deleted

Post Reply New Topic

It's more popular these days to be afraid of vampires and werewolves. You are out of touch.

It sounds like your religious beliefs are geared totally by fear. Personally, even though I do believe in God and all, I think it's sort of pointless to go to church and things like that if all you are really worried about is going to hell. I've recently learned more and more theists don't believe in hell (or at least not in the traditionalist hell where you burn in fire for eternity if you're "bad" or don't believe in God). I say all this because what I got from your post was this: you don't want to read the Bible, I suppose you weren't motivated enough to find another church (perhaps one with a Bible study for people your age, one where you could ask the questions you have), and you don't understand anything about your beliefs (probably because of the aforementioned things).

Personally I'm very interested in apologetics so reading the Bible, studying it, etc is something I love doing. IMO, it's hard to understand what your beliefs are unless you take an interest in them and actually study them a bit, talk about them with others, put a lot of thought into it. Some people can just go ask a minister 'how can I not go to hell' and be satisfied with an answer, but I wouldn't be. I'd be happy to talk to you about it, I don't know how much I could answer though

P.S. atheists will always comment in threads like these, lol

Hellfear topic

I used to belong to the religion of my childhood, but the pastor always stated that the Bible was written by inspired believers, and that god had limitations, in that this deity helped those who helped themselves. I suppose it was more Unitarian. There was no concept of Hell, per se, but that God would judge you at some point individually. There are so many horribly evil humans (Stalin, Hilter, Milosevic, Pol Pot) that, reasonably speaking, you need not fear your god to be zealous in punishing someone who has mere doubts about his/her faith.

You just do the best you can in this life.

I some good (or bad) news for you people...

During the Second Century CE the Fathers of the Church needed an explanation as to why evil existed, and removed Jesus declaring himself Lucifer (because that is what the original translation of 'Morning Star' was; it was during Rome remember) from Revelation. They twisted the meaning of Isiah 14 to say Nebuchadnezzar could not possibly do that fall and interpreted it as if there was a rebellion, etc. I believe Origen of Alexandria said the final word on it.

Satan is merely a word; negatively (in most religious cases) it is a word of dominance: by making you believe someone is out to get you, they try to control you. But religion does not need to have an evil to do good; it just seems that way to most. You are worried about what other people think God is. In reality God is the only one who can punish you and you cannot let what other people say about what He "does" to try to live to their ideals get to you. Religion should be an experience from within, not based on what other people tell you about their God and what they "think" He thinks (the whole concept of organized religion disturbs me).

Actually, if you are determined to be scared, cancer or heart disease or poison ivy or farting in a crowded elevator does very nicely and there are witnesses to prove it. Neither ministers nor the Bible is very informative on these.