The 500 & Common Sense.

[Drich]

You are suggesting that God doesn't care one bit about people or their problems -- the Earth is just a place He plants souls in the hope that they ripen and can be harvested for eternity.

i did not say God is dispassionate to all problems we face in life. my life is a great example of that. i have been given a better life than many kings that have lived in that period. however God's system of reward and concern will not give someone something that will destroy their chance or ability to live eternally with him. as the primary goal is eternal life as he sacrificed his son to provide this. If he is willing to allow his son to be beaten and die at the hands of far lessor beings.. just to over indulge you with everything you want without consequence.

This "life doesn't matter, only heaven matters" idea is one I vehemently disagree with.  I am actually angry about it.  It can justify any and all evil, and robs life of its beauty.

i though a second before i start this. so hear me all the way out. i get what your saying because you see planes being flown into building as a natural result. which is a product of not only a religion but according to their holy scriptures their God's will as well. So put a pin in that a second. I don't know if you are closer to high school or to the age of having a child go through highschool, but i think this is a way to explain God's involvement with us here on Earth high/EHS.. (Go evolved monkey men!) Now to the high schooler, their experience in school is life. it has it's own political arena, it's own social structures, it's own currency demands and even opportunities for love. it's like an mini ecosystem that some what mimics real life. So that said high school experience/life is important. but at the same time it is just a mirco fraction of your real life. but as a high schooler it is life as you have lived every moment upto this point and can not see life beyond it.
So they tend to live all of life as if HS is it. rtying to keep up with the trends, wearing the right cloths, hang out with the right peopleB ect.. But,a good parent knows there is life beyond high school. just like God knows there is an eternity beyond life in EHS.
Like a good parent God will provide what is NEEDED but will not allow you to over indulged to the point your highschool life will destroy the rest of your real life.. ex..good parent will not allow their kid to become a drug addict or drunk because it is easier for the kid to deal with his anxiety and make friends while plastered Just like God is not going to rain down everything you want because it will make this life easier but stunt your spiritual growth in the next or worse yet cause you to loose or never been saved, because you never spiritually mature.


so how is this different than flying planes into buildings? outside of the fact nothing in the nature or commands we have from the bible as christianis require us to do this.. God does support us in this life but not at the expense of our spiritual growth or eternal well being.

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It may not rob life of it's beauty so much as it appeals to those who already see no beauty in life.  That being the thing they sought out the advice of a shaman to acquire, after all.

As far as I'm aware, cults like scientology (or our buddy drich's)tend to prey on the polar opposite of happy well adjusted people with a bunch of friends and alot of things to live for.  I mean, case in point, whenever we hear some sob story about how downtrodden and busted a believer was till they found god™ - they're just telling us that they were (perhaps still are) moments from flinging themselves off a bridge somewhere.

not to preach a prosperity doctrine.. but i don't ask God for anything anymore. outside of direction when a big thing/fork in the road happens. I wanna make sure we can aquire or sell whatever it is without it destroying our ministries or our relationship. I'm not set for life or anything but we are very happy with absoltly everything we have been given.

Yes i went through hell growing up but here's the thing. we/my sisters and i simply did not know any better. infact we though we had it good because our parents never divorced and i always got something for christmas and we always had something to eat even if it was kimchee and rice. i honestly did not expect anything much better. Finding God was a matter of following a pretty girl to church going in with the same skepticism that most of you had. then found out, it's all real.

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All religions do that. Tell them they're soul is at peril and that your belief system alone has the cure.

and life has taught you differently?

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A persons amenability to the messaging might be a comment on their internal state of affairs, however they may appear to others to be.  Self help schemes by any name aren't full of satisfied people.  They may even be well adjusted, I suppose, insomuch as we see them - but not believe it themselves.  Our friend advocating for the god of the lowly human worms is unlikely to get his idea of lowly human worms from religion so much as he's molded his religion to accord with how he sees reality, and specifically human reality.

The snake oil pitch isn't a thing all religions do.  It's it's own thing, optional.

ask yourself why.. a well adjusted content church goer would spend time here, when every aspect of their life and fiber of their being is ridiculed and shat upon? mainstream christian are only tasked to seek out those who have not heard the good news and shake the dust from their feet and walk away from people who refuse god.

I'm here because someone took the time to answer my question despite the crap i was slinging, and i found God. So i wanted to work with people like me who need a little more than a general call to arms.