Level-Headed Religious Discussion

[Masa 3]

so thats perplexed and speechless, did i get to you my brotha? DID I INSTILL KNOWLEDGE INTO YOUR YEARNING BRAIN?!?!

ahhh golden, u are a funny man.

[Goldentongue 3616]

well for all who say religion caused CHAOS and WAR and KILLING and HINDERED advancements. i must say, good point.

BUT!!!! such a big BUT it required a FROSTED BUT!!

BUT, THATS BECAUSE OF THE CHURCH. i put my faith in God, not the Church, i believe in God how i feel God wants me to have faith, not how someone else tells me how to do it. for example, do you have someone tell you how exactly to shoot a basketball? no you may pick up a few pointers, but develop your own way based on how you feel, not on how others tell you.

i believe faith is a self justification with a small background of knowledge to stem the mind's infinitive growth.

I think i have reached an epiphany lol

why troll my epiphany bro, YOU WANT THAT BEEF?!? sike, level head, but what do you think of my rebuttal to whom i referred to?

so thats perplexed and speechless, did i get to you my brotha? DID I INSTILL KNOWLEDGE INTO YOUR YEARNING BRAIN?!?!

ahhh golden, u are a funny man.

[Masa 3]

WHY ARE U REPLYING IN SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES THROUGH PICS AND GIFS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS THREAD IS NOT LEVEL HEADED ANYMORE. sike it still is, im glad i enlightened you golden tongue. you are welcome.

[Goldentongue 3616]

WHY ARE U REPLYING IN SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES THROUGH PICS AND GIFS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS THREAD IS NOT LEVEL HEADED ANYMORE. sike it still is, im glad i enlightened you golden tongue. you are welcome.

[Masa 3]

the purpose of quoting u is ^ right back at ya ;D

LOL why do u keep giving me all these dirty looks

[Dojima 7619]

the purpose of quoting u is ^ right back at ya ;D

LOL why do u keep giving me all these dirty looks

[Balthazar 15]

the purpose of quoting u is ^ right back at ya ;D

LOL why do u keep giving me all these dirty looks

[Masa 3]

oh ok i see how it is, hahaha.

i wasnt serious mayne, i was tired as a mutha F *Watch Yo Mouf*,

BUT in all seriousness, jsdkdjklfjiwekmvskjfiew

and this is not a religious thread no more.

[tex1an2 680]

well for all who say religion caused CHAOS and WAR and KILLING and HINDERED advancements. i must say, good point.

BUT!!!! such a big BUT it required a FROSTED BUT!!

BUT, THATS BECAUSE OF THE CHURCH. i put my faith in God, not the Church, i believe in God how i feel God wants me to have faith, not how someone else tells me how to do it. for example, do you have someone tell you how exactly to shoot a basketball? no you may pick up a few pointers, but develop your own way based on how you feel, not on how others tell you.

i believe faith is a self justification with a small background of knowledge to stem the mind's infinitive growth.

I think i have reached an epiphany lol

Without the church, there is no Christianity. Without a communion of believers, there is no growth. You may want to reassess your beliefs, because that is not what the bible teaches.

>Masa: as a fellow Christian, I want to be nice. But you're making things difficult after reading all these replies.

[Robert Timecock 19]

tl;dr

God doesn't exist, Pascal's Wager is retarded, there is no purpose, only a nihilistic wave-function we call the "universe", and secularization has, is, and always will be a good idea.

So, fragile insignificant water balloon made of carbon and oxygen, your only rational choice at this point is to live your life with no purpose but to achieve the highest net amount of pleasure.

[Masa 3]

Without the church, there is no Christianity. Without a communion of believers, there is no growth. You may want to reassess your beliefs, because that is not what the bible teaches.

>Masa: as a fellow Christian, I want to be nice. But you're making things difficult after reading all these replies.

well that was just a joke with all those replies, please excuse those. i was joking around with golden, though he didnt take it all as a joke, i did.

but back to religion, i feel that there may be error in the bible. i mean the bible has been passed around quite a bit, and has been controlled by men since. (sometimes controlled by bad or immoral men). usually it was held by regular decent men, i do know that, but at times it wasnt or may have not been. also the bible u read is English. the original bible, would have probably been written in Hebrew. to the best of my knowledge, Hebrew isnt a language for English, nor vice versa, so translation also may have made discrepancies in the text as well. the translators had all the power back when it was first translated. you nor i know exactly what happened and what errors were made and such, thus i dont really feel the desire to follow man, and artificial things as such. i believe a general idea of God, and some teachings, but from there find it within my self to figure my own truth. not to follow a church telling me how to find my OWN church. and yes here and there i do attend a church service, and rspect all people who go to church, but this is how i think, and what im thinking. u still feel any rebuttal?

[Jewinator 5000 750]

well that was just a joke with all those replies, please excuse those. i was joking around with golden, though he didnt take it all as a joke, i did.

but back to religion, i feel that there may be error in the bible. i mean the bible has been passed around quite a bit, and has been controlled by men since. (sometimes controlled by bad or immoral men). usually it was held by regular decent men, i do know that, but at times it wasnt or may have not been. also the bible u read is English. the original bible, would have probably been written in Hebrew. to the best of my knowledge, Hebrew isnt a language for English, nor vice versa, so translation also may have made discrepancies in the text as well. the translators had all the power back when it was first translated. you nor i know exactly what happened and what errors were made and such, thus i dont really feel the desire to follow man, and artificial things as such. i believe a general idea of God, and some teachings, but from there find it within my self to figure my own truth. not to follow a church telling me how to find my OWN church. and yes here and there i do attend a church service, and rspect all people who go to church, but this is how i think, and what im thinking. u still feel any rebuttal?

Holy balls bro, just stop now before you embarrass yourself anymore than you already have.

[Oreo 2073]

Holy balls bro, just stop now before you embarrass yourself anymore than you already have.

His opinions are his opinions. Leave it be instead of causing drama over it.

[Masa 3]

Holy balls bro, just stop now before you embarrass yourself anymore than you already have.

how am i embarrassing myself?

[Frosted Butts 53]

how am i embarrassing myself?

I mean, I guess your opinion is OK, but I don't think posts like that help your forum presence at all. Start using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation and you might just be able to save your forum presence before it's too late.

[Masa 3]

I mean, I guess your opinion is OK, but I don't think posts like that help your forum presence at all. Start using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation and you might just be able to save your forum presence before it's too late.

yea i feel it, you are correct, but it is a habit. i type how i talk. I'll try to fix it, who knows, it'll probably help me in school and on my SAT this saturday.

[tex1an2 680]

but back to religion, i feel that there may be error in the bible. i mean the bible has been passed around quite a bit, and has been controlled by men since. (sometimes controlled by bad or immoral men). usually it was held by regular decent men, i do know that, but at times it wasnt or may have not been. also the bible u read is English. the original bible, would have probably been written in Hebrew. to the best of my knowledge, Hebrew isnt a language for English, nor vice versa, so translation also may have made discrepancies in the text as well. the translators had all the power back when it was first translated. you nor i know exactly what happened and what errors were made and such, thus i dont really feel the desire to follow man, and artificial things as such. i believe a general idea of God, and some teachings, but from there find it within my self to figure my own truth. not to follow a church telling me how to find my OWN church. and yes here and there i do attend a church service, and rspect all people who go to church, but this is how i think, and what im thinking. u still feel any rebuttal?

Yes, the bible was in the hands of men, however allow me to lay down a history lesson. In 325 A.D., the heads of all the churches within the Roman Empire were combating the ideology of Gnosticism. To refute their theology, Emperor Constantine called 1800 bishops from across the empire, they assembled the current canonical text. All the books of the New Testament were present during this time and they selected what was divinely inspired through a series of qualifications. Was the author a apostle? Check. Is the book chronologically valid? Check. etc. etc. over 1800 bishops spent months and years in prayer over which book would be called canonical during this time. They finally agreed upon the canonical order and books within our current New Testament.

Over time, the bible was translated into Latin, and then in 1383 was translated into English. Other languages followed shortly after. What's astonishing is that throughout these translations the wholistic meaning of both the old and new testament were meticulously preserved albeit with a few minor & major exceptions*. However, in the 19th century, the discovery of the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus dating back to the 4th century revealed any error that may have been created over interpretation and time. Not wholly, but it affirmed that the bible's central message had remained consistently the same throughout generations.

The original greek manuscripts unfortunately are not preserved, however using hermeneutics scholars can accurately examine interpretations and biblical translations and present an understanding based on what the audience at the time would have understood the message.

I believe we have today an accurate representation of what the original authors have tried to convey in our current biblical translations. I'd even take a step further and say that the bible is valid due to divine inspiration. I believe God does intend to communicate with us, and he communicates to us through nature, people, history, and the bible. I do believe the bible is infallible and that everything written within was with intention and factual. I also believe this idea is a core understanding of our faith. You're open to your opinion, but I believe that to follow Christ, you have to believe his words. And his words are throughout the old testament, new testament and through creation.

John 1:1-3 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

*Some major exceptions include the end of Mark where Jesus appears to his disciples and says that signs will accompany the saved, such as not dying from poison.

[Jewinator 5000 750]

well that was just a joke with all those replies, please excuse those. i was joking around with golden, though he didnt take it all as a joke, i did.

but back to religion, i feel that there may be error in the bible. i mean the bible has been passed around quite a bit, and has been controlled by men since. (sometimes controlled by bad or immoral men). usually it was held by regular decent men, i do know that, but at times it wasnt or may have not been. also the bible u read is English. the original bible, would have probably been written in Hebrew. to the best of my knowledge, Hebrew isnt a language for English, nor vice versa, so translation also may have made discrepancies in the text as well. the translators had all the power back when it was first translated. you nor i know exactly what happened and what errors were made and such, thus i dont really feel the desire to follow man, and artificial things as such. i believe a general idea of God, and some teachings, but from there find it within my self to figure my own truth. not to follow a church telling me how to find my OWN church. and yes here and there i do attend a church service, and rspect all people who go to church, but this is how i think, and what im thinking. u still feel any rebuttal?

I'm afraid that I'm reading this incorrectly and that's probably why you sound so stupid

So, what it sounds like you're saying is, you do not follow the Bible or any widely practiced religion, yet you still consider yourself a Christian. You do not follow these because you're afraid that sometime in the course of history the Good Book was altered in such a way which would make it untruthful to its' writers original intention. Furthermore, you believe that because the Bible was translated from Hebrew to English there may have been some mistranslations, thus altering it even further.

Is this correct?

Also, it's worthy of note that most modern biblical scriptures are translations of the Septuagint, not the original Hebrew texts.

EDIT: I got to this page at 8:40, then went afk for a while then responded, so I didn't see Texan's post. :|

[Masa 3]

Yes, the bible was in the hands of men, however allow me to lay down a history lesson. In 325 A.D., the heads of all the churches within the Roman Empire were combating the ideology of Gnosticism. To refute their theology, Emperor Constantine called 1800 bishops from across the empire, they assembled the current canonical text. All the books of the New Testament were present during this time and they selected what was divinely inspired through a series of qualifications. Was the author a apostle? Check. Is the book chronologically valid? Check. etc. etc. over 1800 bishops spent months and years in prayer over which book would be called canonical during this time. They finally agreed upon the canonical order and books within our current New Testament.

Over time, the bible was translated into Latin, and then in 1383 was translated into English. Other languages followed shortly after. What's astonishing is that throughout these translations the wholistic meaning of both the old and new testament were meticulously preserved albeit with a few minor & major exceptions*. However, in the 19th century, the discovery of the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus dating back to the 4th century revealed any error that may have been created over interpretation and time. Not wholly, but it affirmed that the bible's central message had remained consistently the same throughout generations.

The original greek manuscripts unfortunately are not preserved, however using hermeneutics scholars can accurately examine interpretations and biblical translations and present an understanding based on what the audience at the time would have understood the message.

I believe we have today an accurate representation of what the original authors have tried to convey in our current biblical translations. I'd even take a step further and say that the bible is valid due to divine inspiration. I believe God does intend to communicate with us, and he communicates to us through nature, people, history, and the bible. I do believe the bible is infallible and that everything written within was with intention and factual. I also believe this idea is a core understanding of our faith. You're open to your opinion, but I believe that to follow Christ, you have to believe his words. And his words are throughout the old testament, new testament and through creation.

John 1:1-3 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

*Some major exceptions include the end of Mark where Jesus appears to his disciples and says that signs will accompany the saved, such as not dying from poison.

well my friend, that was a great point, i never knew that. i could take the side of "still its men who kept changing it and stuff, and who is man to say what is correct and fit for the Word of God." but that was a very good point i must say. There still lies that certain level of faith and confidence in the occurrence and truth of this all. I guess the bible is as accurate as can get, but (i just love this) you said that 1800 bishops came together to talk it out around 325AD. That was either in the middle or before the Dark Ages, a period of Religious blocking, church corruption, and its power. the dark ages was a time of religious power, and thus could have been modified then, during that time period. I dont know if that is true, but it could have happened. i read this in my history text book, "History is written by the winners". history (the bible) may have been changed by those in power, possibly during the crusades. who knows?

But i do find your post great Tex

But Faith is the key to religion, each to his own.

[Frosted Butts 53]

But i do find your post great Tex

Expect no less.

[Dojima 7619]

Yeah, tex1an's definitely one of the better posters here. Makes sense, as he's also one of the older posters.

[Pebbz. 953]

Yeah, tex1an's definitely one of the better posters here. Makes sense, as he's also one of the older posters.

Yo man, I could give you some awesome strategies about PvX. Would you tie that feat with me being a senior poster?

[Masa 3]

I'm afraid that I'm reading this incorrectly and that's probably why you sound so stupid

So, what it sounds like you're saying is, you do not follow the Bible or any widely practiced religion, yet you still consider yourself a Christian. You do not follow these because you're afraid that sometime in the course of history the Good Book was altered in such a way which would make it untruthful to its' writers original intention. Furthermore, you believe that because the Bible was translated from Hebrew to English there may have been some mistranslations, thus altering it even further.

Is this correct?

Also, it's worthy of note that most modern biblical scriptures are translations of the Septuagint, not the original Hebrew texts.

EDIT: I got to this page at 8:40, then went afk for a while then responded, so I didn't see Texan's post. :|

No no no no no, i derive alot of my beliefs from the bible, just think there are some discrepancies here and there. "One's own understanding" is what i believe in. plus it depends on how fucked up someone is, but its safe to say most people arent. basically, look at the Westboro church who is trollin' the memorial day for dead soldiers. i mean thats some fucked up church, and i have no doubt that there are others like that, but dont publicly shame themselves like they did. Twas the church that that influenced their doings, not the bible. although it says that gay men are abominable, it doesnt say that God hates them. so it takes a level of self understanding.

Yeah, tex1an's definitely one of the better posters here. Makes sense, as he's also one of the older posters.

yea it did make alot of sense and yes it was a great post. very credible, almost changes my mind lol