Topic: Religion and Morality. - page 3. (Read 883 times)

Now relax, man. Is there anything that you don't know? Be honest, now. There are lots of things that you don't know. Maybe God is on Jupiter. Be humble. You don't know that God doesn't exist. Whisper a little, because He might be listening to everything you say against Him.

Listen to yourself. You are right on the border of going crazy mad. Relax, man.

You know, it's probably good that you are done talking to me. Even quiet cancer in the body isn't attacked by the immune system with the vigor that a wildly active cancer will be.

If you don't get too raving boisterous against God, He just might give you longer time to repent.

God is loving. He is always slightly in a quandary about how much time to give people to repent. I mean, he doesn't want anyone to go to Hell. And He is trying hard to reduce the punishment for those who DO go to Hell. So, if you are less active against Him, you don't have as much to pay for in Hell if you die today. But if you get wildly active in your anti-God approach, and He sees that there is little chance that you will repent, he might let you die young, so you don't have so much to pay for in Hell.

I don't know what God will do in your case. Only He can judge what is best for you. Maybe you are on the edge of repentance without even knowing it. So He might let you go on living, all the while trying to tease a change of heart out of you. But, He might see that you are so adamantly against Him, that it is definitely the best move to let you go now.

So, it's probably best that you are done talking about this kind of stuff to me.

We have the exact pencil and piece of parchment He used to write the O.T.  What are you even yammering about?

Not only are you biting the hand that feeds you, but you are biting the holy God Who made you, and keeps you alive. Since you are that wicked and evil, you are like a plague that needs to be eradicated before you infect others. It will happen to you in God's time. After all, God is healing the world by getting rid of diseases like you. So, we all hope that you change before He has to get rid of you.

I mean, that's what He had to do in Bible times to the diseases that wouldn't change.

You are wrong. You are talking about Satan and people. Jesus is the essence of life. He arose from the dead.

Everyone is religious. People are religious beings. Much of science is religious activity. Check the whole definition - https://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion?s=t

This is indeed a basic problem of Chrsitianity. The bible, particularly OT, is a guide on how to live in a tribe in the middle-east a couple of millennia ago. It may contain what they thought at the time were universal truths, but some of them look really f***ing sadistic to modern eyes.

The thread title is Religion and Morality.
I think morality is the important word here. I don't believe in God, but if I had to choose between the two I'd go for everyone being morally good, rather than everyone not believing in God.
I accept that belief in God can be useful to help certain people through life.

Morality is the important bit though, however you arrive at it.

- Except that the nature of everything is that we need God to even live;
- We are never sure if a good thing we are doing is really the good that God originally placed into our hearts when He built us;
- It's our failure to do good that makes us need God's Jesus-salvation;
- We need God's help to protect us from the temptation to step out of goodness.

Think about this. In the things we are capable of doing, we always do whatever we want to do. Obviously, if it's a thing that we can't do - like literally jumping to the moon with our own legs - we won't do it. But let's say it's something bad, like cheating on our spouse, or robbing a bank that we are capable of robbing. If we want to do it, we will do it. If we don't do it, it's because we wanted something else more. We always do what we want to do... sin or not.

The temptation thing is directed by God. God "penetrates" way beyond the depths of the microcosm, and fills the macrocosm. He is everywhere. Knowing this opens up a whole lot of questions about why things don't operate differently in the universe. Nobody can answer all those questions, but some of us can answer some of the basics.

Me again, replying to you on what feels like every single thread on the forum 

I think the inherent desire, in the depths of our hearts as you put it, to do good and to be a moral person is a wonderful thing. You don't need God for that though.

If you are a good person and you believe in God, then you're doing yourself a disservice. It's not because of God that you are good, it's all you.

You would be right if the commands and many more like them were not written in the depths of our hearts. If we don't know it, it's only because they have been covered by layers of "brainwashing."

Not really. Take #5 for example, 'Thou shalt not kill' applies only to members of your own tribe...

Man: 'I want to kill someone, is that okay?'
God: 'Is he from your own tribe?'
Man: 'Nah.'
God: 'Go for it. You have my blessing.'

https://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Thou_shalt_not_kill_only_applies_to_members_of_your_own_tribe

I still stand by my position that it's impossible to perform a morally good act if you're religious.
An atheist can perform an act of kindness without any expectation of reward.
A Christian knows that if they perform a good act, it gets them a step closer to heaven. If there is a guaranteed reward for being good, how can you separate goodness from self-interest?

Saint Paul said, Galatians 5:14:(Commandments 4 - 10).

But Jesus says that you are to love God above all things (Commandments 1 - 3), and then your neighbor as yourself (Commandments 4 - 10). Why the difference?

Because when Jesus died on the cross for all people, taking away the sins of all, He made God into family. It's not that God isn't God any longer. It's simply that God has become a neighbor, through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I agree, everyone has a unique perspective based on their own individual knowledge and personal experiences. This knowledge and experience is subjective due to the numerous variances that help shape and mold the human Psyche. Through the eyes of another, definitions and interpretations tend to vastly change, for example: "One mans trash, is another mans treasure. One mans pain, is another mans pleasure."
   Religion or better said, spirituality often becomes mans basic necessity, it gives man a sense of self, a feeling that maybe the life he lives and experiences is actually bigger than just himself. Religions can be dogmatic when taken to the extreme of course, but the underline principal is that religions contain basic morals & ethics that a religious follower can aspire to live by.

Hypothetically speaking for arguments sake

Example: In the religions of Catholicism and also Judaism, there exists a set of 10 basic commandments followers must adhere to.

10 Commandments

1.“I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any strange gods before Me.”
2.“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
3.“Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.”
4.“Honor thy father and mother.”
5.“Thou shalt not kill.”
6.“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
7.“Thou shalt not steal.”
8.“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
9.“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”
10.“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.”

Now, looking at religion through an outsiders perspective, the Commandments 1 - 3 might seem a bit absurd, especially to an atheist, while commandments 4 - 10 seem like basic codes and tenants any man regardless of their race, political affiliations, gender, sexuality, religious doctrine, or creed could live by.

You are correct. Those who are not Christians are condemned to Hell. The question revolves around what it takes to be a Christian. There are 3 basic places where Christianity is found (Jesus is the Christ.). But only one of them is clearly understood. It's really the only one to work with for people who want to be Christians. I will place it in #3, below:

1. Not clear. In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had sinned, remember how God was walking in the Garden in the cool of the day? Adam and Eve hid themselves. God is a Spirit, so how could He walk in the Garden? It was Jesus that was walking. This conforms with the Old Testament term, "Angel of the Lord," which is understood by many (most?) Bible scholars to be Jesus preincarnate. The Angel of the Lord is found throughout the O.T.  Google "preincarnate."

2. Not clear. Most people understand the idea of a embryo/fetus/new-born to be innocent. To understand what Jesus has to do with this, we need to understand that Jesus has all authority in Heaven and Earth (Matthew 28:18), and that it was He who put us together in Mommy's tummy (Psalm 139:13) because He has all authority. Since Jesus is the salvation, the embryo/fetus/new-born knows nothing other than Jesus, since he/she is in formation by Jesus, the Christ. The new embryo/fetus/new-born is automatically a Christian, but he/she will probably lose the memory of it when learning the many things of the world in later life. In addition, a forceful spirit might reject Jesus at a very early age.

3. Clear. The New Testament, particularly the Gospels; the deep explanations of parts of the Gospels are found in the Epistles.

Obviously, what I have written here is very brief. So, realize that you might have slightly different understandings of what I have written. Of course, Solomon says, "The more the words, the less the meaning." So, brevity might be the best thing.

I do disagree profoundly with you about religion and God, but I'll admit I'm not an expert on the nuances of Christianity. Could you help me on one point? I had always thought a big part of Christianity is that those who aren't Christians are condemned to hell. Have I misunderstood? Is it a fact of Christianity that your soul can still be saved and you can still go to heaven just through being a good person, even if you're not a Christian?

Think a little, rather than simply believing Wikipedia quacks.     

No. Those were gods, not God.

Many groups of people and individuals understood God without the Bible, because they understood through their spirits some of the words of the Bible that they had not seen biblically.

There were also angels, people and myths that were considered to be gods by some people.

The God of the universe Who is a spirit, and Creator Controller of all things, that is God but not a god. If one of the more-than-3000 gods are portrayed like that in the writings about him, without portraying wrong things about him, then they are referring to God, as well.

The best bet for talking about God is to use the way He is described in the Bible.

No, it's a sin because the knowledge of God is available throughout nature. Machines have makers.

The idea that God does not exist is mythology, and a sin, because it is easy to see machine nature all around us.

Not acknowledging God is sin... just as St. Paul says in the reference I showed you above. Your pic shows that even the ancient Egyptians acknowledged God, even though they didn't understand Him correctly. Therefore, you have no good in you, and will have no good until you change and start to acknowledge God.

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