A question for the believers......

I wouldn't say that. I'd suggest people are wasting their time if they're just going through the motions of a religion for superficial purposes.

 

I'll start a new thread on it.

 

Yankee -- sounds like you're an agnostic.

Could you expand on this a little for me? Why exactly is that a problem?

The Bible has answers to those questions. I would suspect other religious writings and philosophies do as well.

If you honestly don't care, then why ask?

You're right -- there are a LOT of religions and belief systems in the world. Many of them differ greatly, and they can't all be right. I agree that there are almost certainly flaws in all of them to one degree or another. I've often described religion as a blind person's description of an elephant. If you have three blind people describing the same elephant, all of them are going to come up with varying descriptions, and none of them will have a complete one. There will be similarities, though, and some will be more credible than others.

God, by His very nature, is far beyond what any one person can fathom. The best we can hope for in this life is to catch enough glimpses of Him and His influence in the world around us to know Him well enough to recognize Him.

 

I'm sorry, Yankee. I made an inference from what you posted (i.e. "striking them down with a bolt of lightning") and it may have been a bad one. Several people have asked me in the past, "Why does God allow that kind of evil in the world? Why doesn't He just zap them on the spot?" People think that if God doesn't incinerate someone in the act of evil, that He doesn't care. I inferred that you were thinking the same thing about the priests and nuns who made your childhood miserable. My point in posting the passage I did was to illustrate that God most certainly does care, and that there will be a reckoning someday.

 

I think most atheists are very arrogant. They think they are smarter than the millions of people who believe in God.

I also think there are very few true atheists. They all believe in God when things get really bad for them.

 

are they so arrogant that they profess to know other people's beliefs better than those people themselves?

 

Leave him alone. I need to know who the terrorists want to win in the upcoming elections.

 

:applause:

 

how about a michael moore/rosie o'donnell ticket? how funny would that ticket be? talk about twisted panties...

 

Sup, I too think you are far too cerbral most times for me to even get on a level to discuss anything with you, however I do have an intimate question and please feel free to tell me to get lost.

I saw your wedding pictures, your beautiful wife and an obvious gathering/cermony of some sort. If you are a non believer- why would you participate in one of the 'holiest of unions'? Of course this question is null and void if your wife is religous or you are 'in the closet' about your beliefs.

As to the original question, I don't believe I am better than anyone, and my first feeling is usually pity for atheists.