THANK YOU!
I am so glad there are people on this campus that have brains:
I have argued this point against my father before, but he would always shoot it down with some stupid “no, christianity is right” argument. What? How the hell do you know? Your beliefs are not truth. For all we know Earth was seeded by an alien race! (Actually, new theories (and evidence? I don’t pay much attention to things) suggest that the seeds for life arrived on Earth via an asteroid (or would that be a meteor(ite?)?).)
..That was almost as bad as matching parantheses on a really ugly if statement with type-casting and function calls within function calls.
I highly suggest IIT students who can think on their own join the IIT Freethinkers group.
I am so glad Tim was not in the room when I read Sasha’s post… I shouted “THANK YOU!” and threw my hands at the screen as one would if someone were to say something they agreed wholeheartedly with (I hope that makes sense). I must’ve looked weird, talking and gesticulating at my laptop.
Get your facts straight before you quote your father. I don’t ever recall stating Christianity is right. I do remember telling you that while you live in my house, you will go to church.
I’m not concerned about creation theories, what happens after death or the DaVinci code. I am concerned about what it means to me, in my life, right now. I’m very scientific about my faith. It needs to be proven to me every step of the way. It’s taken me 44 years to get to this point in my faith. You are seeing the end results not the work it took to get to this point in my faith.
I very clearly remember you denying outright that Greek or Roman beliefs were correct because they were specifically regarded as mythologies.
You also denounced Hindu (and therefore other polytheistic belief systems) based solely on the fact that they believed in multiple gods, citing that the Christian god was the only god and as such Hindus/etc. are wrong in believing in multiple gods.
What kind of argument is “…specifically regarded as mythologies”? Is it possible that you are quoting me out of context?
“You also denounced Hindu (and therefore other polytheistic belief systems)” No, no, no. I recall telling you about some Hindu people that I met. They could not tell me anything about their God’s. How can someone have faith in something that they don’t know anything about? Since God is a bigger concept than our minds can possibly understand, the Hindus have decided to name each facet of God. It’s a different perspective from the multifaceted single God that I perceive.
Each religion comes from a different perspective of the core set of questions that I have listed below.
For each faith, religion, cult or Mythology, ask these questions:
What is religion?
What is faith?
What is God?
Who can be a God?
Where did God come from?
What is the Holy Spirit?
Who was Jesus (most non-Christian religions have an opinion)?
Is there a Devil?
Are their Good and Evil Angels?
How does a person cast out demons?
How can a person be saved or enlightened?
Can God help people become saved or enlightened?
When a person is enlightened in this faith, what are the fruits of their enlightenment?
How does God help us in our lives?
What happens after death?
Does a person need to do works to be right with God?
What human works will satisfy a God?
Can a person accept God’s unconditional Grace to be right before God?
Is this a karma, mercy or grace based religion?
What do they teach about love?
What do they teach about relationships?
If there is no God, no truth and no consequences, why don’t we just lie, cheat and take anything that we desire?
How do you determine if something is a religion, cult or mythology?
What set of questions do you ask?
I would like to know your answers to these questions.