I don't personally believe in God... If it does exist though, I don't think they would be like any religion describes them.

If a God is truly good and selfless, it wouldn't judge someone upon their faith, religion or if they believed in God. Otherwise that would mean to send people who do not have a religion or believe in divinity, that did much good to others, in Hell and that would be so wrong and unfair, not what I would call a righteous and great God.

"Believe in me, follow the religion or burn in Hell for eternity". That sounds more like a tyrannous dictator who abuses of his power to control people with fear. Dunno about you but, I wouldn't like to have a God like this.

I don't know about you guys but Rev. Manning sounds great to me! Obama is a long legged mack daddy ftw!

WessleWoggle said: mrstickball said: WessleWoggle said: mrstickball said: One should also note that as much as you want to hate on Christians, we're usually the ones that are first out there feeding & sheltering the homeless, providing medical treatment for the sick, adopting the parent-less, and helping the impoverished. Yell at me/us all you want, but when I go to church, I'm going to talk to my youth group about new projects this year for prison outreach, soup kitchens, and clothing drives Do you want the root of practical Christianity? World Vision Salvation Army Red Cross YMCA Modern Adoption Horrible blights on civilization that should be abolished, no? Correct. Mixing in religion with good deeds only gives undue credit to religion, rather than credit to human generosity and empathy. Take away the Christianity from said organizations, and they never would have existed. World Vision is an ecumenical council with 40% of it's funding coming from churches. Salvation Army is a Christian denomination that's soul purpose has been to bring salvation through practical outreach. Red Cross was founded by a strong Christian YMCA was started as an ecumenical fellowship of Christians for athletics. That's why it's called the Young Men's Christian Assosciation. Adoption was founded shortly after the Civil War by a pastor. Take Christ's influence on their lives, and you would of never had the organizations, and we'd be about 100 years behind in private social outreach programs. You can say how much religion needs to get out of philanthropy, but concepts of charity in religious organizations far preceeds secular organizations....I guess humanity really never has had much motivation for it then? Nope, humanity has never had motivation. Lets hope the NWO and their leader Obama the antichrist enslaves the world and forces us all to live equally, do charity, and improve the world for the good of mankind. Edit: I thought it might be best to note that this is a joke.

Of course it's a joke.

but I do apologize for any Christian that have pissed you off in the past.

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only beggotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

God is a perfect being, our sins make us imperfect. You are right, God is loving, that is why he sent his son to die to make it possible for us to live with him in heaven. The problem is people see the loving side of God, but dont understand his soverignty. God is truly just, that is why he cant allow unrepentant sinners in heaven. Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." so that includes everyone. Jesus was the only perfect Man, that is why he could be our atonement. God is love, he is the sorce of all love, the Bible says he is not willing that any should perish. It has nothing to do with religion, it is accepting Jesus's sacrifice, or rejecting it. Religion is a human invention, that is what throws people like Wess into a tissy, he sees people abusing God's message to control others. You dont have to be a PART of a religion at all, all you have to do is believe trust in Jesus. That is it. No works, no money to a church.

If you are a Christian you will want to worship God, that is why men created churches. To have a place to worship with others, then the Religion of Christianity grew out of the Churches.

You completely missed my point and it's useless to argue you, because whatever I'd say, you'd only bring in the God as described in religions and that's what exactly the oposite of the point I'm trying to bring across. If there is a God, I don't believe him to be as described in any book or religion.

God created us for his glory. Would you rather have a robot tell you that he loves you, or would rather have some who chose to love you, tell you they love you? He gave us the ability to choose to love him or not. We (mankind) made the choice to sin, and lose "perfection" in the garded when we sinned. God out of love, sent his son to give a chance to be redeemed from sin. We chose to reject him (again mankind) therefore we are choosing seperation from God, in hell. He is only giving us the Ability to restore our relationship with him.

As far as Jesus's perfection goes, that is an issue that comes do to whether or not you believe the Bible, which again you do not.

ok, then. IF there is a God than why would have not chosen to reveal himself to anyone. Surely someone has it right, IF there is a God.

Maybe he doesn't want to reveal himself to not claim any glory, no vanity, as he is perfect. He wants to see if we can be good, from the heart and not as fear. And why can't you open your mind to the fact that maybe everyone's wrong (including me)? You said people have a hard time imagining that there is a God because it seems irrational but you seem to think it's irrational that everyone is (maybe) wrong.

It sounds like you are open to the idea of Diesm ("Master Clockmaker Theory")

Ok, I have thought about that too, but what would be the point of creating us if he was just gonna sit back and watch, that would be worse imo, that would almost like he needed some entertainment, so he created people just to see how much trouble we get into. Like the ultimate reality show right?

I think he wants to have a relationship with us, before the fall of man it seems that he had a "fairly" open relationship with mankind, we cut that line in the fall, out of love he created a way to reopen it (jesus)

No, Jesus does not put himself above God. He humbly submits to the will of the Father.