#1 [url]

Apr 4 05 11:56 PM

QUOTE (Tamadude @ Apr 5 2005, 12:35 AM)
     

Man, I hope that was worth the addition to your post count 'cause it sure as hell didn't add to anything else here.

Maybe you'd like to explain what's so funny. If my post, by some chance, happens to be the issue, then you might want to explain how so.

QUOTE (SPAZ @ Posted: Apr 5 2005, 12:37 AM)

I think alot of christians mistake faith for blind acceptance. Learn to judge properly and think for yourself. Some of the best christians I know are that way because they question their beliefs all the time.

Yeah, same here. Think for yourself a cilantro. My father used to be an Anglican minister, and I think I respect him more than any other Christian I've known because he didn't just take everything as fact. For one example - the stories of the miracles in the Bible - if you have any common sense, you won't believe. Understandable; I'm quite comfortable saying they didn't happen. But that's not important. It's the morals of those stories which is. Such as the one where Jesus gathers the bread crumbs from a huge feast or similar, and using them creates the same amount of bread. Impossible. But the moral of the story, I believe, is something like "those who follow shall not go hungry" - perhaps 'unrewarded', for a deeper meaning. Whether or not he actually did it means nothing.

People get caught up on this so much. I tell them what I just said, and they get hung up on me saying it's impossible. And the reply is "But they're miracles, that's the point! He really did it!"

Who cares? Here's my own cilantro analogy, similar to one my father used at church, but nowhere near as good so I won't credit this to him. Jesus shall be represented as a dog-owner. His followers shall be represented as dogs.

The human pretends to throw the ball. Christian equivalent, tests their faith, perhaps with an impossible story like the miracles. The dog looks, and while it is looking the other way, the human throws the ball. The dog turns back to the human, looking for the ball. The human points. The dog sits there and stares at the human hand, but doesn't turn around and see the ball. So caught up on the irrelevant, missing the point entirely. It's right behind them, but they aren't turning to look.

That's a condensed, more poorly-told version, but I think it's not a bad attempt. You can question things and still believe what matters in your religion.