Religion
 

I am just curious about what religion you all are. Also, do you believe that your religion is the right religion? Do you believe that only the people who believe in your religion will go to heaven?

I think that there is one God who created everything here on earth. And I think that Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Christians are people who just take different paths, but believe in the same God. Yep... therefore nobody is wrong... people just take different paths in life... YEP!

But I don't know about those atheists... Don't know where they go...lol

*wonders how long it'll be before this is closed*...

I myself don't believe in any of that religion stuff... *shrugs*

*walks away*

I'm Catholic.. Don't care much about religion, and I'm not a devout Christian. So whatever and stuff. I think Heaven is for anyone who was good (not evil, not bad). I don't think it's exclusive to some religion... yeah whatever

Re: Religion
 

I was raised Catholic. Can't say I really practice it. But if you gave me a list and told me to pick, I would choose the religion I was brought up in. So there you go.

I don't think anyone would follow a religion that they didn't think is right. Just like if anyone truly felt that a God existed, I doubt they would be an atheist. I don't think anyone would follow a religion they believed is wrong.

And no, I don't believe that. All the religions (at least the ones I would qualify as a religion over a cult) all are about peace. Assuming you have a belief in heaven and hell, If two people lived very moral lives, I don't see how God would accept one over the other. So maybe one was a Christian, one was an atheist, I don't think it matters. God would be foolish to expect people to do anything but follow their heart. If you believed in one God, twenty, or none, if you lived a good life, or were truly sorry when you come to know "the Truth" I don't see how you could be sent to hell, it goes against what the church teaches.

Can I leave this thread open without it turning into a screamfest?

Can you add anything to the conversation, and quit spamming? :p :p :p

Might as well give the thread a chance, you know, all threads are innocent until proven guilty. :sneaky:

only time will tell

As for me, I'm Christian, and have been confirmed under the United Church of Canada...I don't practice it much, and that's probably the way I like it. As for it being the 'right' religion, I don't know...I haven't done excessive research...but I haven't thought about changing my religion or anything.

:lol:



I am Catholic... Not sure how long I will stay with it, though.

Re: Re: Religion
 

Nearly the same as me.

I was raised Catholic through 12 years of Catholic school (though born and baptized Episcopalian). Never practiced either religion, and they're almost one in the same.

With so much Catholic teaching around you for so friggin' long you think a lot about religion, or at least I did. I've come to decide for myself that there is something Higher or Greater or God in a way somewhere out there, or here or everywhere. But I don't necessarily believe it's a God that cares about the human race, or formed his image in us, or granted us life through him or whatever all the religions teach.

I believe in something Greater, but not religion. I guess that's it in a nutshell.

I'm Christian. Not completely sure which church I really want to belong to. Right now I am experimenting and searching for what the right path is for me.
I somewhat agree that if you are good you will go to heaven. However it does take a really devoted soul be able to even get close to it.

i am an athiest...wait...that's the one that doesn't beleive in god, right?

if so then yeah...i don't beleive in god, and stuff...

just to throw in some questioning...instead of asking ourselves what kind of person gets into heaven, why not ask 'is there really a 'heaven'?

Thanks for changing up my thread, idiot. ;)



And yes, there is a heaven. Heaven is basically one big party where everybody gets to chill out with people who have died before us. I plan on chilling with Jimi Hendrix, Ghandi and Hitler.

Atheists don't believe in a higher power of any sort, there isn't a God. Agnostics aren't sure, they don't know, and perhaps, they don't care.

Nope, it's just an idea people use to comfort them and make death not seem as bad as it would be if they thought it was just 'you're dead the end'...

(^_^

I dont beleive in a god or heaven or hell... kinda feel like im missing out :unsure:

So you think that when you die, it will just be like an eternal sleep? Like.... Nothing is happening.... nothing and blackness? or not even blackness? Just nothing... lol.

I'm a Christian. I believe that in order to gain access to heaven, one must declare Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

That's what I believe.

Nah.

I was thinking the other day, let's say there is a heaven and no matter what you did on Earth everyone got in. Everyone. But since you didn't know until you died, you didn't know you could have done whatever you wanted. Even killed yourself so you wouldn't have to deal with all the stupid people around you :sneaky: ...

Would kinda suck. Like eating scrambled eggs with sugar poured over it. Yep.

So Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Confusisists, Daoists, Shintos (sp?) all do not get into heaven?

thats how I see it, an eternal sleep. the whole concept of Heaven is, IMO, quite strange. I am Christian, and I cant remember the last time i went to church, but no matter wut I am taught by the church, there are still things I cant force myself to believe. Even God sounds like a fairy tale, one almighty being that created everything and rules all but never shows himself in any physical form, and yet we must trust to faith that he somehow exists in another realm waiting for us when we die.

and wut is the point of living if we are to one day die? why are we to stay in heaven forever but remain on Earth only for a certain period of time? all those events from the bible, why do none of those happen in the present or recent years?we are expected to believe in all those crazy stories in the bible after being brought up in a modernized world. It's not that I dont believe in God or heaven, I just have so many questions and theories.

I think that DarkMaster should seriously look into Buddhist beliefs for some answers.

Why? Because of reincarnation?

Just seems that since he doesn't really believe in God, and doesn't really believe in heaven and hell....


And yes, the not believing in heaven and hell brings reincarnation to the scene.

I'm technically a Christian though I lean towards more Agnostic beliefs I guess...Religion has never been an important part in my life and I don't feel it has to be.

Or the belief that when you're dead you're dead the end ;)

Reincarnation would be nifty though :p

I cant imagine not actually thinking, when Im dead...Of course I wont have to worry about that if being dead is just the end.

there's a reason humans exist...how we're at just the right distance away from the sun that we're able to live...how gravity is so convenient...how, from our knowledge, no other planet has intelligent life

I can't believe it's all just chance...someone/something created us...or created whatever we evolved from...some unknown power

And I'd also like to know why everything that has shaped most religions happened so long ago that nobody really knows if it actually happened, or if it was just a well thought-out story to satisfy one's emptiness.

I believe there will be SOMETHING after death...why waste a human soul (something truly magnificent) on a body that will only live 70, 80, 100 years max? I notice that most people who think that death is THE END seem unfulfilled with their life. You would think that if you were to believe that this is it, you would think of life as something more fragile, and would do anything and everything within your power to live the best life one could possibly live. But that's hardly the case.

thx for clearing that up...i'm a little of both i guess :unsure:

I don't really have a preferred religion.(can't remember the name of someone without a religion). But I think there is a God and a heaven.

Agnostic here. And I have a question for the Christians. How does the Bible explain the other planets? I've never read it.

Well, I think it is just a chance, basically... and somewhere out in the uber huuuuge Universe, there's gotta be some other planet that just happened to land the right distance away from it's sun-type thing and also has life of some form... Of course I can't prove that there is, but you can't prove that there's not :p

And I don't see it as wasting a 'soul'... Because I don't think there's such thing as a 'soul'... at least if you're saying it's some kind of seperate entity :hmm:

"I notice that most people who think that death is THE END seem unfulfilled with their life"

Maybe it's cuz they're not looking forward to something else... they don't see life as a key to this amazingly uber after-life... Or they're just afraid because they know the end is the end and they don't want it to be that way, whereas religious people have all these other theories that make it more... y'know... nice...

And just cuz they're unfulfilled with their life, it doesn't mean they didn't at least tried to be the best they could ;)

Beat yeah, it's kinda hard to debate these things since the different beliefs change the way people think so yeah and stuff...

Well, of course it's extremely lucky, but on the other hand, your reasoning is somewhat circular. Yeah, we're the correct distance from the sun and all that, but if that wasn't true, we wouldn't know about it. Because we wouldn't exist.

That may be kind of confusing, so let's put it this way. If we were a couple of observers who don't come from any particular place (like angels, maybe) looking around the universe and finding that it just so happens that Earth is situated just right for life, then your reasoning would have some validity. We would be neutral, unbiased observers.

But that's not what we are. Our very existence assures that the conditions are just right, and we can't form any idea of what the probabilities would be. For all we know, we really are the product of an accident. Back when we were created, however that happened, the odds might have been stacked against us by a billion to one or they might have been so favorable to us as to be certain. We have no way of knowing which it is because if the odds had tipped the other way, we would never have known it.

And by the way, the universe is a pretty big place. Nobody can say for certain that there is no intelligent life out there. Sure, there isn't any as far as we know, but how much of the universe do we really know? And the truth is we probably wouldn't recognize intelligent life out there. After all, what would it look like?

My religious beliefs are more or less well known, so I won't go over them.

Think about when the Bible was written and when other planets and/or galaxies were discovered.

I personally, have no specific religion. I suppose I will decide what I shall become later in life... or not.

Think of it this way... in 1,000 years we will have different religions anyway.

In a way I do believe that theres something out there that put us here, but IMO, it's definitely not that Bible stuff. I don't believe in any religions we have, but I do believe in some sort of creator.

And think about what Stu said, it's like everything was set up perfectly for us, it's hard to think that it was just by coincedence.

I converted to Islam for many reasons. One reason is that it has so much depth, it's quite unbelievable. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the only Holy book not to have been tampered with, proof of which is in the 100% similarity of Hifz (memorisation) between people who know the Quran.

What really struck me though was all the scientific evidence in the Quran, such as proving that the Earth wasn't a perfect sphere, that all the planets in our solar system orbit the sun, the vivid details of how a fertilised egg grows into a feotus etc, all WAY before these discoveries were made, and clear details chartered. I'm not exaggerating when I say there are hundreds and hundreds of these. Coincidence? Impossible.
One man (Muhammaed (PBUH)), who couldn't read or write, could surely NOT have been able to write, what I think is the most beautiful piece of writing. This was one of the miracles. (If you understand Arabic, you will be able to witness the sheer beauty of the language used in it).

Anyways, there were NUMEROUS reasons other than the ones I stated that converted me to Islam. It's not just a religion, it's a way of life for me and other Muslims.

Yeah. The Angel Gabriel told Muhammod the Qu'ran, and it is a miracle that he passed it on throught so many generations (since he was illiterate). I love reading about Islam... I find it very interesting.

It's not confusing at all. I know exactly what you mean...For all we know, it could be chance. For all we know, it could be a number of things, possibly something of which would be beyong our conprehension.

It's hard to have a reasonable discussion about something SO mysterious and subjective. It's even harder for a group of people to agree completely with each other about such a thing.

And for the record, I said 'frpm our knowledge', there are no signs of intelligent life. Possibly there is intelligent life out there, beyond where man can currently roam in space. Possibly there is intelligent life fairly nearby but we have no means to detect it. Either way, I never ruled out the fact that someone/something could be out there.

Joeiss, that's what I believe.

Hang on... Do you have any friends that are not Christians? so you are saying that they are not going to heaven?