Islam, a growing threat to the free world?

[Existentialist]

Oh.... probably when he came along to figure it all out.

About 1990 then?

In that case, I agree with him. Anything before then is ancient like he says.

[Watson]

I was born in 1993, in an era where I am fortunate enough to have a great amount of information on how the universe came to be, and how the things that occur within it occur. I turn to God(specifically in 2009 after a brief stint with atheism) for answers as to why the universe came to be, and why the things that occur within it occur.

So far, His answers have been pretty damn reasonable. Perfectly, in fact.

@DeistPaladin:
God didn't write the Bible. Man did. So while God may not change, our perception of Him can. Our understanding of Him can. And once we compare our understanding of Him to the Bible, we begin to shed light upon it's principles and knowledge.

But God is not contained within the Bible, as you seem to think He is. So man may not have gotten everything about God right the first time, sure. But God got it right the first time, when He created the universe itself.

I don't claim to understand the Bible any better than Luther or pre-modern Christian thinkers ever did. I'm sure they could beat me by leaps and bounds in that regard. But that's not the point I was making. A literal interpretation of the Bible was fed to people for hundreds of years because, you have to remember, only a few copies of the Bible even existed. Preachers and leaders could spin it anyway they liked, and the people would accept it because they had no access to it themselves.

In an age where anyone who pleases can have access to the Bible, and it's teachings, we would expect that deeper thinkers would come out of the wood-work and correct the interpretations of old. Obviously, that is what happened. People who understood God*, but had no access to the Bible in olden times, began to say 'Hey, wait a minute.'

*I re-iterate; God is not contained within the Bible. The Bible is a book about God, written by men. Once the Bible got into the hands of the common man, who thought about things and came to understand God quite well, it's words were more clearly and accurately spread throughout the world.

@Thor:
Please, point me to the individuals in your life, and otherwise, who hold said 'out-dated' interpretation as their core beliefs. I only know one person who has that kind of thought process. Most other people I talk to understand that the Bible is not meant to be taken the way most of you guys are taking it.

@Chuck:
There is a more effective way in which God communicats with us; it's called life. Do you think the authors of the Bible were just talking out their asses? ...Nevermind, dont answer that. The snarky remark I will obviously get in return isn't worth the time on either of our parts.

The point I'm making is that the Bible isa collection of observations about life as it relates to God. They were observing God in real life, and describing Him and His ways as best as they could with their limited human ability and knowledge. They did not include, nor did they even get correct, everything about God within the Bible.

He is far too vast for one book to contain.

[Ashendant]

I was born in 1993, in an era where I am fortunate enough to have a great amount of information on how the universe came to be, and how the things that occur within it occur. I turn to God(specifically in 2009 after a brief stint with atheism) for answers as to why the universe came to be, and why the things that occur within it occur.
...........

The only justification i can find for god creating the world is because he was bored, and he planted the Tree of good and evil, so he could laugh his ass off

[little_monkey]

I was born in 1993, in an era where I am fortunate enough to have a great amount of information on how the universe came to be, and how the things that occur within it occur. I turn to God(specifically in 2009 after a brief stint with atheism) for answers as to why the universe came to be, and why the things that occur within it occur.

So far, His answers have been pretty damn reasonable. Perfectly, in fact.

@DeistPaladin:
God didn't write the Bible. Man did. So while God may not change, our perception of Him can. Our understanding of Him can. And once we compare our understanding of Him to the Bible, we begin to shed light upon it's principles and knowledge.

But God is not contained within the Bible, as you seem to think He is. So man may not have gotten everything about God right the first time, sure. But God got it right the first time, when He created the universe itself.

I don't claim to understand the Bible any better than Luther or pre-modern Christian thinkers ever did. I'm sure they could beat me by leaps and bounds in that regard. But that's not the point I was making. A literal interpretation of the Bible was fed to people for hundreds of years because, you have to remember, only a few copies of the Bible even existed. Preachers and leaders could spin it anyway they liked, and the people would accept it because they had no access to it themselves.

In an age where anyone who pleases can have access to the Bible, and it's teachings, we would expect that deeper thinkers would come out of the wood-work and correct the interpretations of old. Obviously, that is what happened. People who understood God*, but had no access to the Bible in olden times, began to say 'Hey, wait a minute.'

*I re-iterate; God is not contained within the Bible. The Bible is a book about God, written by men. Once the Bible got into the hands of the common man, who thought about things and came to understand God quite well, it's words were more clearly and accurately spread throughout the world.

@Thor:
Please, point me to the individuals in your life, and otherwise, who hold said 'out-dated' interpretation as their core beliefs. I only know one person who has that kind of thought process. Most other people I talk to understand that the Bible is not meant to be taken the way most of you guys are taking it.

@Chuck:
There is a more effective way in which God communicats with us; it's called life. Do you think the authors of the Bible were just talking out their asses? ...Nevermind, dont answer that. The snarky remark I will obviously get in return isn't worth the time on either of our parts.

The point I'm making is that the Bible isa collection of observations about life as it relates to God. They were observing God in real life, and describing Him and His ways as best as they could with their limited human ability and knowledge. They did not include, nor did they even get correct, everything about God within the Bible.

He is far too vast for one book to contain.

Hey dude, you sound desperate. Get a life.

[Watson]

Haha, you too, dude.

[A Theist]

A theist, the reason why they would be burn people at a stake, is rather merciful. They would burn people at a stake to show them what hell would be like, thus, so they would reprent. I completely agree with the Deist Paldain. Any religion who has to 'save souls' or fight some Dualstic devil can commit intellectual suicide and kill people. I was in a Bible study yesterday and someone prayed that the rain would stop, because the devil was making it rain real heavy, it wasnt the cold front which was near us, was it? lol.

I completely agree with the Deist Paladin.

You can agree with his bogus rants all you wish. I can just as easily argue that anyone who's that obssessed, and who spews such hateful anti Christian venom also seems to be capable of committing... "intellectual suicide and killing people."

[Existentialist]

A literal interpretation of the Bible was fed to people for hundreds of years because, you have to remember, only a few copies of the Bible even existed. Preachers and leaders could spin it anyway they liked, and the people would accept it because they had no access to it themselves.

So was it literal, or was it spin? It had to be one or the other, surely?

In an age where anyone who pleases can have access to the Bible, and it's teachings, we would expect that deeper thinkers would come out of the wood-work and correct the interpretations of old. Obviously, that is what happened. People who understood God*, but had no access to the Bible in olden times, began to say 'Hey, wait a minute.'

*I re-iterate; God is not contained within the Bible. The Bible is a book about God, written by men. Once the Bible got into the hands of the common man, who thought about things and came to understand God quite well, it's words were more clearly and accurately spread throughout the world.

So the Bible had to be democratised before its meaning would become clear? Popularised. Mass-produced.

That's a bit unjust isn't it? I mean, God must have known that it was going to be a couple of millenia before his love would get out into the open, because until then it was always going to be held back by the privileged elites. Or did he type in the wrong date on his coming-to-earth machine? He was probably too busy looking for the right spelling of Bethlehem in the A to Z

Seriously this whole timing business is freaking me out now. So not only did he leave out millions of people who were oppressed by the privileged literates, he also missed out the 300,000 years of pre-Christian homo sapiens sapiens who could have done with something to live for. Never mind homo sapiens but they're dumb anyway and wouldn't need a saviour. Really Christ's timing does seem a bit arbitrary.

[Watson]

I already pointed this out in my post; God's message is one that is clear to all of mankind from the get-go of the species. Life contains the Word, and reveals God's messages to us. The Bible was simply a translation of that into human language. It doesn't contain the entire message nor does it describe it perfectly. Because the Bible is created by man, and therefore falliable. Like man.

All this isn't to shit-talk or down-play the Bible, of course. It is one of the most comprehensive sources for information on and understanding of God that exists in this world. There's just a better source out there along with it, in a not-so-human-language; God Himself.

[Anomalocaris]

I already pointed this out in my post; God's message is one that is clear to all of mankind from the get-go of the species. Life contains the Word, and reveals God's messages to us.

Perhaps you might remove your nose from the bible, and take a moment to reflect on the fact that as you post, you were in fact speaking to the very living proofs of the fact that life does not contain "the word", and the basis of your assertion completely false.

....... Because the Bible is created by man, and therefore falliable. Like man.

All this isn't to shit-talk or down-play the Bible, of course. It is one of the most comprehensive sources for information on and understanding of God that exists in this world. There's just a better source out there along with it, in a not-so-human-language; God Himself.

Maybe you might also reflect that just as the bible was imperfect because it was created by men, so too is god imperfect because he too was dreamt up by men; and consider that as you regurgitate doggerel from the psychologically disturbed who claim for themselves privileged bandwidth to figments of their own imagination, you yield up your potential as an independent intellect capable of benefiting from the knowledge mankind has accumulated up to the 21st century, an consign yourself to the deplorable status of being a post mortem intellectual bitch to some of the most repulsive iron age charlatans.

[Thor]

I was born in 1993, in an era where I am fortunate enough to have a great amount of information on how the universe came to be, and how the things that occur within it occur. I turn to God(specifically in 2009 after a brief stint with atheism) for answers as to why the universe came to be, and why the things that occur within it occur.

So far, His answers have been pretty damn reasonable. Perfectly, in fact.

And how has this deity answered you? Phone calls? Email? Telepathy?

@Thor:
Please, point me to the individuals in your life, and otherwise, who hold said 'out-dated' interpretation as their core beliefs. I only know one person who has that kind of thought process. Most other people I talk to understand that the Bible is not meant to be taken the way most of you guys are taking it.

My brother-in-law and his brood hold such beliefs. As do many others I've encountered on various forums. Try checking out answersingenesis.