Damn. You guys fool me every time! I see a new post and I think it's discussion time ... Foiled again. I knew there weren't lots of Christians here, though.:love:

By far, I respect people's faith and don't feel it's necessary to attack them all the time (believe it or not). I'm more likely to bring up the subject when religious faith leads to something which I think is negative, like the idea of teaching kids creationist theories instead of scientific theories or if it leads to unfair treatment of people in society etc. Usually, I only meet people like that on forums and often, they're the ones attacking so then I play the role of defender against religion.

I may seem like it, but on the whole, I don't think I'm a very aggressive anti-religious person and I don't think there's much point in persecuting people for their faith if that faith doesn't harm anyone.

I have a love/hate with Christianity, because I love to study the bible and other religious texts, but I spent a lot of time in the church and felt that I could only fakely smile and nod when it comes to open discussion about the bible and personal faith. Christ's message has a great deal of spiritual wisdom inherent in it. It's unfortunate that all that wisdom largely goes ignored and his life has been turned into a glorified mathematical equation which gets us out of an eternal hell/heaven that doesn't exist.

SATCHMO, I agree, I think religious teachings and writings (not just christianity) can be immense sources of wisdom and philosophical insights. It's a bit sad to see that so many people don't treat them as such.

Sometimes when a metaphor is taken literally, it often distracts from what the metaphor is actually trying to tell.

Absolutely.

The Bible was written by many men that had supposedly talked to God and written the word from God. Personally I believe that even if God had spoken to them they would write down anything they wanted to add. People are known for being followers always needing something to believe in, Santa, Easter Bunnie whatever. Even if this God had some points of "facts" in the bible man could have and most likely did add things they wanted as well. There will never be any proof of any of this. All I know is God seemed so "evil" in the first bible and in the second seemed so touching and forgiving.

I do believe in something, I'm not really sure what. I do not believe in any bible.

It's a bit silly of God perhaps to trust several guys with this extremely important task of writing down his messages. Rather, he should've set his words in stone or something like he supposedly did for Moses on Sinai when he recieved the 10 commandments.

Its been said that Moses was high on some sort of natural herb and that why he seen whatever it was he seen. He was up there for what 40 days and nights.. more then enough time to carve things into stone.. and be stoned.:p:

Heck, why should he settle for stone? He is God after all, why not set his words down in some kind of unbreakable, unalterable divine substance. Then there would be no question.

I agree with what you two (tore and satchmo) have to say and I think it is possible to discuss this matter without attacking people, and if being offended is the result of reading someone's opinion, perhaps some further discussion is necessary, or even the complete opposite.

I can see why most don't want to contribute to this thread. I also see it as an attack. I am not religious, but this does not mean that I don't respect another person's belief. I believe that I practice this perspective constantly as I live right on the bible belt. I must admit that it is rather difficult to remain docile in dealing with Christians around here because they tend to push their beliefs on others. I see the spiritual benefits in religion, but also realize that I can be spiritual without religion.