Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

amvaap

I agree that terminology is problematic, for example, you pointing out how man defines Religion ( man doing for God ) is to me actually how man and our seeker friendly churches define worship. Conversely, true Christian worship is defined by who God is and what God has accomplished for man. In my opinion, in the past, anything that provided both promise and judgement often times was called god. Of course only the one true God of creation can deliver on both, but mankind today won't accept judgement only promise, so science & atheism have replaced both God & god.

J Anthony Loc: Connecticut

I think you're wrong. Science is not a religion, and cannot replace God, but has likely brought us closer to God.

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

There is no doubt that science has made life much easier in many ways. I don't think there is a battle between God and science, because God is knowledge.

I think the big problem is between scientist and God. After all science is the exploration and attempt to define Gods creation.

I think it is the scientist who don;t want to admit the t***h of Gods existence.

dslagowski

Both this and your other statement are right on. THANK YOU!

Scientist are Men/Women with huge egos, God on the other hand gave man a brain and allowed them to use it. Scientists have found missing time in the bible so they had to give God credit finally.

The problem as I see it is religion has gotten into being big business. What religious people need to do is seek out a church that has good bible teachings vs. feel good teachings, and the later is where a lot of churches have strayed. Unfortunately they know and will have to answer for this themselves. True religion is in your heart and your relationship with God himself, as I see it.

Oliver Loc: Dayton, OH

Every "religion" and "denomination" one can name in its own eyes is "true"; however, in reality only that faith that teaches repentance of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as the one and only way to the Father is true. Christ is t***h personified when He said, "I am the Way, the T***h, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me." John 14:6

Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

I guess that's why people are leaving traditional churches...that's why we left...people get hung up on one issue and the whole "house of cards" comes down. I'm done with church it's an impediment to faith.

Oliver Loc: Dayton, OH

If there is a Messianic congregation somewhere around your location, you might try it. The saying "try it, you'll like it" may not always be true but sometimes it is.

amvaap

Amen and Nuf Said.

waltmoreno

As a former catholic who went to catholic schools for 12 years, served as an alter boy, I learned precious little about true religion. All that pomp and circumstance became irrelevant overnight when I joined the military at 17. For years thereafter, I sought religion in various churches which were always filled with pew-potatoes, led by one-verse-charlie pastors, spoon feeding the congregation milk and talking about traditions of men. My appetite for religion could only be satisfied by raw red meat, figuratively speaking. And one-day I finally stumbled on the teacher - online of all places. Hosted by it's founder, Arnold Murray, a no-nonsense, former combat marine, Shepherd's Chapel teaches the Bible line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. To say I was floored by what I learned the Bible REALLY said, would not be an understatement! Beginning with what happened in the Garden of Eden. Forget about Adam and Eve eating an apple! The bible doesn't even say anything about an apple as I'd been taught. Pastor Murray, when necessary, goes back to the original text in Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic to explain exactly what each line of the text really says. It's nothing like what I'd ever been taught - anywhere. I know that Murray has his detractors on line but that's to be expected in this age. Also it's very satisfying to learn all about Biblical prophecy including what Christ told the apostles, when they asked him when he would return. Knowing that we're now in the final generation, the Generation of the Fig Tree, let's me better understand world events as they come to pass daily. To me, true religion is knowing and understanding the letter God has written to each one of us, the Bible.

amvaap

Amen Brother.

Neal

Guess I pretty well stopped reading after the second sentence, amvaap. When a writer states that they "know there is a God," it's obvious that writer is badly confused.

A great many people on this earth BELIEVE there is a God, but not one living human being KNOWS. The claim to know something based on hearsay is an admission of ignorance. The bible is hearsay.

Man is capable of saying ANYTHING and of believing ANYTHING. KNOWING, however, is a very different matter. When you claim to KNOW, you are saying, in effect you have EVIDENCE supporting this knowledge. Evidence - the real thing - MUST be based in physical reality.

In the meantime, if your beliefs make you more comfortable in this world - be my guest. Please however, don't think of me as anti-religious. I am merely anti-ignorance.

waltmoreno

I disagree. As a practicing trial and criminal defense attorney, I know that even a court, which strictly regulates the evidence jurors can hear, must admit circumstantial evidence in addition to direct evidence. That way jurors can decide for themselves whether there is enough evidence to meet wh**ever the standard is in any particular case ( ie., proof beyond a reasonable doubt, preponderance of evidence, etc.). I would agree that the Bible IS hearsay evidence but the evidence is so compelling that only those who have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear can deny it. Either Jesus was exactly who he said he was, which is borne out by countless eyewitnesses, or he was a liar and has perpetuated the greatest h**x on humanity.

amvaap

Once again I believe you repress the knowledge of God that shines all around you both day & night. You deny a creator God that burdens your conscience because you're still a s***e to your sin. I was once like you, so I know exactly where you're coming from and what you are erroneously feeling, but now I've been set free from that treadmill. In my past I, like you, had to deny God, it was imperative that I did because if I didn't deny God that would mean I might need to bow to him and ask to be forgiven for being sinful and disobedient to a perfect, sovereign God plus if God is a God of justice, then God would justly judge me not worthy of being in his perfect presence leaving me to spend eternity apart from him because of his justice and my own hardheartedness ? I once put my faith in "science" instead God. Science which claimed everything came from nothing, for no apparent reason and for no real purpose. Believing THAT is what takes faith , BLIND faith as a matter of fact. You closed by saying you're anti-ignorance. I'll close with a verse from 1st Corinthians 1: 18, 23...FOR THE WORD OF THE CROSS IS FOLLY TO THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING, BUT TO US WHO ARE BEING SAVED IT IS THE POWER OF GOD. FOR IT IS WRITTEN "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL THWART. WHERE IS THE WISE MAN, WHERE IS THE SCRIBE? WHERE IS THE DEBATER OF THIS AGE? HAS NOT GOD MADE FOOLISH THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD? FOR SINCE, IN THE WISDOM OF GOD, THE WORLD DID NOT KNOW GOD THROUGH WISDOM, IT PLEASED GOD THROUGH THE FOLLY OF WHAT WE PREACH TO SAVE THOSE WHO BELIEVE. FOR JEWS DEMAND SIGNS AND GREEKS SEEK WISDOM, BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, THE STUMBLING BLOCK TO JEWS AND FOLLY TO GENTILES, quote=Neal]Guess I pretty well stopped reading after the second senl I needed to make it beleivable was throw in that it took billions and billions of years. Heck, who can argue with that right...lol..tence, amvaap. When a writer states that they "know there is a God," it's obvious that writer is badly confused.

A great many people on this earth BELIEVE there is a God, but not one living human being KNOWS. The claim to know something based on hearsay is an admission of ignorance. The bible is hearsay.

Man is capable of saying ANYTHING and of believing ANYTHING. KNOWING, however, is a very different matter. When you claim to KNOW, you are saying, in effect you have EVIDENCE supporting this knowledge. Evidence - the real thing - MUST be based in physical reality.

In the meantime, if your beliefs make you more comfortable in this world - be my guest. Please however, don't think of me as anti-religious. I am merely anti-ignorance.[/quote]

waltmoreno

Hmmm, 'evidence must be based on physical reality'. What does that mean? I guess to nonbelievers it means that they had to be living when Christ walked the earth and witness firsthand the miracles He performed. We base countless decision every day on purely circumstantial evidence. Which is defined in law as 'evidence which does not directly prove the fact to be decided but is evidence of another fact or group of facts from which one may conclude the t***h of the fact in question.' In law, both direct and circumstantial evidence are equally acceptable; neither is considered more reliable than the other. I too am anti-ignorance. That's why I freely choose to believe the compelling evidence of infinitely powerful, all knowing, Creator from the circumstantial evidence of our own wonderous bodies, to the overwhelming evidence of all living things on earth, to the vast unknowable reaches in space inhabited by countless heavenly bodies, to our earthly catherdrals in nature, etc.