Topic: Religious beliefs on bitcoin - page 13. (Read 22413 times)

So, the irony of your claim is that the morality that we are taught through the bible does not conform logically to the same morality from the bible, nor the morality we come by on our own. Basically, here, this makes sense, even though it doesn't make sense, and there is no sense to it, but don't worry about it. So if it doesn't make sense, and we shouldn't worry about it, then what are we supposed to learn or use from it?

Regarding Bitcoin, if a one-world government controlled currency is a prerequisite for the end-times in Revelations, then something like Bitcoin, a distributed and impossible to control currency, becoming a mainstream just may make the end-times a literal impossibility. I think Bitcoin may actually kill any possibility of Jesus's second coming, unless Jesus simply ignores a few glaring aspects of the prophesy when he arrives.

I know what could account for all this inconsistency and contradiction. God's absence.
If you see religion as a idea of humanity then it all seems very clear. 

I think Hasbro got there first:("CutieMark") http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/32300000/Have-Some-Cutie-Mark-Crusaders-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-32369381-500-298.png

I think we're looking in the wrong place. Bitcoin is the anti-Mark-of-the-Beast. This looks much closer to it:

Google: Motorola's tattoos could replace passwords
Motorola’s forthcoming phones could use electronic tattoos or pills to identify users, it has been announced.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/10090863/Google-Motorolas-tattoos-could-replace-passwords.html

@Rassah:
After reading your story, the knee-jerk response is to turn to Christian apologetics -- to reconcile the Bible with what seems rational, logical, and, most of all, fair.  I see it's happening already, though that's a bit weepy & silly.  Sillier still is this entire discussion, which makes faith -- irrational by definition -- defend itself on rationality's playground.  That simply can't be done.*  All formal systems** have grammar, axiom sets, and rules of derivation, which are assumed (presupposed) to be true for that particular system.  That doesn't imply that they hold for other formal systems, and well-formed & provably valid statements of one system may be nothing more than gibberish in another.

TL;DR: Nothing about a faith needs to make sense to a non-believer.  Gnostics & logicians fall into each other's arms & weep cathartically.

On a lighter note, wtf was that spike up to $130 all about yesterday, right after the drop?  Can anyone explain that


*This is a tangent, but a fun one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorem
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_system

Ok, but let's examine what happens when he doesn't intervene:
The claim is that god is omnipotent - he can see everything, do anything, and know everything that has happened or will ever happen.
The claim is that suicide is a cardinal sin - it goes directly against "Thou shalt not kill," results in a murder before one can ask forgiveness, and throws the gift of life right back into god's face.

So, god creates a girl, who is born into an abusive family. She is generally a nice and caring girl, polite and friendly to everyone. But as she grows up,  the abuse continues. Good sees it, but does nothing. The abuse slowly increases to where the young girl can't handle it any more, all while god still does nothing. At this point god knows exactly what will happen if he doesn't intervene, yet he still just sits and watches. And, as expected, the girl (I think she was 12 or 14 at the time?) takes her own life, just as god knew she would, and ends up going straight to hell. So, in short, god created an innocent girl, for the sole purpose of putting her through eternity of living and post-living hell. And he does this over and over again with hundreds, maybe thousands of kids over centuries - creating innocent life for the sole purpose of sending them to hell before they are even old enough to make rational decisions about life.

Why?

Ask your god that, and let me know if he gives you an answer.

Okay, since this is supposed to be a thread about Religion and Bitcoin.....

I would not bother God with my real-life issues if he does exist and answer my prays, instead I would ask him:" Could you show me a  preimage of '00000000000000000000000000000000' under SHA256 hash function? Thanks." This is very important for me because if he does exist, I would not doubt that P=NP, which is an utterly profound revelation if you think about it. Aslo hash functions are somehow constructions of human minds, so it would be interesting to see if God can reverse it.

I can understand that.  I felt like that with the guy that abused me.  Why would God just allow it to happen and not intervene at the time?  You will probably disagree with my reasoning, but I do think it comes down to the whole "free will" debate.  We are allowed to hurt each other.  We are allowed to make our own choices.  God does choose to intervene at times.  He did for me, but it took much longer than I wanted for sure.


Sometimes God does seem silent.  I think at times I give up when He does not answer me right away or if it takes longer than I want.  Or if I am not hearing anything and I am really upset I go to the Bible and read.  I especially like the Psalms.  David has some pretty dark days himself.  It is comforting to know we are not alone in our struggles.  I would continue to pray until you get an answer though.  Sometimes we have to keep knocking and he wants persistence for some reason.  "Seek and you will find.  Knock and the door will be opened."

I never blamed god for the things that happened. I blamed him for sitting idly by and letting them happen, despite being supposedly omnipotent, just, and loving. There was nothing just or loving about letting what was happening to continue to happen.


What choice, or sex, is there in simply falling in love with someone? My bf and I never got a chance to have sex before we finally broke up, even though we were in a relationship for almost two years. I never had a choice over whom I fell in love with. Maybe I'm different? And we were still evil monsters, despite "gay" being all about feelings, and not about actions.


I have. I asked him time and time again. I prayed and begged for any sort of answer. His deafening silence was all the answer I eventually needed.

If it hurts, you're doing it wrong.

You are right, LOVE is not a sin.  However, sex can become sinful depending on the circumstances.  Sex and love are not one in the same.  Sex can cause tremendous hurt.  However, in the right context, it can be a beautiful thing that God created for us to show love.

Love is not a sin, and any God who calls it such is a sick and twisted one, not worthy of faith.


Now that's a deity I can get behind.

I can see where you are coming from Rassah.  That is really hard.  I have had friends and two close relatives that are homosexual and the response that many Christians have is not love but hatred instead. (They know that I do not agree with their choices but I still love them) I believe a Christian should respond with compassion and not anger and rejection but there are many that do respond like your bf's father did and there is no wonder that there is so much hatred between Christians and homosexuals because of things like that.  

With regards to your question of "how can God be so evil to allow for a dark, unnoticed world like this to exist?"  I still think your anger might be misdirected.  Perhaps God is not the one to blame in all of this?  Perhaps it is the evil that is in the hearts of some "self righteous" that think that they are doing good?   Sometimes they are the ones that do the most harm.  The Bible gives a warning for some people like that:  "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"  Basically, they think they are doing the "right" thing are justified in doing so. but the Bible is really clear about "not judging."  That said, there is truth in the scripture as well that should not be overlooked. You will not like this but I have to write it anyways,  the laws of scripture are there to protect us from pain and sorrow. The Bible has laws about sex. Sex was created by God to be something sacred. However it is the one thing I feel like Satan uses to hurt so many people when we go down a path that might seem OK at the time.  I have been tempted to fall into sexual "sin" myself many times.  I have had to ask for God's help not to do that and it is easy to ask the common question "if you love someone how can it be wrong?"  But God's laws are actually meant to help us and protect us and are meant to bring peace, joy and every good and perfect gift to us.  So on the one hand, we are not supposed to judge, on the other hand, the Bible has truths that we believe God has shown us to follow.  The thing is, it is up to God to work those things out in the hearts of others, and it not my job to judge anyone (other than our leaders in the church which we are supposed to judge strictly!)

All that said, I would go to God with your questions.  Have it out with Him!  Yell at him at the unfairness of it all.  Tell Him to show you why he would allow these things.  Only He can give you the answers in your heart to them.  I can try to explain things from my viewpoint (which is obviously biased) but I believe it is something He will have to show you personally and no one can really do that.

You are right though, your questions are probably some the toughest anyone has to deal with.

Rassah, thanks for sharing.. I don't have long, but I want you to know that the New testament's position on homosexuality is far more sensitive than most realize, and it has 2 major implications:

1. anyone that fails to love their neighbor, gay or straight, is seriously on the hook for it, as it's the one interhuman law he left us with, and as he is just, he will repay. "offenses must come, but woe to him by whom they come"

2. the fact that some are given over to that which is "inconvenient" for them looks bad from here, but has a merciful purpose in light of eternity, and really, how else could God see it, if mortal suffering is not the worst thing.

Actually, the question gets really interesting when you stop trying to seek meaningful answers to your real-life problems from it.

And no, not the Bible, sages living three thousand years ago have nothing to do with the creation of the Universe, still an invaluable work about literature/history/moral guidance though.

That "free will" thing doesn't fly when you spend a bunch of nights passionately praying for hours for god to intervene, even just a little bit, only to find out a few weeks later that the person you were praying for bought a one-way ticket to hell through suicide after not being able to handle their god-ignored situation. That whole premise didn't make any sense to me either.

Also, if you think about it, didn't Jesus basically commit "suicide-by-cop?"

Wow, that is harsh and I can see losing your religion from that.  Just being gay is enough in itself for most people to stay clear of religions because religions are against gays and Christians are massive homophobes.

Of course you know the answers you will get to the "there is no God because the world is evil." Most of them will give you the whole "free will" speech but I have to agree with you. If God is watching all this happen and turns a blind eye because he wants people to live their life without interference. I'm pretty sure I don't want to sit at his side because you never know when he might reject you or turn on you. The idea that there is a cruel God out there somewhere is more scary than the idea that there is no God at all.

Don't try too hard to abandon the randomness lay in all of us, if cryptography can teach us anything.

Thank you for sharing that, Rassah.

Short story:
I got to see a very dark world on an intimate personal level, and questioned how could god possibly exist in such a world.

Long story:
When I was 15, I fell in love with someone, who happened to be a guy, like me. His step-father was a very religious, bible-thumping, violent alcoholic, who made hating religious people easy. After spending many sleepless nights consoling my crying bf, who was hiding out in the basement trying to drown out the sounds of violence from upstairs, my first question was why is his step-father supposedly a better person for being so much into Christ, when he drinks so much, yells at my bf, and hits his wife? After dealing with the fear of our relationship being found out, and as a result me being ostracized at home, and my bf being kicked out of his house or simply beaten to death (he's in one of "those" states), my second question was why is the whole world telling us that we are committing a grave sin worthy of death, when all that happened was that we fell in love, something that's beyond our control and seemed beautiful to us?
The next thing that happened was that I was part of an online community that happened to include a lot of other kids my age, who used the privacy and anonymity of the internet to find other similar souls, share interests, and confide in them. Being extremely compassionate and fascinated by psychiatry/psychology at the time (very high IQ, and way more "grown up" than others my age), I got a chance to hear and console allot of guys and girls who were struggling with fear of and actual rejection from their parents because of their sexuality, various physical and sexual abuses from their parents, and who were just living in really shitty conditions that, being under 18, they couldn't do anything about. These were really horrible stories from people I ended up knowing very intimately, many of whom I ended up considering very close friends. On a few occasions there was eventually news from others that one of these "friends" committed suicide, or someone admitting, after being away for a few weeks, that they were in the hospital for attempting it. Eventually, after a nervous breakdown or two, it got to the point where I eventually got jaded, not wanting to listen to these stories anymore. Being immersed in all this, and being personally involved due to also recently finding out I'm not straight, affected me tremendously, leading me to nearly abandoning highschool, and landing me at a psychiatrist's with severe depression myself. In this particular dark part of my world, the third question that came up was why would god completely ignore these kids and their struggles, and just allow it to continue to happen? After all, these were not criminals, or bad people, they were just innocent kids who didn't do anything wrong, and had no control over their situations. There was no reason or purpose to their suffering. And that question eventually morphed into the last and final question, which was, how can god be so evil as to allow for a dark, extremely vast, yet unnoticed world like this to even exist?
From there it was a pretty easy step to simply realize that god most likely doesn't exist. If he does, at this point I think god would have to be the one to apologize profusely to me and my friends for his sins, and even then I doubt I would forgive him. From all that I have learned since then, if god was, by some chance, real, I would be one of the first in line to wage war on him and try to bring him down for all the horrible injustice and suffering he has caused. Keep in mind, this isn't a "woe's me!" sort of thing. I wouldn't be demanding an apology to me personally, but on behalf of the many others he has wronged. But he's just a made up story, and it's much easier to think that there isn't anyone out there turning a blind eye to things, instead of knowing there's some horrible monster out there with the power to stop things, who chooses to simply watch.