You have to give some of us a little more time. I really like your idea and think it is a very good start to being the person that most religions what you to become. I personally believe that a person's religion should make them comfortable in the world. Any religion that does that I believe is right for them and I am happy for them.

spreid

All religions have 3 things in common. 1) It is an attempt to understand something that is not totally understandable. 2) It is a way of placing humanity above all other life. 3) It is a way of placing one group of people above another group of people, i.e. my beliefs are right and I will find rewards either in an afterlife or now and you won't.

spreid

My god is with a small "g". What I believe in is a creation force. This force is not all knowing and is not all powerful. In simplistic terms it is like an inventor. It creates and then sees how it's creation functions. If it likes what it creates, such as rainbows, it leaves the product alone. If it isn't satisfied it modifies the product, evolution. I don't think it has any desire or need to talk to humanity. It will know when it has got it right and doesn't really need our input.

spreid

The bible is not God's word. The bible is the interpretation of what men believe to be god's word. I will accept the possibility that there might be an infallible god even though it seems very unlikely. I can not accept the possibility of any man or group of men being able to fully understand gods desires and wishes. I think a lot of what is defined as sin in the bible was written to further the agenda of the writers and is not gods law.

spreid

I believe the possibility of a human being able to know every facet of an entity (god/creation force) to be so small as to be negligible. Therefore I am certain that anyone that has an opinion about this entity is going to be wrong. I personally believe that in the facet they have chosen to believe they are probably correct. See the story of the blind men describing an elephant. In a limited sense all were right but in totality they all were wrong.

spreid

Kant took the "Golden Rule" and expanded on it. He stated when you have to make a decision about doing or not doing something you should consider what the world would be like if everyone everyone who had to make that decision decided as you did. For example if you have the chance to contribute to a charity and decided not to, would you like to live in a world where no one contributed to charity? I think sin is when you make a decision or do something that makes the world a worse place to be.

spreid

I think the difference between a simple thing and a complicated thing is more defined by the individual than society then any other concept with which we deal. The difference between simple and complicated is totally dependent on how each person weighs the importance of the idea and their familiarity with the subject.

spreid

If we assume something with height or width is the first dimension, something with height and width is the second dimension, something with height, width and depth is the third dimension and something with height, width, depth and duration (time) is the fourth dimension. Then if you start with four dimensions and go back a dimension you start with reality as we think we know it or existence. If you remove time you have a three D picture. If you remove depth you have a two D picture If you remove height or depth you have a line and if you remove them all you have nothingness.

spreid

4 points I would like to make.
1) Man hasn't turned lead into gold, but a nuclear reactor does change the atomic structure of uranium which is creating one element from another.
2) If you don't think matter can be changed into energy ask a survivor of Hiroshima what they think.
3) All animals create life. It's called reproduction.
4) Man has created life without reproduction by cloning.

spreid

But is gravity a truth? Do you accept the possibility that in some place in the universe or some other universe there is no gravity? I also heard speculation that there is no gravity the earth just sucks.
spreid

So it's reincarnation except instead of a higher being we are in control?
spreid

Real core truths is a concept that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around. It seems so subjective, Even in the hard sciences truths have a way of changing, like it was once known as a truth that the sun circled the earth. As a matter of fact I was read somewhere there there is only one statement has always been true and will always be true. It is "this too will change"

spreid

Tribo,
As you can probably tell my religious opinions are not set in stone. I appreciate any opinion that has thought behind it since what I am used to getting is "because that's what the Bible says" I am much more of a believer in logic.
spreid

I have really enjoyed the thought that has gone into your posts. After reading through them I have modified my original thoughts and am trying this on for size. The creation force is not all knowing and powerful. It exists in some form and it exists to create. The reason we have pain and hardship in the world is because it isn't perfect. I agree with the comment we are the prototype. Evolution happens because it sees it's mistakes and is the process of correcting them. It apparently can't stop evil before it happens but in each generation of prototypes it is slowing making corrections. I still don't think this entity judges, but maybe instead it recycles souls for lack of a better word. Thank you again for your interest.

spreid

4) Intelligent design that is all knowing and all powerful, within reason.

I don't believe that you can modify all knowing and all powerful with the phrase within reason. It is or it isn't. You can have vast knowledge and vast power but that is what my third choice is.

Doesn't the concept of choice imply the possibility of more than one outcome? I'm not saying it doesn't feel like we are making a decision and whatever we decide can have different results. What I am saying is that under the principle of an all knowing entity the decision is already known and there is only one result possible.

I didn't forget we have free will and I believe it applies to possibilities 1 and 3. I don't think it applies to the second possibility. If there is an all knowing entity this means that even though you feel you are making a choice you aren't. A decision in which the choice is known to a certainty is not really a choice. Thank you for your interest.

There has been a lot of talk about about creation in the past few years. Following is what I believe. I believe there is a creation force. As such I believe there are three options to describe this force.

1) Random chance.
This option makes religion not necessary because there will be no judgment since there isn't anything to do the judging.

2) Intelligent design that is all knowing and all powerful.
This option makes religion not necessary because by the definition of all knowing this entity could tell you at the instant of your birth everything that you are going to do. I don't believe this entity would judge a person for doing everything exactly as it wanted it done and knew it would be done.

3) Intelligent design that is not all knowing and all powerful. This option does leave open the possibility of judgment, but judgment still doesn't seem to likely. Judgment from this entity would be equivalent to someone building a car that had flaws and blaming the car. This option seems to be more likely to involve reincarnation than judgment. The person is flawed in some way and as such needs to be fixed and given another chance.

I don't know which of the three options is true and I also believe there are other possibilities that I haven't considered. Right now I believe the most logical choice is number three, but I hope that anyone that sees flaws in my analysis will respond to the post. I am still, and hope to always be, a seeker of the truth.

spreid