Questionnaire for seminary project

[breakerbreakeronenine]

Hello everyone,

First of all, if this is not appropriate for this message board, please let me know or delete this thread. Causing controversy or breaking any rules is not my intention. I am a Roman Catholic seminarian who will be ordained to the priesthood in May. I am working on a project for one of my seminary classes and am in need of two volunteers to answer some questions for me.

If you could begin by telling me about yourself (age, gender, occupation, married/single/divorced, etc.) and then answer the following questions:

1. How would you define God?
2. Can a person know God? (How?)
3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today?
5. What is (how do you define) sin?
6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way?
7. How would you define the concept of salvation?
8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate)
9. What happens after we die?
10. How would you define a Christian?
11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
12. How does a person get to heaven?
13. What is your philosophy of life?
14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?

Thank you for your help in this regard. Have a great day!

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm opting to answer question #4 only. 

In my opinion, the biggest problem facing humanity today is the plague of people visiting message boards in the hope that other people will do their schoolwork for them. 

Boru

[robvalue]

Hello everyone,

First of all, if this is not appropriate for this message board, please let me know or delete this thread. Causing controversy or breaking any rules is not my intention. I am a Roman Catholic seminarian who will be ordained to the priesthood in May. I am working on a project for one of my seminary classes and am in need of two volunteers to answer some questions for me.

If you could begin by telling me about yourself (age, gender, occupation, married/single/divorced, etc.) and then answer the following questions:

1. How would you define God?
2. Can a person know God? (How?)
3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today?
5. What is (how do you define) sin?
6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way?
7. How would you define the concept of salvation?
8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate)
9. What happens after we die?
10. How would you define a Christian?
11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
12. How does a person get to heaven?
13. What is your philosophy of life?
14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?

Thank you for your help in this regard. Have a great day!

40, male, unemployed, married.

1) A being outside a subreality with (near) total control over it
2) If a God decided to communicate directly, I suppose so
3) In my opinion, a mostly fictional character featuring a few aspects of several different people from the time period
4) Superstition
5) A fictional idea created to control people through shame
6) I think it causes more harm than good and we'll be better off when it fizzles out (it already pretty much has here in England). The central themes are vile.
7) As described in Christianity, it's doing what God wants you to do so he doesn't punish/torture you
8) No, a god might notice any number of ways we try to communicate, if it was paying attention
9) Most likely we decompose and our elements are recycled
10) Someone who says they are a Christian. The beliefs are too diverse for me to make any general statement
11) Neither are important to me, and I certainly can't love something if I don't know it, so that would come first if anything
12) They don't, it's a fictional idea. Christians generally say it's by being a Christian and getting forgiveness from Jesus
13) Look after other people and animals, help everyone enjoy their life
14) They all feature unfalsifiable and untestable claims which are pointless speculation, based on no credible evidence. They generally offer some sort of incentive and/or punishment system. The magical stories differ between them, and how they approach "life after death", and have varying levels of bigotry and divisiveness.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Never been religious, so most of your questions seem silly.

[chimp3]

Hello everyone,

First of all, if this is not appropriate for this message board, please let me know or delete this thread. Causing controversy or breaking any rules is not my intention. I am a Roman Catholic seminarian who will be ordained to the priesthood in May. I am working on a project for one of my seminary classes and am in need of two volunteers to answer some questions for me.

If you could begin by telling me about yourself (age, gender, occupation, married/single/divorced, etc.) and then answer the following questions:

1. How would you define God?
2. Can a person know God? (How?)
3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today?
5. What is (how do you define) sin?
6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way?
7. How would you define the concept of salvation?
8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate)
9. What happens after we die?
10. How would you define a Christian?
11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
12. How does a person get to heaven?
13. What is your philosophy of life?
14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?

Thank you for your help in this regard. Have a great day!

How boring!

[purplepurpose]

"If you could begin by telling me about yourself" - Eternal soul. Single, my body and mind belongs only to Jesus.

My answer: Jesus
2. Can a person know God? (How?) 
Jesus
3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
Jesus 
4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today? 
Jesus
5. What is (how do you define) sin? 
Jesus
6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way? 
Jesus
7. How would you define the concept of salvation? 
Jesus
8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate) 
Jesus
9. What happens after we die? 
Jesus
10. How would you define a Christian? 
Jesus
11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
Jesus
12. How does a person get to heaven? 
Jesus Christ!
13. What is your philosophy of life? 
Jesus Christ!

14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Jesus.

[Whateverist]

Hello everyone,

First of all, if this is not appropriate for this message board, please let me know or delete this thread. Causing controversy or breaking any rules is not my intention. I am a Roman Catholic seminarian who will be ordained to the priesthood in May. I am working on a project for one of my seminary classes and am in need of two volunteers to answer some questions for me.

If you could begin by telling me about yourself (age, gender, occupation, married/single/divorced, etc.) and then answer the following questions:

1. How would you define God?
2. Can a person know God? (How?)
3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today?
5. What is (how do you define) sin?
6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way?
7. How would you define the concept of salvation?
8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate)
9. What happens after we die?
10. How would you define a Christian?
11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
12. How does a person get to heaven?
13. What is your philosophy of life?
14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?

Thank you for your help in this regard. Have a great day!

1)  Not sure how much general agreement there may be on this but I suspect that 'God' is one way a person's psyche can get wired, a kind of partitioning of consciousness within a believer.  That's the only sense I can make of it.
2)  I don't know.
3)  Not really interested.
4)  Take your pick but I think there are way more humans on the world than is healthy and we're negatively affecting the rest of the web of life.
5)  Not a concept for which I find any application.
6)  I don't like them.  It looks as though they huddle together in order to maintain a common delusion.
7)  Salvation is another concept for which I find little use, I guess I could apply it to personal integrity somehow.
8)  Probably there is none but there is any number of ways to come to believe you have.
9)  Game over.  Compost.  The feeder becomes the food.
10)  Someone who attributes undeserved significance to just one book.
11)  Understood in my way, as a kind of inner mysterious other, you can't really know God but what matters is that you esteem its significance.  So love.  However one can esteem the mystery without personifying the other as 'God'.
12)  Good sex, yummy food, dancing, creating, loving, learning .. lots of ways but always changing.  (It is structurally impermanent.)
13)  Let each day reveal something anew.  Stay open to finding out what matters.  Don't cling to creeds.
14)  Everyone wants to make the life we intuitively feel to be finite matter.  Religious people hope the crowd will lead them there.  (Much better to embrace the insecurity.)

I'm 65, male, a retired math teacher, married and not responsible for increasing the biomass of the human species.  I enjoy long walks on the beach .. with my dogs.

[FlyingNarwhal]

Hello everyone,

First of all, if this is not appropriate for this message board, please let me know or delete this thread. Causing controversy or breaking any rules is not my intention. I am a Roman Catholic seminarian who will be ordained to the priesthood in May. I am working on a project for one of my seminary classes and am in need of two volunteers to answer some questions for me.

If you could begin by telling me about yourself (age, gender, occupation, married/single/divorced, etc.) and then answer the following questions:

1. How would you define God?
2. Can a person know God? (How?)
3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today?
5. What is (how do you define) sin?
6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way?
7. How would you define the concept of salvation?
8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate)
9. What happens after we die?
10. How would you define a Christian?
11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
12. How does a person get to heaven?
13. What is your philosophy of life?
14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?

Thank you for your help in this regard. Have a great day!

26 year old male, sales rep/investments, single.

1. Non-existent
2. No more than one can "know" Harry Potter. They are both fictional characters.
3. Possibly a real person, although not the son of God. Stories of him were probably exaggerated and made up of the stories of other cultures.
4. Greed
5. Doesn't exist. I'm a moral nihilist.
6. I'm pretty indifferent. Don't really hate Catholic or Christians. You guys did some pretty fucked up shit in the past though. Still occasionally do some fucked up shit now. I dig your new pope though, if the entire church acted like him I think you guys could probably have a truly positive impact on humanity here on Earth, not just lip service about what you'll do for me when I'm dead.
7. Don't believe in it.
8. I think there are zero ways to reach God.
9. We for and the world will eventually forget us.
10. Someone who believes in Jesus as the son of God
11. Neither
12. They don't, rot in the ground like everyone else.
13. Nihilist through and through. I try and be as nice as possible to people, but I do believe that ultimately my desires are more important. I will always put my needs first.
14. Superstition

[DLJ]

...
I am a Roman Catholic seminarian who will be ordained to the priesthood in May.

Yeah, don't do that.  But just because you are planning to join a criminal organisation doesn't mean I will treat you as a criminal.

...
If you could begin by telling me about yourself (age, gender, occupation, married/single/divorced, etc.)
...

54, male, consultant/lecturer, conformed bachelor.

... and then answer the following questions:

1. How would you define God?
Easy one.  


2. Can a person know God? (How?)
Yes.  If god is within, then self-analysis.

3. Who was/is Jesus Christ?
Kant had it right.  He is a prototype.  Probably a portmanteau myth.

4. What is the biggest problem, in your opinion, facing humankind today?
Humankind.

5. What is (how do you define) sin?
I have heard some, e.g. Jordan Peterson, define it by its etymological roots as "missing the mark" in the sense of archery.  Others define it as disappointing/disobeying the gods (or goddesses).  The former has mundane connotations, the latter divine connotations, regarding ethics.  To each their own.

6. How do you feel about the church (and/or Christianity) and why do you feel this way?
Given that these terms hold a spectrum of meanings, I'd need clearer definitions/characteristics before feeling anything.
Overall, the institutions and the memes from which they derive have largely been domesticated so they not as harmful as the used to be.

7. How would you define the concept of salvation?
No one has ever sufficiently articulated to me what that concept means.

8. Do you think that there is only one way to reach God? (Elaborate)
By my definition of god as ego, this is meaningless question.

9. What happens after we die?
There's usually a ceremony and some people cry.

10. How would you define a Christian?
A victim.

11. Which is more important to you, knowing God or loving God? Can they be separated?
Premise not accepted.

12. How does a person get to heaven?
Premise not accepted.
Although there is a stairway (cue music).

13. What is your philosophy of life?
     The PURPOSE of life … to pass on our DNA … from Darwin.
     The MEANING of life … the experience of living … from Frank Herbert
     The VALUE of life … the legacy we leave behind … from observation
FITNESS … agility and equilibrium … the dance of the MIND and of the FLESH

14. What do you think is common to world religions? How do they differ?
They are equally unrelated to reality. Some are more damaging than others.

Thank you for your help in this regard. Have a great day!

Thanks. You too.