cardboard adolescent

I believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn. And Discordianism is not a parody religion... it's also not not a parody religion...

SATCHMO

The title of the thread is How real is Christianity?, and using that question as a starting point, I have to say that Christianity is very real. It's reality as an organized religion and a socio-political force is manifested daily in the lives of most of the inhabitants of the westernized world, whether we are capable of directly observing it, or not.

If, however, we instead ask the question How much validity is there to Christianity?, then there is still some ambiguity to the question. Are we talking about pre - American fundamentalist Christianity? Do we separate the Pentateuch from the rest of the Old Testament, and that from the New Testament when examining the Holy Bible as a religious text containing truth? Do we apply a literal interpretation to the mythological stories in Genesis of Creation, The Fall ,and The Great Flood, all of which are mythological archetypes that pre-date even the earliest of Old Testament writings? There are a myriad of questions beyond these regarding a the validity of the Judeo-Christian faith.

If we open our scope a bit wider to deal with Theism in general, there are also many questions that beg an answer. When you say "God" are you referring to the same ineffable concept as I am when i say "God"? How can we have a proper discourse on the subject if we do not know with any real certainty that we are referring to the same thing. If there is one god, as intimated in monotheism, then doesn't it stand to reason that any theistic religion, including polytheism, is communicating its own unique understanding of the same entity? Again, there are again many questions beyond these to address at this level as well.

If you widen the scope even further and speak of spirituality in general, there are still more questions to be asked. Can spirituality and humankind's apparent desire to have an awareness of that which is perceived to be divine point to an intrinsically human, even biological need to have communion with that which is perceived to lay beyond ourselves? Can we as rational human beings reasonably engage in an act of rational, objective observation when quantum physics has shown us that the mere act of observation has a direct effect on that which is being observed? Is there a single unified and pervasive force that is connected to our consciousness, as well as all living and non-living things, which allows us through a conscious act of directed intention (i.e. faith) to manifest the product of our mind into physical realm, thus equating to our own beliefs creating our own reality? There are many valid questions beyond these which that must be answered before coming to a definitive conclusion about the nature of absolute reality.

We place a lot of emphasis on being logical and rational human beings capable of utilizing our own reason for the sake of making essential discernments regarding the nature of reality, but a quick glance at the true essence of human nature, namely the illusory quality of human thought and observation is reflective of us being anything but reasonable and rational, and the reality of Christianity is only one way in which this is manifested in our world.

cardboard adolescent

What quantum mechanics shows (this might be pedantic, but I think there's a profound truth hidden here somewhere) is that what we thought of as "observation" is really interaction. It's not really that observation changes the state of what's observed, but that observation is the result of that change in state. A photon interacts with an atom, causing the atom and the photon to change states, and then that photon interacts with another atom, causing the state of that atom and the photon to change again. Observation is just that change of states, all of a sudden a point in my vision that was red is green. Where is the observer? The observer is everywhere and nowhere, but everything that is physically present is a field in constant flux. There is no point in that field that we could call "the observer," just various points that are interacting with all the other points.

The "measurement problem," the notion that we can't know what a particle is really doing because we change it by shooting light at it, is kind of like going up to a meditating monk, shaking him out of his meditation, and asking, "what are you feeling?" It's only a problem because there's a mistake inherent to the approach itself.

MAStudent

"There is no way to the father but by me"

The most misunderstood phrase in western civilization

midnight rain

What the **** are you on about? I'd be willing to bet that half the people in this thread have been given a chance to embrace Christianity by someone else and chose not to. It's a choice, no one is telling me to do anything. This is the same as the cellphone bull**** you were ranting about in the other thread. You can't believe that someone would have a differing choice or opinion than you, so you assume that they are being told to do it. Some people like having cell phones and some choose to embrace Christianity, get over that hump because it's getting rather tiring.

Yeah, an opinion I'm perfectly fine with. Don't come in here and tell me I'm being told to do something, I've chosen my path, have you chosen yours?
I'm not preaching about anything, you came in here and moronically assumed that every Christian is being told to believe what he believes in and that we don't have our own voice.

Find a new cause, the rebellion against the greatest power to exist is a tired one.

Is this your way of trying to end your post with something mesmerizing that will stop and make me think or just another lame, throwaway comment of yours?