Archive for June, 2010
K, I’m not asking you to become Christian if your not or whatever-and it’s none of my business if you believe in Christ or not-whatever your choice-I still frickin love you guys!
But what I meant to ask is how did you find your faith in Christ or how did you come to your religious belief. Below is my short story, maybe it’s "inspiring", i dunno…
A couple years ago, I attended a church-related event that dealt with the Day of Judgment. At the time, I didn’t really know what to believe because I was going through quite a chaotic time in my life. Anyways, at the of this event, we all went in a room (like 20 of us) and prayed with a pastor. At the end, the pastor said, "If you have never heard this prayer before, please raise your hand." Being the oblivious and rather rational person, I raise my hand because I never had heard said prayer. Then the pastor whisks me away to go chat with another pastor-I assume he thought I was not saved or something, i dunno, it was kinda creepy. Anyways, I sat with this other pastor for like 20 minutes trying to make me believe in Christ. I already did believe in him-or so I thought. After some time and thinking about that whole interesting experience-I realized I really wasn’t connected with Christ. Me having issues with my sexuality got in the way as well. But then after some extensive research, I realized, "Wow, Jesus really does love me!" I felt so ashamed that I hadn’t accepted him as my savior before, so I prayed for his forgivness.
Now, I feel him in my heart all the time. 
@Detective Renee: I am being 100% truthful
If that is a contradiction. How is it that I can love God, Love being who I am, and love the sciences?
I take the Bible metaphorically. Yes, there are loads of contradictions, but I’ve done my research (I even did the OT and NT in college) and what it came down to for me was that God created who I am and God loves me for it.
Here is another concept-science CANNOT prove anything! Almost everything is a theory (technically, it is still the Theory of Gravity) and to coincide with Duran’s answer, science can still not prove the Big Bang. Reality and Spirituality are on two total different levels and science tries to prove all things-when it can’t.
I have, as they say, lost faith. Not for an emotional reason, but to be fully honest, the instant I stopped attending church I lost all concern for religion or God. If it is so distant that I must constantly chant and expose myself to social conditioning, then why should I mourn the loss? I’ve also come to learn how violent a history God has, which makes me reluctant to go back.
Why do you feel shame? What did Jesus lack before this revelation?
—edit—
I understand that science, being founded upon classical philosophy, cannot prove anything, but for some things (for example gravity) that really is just a technicality. Maybe gravity works differently than we know, but there’s still a net Newtonian effect. I can’t disprove the proposal that everything is an elaborate hoax, or that, despite all we know about aging, people once lived to be 700 years old and then all trace of them disappeared.
But I wanted to comment, that it doesn’t really matter. Science was just not designed to dictate with politics and law. Religion was, and has been doing so for a quite a while. To use science to promote any political agenda is a fundamental misunderstanding of its nature, yet it happens everywhere you look (and this goes for people of all backgrounds and creeds).
Religion, as I have seen it, is much less of bad science and much more of bad law. If your culture infringes on the rights of others, something is wrong. If your culture demands penalties of more harm than the crime committed, there is something horribly wrong.
Out of all of the stories in the Bible, which one do you think is the most tragic?
If you believe that the Bible was written or inspired by God, why do you think this story was included in the Bible? Even if you believe that the story is historically accurate–why this story out of all of the other stories in humanity?
If you believe that the Bible is a collection of stories written & collected by humans, but not inspired by any god, why do you think this story might have been included?
Thanks for your thoughts!
For me, the book of Job.
I once tried to read through the Bible, cover to cover, but stopped there. The whole concept of it upset and angered me. Job didn’t deserved to be used as a pawn :(.
I realized after reading it that I was angry at God, and felt what he did was despicable. As a Christian, I’m not really supposed to be worthy of questioning my god, so I figured either my feelings or my faith had to change.
I couldn’t change my feelings so..That story shapes my beliefs today. Also, it didn’t make me think too highly of organized religion.