Did a God or Gods create the universe? EDITED

solo

I thought Texas was another country.
At least it felt that way when I lived there.

Oh yeah it certainly is, crazy place, strange people, but friendly and respectful, except for the religion and politics it's a brilliant place.

Bep

No !

cornel

@ ’Solo’. I’m a simple realistic Canadian, not a “strange fundamentalist”...

Box

fun·da·men·tal·ism (fnd-mntl-zm)
n.

A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.

Seems to fit.

cornel

“Seems to fit”, and does NOT..., because the ‘healthy’ meaning of that term is now degenerated... For many, being a Fundamentalist means to be narrow, fanatic, and so on.
I am just a Christian, without ‘tail’...!

How about you, 'Solo' ?!

cornel

‘Solo’, to believe in both, that socialists say and that atheists say, you have to be a great believer, a very religious guy,
manifesting faithful devotion...

cornel

@ 'Solo'.

Socialism “require beliefs”... You think you are your own god, and, by through your advice, your will, your energy, your time, your money, etc., you can help others, “when and where you can”... You are based on YOU, instead to be based on God...
In fact, Humanists, Illuminists, Socialists, Communists, etc., all think about the same (different ‘color’ only), and they do not realize that they are actually various forms of Apostasy, and Antichrist will bring them together, in one ideology, because he will come with the same slogans...
Atheism is an huge illusion - everyone believes in something...
What you put in your first place, to be the most important, vital for you, that is your god...!

jeff hammond

so say i might want to be saved so i don't have to go to hell for a gazillion years..

can i still smoke weed and be on god's good list?

what about cocaine or heroin? are those too hard?
i mean i'm pretty sure booze & wine will be ok, right?

or does that type of stuff matter to god?

i'm pretty sure i can murder someone(s) then accept jesus h. christ as my savior and everything will be ok.. so that part is pretty cool.
i'm not sure about the drugs though..

just trying to see if it's worth it for me or not. thanks

srx

@unknownuser said:

‘srx’ wrote: “I don't think this is IF AND ONLY IF statement...”
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.”, Jesus Christ said...
“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”, Jesus Christ also said...
(Conclusion need not!)

As I said Bible is open book. You have to read it between lines. Have you thought what does it mean to be with Him, and against Him? I don't think that non-Christians all go to hell. It is not what Christ would say. Or do you think he would? We are all "God's children". Many atheist are walking His path. Solo for example He is trying to be good to others, as he would like others to be good to him. It sounds familiar. I think that Gods word is in our genes, it is hardware. The Christ was a perfect example, the Bible is a manual.

pilou

Funny as something who is not established can produce so many posts
That is a truely creation from nothing!
Astonishing is not it ?

irwanwr

that reminds me of the good samaritan

[ed] it's a software, srx. something like operating system

Rich O Brien

@unknownuser said:

So I'm kinda like him

Pete, you've just had your Beatle 'Bigger than Jesus' moment.

Although, I did see you on the white phone to god at Basecamp....very inspiring stuff

solo

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

So I'm kinda like him

Pete, you've just had your Beatle 'Bigger than Jesus' moment.

Although, I did see you on the white phone to god at Basecamp....very inspiring stuff

Nah, not bigger than him, I'm sure he has many more twitter and Facebook friends than me.

But with exception of all the praying, god stuff, miracles and walking on water stuff (does ice skating count?) I believe I live my life according to much of his ideals, does that make me Christ-like?

brodie

@solo said:

But with exception of all the praying, god stuff, miracles and walking on water stuff (does ice skating count?) I believe I live my life according to much of his ideals, does that make me Christ-like?

I know there's a handful of facetiousness here Pete but it's still an interesting idea. What ideals would you say you live your life by?

-Brodie

jeff hammond

@idahoj said:

What I do believe is that Man was created as a unique being, one possessing a soul, or spirit, if the term is more comfortable. We were created in the image of our Creator, not in the physical sense but in the spiritual one, for what is God, if not spirit?

i'm pretty sure we're on the verge of taking evolution into our own hands.. i'd say within the next 50 years (probably less), we'll have made a computer with a soul or spirit or whatever you want to call it..

i don't necessarily think we'll create an entirely new species.. what i do think is that we'll evolve ourselves by blending technology with our bodies.. which will eventually lead to a new species (though humans as we know us and the 'new' species probably won't be coexisting)..

point being, we're going to witness evolution firsthand and not at the hand of god.. (and if you open your eyes some, you'll already notice this happening)..

computers and our brains really aren't that much different anyways.. both are just some electronics bouncing on/offs around..

dunno, when i imagine the super advanced civilizations out there (you know, the ones that have been around for a few million years), i'm pretty sure they didn't just happen to be genius cave people from the get go.. they made themselves into what they are.. and humans are on the same track granted we don't nuke the earth before we can leave it or get hit by a crazy disease/giant space rock etc...

i guess this may sound too scifi for a lot of you but it's going to happen.. maybe not as i describe in this post but something similar.. where will god stand in all of this? honestly, i don't think the god myth is going to be able to survive it.. there will be a few sects of people that refuse to upgrade etc for a generation or two but after that, adios god..

jeff hammond

@solo said:

AI (artificial intelligence) is another great topic, I also believe we will one day create a machine that can learn and be autonomous, I guess we could say it would posses consciousness, would that be a soul?

dunno, i think AI is a misnomer.. i mean, intelligence is intelligence.. just because it's not human intelligence doesn't make it artificial..

but yeah.. another topic/another day..

Marian

I love the new direction this thread is taking.

My opinion is that the blending of human and machine will be more subtle.
As nanomechanics develops, technology could become more organic and also make humans more suitable and compatible for technological updates.
This coupled with AIs could some day in the future make possible the creation of some unique, non-human, sentient beings. Whether they will become new species or not will depend on whether we will give them the ability or if they will want to.
In essence such a being would be almost immortal, what purpose would procreation serve?

So...yeah no god in there

jeff hammond

@unknownuser said:

Part of the problem with our culture is that we've turned the Bible into a series of children's stories. I think this is not only false but it damages our perception of God. Noah's flood, is a classic example, painted on the walls of many sunday school rooms. It makes for a pretty enough scene if you focus on the cute animals and not all of they drowning people and animals which are left out - but those things are important to the story.

-Brodie

the story of noah's flood is almost laughable but the fact that many adults believe the story is entirely laughable.. (sorry)

if i have the story straight, noah was a man.. just like us.. with no divine powers etc..
so he builds a boat that has to house two of every single species on the planet.. penguins & anacondas on the same boat.. octopi and scorpions etc..

you do realize how big that boat would have to be right? i think larger than anything we've built today.. it'd have to have a polar zone, aquatic zone, desert, sky.. etc.. plus, somehow noah has to keep a zillion animals from eating their natural prey for 40 days (then another hundred or so years after until the population builds up to a survivable level)..

so one guy, noah, managed to find every single species on earth and put them on one boat while the earth floods..
meanwhile, there are thousands to millions of people that have spent their time on earth trying to document all the species we have living amongst us and they are still finding new things to this day.. lots of them..

but somehow, you actually believe this story of noah? i'd have an easier time believing in santa clause (much easier).. santa's task is impossible.. noah's task is well beyond impossible..

jeff hammond

@marian said:

I love the new direction this thread is taking.

My opinion is that the blending of human and machine will be more subtle.
As nanomechanics develops, technology could become more organic and also make humans more suitable and compatible for technological updates.
This coupled with AIs could some day in the future make possible the creation of some unique, non-human, sentient beings. Whether they will become new species or not will depend on whether we will give them the ability or if they will want to.
In essence such a being would be almost immortal, what purpose would procreation serve?

So...yeah no god in there

i think i'll be satisfied when we figure out how to grow new teeth (i think we're pretty close to growing skin already.. we can but it's not quite there yet)..
anyway.. pop a little tooth seed in the jaw and a new one grows out.. gonna be sweet!

[i have a dentist appt in a few hours.. root canal.. so that's why i'm on about teeth ]

srx

@solo said:

@unknownuser said:

@unknownuser said:

So I'm kinda like him

Pete, you've just had your Beatle 'Bigger than Jesus' moment.

Although, I did see you on the white phone to god at Basecamp....very inspiring stuff

Nah, not bigger than him, I'm sure he has many more twitter and Facebook friends than me.

But with exception of all the praying, god stuff, miracles and walking on water stuff (does ice skating count?) I believe I live my life according to much of his ideals, does that make me Christ-like?

YES
I wouldn't say that you are like him, but that HE WAS THE PERFECT VERSION OF US (after TomTom's Cleanup He showed us that you don't need walking on water and stuff like that to be powerful (as earlier gods had, and TV show us). His greatest power was, and is in Love, which is the ability to sacrifice yourself for other. For example, would you stop playing with SketchUp if your son needs you more? Bringing this sacrifice to the extreme, as a man only, not as God he showed us that we all have that power...but have to work on it...which is the biggest challenge of our life. The purpose of prayer is like practice of this Love capacity...it is not in service of our desires like discussed earlier.