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Originally posted by Greenleaf771:
I understand it from that point of view, yes, Reactionary.

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I was looking, well, I don't know what I was looking for.

I don't know anyone who truly does.

I understand it from that point of view, yes, Reactionary. I was looking, well, I don't know what I was looking for. I guess reassurance that I wasn't wrong. But I've figured it out. I'm fine with my views now.

Religion is man's attempt to get to God. Christianity is God's (successful) attempt to get to man.

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Originally posted by Greenleaf771:
I don't know how i feel about this, but if the cHristian religion is true, then you either go to heaven or hell.

That is correct, as was mentioned before, there is no purgatory, despite what the Catholic Church says.

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That scares me out of my wits.

As it should, for "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30)" for all of eternity. Other biblical descriptions of hell:

"And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." -Revelations 20:14

"Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." -Matthew 9:44

"And He opened the bottomless pit; and there arouse a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." -Revelations 9:2

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How long is eternity?

Forver and ever. Imagine the entire amount of time the earth and universe has been in existance, and that is but a speck upon the timeline of eternity.

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How do I know if I'm good enough for the higher power up there?

You're focusing on the wrong thing. Everyone here is a bad person, and falls well short of the glory of good. There are two types of people: the bad people who are saved (through accepting Jesus) and the bad people who are damned.

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I mean, what if I did something wrong.

That is the least of your problems, for you have never done something too wrong not to be saved.

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I mean, what is "God?"

God is the Supreme Being. The Alpha and the Omega, He is the beginning and the end.

well, religion is man made. Jesus just gave pointers on how to use it. Religion is hard to understand and often contradicts itself, but when have we always understood man's ideas? what i dont understand is how God said that he didnt come in the New Testament to change the Old Testament. Well, now he's teaching to forgive and love while in the Old one it was an eye for an eye...

Like I said live a good Life and I guess you'll find out

Well, clpo, I understand where your coming from. Becaue we cannot comprehend the being that is there or whatever, we have to humanize it. I believe there is something, somewhere, and that is about all I do know. I like your theories. So what about Hell? Do you all believe in that? Why would a being so great make a person, however bad, live in a place of misery?

Right. First off, religion is not an all or nothing deal. Christianity is not the "one true religion". Bull if I've ever heard it, and I'm a Christian. Lutheran in fact. But I digress. Now, I personally believe all religions have truth in them. The original message, whatever it was, has been lost, changed, or whatever in the eons since humans first discovered religion. But I believe that there is no heaven and there most definitely is no hell. Why would a loving God who forgives us all allow a place of eternal damnation? It makes no sense. However, this is not to say there isn't a God of some sort. He (or even She) may not be the God of the Catholics or the God of the Baptists or the God of the Shiites, but there is an all-powerful, all-knowing, and ultimately ever-present Creator. We give this Creator a name (such as God, Yahweh, Allah, etc.) because we cannot comprehend this Being. We want to naturally make it more "human". That's why God is frequently portrayed as a kindly old man with a long white beard. "Old", "white", and "man" do not apply to the Creator at all. He is timeless and non-corporeal, meaning He does not exist in any one time or place.

So, what I think happens when you die is that you either cease to exist, or come back to life in the form of another being. Reincarnation, if you will, but it's not limited to humans on Earth. If there is life elsewhere in the Universe, you could possibly be reborn as some other being on another planet. Far-fetched, I know, but so is the idea of an eternal paradise, such as heaven.

In my view, the Creator will not judge you based on your actions. You are human, you are imperfect, you are fallible. After all, He came up with the blueprint that led to your creation. Note: I did not say He created you. That is another Christian idea. The Creator began the process of creation, but the Universe really created itself, and life along with it.

Now, I'm not advocating running around like the hoodlums young people generally turn out to be, but to follow your own set of morals, as opposed to following the set guidelines of organized religion. In other words, follow your heart, listen to your conscience, and all those other Disney clichés. Doing and being good is ingrained into humans. Killing naturally produces immense feelings of guilt, unless you've learned to supress them. So, do what you think is good, and you'll be all right.

But those are just my thoughts.

Hey Celtic your right the christians say we're all born sinners but then you get batized and your soul is purified and you must reknew this purity yearly through reconciliation and weekly through mass and the eucarist

Alright, thanks.

I'd say start witht he one I linked you to. 120 Days of Sodom is extremely graphic and you'll need to have a better understanding of Sade to understand the points of 120 Days of Sodom.

Thank you, the next time I am up at Borders I will get it. What about his 120 Days of Sodom? Do you recommend it?

This is the book I have of Sade, it's great because it has his most famous novel, some dialogues and other writings by him, and 2 essays on Sade which greatly explain his beliefs.

I knew the latter point of what you were saying Celtic, but I never really thought about the former. Thank you for bringing that up, it is quite thought-provoking. What books were you speaking of that you suggest one should read? I think I will check them out.

If the Christian religion is true, then we will all go to hell, as we're all born sinners. Then again, that point is contradicted by the fact that "God forgives all", which makes no sense because if he did forgive all, there would be no hell, because then Lucifer himself would have been forgiven. And if Lucifer had been forgiven, then the Christian church would be fully unecessary, since we would not sin, therefore no need of a Bible telling us how to live.

If we do this á la Satanism, there is no sin except the sin against yourself, which I personally believe is the worst sin one can commit.

If you think in a Sadism point of view, God is nothing but bull created by ignorant humans to give order to society, and that we are more powerful than God, because God never did crap, the only thing we can't beat is Nature, therefore Nature is higher than God. Also, there is no sin, because the goal in life would be to just please yourself, therefore, you may kill all you want, do whatever the hell you please, as long as you are happy with what you did. There is also no such thing as pain, because one can master pain and make it pleasure (i.e. If you read his books, you notice that Justine is tortured and she hates it whilst the same happens to Julliete and she loves it, because Julliete has turned pain into pleasure).

No problem GL

Thanks, that's something to think about, both of you.

yeah good point but it makes sense kinda but when you think about it Jesus saved our souls so that when we die we can come to him so as long as we a truly repentant we can go to heaven I think

The Bible never mentions a purgatory, Catholicism made it up. Again, this is where Catholicism differs greatly from Christianity.

okay GL eternity is forever but in the after life time is relative example in genesis God created earth in seven days thats not our "days" it's God time days which can be millions of terran years. Next no one is unredemable including me I've done some bad stuff and will do bad stuff in the future but in the Roman Catholic Church I can confess to God and Jesus and they will forgive any one who is truly sorry for what they have done.

Only pure evil goes to hell and no one starts off in heaven first you go for an unkown period of time sins depending those of course you haven't confessed but if it's something like say mass murder/genocide go directly to Hell. now in purgatory you are purge of your sin and then can go to eternal life with God in heaven at least thats the christian view point