by letting such concepts into the discussion-mix tho; because (altho Bright Folks Like Us do not BELIEVE in those) there ARE other human beings who DO BELIEVE in them; and do bad things to one-another based on those beliefs. *If* the traditional/"orthodox" definitions of "god" and "human" WERE real >>>i.e. if they referred to anything ACTUALLY-extant, then those terms would be mutually-exclusive and hence non-miscible (as you'ld enjoy to have them). Based on the old-down-home Logical Sentence #One that "A is A" and "Not-A is not A." THEN, Because of the (standard working) definition of "god", a human being cannot be "god", because of the standard working definition of "human". Sic, "man is mortal". Might it not be healthier to discard those damned Platonic boxes altogether; rather than trying to graft them into each other, to produce those crazy-making *tertium quids"? Is all this too-far-gone from topic? Abe |
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#19 | |
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Religion is quite like Superman. You are asked to suspend belief. You are asked to believe that such things are possible: that man can fly, that man can stop speeding train, that One plus One plus One is One. It's a leap of faith, man. And in this leap, there is only one crime: to think. Or to question. God impregnated Mary with his "seeds." That sounds like abuse of power or--to the extremists--rape. But here again, you are asked not to think. God did not rape Mary because he is Gods. Our standard cannot be used to measure him. But his standards are used to measure us. If you think that isn't fair is because you are not listening. I shall repeat it again: in religion, you are not supposed to think. |
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#20 | |
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