| Seece said: lol, brave THE1, I do wonder how religious people get around some of those conundrums though. |
We try to go beyond first appearances and look for reasons for the more hard to swallow concepts. The rulebook, for example, was not intended as a ways to salvation. The new testament speaks of a new order. (The order of Melkizedek), which was spoken of Messiah in the old testament.
About his body and blood, it is our bread because he is the exact opposite of a zombie, he actually did die, but death couldn't hold onto him, and he rose to full, everlasting life (a bit like Gandalf). We don't eat his body physically, never did, but symbolically we feed off his life and everything he represents corporeally (the truth of his body, i.e. its full life).
About homosexuality, well, the position should be clear by now. The creator made each person intricately, he knows every fabric of a person. With a mix of love and free will (something I'm not ready to explain here it's too controversial), a person's sexual orientation is biblically considered a choice, a choice the creator doesn't agree with (a position some aren't happy about or have accepted not to care about). He had a different intent in mind, and the choice against that design goes against his will (I'm explaining the theology of it, "Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones."). It is also in the bible explained as a result of disobedience. BUT, the big but!, the bible is clear, that no sin is greater than another except one, the sin against the Holy Spirit. We don't know what that is, so for now we all understand no sin is greater than another.
To be clear, sin in the bible means anything that violates the desires and will of God. It doesn't necessarily mean crime towards a fellow human, but a crime against God, please understand. These are two different things.
What you call conundrums, there are ways to understand the difficult concepts so as to come to a point where it's either "I agree" or "I disagree", but not "that's out of this world". When you get to the bottom of the tougher concepts taking more of the doctrine into account, things should become clearer to a point where you either simply agree or disagree.
I'm not religious myself, but I do believe in the doctrine. It sucks to see my buds make fun of what I believe in.
Essay Pro