I never used to question this before though I'd question anything else, but I am now, and I don't think I believe it all anymore. I believe God exists, but if He's as loving as is said, more so then we, then the Bible version doesn't quite fit. A loving God would not damn anyone no matter what, a loving God would not force us to choose Him and His way with the threat of fire and hell, free will it isn't. How can it be, if there's a catch?

How can a loving God damn someone for living a good life but just believing the wrong faith, or not believing at all? It's all a dividing tool seems to me, as everyone think they're right, and they argue it instead of loving each other, the powers that be pray on this.

The truth is, everyone thinks they're right cause God can be seen anywhere, He is everywhere.

Thoughts people? Anyone else come to these conclusions? I know I'll probably get flak for it, but logically it's common sense if you open your mind to see it.

You're supposed to question everything...

Read about the "good Sumaritan".
Read Romans 2.
Read about "the hell hoax", the "tithing hoax" and the "Jesus hoax"..

Then make up your own mind.

That was kind of the last thing I never could get myself to question, I'd wonder, get questions I couldn't answer, but couldn't question till now. Now it's like the veil is entirely lifted on everything more or less.

I was lucky, I was taught to question the Bible before I was ever given it to read.
Don't get me wrong, I'm Christian and all for the Bible. One just has to make sure to verify everything. Don't believe everything "they" tell you is all I'm saying.

I don't, just curious, what parts of the Bible do you believe vs. parts you do not? Like from my understanding, some is true, and some isn't, the more true stuff being the love of God. The rest not as much.

You gotta understand, some is literal, some metaphoric, some spiritual, some carnal, etc...

You've heard people say "History is written by the victors"? Well the Bible is full of everything, good, bad and ugly.

You really have to make up your own mind, my thoughts piss off all sides of the issue. Use the internet, get all viewpoints. It'll make your choices easier.
A lot has been mistranslated, a simple comma can cause one to read it "wrong".

Perhaps it does but....some of what is shown in there depicts a God that......isn't so loving. And if he's more loving then we are as I said, then something doesn't add up you know?

Yeah I have found the net gives you a lot of views both on religion and otherwise you won't get elsewhere, it's gotten me where I am now the last 3 and a half years.

Mistranslations? Maybe, but you also got a ton of different versions too so......

i think in the end, some parts of religion will be as they say it will be...and some parts of it will not be..

furthermore, i think before the end, currently - while we're still alive...that the people that hold strongly ( to the point of inflexibility) their conviction of their respective religions are selfish...be it christian, muslim or otherwise...they just want to secure their seat in the afterlife...as they see it to be...the truth is, nobody really knows.....

roko

Well according to someone I know, she saw God in a vision and He told her a lot of what I said here, which has led me to question. So she does know evidently, what others do not or won't accept.

Oh absolutely, many people throughout history have come to these conclusions. Not the least of which were some of the greatest minds in all of human history, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, Steven Weinberg, Stephen Hawking, and the list, goes on and on.

I too questioned the Bible early in my life. Although I did not question it because of doubt. At the time I actually believed it was true because I was told it was true by my parents and all my elders. So my reason for asking questions was to get better answers so I could explain it and teach it better to others.

However, my quest took me to a totally different place altogether. Instead of finding better explanations, I too, came away realizing that it can't possible be true, and least not verbatim as a full story. That is my final conclusion.

Sure, some spiritual stuff may have found its way into the biblical cannon too, but overall, it cannot be a true story as it stands, IMHO.

I've also come to the conclusion that Jesus was most likely a Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva who was grossly misunderstood, crucified for his views, and that sparked the rumors that we now see in the New Testament that claim that Jesus was a demigod born of a virgin and sent as the sacrificial lamb of God. I personally don't believe any of those biblical rumors anymore.

However, like you this did not send me running off to become an atheist. Just because the bible isn't true doesn't mean that spirituality can't be true.



Well, many people have claimed this. Bishop Carlton Pearson claims that God told him in a vision that there is no hell, and that the very idea of hell is a misconception. He was then shunned by the mainstream clergy of his faith for claiming to have had such a vision from God that makes such claims.

In fact, many people have had dreams and visions of higher spiritual powers that suggest that spiritual reality is far different from the Biblical picture. I've had my own visions that I feel came from the spirit world, and those visions were totally different from anything the that is written in the Bible.

Overall, I'm in complete agreement with you. If there truly exists and all-wise, all-compassionate, and all-loving God then this God's wisdom and love would certainly need to exceed my own. Thus when I read the Bible and do not see these things in the biblical stories there is absolutely no reason for me to believe those stories, for in order for them to be true, God would need to be less wise and compassionate than me. And that's absurd, IMHO.

I also agree with what you say about non-believers. I can't accept the idea of a God who would condemn a person, in any way, for simply not believing in a truly stupid book (which I truly feel that the Bible is)

And this truly comes down to an idea of an extremely egotistical God who lusts to be worshiped. That could be the only motivation for a God to require that people believe in him and bow down and worship him. It's far too Zeus-like, IMHO. And not "godly" or divine at all, IMHO.

I personally believe that "God" is more like what the Eastern Mystics have described. Totally unknowable, yet we can know that its also far above anything we can imagine, truly infinite, and not limited in the drastic ways that the Biblical stories demand that God must be limited.

So you're right in line with the Eastern Mystics. No need to allow the ancient folklore of the Hebrews to make you feel guilty. Their folklore is clearly the dubious works of men, and not the "Word of God" at all. It can't be. Like you say, it's nowhere near loving enough. It simply isn't divine. The actions and persona that they attribute to God is not even close to being divine.

I agree.

It's amazing how defensive people can get on this isn't it, and how quick to judge they are. Lest they forget the book they believe in says judge not lest you be judged.

What were your visions like?

On this too......it had been brought up as to how she could be right, and what made this vision true compared to what others had experienced to the contrary. She said that......the reason for this is that many have preconceived notions of what reality is. Ergo, if that's what they think the truth is even if it isn't, that's what they'll see. If someone believes in hell, they will see hell, if someone believes in 72 virgins they'll see that, etc etc. It's only once you let go of any preconceived notion as to what God is and what the truth is, that you can really exactly see it. It makes a lot of sense really.

Start reading any of the books by Bart Erhman.
He is the current Chair of Religious Studies at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

http://religion.unc.edu/faculty/Ehrman1.html

Then do some serious soul searching on you own.

Well, my vision was unlike anything I had ever thought of before so it couldn't possibly have been based on preconcieved notions.

I had the vision several years ago shortly after my mother died. I was thinking about death quite frequently and wondering what it might be like. I think I was given this vision because of my deep desire for this knowledge.

Having said this though, my vision may not apply to everyone. It may very well be possible that different people end up in different spiritual states perhaps depending on their karma (or actions). I may have been given a glimpse of my own personal spiritual future.

I would love to share it with you, but it was quite involved and many of the concepts that were conveyed in the vision would be hard to express using normal language.

Let me just say that it was a very beautiful experience and not the least bit threatening.

Have a child and see if because you love him you will give him whatever he want,if you do not punish him if he does wrong, will you allow him to kill himseld with a knife? Or take too much sugar without broshing his teeth and sleep? He is free indeed but because you love him you make boundaries and the more he makes you proud the more you reward him. Whosoever the Lord loveth he correcteth,sometimes it is painful but later i always see why because the positive return on investment comes to me beyond what i can even think or ask. Pray for wisdom,you will see life differently i was lije you.

Have a child and see if because you love him you will give him whatever he want,if you do not punish him if he does wrong, will you allow him to kill himseld with a knife? Or take too much sugar without broshing his teeth and sleep? He is free indeed but because you love him you make boundaries and the more he makes you proud the more you reward him. Whosoever the Lord loveth he correcteth,sometimes it is painful but later i always see why because the positive return on investment comes to me beyond what i can even think or ask. Pray for wisdom,you will see life differently i was lije you.

If I had a child, I wouldn't play hide-and-seek with the child. I wouldn't run off and leave my child with nothing more than horrible hearsay rumors that flatly accuse my child of being a "sinner" and disobeying me and asking my child to accept having someone nailed to a pole to pay for his or her "sins".

If I had a child, I would BE THERE FOR THE CHILD, like a good parent. I would take the child by the hand and teach using positive methods, not via threats of punishments. If, for some reason the child was so unruly that the child refused to learn and continually insisted on doing "evil things", then I would conclude that the child is mentally ill and in need of medical help. Of course, if I were "God" then I could just cure the child myself with the flick of my magic wand.

The idea that a sane healthy child cannot be taught using intelligent positive means simply makes no sense to me. If the only way you can teach your children to behave is by threatening to punish them, then I'd say they are most likely mentally ill.

Just my thoughts.

One of my personal philosophies is: Everyone has their own personal truth, who am I to tell them they are wrong.

If you believe in God.... study the bible and other religious. See what other people believe in. But, ultimately, it will be your own personal relationship with God, not one strictly based on dogma.

its all about balance,, no good without bad, no right without wrong, no heaven without hell, no male without female,,,etc,,,,


we are products of nature AND nurture, and our beliefs are a product of experience and (written or verbal) knowledge

my answer is that humans are so much more limited than God in what we perceive as 'good' and 'bad'

we often only make these distinctions on wordly and fleshly standards and God distinguishes at a much higher standard

Question:

"Why are there so many religions? Do all religions lead to God?"


Answer:

The existence of so many religions and the claim that all religions lead to God without question confuses many who are earnestly seeking the truth about God, with the end result sometimes being that some despair of ever reaching the absolute truth on the subject. Or they end up embracing the universalist claim that all religions lead to God. Of course, skeptics also point to the existence of so many religions as proof that either you cannot know God or that God simply does not exist.

Romans 1:19-21 contains the biblical explanation for why there are so many religions. The truth of God is seen and known by every human being because God has made it so. Instead of accepting the truth about God and submitting to it, most human beings reject it and seek their own way to understand God. But this leads not to enlightenment regarding God, but to futility of thinking. Here is where we find the basis of the “many religions.”

Many people do not want to believe in a God who demands righteousness and morality, so they invent a God who makes no such requirements. Many people do not want to believe in a God who declares it impossible for people to earn their own way to heaven. So they invent a God who accepts people into heaven if they have completed certain steps, followed certain rules, and/or obeyed certain laws, at least to the best of their ability. Many people do not want a relationship with a God who is sovereign and omnipotent. So they imagine God as being more of a mystical force than a personal and sovereign ruler.

The existence of so many religions is not an argument against God's existence or an argument that truth about God is not clear. Rather, the existence of so many religions is demonstration of humanity's rejection of the one true God. Mankind has replaced Him with gods that are more to their liking. This is a dangerous enterprise. The desire to recreate God in our own image comes from the sin nature within us—a nature that will eventually “reap destruction” (Galatians 6:7-8).

Do all religions lead to God? Actually they do. All but one leads to His judgment. Only one—Christianity—leads to His forgiveness and eternal life. No matter what religion one embraces, everyone will meet God after death (Hebrews 9:27). All religions lead to God, but only one religion will result in God's acceptance, because only through His salvation through faith in Jesus Christ can anyone approach Him with confidence. The decision to embrace the truth about God is important for a simple reason: eternity is an awfully long time to be wrong. This is why right thinking about God is so critical.



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