Your thoughts on this.

[Tonberry_Kid]

Ok, I have been deep in thought about religion and stuff, and I get into conversations with friends and my parents about this all the time.

Why is religion so paradoxal?

Why do people have to seperate themselves from other religions just because it doesn't perfectly meet their expectations?

If God wants good to come out of everything, then why doesn't he just send people to Earth that are good and not evil people that will more than likely go to Hell? He is God after all, he should be able to see what will happen, why doesn't he just stop horrible things from happening?

Why doesn't God destroy the devil so there is only good left in this world?

How did God get here?

Anything on any of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

[ramonesfan]

Well I may be wrong, but the whole God and Satan thing is taken from earlier pagan things i think. It has to do with equality. The thing about God getting here stumped me. I am not religous so i can't offer you anything like quotes from the bible. Maybe he got bored one day and said, "you know what, I am going to make a civilization on a rock in the middle of nowhere and watch it until it destroys itself" Or you could go with something i saw on southpark once. A taco who craps ice cream is the manager of a tv company who got a bunch of species together on one planet and filmed it. haha, i have no idea.

[Karfu]

Well, I am Catholic and I think that God knows that all of this is leading up to something. God sends us onto the world because he knows how we'll act but he still sends us because If evil is not confronted it cannot destroy. Basically the time has not come yet to destroy Satan or all evil. Certain events must happen first. So if evil and good are on the earth the events will happen and lead to the end of evil. Also the end of time for earth. Kind of like a time line of the future if you may.

-Karfu
(Once again, if you don't want me to put my name on the bottom to be sincere then just say so. I'll stop.)

[Freed]

your questions are all pretty standard for anyone who is confused about religion...the reason it an be paradoxial at times is because religion is mostly a human invention, and, of course, humans aren't perfect.

why does god let horrible things happen? because he's not there? no, i'm kidding, i don't want to get into an argument about that. but god certainly doesn't have control over the free will of humans - and as long as there's free will there will be evil, i can guarantee you that.

and as long as there's evil, there will be satan.

[MalReynolds]

Also, religion offers up this solution for why God doesn't stop all bad things:

You have a field of corn that will grow and prosper. In between the rows of corn, there are several weeds. You cannot pull up the weeds without damaging the roots of the corn, so you let the weeds grow so that the corn may also grow. If you removed the weeds, the corn would die.

For those who can't seem to grasp allegories: People are inherentley good, but by removing all that is bad, goodness looses meaning. If all that were bad were removed, it would make everything that is good so much more weak... Strength grows from trial.

Mal

[tigatiga12]

1.wats paradoxel?

2.We all no that the religion u beleive in, u will be bais about it. my mom is mad becuz ill say that just becuz were christian doesnt mean were better than any religion.she says that if u beleive in the other stuff, ull go to hell. but muslims and such belive were going to hell and there going to heaven. id have to admit, they do worship and put all there lives into there religion. praying every 4 hours i belive. but i realy dont lean towards anything becuz it will start a flame war.

3.good point tonberry, he says he already controls are fate, y would he send bad ppl to earth. ive never thought of this.

4. yes, its rediculous. he has THE POWA!!!(lol) but still doesnt get rid of them.

5. well scientificly. there is no god. but if u beleive, u beleive.

and id also like to add a question, if he could feed a whole poor city by making bread that lasted until every starving person was fed, why do we have the needy?

[MalReynolds]

I'm just getting angry. Very upset. Do people just skip over my posts now because it might answer a question? Tiga, learn to spell right, and then read my post. I EVEN DEFINED the allegory. Jesus.

I'm slowly losing my patience with the idiocy flooding the CT forum.

Mal

[Neonatrias]

Why is religion so paradoxal?
To be honest, I think this has been answered. As a human invention, "religion" is something that is purely intellectual. Faith, on the other hand...That's another matter and another topic altogether.

Why do people have to seperate themselves from other religions just because it doesn't perfectly meet their expectations?
To be honest, I think in many cases it has to do with fear of the afterlife. If one does exist, don't you want to be on God's good side? (I use the term God here...It will serve as a synonym for "higher forces" that we as humans don't understand.) We're all taught from quite early on in our religions that if we don't believe what's taught, we're going to Hell. It may be true, it may not. I don't know and neither does anyone else. The point is, though, that people generally don't want to end up going "bad" by examining other religions.
A second explanation might be purely in the way a person is brought up. If something is drilled in again and again from early years of life, we come to believe it and reject other notions. For example, assume for a moment that you're colorblind. You've lived all your life hearing from so many people that the sky is blue. If someone suddenly told you that the sky's color was lime green, you would likely have a hard time accepting that. The thing is, you don't know who's lying and who's not. So you'll go with the people you've been exposed to more often. It's a similar problem with religion; since there's no way to "prove" religion right or wrong, all we have is the word of other people.

If God wants good to come out of everything, then why doesn't he just send people to Earth that are good and not evil people that will more than likely go to Hell? He is God after all, he should be able to see what will happen, why doesn't he just stop horrible things from happening?
I think this has already been touched upon as well. As for my personal view, I honestly can't give an answer. I really don't know.

Why doesn't God destroy the devil so there is only good left in this world?
Again, this has been touched upon. My view is again unclear.

How did God get here?
That's a very interesting one, really. I don't see a lot of people asking it. In any case, I think it's all up to speculation. Personally, I think that God would be all nature and all the universe. My view, therefore, differs very slightly from many religions in the sense that God is not infinite to me, rather, infinity itself. The entire expanse of the universe is God to me. Still, it's just what I feel. There's no proof of anyone, ever, being right or wrong in this matter.

Hopefully you find this somewhat helpful. If you feel as if you'd like to research other religions, by all means do so. If nothing else, it's a great way to expose yourself to unique thoughts and ideas.

[jewpinthethird]

Originally Posted by tigatiga12

5. well scientificly. there is no god. but if u beleive, u beleive.

What about people like me who believe if God exists, science will one day be able to prove it?

I wish people would quit acting like science and religion have to seperated.

1. Because religion was made by man.

2. Because mankind has its head up its ass

3. Because God is a lazy son of a bitch. To answer the question that was brought up by Joan Osbourne in the 90's "what if God were one of us" "it" would be tried in Court for murder.

4. See the first part of number 3.

5. How did God get here? When mankind felt the need to create a supreme being to justify its existence.

[Austaph]

If God wants good to come out of everything, then why doesn't he just send people to Earth that are good and not evil people that will more than likely go to Hell?

Let's think about this one. Well, if God could send loving people to earth but did not want to - that would not make him all-loving.

Then again, if God indeed wanted to send good people, instead of bad, to the earth but he couldn't... that means he is not all-powerful.

Or, if God did send good people to earth, but they were eventually corrupted by evil, that would mean God is not all-knowing.

Chances are God has tried to send good people to the earth, but where are they? Could that mean that your God falls somewhere between non-powerful, non-loving, or non-knowing? If so, then why are you asking him for good people?

[MalReynolds]

Because trials and tribulations make us stronger. That's why. Please, for the love of God start reading my posts.

Or make CT a hidden forum or something.

Mal

[chickendude]

Religion and Science pretty much have to be separated because they contradict each other on almost every level. Here's the main one.
Religion is based on faith.
Science is based on evidence.
If there was evidence of god, it would destroy the faith, thus defeating the whole purpose.

[Karfu]

Okay, Science evolution explains that we evolved from Primapes. But the what made the Primapes? Single celled Organisms. Like bacteria. Then what made the bacteria. Obviously along the line as far as you go down, some sort of all powerful being must of made the first living thing. Though I could be missing something so I could be wrong somehow.

-Karfu

[esupin]

A popular theory is that spontaneous generation created the first life forms. As proteins/amino acids begin to naturally form in the ocean, they somehow combine to create life(possibly with the help of lightning).

[Tps222]

I've read that somewhere esupin.

Their are many different views on this subject, but I think Mal gave us the most helpfull answer you're going to get.

[Jam930]

Originally Posted by chickendude

Religion and Science pretty much have to be separated because they contradict each other on almost every level. Here's the main one.
Religion is based on faith.
Science is based on evidence.
If there was evidence of god, it would destroy the faith, thus defeating the whole purpose.

Primapes....


lol! I just can't stop laughing... ahhh.

[cmb]

If you mean why doesn't God stop people from doing bad things that's because we have free will.If you mean why doesn't stop natural disasters i have no idea.I personally believe things happen for a reason good or bad.

[Moogy]

Stop bumping old topics with your Christian trolling shit.

[Varia]

Originally Posted by ramonesfan

Maybe he got bored one day and said, "you know what, I am going to make a civilization on a rock in the middle of nowhere and watch it until it destroys itself"

Who's to say he didn't do that to several (or hundreds, or thousands, or an infinite amount) planets in the middle of nowhere? There is a lot of nowhere out there.

[NuclearShadow]

Originally Posted by Moogy

Stop bumping old topics with your Christian trolling shit.

cmb is totally a buddhist, dummy.

and to be a tad on topic

How did God get here?

He was just here. Time didn't exist because God created it. If time existed then God would have to have a beginning. But since He created it he's not bound by it.