Did meet someone. Taking it slow, and he's gonna be gone for 9 months or a year, but I am enjoying him when I get him. LOL

Yep!

From a christian standpoint,,Id say you can be a false believer. It is hard to separate the bible from God. It is hard to have any understanding of God without the bible. There is conscious and that is part of God but , in my opinion anyhow, not enough.

Gosh, this one is difficult. If you believe in God, by definition you are a believer. But if you believe in God and follow it with the action of following his word,,you are not just a believer in thought but in action which kind of does make you MORE of a believer....


ITs kind of like saying, sure I believe there were people who founded the USA, but I dont think they really wrote or MEANT what is in the constitution. What significance is belief in the creator without belief in what it is he created... IN the end only HE will have the answer to your question,,,but these are my thoughts on it

I see your point, yet, I've pretty informed when it comes to the Bible and in that very same book, 'Believe in me wholeheartedly', if that truly is the way into the Heavens; then what does it matter if I believe everything else a book written by the hand of man, not God, to be truthful, in it's full entirity?

You've heard of 'Whisper Down the Alley', right? The kids game in like Elementary or High School? If not, the way I remember it, we stood in a big circle and the teacher would whisper a story into the first person's ear who would then tell the person to her left, then that one to the one on her left, etc, until it reached the source again.

10/10 times that story was so mangled, twisted, exagerrated, it barely held any resemblances to the one who started it. Well, to me, that's how the Bible came to be. We are talking centuries ago with some very paranoid and borderline schizo people. I mean, they thought the world was flat, huge sea monsters roamed the oceans, and that the rich deserved your gold pieces more than the temples themselves.

So, point is: I don't know if I can trust the same people who persecuted his Son to tell me that they know who God is and what His Word actually pertains to when they were overly corrupt. Crusaders, Nazis, you name it; they all acted 'In the Name of God'.

Believe the Bible? I'd rather believe God looks like Elvis.

I understand the analogy but I think children mishearing one or two sentences is not the same as translators translating whole books. For the book to be shared with the world it had to be translated so that all could understand it, I dont think that reason to toss it aside as unbelievable. Even if some words here and there were not to be DIRECTLY accurate translations, it would be kind of hard for them to be completely wrong when the CONTEXT around them is taken into consideration. There is a difference between children with a few sentences and trained adults with a book. I think that game goes differently with adults who have been taught to listen,,,by the way.

Just my respectful opinion though

Now.. when you say, 'taught to listen'.. whom do you refer?
Not to the ones who called Jesus a blasphemer and placed him on that cross right?

Trained adults, as you say, back then, weren't exactly trained. they were all corrupted. People used 'God' as a fear mechanism and nothing more, like the Persians, for example. It's how they got people to fear, worship, pay taxes, etc, etc, etc, to keep control over the masses. There wasn't true forms of government yet, so the easiest way to prevent rebellions and keep yourself healthy, wealthy, and have more power than a God, was to use that power of fear.

Fear, IMO, is what started the traditions of pure religion and belief, because back in those ages, people always feared the unknown, and that which could not be explained. Someone had to have the answers, right?

I mean I know where you are coming from, but you are doing more than just placing trust in God, you are placing trust in man. To me, that's borderline niave (sp?).

although i seen some good posts, the answer to this question isn't relevant. It doesn't matter if one perceives him or herself as a believer, it all comes down to Judgement Day. Only God can answer that, and no human can speak on behalf of him or have an opinion on what God may say, think, or do.
peace.

Relevant or irrelevant.
I was only curious.
It's not like any one individual's response was going to make me change my view.

Curiousity is all it is.

To not place trust in man, would be to not survive. Man is Gods creation and although not divine, man is very capable of being trustworthy.I have come to this point in life, by trusting loved ones and friends. I see the flip side of your point. The things I learned throughout my formal education I learned from books written by men. Men whose knowledge and word I chose to have faith in. I choose to have that same faith in the men who wrote the books of the Bible.

The Cathars of France were horribly brutalised by the Inquisition. The Inquisition also brutalised much of South America, and the rest of Europe all in the "name" of the Christian God. Those "heretics" were either burned, were "reformed", or were forced into exile. All punishments completely antithetical to the actual Bible and the truths that were espoused therein. The Catholic church has a very nasty history. However, for the "Christian" believer in this day there surely must be considerable pleasure that they do in fact have a society that allows them to have a differing belief at all, and that disagreeing with a church doctrine is acceptable or allowable rather than a heretical stand. Man has done everything possible to reduce God to a match box and carry Him/her around to be taken out and displayed when considered appropriate. I think that God must be somewhat disappointed to be so callously shoved away.
The ten Commandments are a very sane and logical set of rules to live by. The entire Bible is in essence a guide to a staircase that allows us as mortal man to enter into the very presence of God. Agnosticism and atheism are simply excuses to deny personal responsibility to a creator God. Mathematically, God exists. Naturally God exists. To deny the existence of God is to deny the humanity of spiritual man. Not all of the belief systems hgave to be the same, but they do all follow the same pattern of not separating man into his parts, body, soul and spirit. The essential nature of the human man is to be spiritual.

BYondLife,

When I commented earlier I thought you might be someone who was internally committed to normal Christian beliefs, having some surface levels doubts about a 'literal' interpretation of the Bible. My first response was to temper 'my tendency to advocate a view' with 'concern for your emotional/psychological well being' (which might be best served by your religion).

From everything else you've said, however; you sound like you are definitely not interested in 'believing in the Bible', yet you believe in the some kind of God (the God Jesus spoke of?); and you are interested in others' opinions on whether your firmly held position regarding the bible makes you 'less of a Believer'.

I think something to consider regarding that question is subtle peer pressure. Most people who are members of a group committed to an ideology will have a system of prejudices in place to discouraging people from having beliefs outside their group. This whole "Believer" business is one of those systems. The idea is that being a "Believer" is a Good Thing(tm), and you would never want to lose your status as a Believer! So now we can use this to set a standard for true "Believers" and use that standard to create emotional/psychological pressures motivating people to maintain allegiance to particular beliefs. This kind of idiocy happens amongst democrats/liberals and republicans/conservatives, too, and I think its seriously harmful to our society.

You do not come across remotely as someone easily influenced by peer pressure - indeed, you were arguing with a priest about this. But the influence sometimes is subtle, invisible, when these mechanism of peer pressure shape our views without us realizing. Its not that you are trying to fit in, its that you may have accepted ideas (being a true Believer is good) that shape your thinking without knowing it.

So does this make you any "less" of a Believer.

In the eyes of many pro-literal-Bible-people, yes. Yes it does. You are less of a Believer(tm) because you haven't accepted God's Word.

In the eyes of some other Christians, no. No it doesn't.

I'm confused as to whether you are more 'curious about opinions' or 'looking for opinions to help you refine your beliefs'. If its the later, I would recommend prayer. Cut out the middle man and ask this hypothetical God. Even though I don't think He exists, I think you will get an answer.

Jews, Muslims and others believe in a God but not in Jesus .
Only Christinians believe that Jesus was a mere man who eat, slept, walked, went to the washroom but he was a son of God, a god, a king.....etc. A man a son of a God ?. Yet he could not save his *** when he was killed....... .
Billions of nuts for sure !!!.

Not really Imam...!.
Sins are well known in all religions .
Good is well known and bad is well known too .
Everything is well explained if you believe .
If you do not believe then why care one way or another ?.
May common sense will be up on us all....amen....... .

if you truly believe in God, then you believe it is his written word...plain and simple

Which version of the bible???

The one edited by King James in order to keep his subjects "in line"???????

Nope .
You can believe in a creator ( God () but not in religions .
To believe in God would not imply believing is religions .
Religions can be proven false any time of day .
Contradictions, wars, blood, hypocrisy......etc .

so your logic on this is that i who am not a christian cannot read credible historical text and conclude that a man named jesus actually lived a couple thousand years ago? do jews not accept that jesus lived but was not the son of god? christian is what we call someone who adheres to the christian faith. i'd think you accept the notion that dynasaurs roamed the earth about sixty five million years ago. should we call you a "dynasaurian"?

@ jrbogie :
You cut the post and you left it like that.......... .
The above is the real post . Thanks Mr jrbogie !.

i believe that bible is a book of jesus's actions and work he has done for his people. Not only that but the bible is from jesus! most bible have what jesus says quoted in red! so i find that the bible helps u understand how ur suppose to act and what u shold do to be a follower or christ. as far as it makin u less of a believer if u dont read it; well thats fully up to u! IT depends on who u ask. no two answers will be the same

Religion is another human headache that I certainly do better without it at all .