Quote:
Originally Posted by Sun Tzu
Knowledge was my point. From the start we are taught that knowledge is sin, and yet given the hormones, instincts, and curious minds to discover the world around us.
Atreides if I sounded too aggressive or sarcastic, I apologize. As I stated I am a former Christian with a large number of Christian friends. We have learned not to debate much less even discuss it. I had to learn to respect their beliefs if I still wanted to maintain a friendship with them & vice versa. The strongest aspect that helps in this process was to at least be happy for their connection in their perception of God. I’m not a total atheist, but more of an agnostic with a belief there may be a grand creator. I just don't know and won't until I die. Faith can be something to hold on to when all else seems to be at its lowest. Without faith that a God will come down and clean up this mess we call modern society, the only thing left is faith that we will somehow get it right.
I also hope that there is something more than just the blink of an eye we spend in a lifetime. From a physics stand point the body is energy and energy has to go somewhere. Beyond that I won’t know until it happens. I’d like to think that someday in the future, our Earth unites with a common focus on space exploration.
I’ll never knock anyone for their faith, but will respectfully suggest to remember what they are reading was written and edited many times over by human beings. I might have a different view if some sort of tablets were still around that had writing burnt into them by a force that was beyond what any modern scientific testing could explain. I could no longer carry faith that at some point the Earth would be elevated into a supernatural existence for eternity.
One last comment about what you stated at the end: what if all religions are wrong. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, right. I won’t go into here, but as I continue to observe how things are unfolding in the world I’m left with a disturbing thought. Regardless of whether or not the Bible is historically accurate the powers that be (humans) appear to be helping it along. Imagine if religions were wrong and the end is brought about by our own doing. All that would be left is a dead planet. Life will still go on in the vastness of the universe. If business does continue as usual and we waste this precious gift with the notion a father figure Supreme Being is going to come clean up our mess- do we really deserve it in the first place?
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Apology accepted; and there are no hurt feelings. The sin wasn't the knowledge gained, though. The knowledge was a by-product of violating the Lord's command. That's just what I've gathered from reading the Bible and from what I've learned from various religious scholars I've known. I've never been told that knowledge is evil -- what we do with that knowledge can be -- but knowledge in and of itself is not. The only people who I've seen consistently decry learning about the world and universe around us are the fanatical Christian Right, those same people who take the Bible as 100% solid fact and nothing else is right. I find that an ignorant and close-minded approach to religion. I personally cannot take a book written by man but inspired by the Holy Word, as 100% right, there is error built in simply because it was written by humans.
As for whether God is going to clean up this mess, I can't tell you. I'm of the opinion that God doesn't interfere all that often; I'm sort of a Deist in that way. I think we all recognize and strive to be a part of the eternal part of the universe, that thing that we all sense as being larger than ourselves. Some see it as God, others as Thor and Odin, and still others see it as Shiva and the other Hindu gods. I honestly believe all world religions are simply a different take on the same thing and everybody just sees it through their own tinted spectacles.
As for your final question, I don't think we would deserve it, but God has other plans, and again, I cannot understand His reasoning, all I can do trust Him or I can turn away and spent eternity away from his presence in Hell. Until that point, the important thing is to live our lives as best as we can and treat eachother with civility. As for getting it right, I think that any religion that stresses the fact that every human being has a spiritual aspect and that we must try to follow the Golden Rule as well as we can has gotten it right.