Illuminating Angels & Demons

Dear Lyochia,The answer to your question about the origins of Christianity is essentially irrelevant. Whether Jesus lived or not, whether he was the Son of God or not, whether he gave authority to the Pope or not; all of this is irrelevant. Does what he says make sense to you? Is it right or moral or holy (or any other adjective you wish to choose) to forgive others, or to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or to take an eye for an eye, or to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's? If some of these things make sense, grab them and run. If none of them do, then leave the whole mess behind. You don't have to buy the whole works if it's not something you want. Take what you need, and to hell with the rest. As far as the difficulty of moral action in an immoral world goes, yeah, it's tough to stand for what you believe. But you have to. We all have to. Whether or not God exists, we all have the same moral obligation, and we will be judged by that standard, whatever it is. Keep searching, and remember to grab what you want and ignore the rest.   See 4 other replies

Hi Iyochia. I saw your note about struggling with religion, and I wanted to say this: I encourage you to read all kinds of wisdom, notice the things that they all say. You will see a pattern - one that encourages respectable behavior. The more specific a "rule" is, the less likely I think it matters, like the way you wear your hair, or even precisely how you pray... do your best to be a dignified and kind person, whatever kind of life you have. Nothing will save you from some amounts of suffering; life is difficult for everyone. Protect yourself from those that would hurt you or take advantage, but be a decent and loving person whenever possible. It will help you have a satisfying and rewarding life. If there is an afterlife, then cultivating happiness for yourself and for others in this life must be the way to be have happiness there.... Use your own natural wisdom, don't be bullied into someone else's beliefs....   See 4 other replies

go to http://www.youtube.com/user/boomya555   See 4 other replies

This movie really is great. Look at all the discussion that's come from it. I wonder how much discussion is being made about Gas Pump Girls? I like Divbzero Â.'s imput the best of all. I mean, people say they read the Bible but do they understand what God says in it? You cannot just read the Bible and think you understand it. You have to study it. You have to pray about it. You have to think about it day in and day out for a long long time. You have to apply it to you rlife. How can you ever have faith in something if you haven't checked it out in depth? To believe in God, you have to believe that Jesus was who the Bible says he was. God in Flesh. The Holy Spirit is your teacher. You have to have faith that God became Flesh in Jesus Christ his only begotton Son. The Holy Spirit is the teacher..There are no short cuts. Most of all you have to have Faith. Faith in the Christ that he is the Bible's author. John 1:1, "In the begining was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Now chew on that for a while...Seek and ye shall find...Knock and the door will be opened. Spiritual Warfare. People want to believe that it's hear on Earh we are fighting flesh against flesh. No matter what I say, I know someone will tear it down, but they will never tear down the Kingdom of Heaven.   See 5 other replies

Study the book of Job for answers to why the good suffer with the bad.Josh McDowell's book Evidence That Demands a Verdict is an excellent resource on how the Bible could survive intact despite being a copy of a copy of a copy. As to the actual rewriting of the bible, the Roman Catholic church holds church tradition as a standard for what is actually biblical. There are some problems with this, particularly with regard to Orthodox Christianity, but it does provide a practical standard.Most of the old Testament is accepted by the major Jewish and Christian denominations (and I believe Islam as well). The New Testament is accepted by the major Christian denominations and to (I believe, but lack the expertise to be sure) a somewhat lesser extent by Islam. The Deuterocanonical works are accepted by the Roman Catholic church but not by most Protestant Churchs (I do not know how they stand in other faiths). The other old Apocryphal books are regarded as heretical by the Roman Catholic church and disregarded by most Protestant denominations I have encountered, many of them are central to Gnostic beliefs however. The Koran supercedes the bible (I believe) for Muslims. The book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price are unique to mormonism, Jehovah's witnesses have a version of the bible that doesn't match the major denominations, and there are other such versions out there. As to what is the original bible, you would have to learn hebrew, greek, aramaic, etc. and get access to the oldest documents related to it and even then if you came up with a definitive answer you would have accomplished something that the best biblical scholars and theologians have been arguing about for centuries.The best argument for treating others as you would have them treat you is that most of the problems in the world would go away if everyone really did that in a thoughtful way.   See 4 other replies