I have faith. My life revolves around this faith.
I need no book to remind me of this or to preach to me of what comes from my heart. I live my faith.
Faith comes from within oneself and is not inclusive to any one religion.
I am not a Christian or a member of any of the mainstream religions. I am Wiccan. My faith in my beliefs is as strong as that which others have in their own particular religions. Just because I do not belive in one God, but in the balance of a God and a Goddess, does not make my faith any less intense than some would like to believe it to be.
I also believe in tolerance of all faiths, beliefs and non-beliefs. There is room for us all.
I love these discussions because they make me think. They also make me wonder what it is exactly that I have faith in.
:???:
Religion is the unrelenting following of a doctrine.
Faith is different. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
If you do not have faith, you cannot understand it.
I'm totally cool with it. Jesus said some smart things. Not everyone follows those teachings or those beliefs. Doesn't mean I don't have faith in the essential goodness of humanity. Pretty much every religion has a Creator and Destroyer somewhere in there. Lots of belief systems have a resurrection myth. We all find the Creator talking to us.
Faith is different. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith cannot be proven in the five senses, no matter HOW many times OjnhA asks for it. But then again we don't need to prove it. We have the evidence. Hebrews 11:1 is the evidence.
see thats what you dont see and i do ... because its written dont make it true and IS NO EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING except the fact the somebody wrote something in a book .
What is evident is the fact that some people follow claims / statements written in a ancient book and believe them to be true, when in fact there is no prove or any kind of evidence to back those claims up ...
[quote="East17 @ Sat 10 Sep, 2005 8:03 am"]
Religion is the unrelenting following of a doctrine.
Faith is different. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
Correct tahat is religion and faith is as you stated waht some of thses folks have is religious doctrine mistaken for faith .
Everybody has faith at the present time faith in the fact that the devastation in new orleans will one day be over and the folks there wilL be rehoused ETC and the death toll will not be as much as predicted ..that faith in the human spirit nothing to do with a unseen god or men on pointy hats , just faith in the goodness of men will overcome the forces of nature ,god if he exists has done his part he LET the harricane exist and distroy life and property
If you don't need to prove it (conveniently) and a passage in a book written a long time ago by multiple, anonymous authors is the "evidence", then how can anyone claim it to be the "true word"?
Man's words are powerful - so powerful that we are able to apply them to an unseen deity and expect them to carry even more weight than perhaps they deserve.
True faith is believing in yourself and your fellow man to do the right thing, without fearing some threat in the afterlife or some reward that will never come.
Christian faith is believing that the Bible is the word of GOD, not of men. It is far too complex and intricate for any human or group of humans to dream up.
I don't fear any threat in the afterlife. I am saved, I am going to heaven when Christ comes back. No matter what I have done in my life, I have turned to God and I am ready to go to heaven. The only judgement is for non-Christians and they will be judged *by their good works*. Not by their works. By their *good* works. So if you follow Jesus' second commandment you will possibly see me in the afterlife. Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is the season ticket, it guarantees you the seat.
see thats what you dont see and i do ... because its written dont make it true and IS NO EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING except the fact the somebody wrote something in a book .
OjnhA, I see we are always going to go in circles here. Just because the definition of faith is in a book that you don't believe in, doesn't mean to say it is false!
Thou shalt not kill - that is in the Bible. You believe in that, right?
Love thy neighbour - that's in there too. You believe in that too, yeah?
So why dismiss a perfectly good description of faith just because it circles back in on itself by being written in something you have no faith in?
Christian faith is believing that the Bible is the word of GOD, not of men. It is far too complex and intricate for any human or group of humans to dream up.
I don't fear any threat in the afterlife. I am saved, I am going to heaven when Christ comes back. No matter what I have done in my life, I have turned to God and I am ready to go to heaven. The only judgement is for non-Christians and they will be judged *by their good works*. Not by their works. By their *good* works. So if you follow Jesus' second commandment you will possibly see me in the afterlife. Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is the season ticket, it guarantees you the seat.
Yes but it is a documented fact that much of Christianity bears more than a passing resemblance to other, older religions and as such, the bible contains parables and stories which are part of older cultures. It has survived and progressed through absorbtion of the older cultures and traditions, assimilating the parts which were acceptable and banishing those which were not.
To suggest this is too complex or intricate for humans to dream up is frankly very naive. I suggest a good course of study in actual history, especially the history of those civilisations which invented things like Code of Laws.
All the same, glad you are happy with your lot in life and confident of what happens to you at the end. Personally, I'm hoping the lights go off for good at the end as I doubt it will ever better what is available in the here and now, when we put our minds to good.
The eternal life starts when you confess Jesus Christ as Lord. It is immediately better than it was.
I know Christianity absorbed a lot of stories and beliefs from other religions. The Trinity is one of them. It's not Biblical. They added it in later as a compromise to get people with multideity religions to accept it more easily.
To suggest this is too complex or intricate for humans to dream up is frankly very naive.
Naive in the five senses realm, yes.
Alexander The Great was a God. Three wise holy men examined him and declared that he had been conceived in a "virgin birth" The son of a GOD and human female.
These stories were told of various great or famous people including Julius Cesare.
There is nothing new in the jesus story that had not already been told before.
Some American Indians had beliefs that involved similar spirit/human interaction.
Thou shalt not kill - that is in the Bible. You believe in that, right?
Love thy neighbour - that's in there too. You believe in that too, yeah?
Well of course i beleive in not * to kill* and* love thy neighbour* but there again you are mixing things up, those words or in other books in other works and are common decency laws for man to exist with with one onother, nothing to do with believing in a good just humanitariam laws to follow . somebody put thes two *rules for coexistance with others humans * in a book and said it was gods * commandment *
going by the old testament as you are when quoting the*commandments * as being the word of god if we believe in that then the book must be true and WE should believe in it , then slavery should the order of the day as thats in the OT as well as the not kill and love they nighbour bits ..
your still not getting it are you???
as has been pointed out to you on this thread by many of us WE HAVE FAITH IN WHATS RIGHT AND WHATS WRONG ..dont need a book to tell us . your faith is based on WHATS WRITTEN IN A BOOK As you repeatidly quote from the bible
.
others herelike myself figure out for themselves what is and what is not right /good dont need a fictional god to tell them
READ THIS ..AN OLDE BUT GOODIE
http//www.positiveatheism.org/hist/rusisgod.htm
Thou shalt not kill - that is in the Bible. You believe in that, right?
Love thy neighbour - that's in there too. You believe in that too, yeah?
Well of course i belive in not * to kill* and* love thy neighbour* but there again you are mixing things up, those words or in other books in other works and are common decency laws for man to exist with with one onother, nothing to do with believing in a good just humanitariam laws to follow . somebody put thes two *rules for coexistence with others humans * in a book and said it was gods * commandment *
going by the old testament as you are when quoting the*commandments * as being the word of god if we believe in that then the book must be true and WE should believe in it , then slavery should the order of the day as thats in the OT as well as the not kill and love they nighbour bits ..
your still not getting it are you???
as has been pointed out to you on this thread by many of us WE HAVE FAITH IN WHATS RIGHT AND WHATS WRONG ..dont need a book to tell us . your faith is based on WHATS WRITTEN IN A BOOK As you repeatedly quote from the bible
.
others herelike myself figure out for themselves what is and what is not right /good dont need a fictional god to tell them
It's futile John.
I had a personal experience with some one that I've know for years and until recently was quite normal.
She had a Colon Cancer op about 6 weeks ago and because of her age she developed Pneumonia and for about a week was in a coma. She doesn't remember much about her 3 week stay in hospital, but she did have an "experience".
When I spoke to her the other day it all came out. She felt the presence of God and said it with that sickly smile that " Born Agains " have. Quite scarry.
You must be surrouded by them down in Texas.