Religion & Spirituality - 12 November 2006

2006-11-12 17:42:17 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous

don't some people realize that by their asking questions just to enflame debate and controversy, or just to hurt someone, that they themselves are convicted by that same self-righteous attitude that they come on with, and by their own version of god?

2006-11-12 17:42:17 · 7 answers · asked by free thinker 3

2006-11-12 17:41:28 · 4 answers · asked by Where's the beef? 2

2006-11-12 17:41:02 · 6 answers · asked by Nowhere Man 6

When you can mention any other deity/religion and teach the theory of evolution as if it were fact, it is unfair to restrict public displays of Christianity. I am sickened by how far we have come from our nations roots; America WAS founded as a Christian nations BY Christians who wanted to be able to worship freely, (and yes, also by people wanting to make money; this is besides the point). You say my faith offends you, but I am severely offended when you try to teach me and my little sister that we came from a friggen monkey...

2006-11-12 17:38:18 · 19 answers · asked by ? 4

2006-11-12 17:38:02 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous

iv woken up in house fires been hit by cars crashed so menny times iv lost count and i dont drive lost every thing in fires children to devorce been woken up at gun point seen things would make jesus poise for taught even died at birth aparrently double phnewmonia i.c for 6 months i just want to no so mutch whats the story is cant say im not looking forward to a few straight answers courtisy of the creator happy to wait so no simaritins....

2006-11-12 17:34:31 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous

I need advice to give my friend who isn't saved.
Any good advice to make my friend a believer?
She is 17 I would hate to see her go to hell. She is very sweet,kind,and caring person. I haven't said anything about god to her yet. I'm just waiting for the right time. And I think tomorrow is the right time to tell her about God. I just need help on what to say to her.

2006-11-12 17:34:27 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous

this knowledge is not limited to just college or university degrees. it could be your trade, your faith, your life's experiences.

do you contribute constructively to your society with your knowledge?

do you keep yourself informed of the state of affairs - locally, nationally, internationally and help those around you to understand it?

do you deliver the message of the faith you practice to those who do not know?

2006-11-12 17:30:45 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous

Like to accuse ppl of takikg versers out of context when they do it themselves?

I havenoticed it alot on this site site. And I find it very amuzing.

2006-11-12 17:28:40 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous

sentence, unless you want to hear the TRUTH..... . . . . .All Christians are sinners. All Christians are men and women. And all men and women make mistakes.

If you think about that for awhile, you just may come to the truth that you have been seeking.

It'll ALWAYS be a sinner, who is telling you about Jesus.

What do you think ?

2006-11-12 17:27:21 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous

2006-11-12 17:23:13 · 17 answers · asked by khan k 1

I've heard that some Christians believe that God is the creator of science, which is the reason for its perfection.

We've gone to church a few times but I have a problem with the idea that science isn't true in some cases. I heard at one point that dinosaur fossils are put there by the devil to make the bible look wrong. ???!?!?!???

Needless to say, we won't be going back to that church. Too weird for me.

But it made me wonder if there is a specific denomination or something that see the beauty of God's creation in science as well.

Even before we knew that cells existed, all the cells in our body worked together in perfect harmony.

Even before we could see the planets, they all circled the sun, and there were other galaxies and planets that we didn't even know existed.

I believe that that's part of God's perfect design. How any of that could be considered not Christian is beyond me.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Nancy

2006-11-12 17:22:19 · 16 answers · asked by Nancy 3

A good friend of mine presented me with an idea that intrigued me. She said she has talked to some little kids who seem wise beyond their years and thought "you've been here before." I kind of believe in reincarnation, and I kinda like the idea but I haven't made up my mind yet. I was wondering if anybody else has ever had the same experience with a kid before. Have you ever met a kid who seemed to know more than a kid their age should and thought maybe this isn't the first time they've been here?

2006-11-12 17:22:14 · 10 answers · asked by Reject187 4

Hypothetically speaking of course. I assure you that God kills a kitten every time someone answers "Uh, I don't have to worry because my religion is, duh, the one true religion." God told me this. So please think of the kittens.

2006-11-12 17:21:54 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous

What if I have been saved for a long time but I continue to struggle with sin. I believe in Christ, and have accepted him, but I still struggle against temptation, often giving in even though I hate myself for it and feel constant guilt. Does this mean I was never saved even though I have confessed Christ and confessed my sins? Or does it mean that maybe I am just really weak and a slow progressor? I find myself worrying that maybe I'll never get it right. I know that I can't earn my salvation, but can I un-earn it? How many times can I say I am sorry and mean it but continue to defy my own intentions and interrupt God's will in my life? Am I the only one who has felt this way?

2006-11-12 17:20:36 · 22 answers · asked by ? 4

the name should have a meaning and better if religious

2006-11-12 17:15:52 · 2 answers · asked by its_happy79 1

In a study of logic, there is something which we call “undecidable propositions” or “meaningless sentences”, which are statements that cannot be determined because there is no contextual false. One of the classic examples cited is the Epiminedes’ paradox. Saul Kripke says:

Ever since Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John XVIII, 38), the subsequent search for a correct answer has been inhibited by another problem, which, as is well known, also arises in a New Testament context. If, as the author of the Epistle to Titus supposes (Titus I, 12), a Cretan prophet, “even a prophet of their own,” asserted that “the Cretans are always liars,” and if “this testimony is true” of all other Cretan utterances, then it seems that the Cretan prophet’s words are true if and only if they are false. And any treatment of the concept of truth must somehow circumvent this paradox.[1]

Epimenides was Cretan and he said that “Cretans always lie”. Now, was that statement true or false? If he was a Cretan and he says that they always lie, is he then lying? If he is not lying then he is telling the truth and therefore Cretans do not always lie. We can see that since the assertion cannot be true and it cannot be false, the statement turns back on itself. It is like stating “What I am telling you right now is a lie”, would you believe that or otherwise? This statement thus has no true content. It cannot be true at the same time it is false. If it is true then it is always false. If it is false, it is also true.

Well, in the New Testament, the writer is Paul and he is talking about the Cretans in 1 Titus, as follows:

A prophet from their own people said of them “Cretens are always liars, wicked brutes, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this reason correct them sternly, that they may be sound in faith instead of paying attention to Jewish fables and to commandments of people who turn their backs on the truth. (Titus 1:12-14)

Notice that Paul says that one of their own men – a prophet - said that “Cretans are always liars” and he says that what this man say is true. It is a small mistake, but the point is that it is a human mistake. It cannot be a true statement at the same time that it is a false statement. Thus, how can Christians claim that the writers of the New Testament - in this case, Paul - had “inspiration” from God?

Some Christians have taken the position that a strictly logical approach to Epimenides’ statement can result in it not being a paradox after all. If it is not a paradox, one may argue that Paul’s calling it “true” was a subtle bit of mockery with tremendous foresight regarding later developments in logic. If that is the case, then maybe Paul’s statement actually was inspired. For example, while discussing Paul’s comments in the epistle to Titus, one Christian theological periodical concedes that “one of the very greatest of Christian thinkers enters the logic books wearing a dunce’s cap”[2] but then argues that Christians can find recourse in the fact that the statement might not be paradoxical. To back up this claim, the article calls to witness Quine, one of the greatest logicians that ever lived, thus it is important that we consider what Quine wrote:

There is the ancient paradox of Epimenides the Cretan, who said that all Cretans were liars. If he spoke the truth, he was a liar. It seems that this paradox may have reached the ears of St. Paul and that he missed the point of it. He warned, in his epistle to Titus: “One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said The Cretans are always liars.” Actually the paradox of Epimenides is untidy; there are loopholes. Perhaps some Cretans were liars, notably Epimenides, and others were not; perhaps Epimenides was a liar who occasionally told the truth; either way it turns out that the contradiction vanishes.[3]

The question that arises now is how Quine was able to figure out that maybe other Cretans were liars or maybe Epimenides sometimes told the truth. Epimenides is clearly saying that Cretans are always liars. Every time a Cretan speaks, he is lying, so how could the statement ever allow for a Cretan (be it Epimenides or some other Cretan) to speak the truth? The reasoning is genius, and goes as follows: the obvious assumption behind the belief that the statement is paradoxical is that if all Cretans lie, then Epimenides is lying, so if his statement is true, it is false. In that sense it seems like any other pseudomenon. From here, if we consider the statement false, we are no longer forced into the kind of paradoxical vicious circle that a true pseudomenon (like “this sentence is false”) pushes us into. Commenting on a similar line of argumentation, Schoenberg writes the following:

We may feel intuitively that the argument is paradoxical; yet, from a formal logic point of view, it does not really have the look of a paradox. It looks simply like reductio ad absurdum proof of the falsity of ‘All Cretans are liars.’[4]

Thus, as Quine noted, it is not inconsistent to assume that some other Cretan does not always lie, or that some other statement by Epimenides was true. Prior explains this quite well:

If we treat the Cretan’s assertion as true, and so assume that nothing true is ever asserted by a Cretan, it follows immediately that the Cretan’s assertion is false. If, however, we treat it as false, there is no way of deducing from this assumption that it is true. We can, therefore, consistently suppose it to be false, and this is all we can consistently suppose. But to suppose it false (considering what the assertion actually is) is to suppose that something asserted by a Cretan is true; and this of course can only be some other assertion than the one mentioned.[5]


A paradoxical statement has no discernable truth value, but the statement by Epimenides can be seen as having a truth value (i.e. it is false), and if that is the case we can reinterpret the statement as not being paradoxical. However, establishing a truth value for the statement does not escape the problem with Paul’s claim since the saying of Epimenides is false. As Prior noted above, we cannot consider the statement true (as Paul did). If sophisticated analysis determines after all that this statement by Epimenides is not paradoxical, and thus has a truth value, the only consistent supposition we can make is that it is false.

Conclusion

In the end, the following seven-point syllogism completes our argument:

Paul claims a Cretan uttered a certain proposition.
The proposition is not true.
Paul claims the proposition is true.
Paul’s claim is an error.
Paul’s writings are errant rather than inerrant.
Errant scripture is not inspired scripture, as held on by Muslims.
Therefore, Paul was not inspired.
Hence, whether the statement is meaningless or false, the basic argument which we have raised still stands. The conclusion of the seven point syllogism given above still rings true: Paul was not inspired.

And only God knows best!

2006-11-12 17:15:27 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous

2006-11-12 17:14:46 · 27 answers · asked by Anonymous

Ok, I have seen infinite posts of people comlaining about religious beliefs and differences, and seen many people post many different opinions, often suggesting that we should all just put aside our religious differences and let everyone serve whatever god they like. But the truth of the matter that nobody wants to say is that, ultimately, SOMEBODY is right and for whoever IS right according to many religious doctrines, mostly everyone else would be wrong. Following this line of logic, wouldn't you want to make sure that you have done everything you can to know the truth? Well, what if you did know the truth, but most people complained when you try to share it? What if by my preaching at you I am trying to Introduce you to the best thing that ever happened to me; salvation, and a restored relationship with our creator.

2006-11-12 17:14:35 · 13 answers · asked by ? 4

According to the bible, the first human pair Adam & Eve were created perfect. After sin they lost that gift, but they were closer to perfection than you and me. So did Cave Men come after that? Did they exist?

2006-11-12 17:10:31 · 12 answers · asked by M G 2

2006-11-12 17:09:33 · 20 answers · asked by ? 5

the pastor didnt quote any scripture from his head, he read everything, shouldnt a pastor have scripture memorized thats what im used to

2006-11-12 17:09:10 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous

i watched the end of a show on A&E called 'hell' & a clip about the church of satan was in it. One thing about this 'religion' is that they try to base all of their teachings 100 percent opposite of christianity. Example: 'do unto others as you'd have done to you'- christianity. so 'do unto others as they DO unto you- satanism. how would this religion even be in existence without God making the Christian Bible, how? :o}

2006-11-12 17:07:17 · 12 answers · asked by Nikki 5

And if Anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:14,15)

What about those who were never given names?

2006-11-12 17:04:59 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous

nobody goes out so far out of there way to disprove somethin they know in there heart doesnt exist it seems to me like some people are so angry because there having doubts on where they stand

2006-11-12 17:04:52 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous

Eternal servatude to a petty, cruel, egotistical but all-powerful God, or eternal pain and suffering?

2006-11-12 16:57:11 · 27 answers · asked by Anonymous

Why did religion allow slavery to exist. History writes that religion gave justification to slavery and segregation. I am not saying that all religions supported these crimes, but a good amount did. Not to pick on the good ole' South, but during the times of slavery religion was very much, and still part of culture. So here is my question. How did religion justify slavery and segregation?

2006-11-12 16:55:10 · 39 answers · asked by M G 2

Why don't you become a Christian who can really hold the mantle of Jesus and live like he did as Christian means follower/ disciple of Christ?

2006-11-12 16:49:35 · 12 answers · asked by Abbasangel 5

2006-11-12 16:49:10 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous