Or if you listen to Black Sabbath backwards at 78 :)

this leaves no room for the preists to control you, though. If they aren't in a position of authority to translate the "wordofGod" to us minions, and your persoal faith is all you need, what the hell do you have to go to church for?

and does god speak english now? word of god! give me a fucking break. try "word of some relatively smarter guy that had a good vocabulary and a clear vision of how he thought people should see religion."

The nice thing about not being christian, is I want to know what god/dess things about something ... I ask.

Oh, and then I make up my OWN mind about my course of action.

But I have always loved watching you guys go at it.

:)

If only I had a microwave ... this needs popcorn.

I'll just go back to playing those cool games.

I did list 'if you need some TLC by wolf' ;)

Originally posted by lumberjim True. Something I struggle with nowadays. I was raised Catholic but have since decided that maybe I need to do things my own way. I really struggle with what to do with my kids. I don't want to raise them in the same dogmaSphere I was raised in but do want to raise them Christianlike.
If God did not (however indirectly) write or inspire the Bible, then that pretty much wraps it up for the existance of any religion - organized or otherwise. Since the Bible pretty much defines the relationship between people and God, to proclaim the Bible a forgery is to eliminate God altogether or, at least, to render the relationship non-existant.

You might want to clarify this. I may be misinterpreting but it sounds as though you're saying that if the bible is not divine inspiration, then it invalidates not only christianity, but every other religion on the planet. Hindu, Buddhism (still not quite clear on whether this is a "religion"), paganism, etc.

Originally posted by perth I'm saying that LJ's point, taken to its reasonable conclusion invalidates the idea of any religion based upon a devinely inspired text or artifact since LJ rules out the possibility of such a thing (as I understand his point). I can't think of any religions that don't have such an artifact or text but if there is one than no, LJ's point (as I understand it) does not invalidate that religion.

Eastern philosophies (Buddhism, Taoism, Hunduism, etc.) were not included in my extension of LJ's point.

Okay. Thanks for clarifying. :)

yeah, I have no objection to christians saying that "this is A path to being a good christian" I even agree with most of the rules...MOST of them. but to say that the King James Bible or the emoticon bible cougar uses is the word of god? Are those disgusting little comic book versions the word of god too? what;s the difference, then? how do we know that the translators aren't as effed up as the dork that writes those?

beestie, you;re right. the word of god is in your head if you can only hear it. No need to read someone else's interpretation. halleluiah! can i get an amen?

Wolf, on this one, I SO agree with you! Hey, can you pass me some of that popcorn? :D

look. Let me give you an example.

write the following sentence in different words, sinonyms are allowed but cannot be used more than 3 times in a row, and see how the meaning remains.

Ok, here it is. The cat was not eating pork in the backyard.

The Word can change in individual words, yet it will never loose its meaning.

Now try it countless times, over a period of 2000 years, and have the process managed by several competing governments.

the black shadow was not devouring the boar in the wild lands behind the village

the kitten was not nibbling on the pork chop on the patio out the back.

more like:

The dude was not eating pigflesh out back, because the lord sayeth that thou shalt only eateth of the swine in the fronteth yard. sezme.

is the Backeth. not fronteth