Don't worry he'll be back soon. Pretty well written ish, I have a question for you though. Do you believe that if you don't go to church you are not following what God would want you to do?

 

Christian Science:

Founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879. They claim to use the Bible as their source for teaching, but they also use a book called Science and Health with Keys to the Scriptures. and another called Miscellaneous Writings These books was written by Mary Baker Eddy to be used as a means to reveal the true meaning of the Bible. She believed that the New Testament alone contained 300,000 errors. (Science and Health, p.139) She also states that her writings are infallible (Science and Health, p.129, 345). Basically since the New Testament has roughly only 140,000 words in it. that means that every word has about 2 errors to it. basically you can only go off what she wrote in her book. Christian Science does not believe that Jesus actually died and physically rose from the dead. Jesus was not here to save man from death, but to teach man that death is just an illusion and not real. same goes with the concept of evil. it does not exist. In order to have immortal life all you need to do is deny the reality of evil and death.
If you want to know more let me know, but that covers some of the basics.

Catholics:

This is a sensitive subject. I personally believe that there are a lot of catholics out there that are Christians. but there are probably a lot out there as well that are not. In the general sense the beliefs are the same. the thing with the catholic church is that I have known a lot of catholics who growing up and going to mass every week of their lives, yet have no clue who Jesus truly is and what his purpose was on earth. They do believe he is the savior and virgin birth, he is God, etc. Where it seems they miss out is the whole personal relationship part. As i said before, I have known some Catholics who are definatly Christians, and I have known a lot of others who as Catholics, believed they weren't Christians, they were Catholic, they looked at them as two separate religions.

I will never say that a certain person will or will not go to heaven. that is not for me to judge, that is between God and that person.

Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and David Koresh:

I added Koresh with these guys because they are all individuals and not groups.
I had to look up who pat robertson and jerry falwell were. david koresh was probably not a christian based on his actions. as i said before though i cannot answer where he ended up. As i was reading up on pat and jerry, i don't think its necessary to get into some of ther personal beliefs on certain issues. I found a quote on an anti-falwell page that seems to fit on if you are a Christian or not
Christian Zionists:

again another thing i had to look up becasue i am not familiar with this term. after doing a little reading, i would say most of them are christians. like that previous quote, its about what you believe and not how necessarily how you view certain issues. I will do more reading on it to get a better understanding behind what they are doing and why.


Positive Christianity:

i did have to look this up as well. seems to be pretty controversial in the application of Jesus' teachings. I did however find various things on it that suggests there are a few different types of "positive christianity". I was finding stuff from Hitler to Pat Robertson to doesn't matter what you are we can all live happily together in harmony. Pete, do you have any links that could direct me in a direction of what you were thinking is a good representation of what "positive christianity" is?

 

I do not believe that you have to go to church every sunday to be saved.

I do believe though that church has its place and is an important tool for one to grow closer to God. is it something that you can possibly skip and find similar benefits from elsewhere, yeah. This is under the assumption that by church you mean go on sunday morning to a place where many others gather and you sing songs and listen to a message from a pastor/priest/minister/teacher/preacher.

i don't think one should go to church just because they think it is what God expects him/her to do.

I think one should go to church becasue they want to learn more about who God is and how they can grow closer to God. Church is not the only place where that can take place.


Hope that answers your question

 

Bush rocks,...but I think religion is quite silly. Really, I mean come on…I believe faith is something you can have in another person. Like when you need someone to accomplish something, you can have faith that they will get the job done. But faith in a God. I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve never experienced first hand anything ever written in the bible. I mean, the stories are entertaining. But, putting your all out faith in something that doesn’t exist….that’s just lunacy. Religion is just another way man kind tries to separate himself from the rest of the animals on this planet, control the masses, and to explain the unexplained,…that is until science catches up and we figure the stuff out on our own. Ooooh,…fire…aahhhhhh!

 

Very similar to my thoughts.

 

It's worked pretty good so far. Can you Imagine how society would be about it, almost every culture on the planet has a form of it.

 

Yep thats the one, I seriously think your confusing them with the Branch Davidians. Early on they were waiting for the second coming in the desert I believe. They are an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventists I believe. The expose hinted at a government raid so I can see the Waco similarities with them and the Branch Davidians.

 

You may argue the semantics of 'control' since it does tend to have a bit of a negative connotation, but religion IS a set of guidelines where someone (society, the clergy, the state) urges the masses to abide those guidelines, or else.

 

I think one of the hardest things to do as believers in a certain faith is to recognize that we truly do not know as much as we like to think we do about other religions. Certainly not enough to do them any justice. It is difficult for us to look at the other religion objectively, this seems to be most true in regards to the Mormon religion.

 

Which famous scientist was it that said "I don't dispute that God exists, I just want to know how he did it."? I think using science as a way to prove that God does not exist is a fruitless endeavor. If you are a Christian and you believe that God is the originator of all things including science then it would be safe to assume that he used science to create our universe. Who is to say the "big bang" wasn't a tool God used? Blowing things up to create stuff?! Thats genius! I don't know about you but I enjoy blowing stuff up just for fun!

 

So much symantics about the names of religions. Again, if you worship one guy called God, you aren't Islamic, and you're not Jewish...you are Christian. Again, if someone else fits those guidlines but you don't like their way of worship, too bad they're Christian too. Stop trying to define 'Christianity' by what YOU think Christians should be/believe in/do.

Science is not exlusive of religion. And very very few scientists try to disprove that a or any god(s) exist. However, there are several examples of where science says that something in the bible didn't happen. Despite this, many scientists are religious. How can this be? Because smart people realize that the bible is, at most, a set of examples and metaphores to explain how to live a good life with respects to other people. There is always the chance that a god has created science as a way to quell our insatiable desire to explain everything we experience. My opinion, however, is that of Chrisnonstop and gpatmac:

"I believe faith is something you can have in another person. Like when you need someone to accomplish something, you can have faith that they will get the job done. But faith in a God. I don’t know about any of you, but I’ve never experienced first hand anything ever written in the bible. I mean, the stories are entertaining. But, putting your all out faith in something that doesn’t exist….that’s just lunacy. Religion is just another way man kind tries to separate himself from the rest of the animals on this planet, control the masses, and to explain the unexplained,…that is until science catches up and we figure the stuff out on our own."_Chrisnonstop

I like that quote. Too bad it started off with praise for the worst president in the history of the country...hahahaha

 

Will you please explain to me the logic behind your thought of how you are automatically christian if you are not jewish or muslim.

if mormons, jehova witness, etc is included as being "christian" then please don't think of me as being christian as i do not share any of their befiefs

 

What threatens you so much about people thinking that Mormons are Christians? Or Jehovas witness's for that matter?

 

its not that its threatening, its more in hopes that others will realize they are so different and that people people don't take the time to recogonize how far apart from each other they are.
it is an entirely different system of beliefs.

just because they look up to a single god, does not mean it is the same god.

 

If there is only one god to look up to who else would they be looking to? I'm sure that the interpertation and application of the bibles teachings are different but I would not go so far as to say that they worship a different god, they just see God differently.