h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I raised this question before("No way to the Father but through the Son.") - asked "why is turning away from God infinitely bad?". After a bit of umming, the response came that it was because God is an infinite being, so turning away from him is infinitely bad, and hence requires infinite punishment in hell.

That failed the test when I ran it through my own personal moral test, but maybe it'll help some of you here...

*sees mention of Pascal's Wager*
*points to http://www.h2g2.com/A341920 *

I sometimes wonder where the textual back up for the "all-powerful, all-knowing" bit is. I mean, sure, God is great - but where does it say that he's *inifinitely* great? There's perhaps little practical difference between a God who is so powerful he appears to be omnipotent, and one who actually is, but there's a huge philosophical gap...

Wasn't one of the reasons of the Schism (separation of Eastern and Western (or Orthodox and Catholic) churches) about 900 yrs ago that the Catholic creed supports the holiness and faultlessness (sp?) of the Pope? That is, not considering the political reasons for the separation... just the official excuse.

What about if you reject the contemporary form of religion, take up your own form of religion but are ultimately worshipping the same almighty being in some way or another?

I am not taking the mickey, talking about hugging trees etc. etc. but referring to a story I read a couple of years ago. By William McIllvaney, it wrote about a mans rejection of the catholic faith, after it rejected his wife (a Protestant), and channelled all his belief into his family, as he saw it as a stronger foundation than the churhc. Ok, so I went off my point slightly, but that is a point, is it not?

Secondly, if all religions ultimately point to the same God, why is it so wrong to marry someone of another faith?

What about if you reject the contemporary form of religion, take up your own form of religion but are ultimately worshipping the same almighty being in some way or another?

I am not taking the mickey, talking about hugging trees etc. etc. but referring to a story I read a couple of years ago. By William McIllvaney, it wrote about a mans rejection of the catholic faith, after it rejected his wife (a Protestant), and channelled all his belief into his family, as he saw it as a stronger foundation than the churhc. Ok, so I went off my point slightly, but that is a point, is it not?

Secondly, if all religions ultimately point to the same God, why is it so wrong to marry someone of another faith?

What you're talking about is making up your own personal god. People have been doing it since antiquity...

In ancient Mesopotamia, different lands had their own gods. Eventually, each family had its own god to watch over it.

In the desert of Haran, the household god of Abraham, a jealous and relatively unknown storm god, nurtured his small family and its descendants, until a member of that family who managed to get himself into the Egyptian royal family led a slave insurrection and fled to Palestine.

In the climate that the god Jesus was born, hundreds of gods abounded, and many of them rose from the dead, among them Mithras, Dionysus, Sol Invictus, Osiris, and others.

In the Protestant movement in the 1500's, people created their own variants of the Catholic triumvirate of gods, and reinvented the purpose and doctrine of these people as it suited them.

In the 1850's in Indiana (or was it Illinios) a man named John Smith made up his own testament to add to the two others worshipped by the various Catholic offshoots.

Today, the art of cult-making, dormant since the Catholics killed the rest of them off, is enjoying a rennaisance period.

At least when people make up their own religions, they are only deluding themselves. These delusions, as history has shown, are virulently contagious.

Good point - and could you not say that Christianity sprang out of such a personal belief - as you say, they are virulently contagious...?

Not only could you say it, but I think I just did.

Judaism started out as the worship of the household god of Abraham... that's what all that "The god of Abraham" business was about. He was hardly alone in the pantheon... "you will have no other gods but me."

Then Jesus came about with Christianity. The whole basis of that religion is that a Roman citizen named Paul spent some time in an Essene community like Qumran, and learned their tenets. Lacking the proper context for those teachings, he had them so completely warped that they were almost unrecognizable. He then went around the world proselytizing this new form of Gnosticism, after having adapted it to fit with the Hellenized world. It was doing fairly well because of this, but it was still just another cult among a host of cults until Constantine decided he wanted to bring the world together under a single religion, and, after examining the competition, chose Christianity. It may bring those people great humility to know that their dominance is owed to the High Priest of the cult of Sol Invictus, who chose their religion as the new state religion because it served his despotic purposes.

In both cases, with Judaism and with Christianity, we see that they were relatively harmless splinter groups until the wrong person was converted... a person with enough power to force conversions on others. We know well the centuries of purging the Christians did, but the episode of the golden calf quite clearly shows Moses' personal god wasn't too well favored in the beginning, either.

Thank you - best answer I've ever had during religious discussions!!

I think the major problem is that it the danger the of the 'wrong people' being converted. I, personally, won't push my beliefs on anyone - that is not my place and none of my business, but when religions are created from one personand not entirely for vituous reasons - that is dangerous.

I don't know where you are from originally, but if you are from the UK, you probably heard about the air hostess who has just went missing in Japan, and it believed that she siezed by a new cult that has just arizen. Frightening stuff...

I'm in the US, and I am temporarily without cable television, so I hadn't heard. What sort of cult is it?

"Miss Phillips received a call on her mobile from an anonymous man who revealed personal details about her friend, including the fact that she had a £6,000 credit card debt.

The caller said she was "going on to a better life" to join a "newly-risen religion", as cults are known in Japan. "

Taken from the BBC website which is:

news.bbc.co.uk

if you are interested, and the link for this news item is:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_831000/831310.stm

There is a FREE booklet available at: http://www.yahweh.com/pages/freebook/pg1.shtml/
on this subject titled, "Did the Apostle Shaul (Paul) "Do Away With" Yahweh's Law?" that you
can order online and many other FREE publications on diverse topics.

The whole Yahweh thing is really just one cult attacking the other... sort of like two one-legged men in a butt-kicking contest.

I think that the Christian religion owes its success to a "pagan" is ionic, and a little funny, though I consider myself part of that religion.

Hahaha!

I've often wondered about the evolution of Judaeo-Christiam religion from the early days of Yahweh to the time of Jesus.
It seemed to go through a lot of changes.

A few changes!!!LOL

I find the Christian take on Paganism intrigueing.

The only reason witches, etc. were added to the religion was because the pagans of eastern Europe brought it up, and the Christians of the time had to subdue the belief!

Now...for some unknown reason, Christian religions automatically equate Paganism with Satan worship.......funny.....last I checked, there was no such thing as "Satan" in the Celt religions!!!! That's a Christian diety!LOL

NM

I believe that paganism is satan worship also. Yahshua Messiah certainly did not support
paganism and he did say, "...if you are not for me you are against me." Paganism has
many practices that are in direct disobeidence to our Heavenly Father Yahweh's
Commandments, Statutes, Precepts and Judgements and contrary to popular belief
Yahshua did not come to "do away with" the Law and the Prophets as mainstream
christianity teaches their assemblies and congregations. See : http://www.yahweh.com/

For the Christians in this world, Yahweh Messiah is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ stated "point blank"...."I have not come to change the law, but to fulfill it!"

Now....if you believe Jesus is the Messiah, you have come full circle in Jewish prophecy...if you don't, you're Jewish.

If you don't believe any of that stuff, you're one of the majority religions in the world!

NM

Franklin4YAHWEH.....Been a while since I've seen you here!!


Welcome back!....I do enjoy talking to you!

NM