Even if you don't agree with everything in the Bible - Hell, if you don't believe in God - if you live sin-free, you'll be accepted into Heaven anyways. Of course, we're all sinners, and that's why we have to believe - God wants us to accept that He exists. That's all - all it requires is acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Lord.
You've heard this before, I'm sure, but I'll emphasize it again: John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Belief. That's all He requires. Belief.
I'm not saying I'm going to disregard everything you said, it's just that I'm kind of a party animal, and have done a lot of things that God would not approve of.
That's the thing, though - we ALL have. EVERYONE has done things that God doesn't like, but he still loves us nonetheless. All it takes is belief and an earnest apology. God is merciful and forgiving by nature.
"Religion has convinced people that theres an invisible man living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesnt want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money."
^That's the saddest, most misguided view of Christianity, riddled with stereotypes and bigotry. Hell isn't a place you go for sinning, hell is simply the state of being as far away from God as possible. I've said it before, I'll say it again. The burning lake of fire is only mentioned in Revelations, and even then the only people sent there are the "evil trinity" and their followers, the ones that are pulled away from God. I don't have any money, tbh. I don't believe in organized religion, because I see it all as one big money grab, and draws people away from the true meaning of what Christianity is about. Ironically, many atheists and agnostics I've met are BETTER people than a lot of the Christians I know >_> But God only asks for belief in exchange for forgiveness. But if you don't believe, you don't care about forgiveness, anyways? Even if you don't believe in God, Jesus of Nazareth was still a good person. Gandhi mentioned something like that... "I like your Christ, but I don't like your Christians." I forget the exact quote. I think it's true, most of my brothers in Christ don't hold to the message, makes me upset. Makes it hard for people like me to be taken seriously...
To say that an extraplanar, sentient, all-powerful being had a hand in creation makes JUST as much sense (if not more, as I'll explain) as saying that everything simply always existed and has no boundary. With the way that everything came to be, with how adaptable humans are to any environment, is it not feasible, nay, probable that some external hand was guiding our creation, making us perfect to inhabit the planet we call home?
As, obviously this is the United States of these here founded by George Washington States. I'm just gonna state what I beleive in. Creationism. Though, I'm Islamic. [Trust me, Its tough work being Islamic in this country] I'm flying off track since its a bit more based on Christianity. Also Megamickel, I do like the fact that you pointed out the thing about some people not realizing what it is that makes them ___ [Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc.]. I also forgot the Ghandi quote. Anyway, I wish I saw this earlier. So i could have said something in between. Either way, were all entitled to our religion. [Hopefully we all beleive the last sentence.]
Oh, by the way, proof of some entitity. Books, not just one -- but many of different religions that have to claimed author, and yet have been upheld by so many people as sacred? I doubt that just popped out of itself. and One man alone could not have established such religions without such extrasupernatural things such as a "God" or "Gods" or whatever else might be in the path to do so. Its our choice to believe what that may be and how to do this and that. As people say, Historys had its ups and downs. Again, Just stating something.
Creationism (or belief that God created the world and people) is not totally true to me. The story of Adam and Eve is a story used to explain how God made the world. I believe in evolution because there is scientific proof.
Creationism is simply a lack of will to open one's mind.
God created the world. God molded everything with his hands. Evolution was simply God's process for creating everything. And still shaping everything. Do you think that humans, as adaptable and amazing as we are, came to be simply by coincidence? No. God had a hand in our evolution.
Yeah, Honestly, Science and Religion are like.. worlds apart. But the mini-Tie they have show why the 4.5 Out of the 6 Billion people mainly belive in Creationism.
The cosmological argument (sometimes called the engineer's argument) just doesn't work. The fact that we exist and are complex does not imply an intelligent designer or creator. And arguing that since many people believe something, it must be true is also a fallacious argument. I also seriously doubt that statistic, as many many of those 4.5 Billion people are children who can't rationally form an opinion like that and many more have not been adequately introduced to evolution. Evolution is basic science; the theory is still evolving, but so are many other theories. We still don't fully understand why or how there is gravity, but does that mean it doesn't exist in some fashion.
God is basic science. It is the only reasonable answer two of the basic, unanswerable questions...
Why something instead of nothing? Why life and not non-life?
Because God willed it. I can't see any other feasible answer. People have tried and failed to answer them by other explanations. By your logic, I could also state "The fact that we require water does not imply we were meant to settle around water sources" - and yet throughout history, people have done just that. Why? It just makes sense.
