What does it mean to be a Christian?

But you're thinking that everyone follows the same God. That's not true IMO. I don't follow any God, other than the God of the Bible, and I don't think anyone else out there follows my God, thatdoesn't follow the God of the Bible. Their beliefs totally contradict mine, and mine totally contradict thier's.


I mean, by your logic, you could hold up a stick and pray to it thinking that your praising God. But you and I both know that that stick is nothing but a bunch of atoms bunched together that can't answer your prayers. It's called worshiping the cration, instead of the creator.

 

Hmm.. well i didn't mean worshiping a stick. I don't have a religion, but i think all religions have the same goals in mind. You can say that i don't believe in your god, and intellectually that's true, but when it gets down to it, if there is a god there's only one and that's who i'm talking about. Now you can say i'm following him wrong or whatever, and that's fine. But it's the same guy, in my view at least.

Also, the creation is part of God too. There's no way it can't be. Now i don't know anyone who thinks the stick created the world by itself, but just looking at a stick could make you think "This is a stick. How freaking trippy that we have sticks! What is the meaning of a stick? A stick has no meaning, but it's here! God's trippy!" That's usually what i think at least, but i'm crazy. I feel that way about bananas, too. They are just so perfect, you peel them and eat them, no preperation. It's like God's fast food.

 

Consider it like this. There is God, then there is man. The link between man and God is like a pipe. Sin will clog up that pipe, and the connection is disrupted. Asking forgiveness for your sins will clear that pipe, and you can have a relationship with God. If that pipe isn't clear, you might think you're talking to the Man upstairs, but you really aren't.

 

I see what you are saying, iella. But i see it as the pipe being an arm or leg or something. It's a separate part of my body, and it's possible that without it i would still have a body, but while i have the arm, it's me. Just transfer that to a spiritual arm.

 

I don't get it...

I'm thickheaded too

 

I get it. I'm still thickheaded though.


Cydonia, you believe that creation is essentially God, am I right?

 

Lol. I've read alot of Alan Watts, he explains it better than i do.

Just imagine that we are the body of god. Our bodies change, but we are always "us". For instance, we shed dead skin cells all the time. In this analogy, we as humans are the dead skin cells. We didn't create the body, but we ARE the body, for as long as we are "live" skin cells. And the body will continue after we have shed, but for a brief moment we were an integral part of the body.

No, that had nothing to do with our sin discussion. But it's fun.

 

Yes, Jedimaster. You are right. And i have no evidence to back me up, either

Though i have a feeling there's a zinger coming.

 

But even the body dies sooner or later. Are you saying God can die?


Edit: LOL, a zinger!


All I was going to say though is that the creation cannot be equal to the Creator. Though the Creator might put a little of Himself in His creation, they aren't one and the same. If they were, they'd be equal. And maybe I just have low self-esteem, but I am in no way equal to any omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Creator. I have too many faults in me.

 

Nope. It's a good question though. Dying might just be a phase, like life is. It's like the analogy of the grasshopper on the blade of grass thinking the field is the whole world, he only sees what he can comprehend. But even if the body were never to die, it would most likely shed skin, then recreate skin, shed skin, waves come in to shore, go out, sun rises, sets, etc.

 

"but I am in no way equal to any omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Creator."

Well, i don't think i am either. But if you were an organ like a heart or liver or lungs, you are a part of the whole, and you are necessary for its survival.

 

How... pantheistic

But what happens when different parts of this "God body" contradict each other?

 

Well, you can call it what you want. I just looked up pantheism, it says that God and nature are one. I agree with that. But it seems to me you're making a jab at me like i'm some weird new ager or something. This is just what i feel when i look at the world around me, and yes i have read things that say the same thing.

As far as contradiction, you'd have to rephrase that question.

 

Nono, pantheism is just like you said, basically a world view that esentially believes that everything is a part of God, or that God is in everything. No offense intended.


What causes the differences between the different parts of the "God body"?

 

Are we so arrogant a species that we even anthropomophize the universe? If the divine and all of creation are one and the same, the parts that seem to be different, in reality, do not contradict each other, but instead are part of a greater, harmonious whole.

 

I agree that all parts are necessary. I feel you just called me arrogant, yet agreed with me at the same time. I must be losing it.

 

I think he was referring to us, Cydonia, as in Iella and I.



Edit: Okay, he might have called you arrogant and then agreed with you, but he was replying to Iella's post about why different parts of this "God body" contradict each other.

 

It would have said no message anyway.

Or at least "no message" without the "it would have said anyway. Or at least without the."

 

R_C_69, how am I anthropomorphisizing (word?) the universe?

 

Cydonia- ?


Iella- There is no such word. To anthropomorphize something is to ascribe the human form to an animal, plant, material object, ect.

Or did you already know that?

 

J_M201 - Right. But R_C_69 said i was anthropomorphisizing the universe... and I want to know how.


EDIT: Nevermind. I'm just as confused as cydonia now.

 

Many people get that question mark face when i say things out of the blue. The key is, i know what i'm saying. Who?

Actually, i am the one who made the comparison that God is like a human body.

 

I'm going to sleep before I get more confused.


'night.

-Iella

 

Hope my last post wasn't too short and didn't give you too few points to think about

Right now I don't have the time nor the inclination to make another long essay post. So I'll just deal with the factual problems in Job.

- The earth is described as having cornerstones, footings and foundations (Job 38:4-7)

- The sea is described as having boundaries set by doors and bars (Job 38:8-11)

- The morning must be given orders to come to the Earth. (Job 38:12-15)

- The seas have springs (Job 38:16)

- There are gates of death (Job 38:17)

- Darkness and light reside in abodes (Job 38:18-21)

- Hail and snow are kept in storehouses (Job 38:22-23)

- There is a place where lightning is dispersed. (Job 38:24) Furthermore, they even report before being launched (Job 38:35)

If you believe the whole Bible is the absolute literal truth, you have to accept all of this as being fact.

 

Oh yes, one more thing - I did notice a self-contradiction in your response to my monolithic construction:

Hell is not a physical place. It?s spiritual separation from God.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you say "I believe hell to be a physical place" a few pages back?