Jesus Christ

I guess ask him. Myself, I think "evil" is a very after-the-fact label for anything that happens that adversely affects human beings. I don't think it's helpful.

 

So in order to convince others that your God is loving, you feel that it is crucial to be honest. And the way in which you are honest is to state someone is either intelligent or stupid and you base this on what you call common sense and anything that falls in line with your worldview and anything that does not is wrong.

Like I pointed out before, I believe that Christians should fear God in the same way we fear hurting those that we love. If my best friend has a girlfriend that he loves and I try to take her away from him, then I risk my relationship with my best friend. So in order to help prevent that, I put fear into myself, the fear of hurting my best friend to help steer me away from the action that can hurt my best friend. So while I believe the tiger analogy isn't the best way to show the fear of God, I do believe that we should fear God on some level. That, we fear hurting God and our relationship with Him. Otherwise, it leaves the floodgates open to all types of behavior that aren't conducive to our spiritual development and the way in which we foster a stronger relationship with our creator.

 

For one, my God and your God are the same, we just serve Him in different ways. I only entertained that idea as a joke, the same way I said what I said about the devil. It was just a play on that Christian quote: "biggest trick the devil pulled was convincing people he doesn't exist."

You really think the serpent actually spoke words to Eve?

I never said all fear is caused by abuse. I said the only children who fear their parents are abused children. In my 27 years on this Earth I have never seen or heard a kid fear his parents unless they were physically and/or mentally abusing them. I go by experience and logic, not what ifs.

 

For one, you're right I have been pretty judgmental. I apologize. I'll make a Conscious effort to keep it civil from now on. I do curse a lot tho, but I'll ease up on the name calling. Thanks for being patient and not contributing to the negativity I was putting out there, same to OWB.

That said, I understand your analogy of putting fear in you to avoid hurting your friend but don't you realize that that same fear could have been replaced with unconditional Love for your friend? Think about it like this:

If you say "damn my friend's girl is sexy, I want her" and you put the fear of losing your friendship to redirect those thoughts, that empowers the fear. You're simply using it to counter that thought when it comes back. If you replace it with Love, the thought of even finding her attractive again will never even cross your mind, thus making the fear unnecessary.

 

Believe me, I know what abuse is. But what I am saying, personally, is that the fear that you speak of is not the fear that I am trying to describe.

I go by experience, logic, reason and what ifs and maybes because the last two opens the doors to what might be possible.

I do believe that a serpent spoke to Eve.

Our God is the same by default because I believe that there is only one God. But it is my opinion that your understanding of God is not yet perfected, because if it were you would be more open to leaving bygones be bygones and you would focus on trying to express yourself without putting their beliefs down as dumb. Instead, I believe love allows us to open ourselves up to varying viewpoints while at the same time expressing our viewpoints clearly and to the point, without the use of crude language. If God is love then we should try to embellish and delve inside God's love at all times. Is it love to be harsh, forceful, and... antagonizing? Personally, I think that's a contradiction to say that it does.

 

It seems like a vocabulary expansion might be what this debate needs. There are other words, similar but not synonymous with "fear", that might be more appropriate. "Awe", or "reverence", perhaps?

 

I don't know which word should be used to express the fear one has for God, but I guess reverence might do.

Thanks.

 

I don't think my understanding of God will ever be perfected but I see what you mean. I led a very negative life, a lot of shit just become like 2nd nature to me. I'm still working on being more kind. Not an excuse, just keepin it 100. I respect where you comin from tho. I've known some intelligent Christians, I guess I was just exposed to the not so intelligent version. I'm never gonna believe Noah's ark though. And I'll believe that before I believe serpents talking. To each his own tho.

 

No prob, Bob.

 

It's not a problem. I am many times all over the place.

You make a good point about the last statement. But like Hoatzin is pointing out, we need to use another word to express what OWB and are trying to express. So maybe it should be reverence, or awe, and we can just use love to steer us away from actions that lead us to problems. But I still do think that somewhere along that thought process, we stay inside love as to not enter fear. So in a way, we hold on to love because we want to avoid those situations and to remain loving. So in the end, maybe it's a type of fear that keeps us in love.

It is said in the Bible, "Fear is a sign that we have yet perfected our love".

 

:tongue:

 

No one should ever be forced to believe in something they don't want to believe.

Christianity is rarely ever looked into the way that it needs to be in order to be understood. What most pastors preach is not Christianity.

I guess maybe understanding God can never be perfected, so the goal would to be to constantly strive to understand. Maybe it's a never ending journey.

I have been in the same situation you have, but just different circumstances, so I know what you mean.

Nothing to worry about.

It's all good brah

:cheers2:

 

I love you guys! let's all pause to sing Cumbaya (OWB included).

 

I love ya brahinski

 

Well, this is interesting, because if God did indeed give everyone free will, then how would it be possible for an angel to "improperly" use it?

 

I tried to introduce the world "respect" a few pages back but no one listened to me.

 

LOL nice

I saw that, my fault for not commenting.

I agree 100%, respect would be the best replacement.

 

We should have listened to you.

 

What if I gave you a car, that car is now yours to do with it as you please isn't it?

But what if you decide to kill people by running over them with the car?

Are those killings now my fault because I gave you the car or are they your fault for improperly using the car?

 

As usual