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

Should humans who are nowhere near as immune to mistakes really be put in a position where they have to relay what God wants people to do about various moral issues!!! That just causes more arguments between denominations and widens the rift between them!

In the last year or so I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about religion, largely because many of the friends I've made at University are Christians and keep trying to convert me.

So I thought about Christianity, and I came to the conclusion that the clergy, although they may not intend to, act as a barrier between the congregation and God. They do have a role to fill - somebody has to teach the interested about the faith, after all - but it always seems to me that they guide Christians towards God and then act as a receptionist - "you can go see God, but you have to go through me first".

That may not be the actual case (especially since one of my friends has told me that it's not like that at all), but from the outside it looks like that, and it's wrong, because interaction with God should be direct, not through an imperfect human being appointed by other imperfect humans. Doesn't the Bible say that we're all nasty slimey things in God's eyes anyway? Isn't that depressing?

On the other side of things, a Wiccan Priestess like the aforementioned Ms Witch really only has one role - to show people the path, or the door, they could walk down or open if they should choose to. I've always found it interesting that neo-Pagans aren't supposed to actively attempt to convert people; instead they wait and answer the questions of people who become interested of their own accord. Which is really all Ms Witch is doing in that prison, so why shouldn't she be allowed to stay?

There! I managed to partially undrift the thread! Now I wonder if it's possible to undrift it right back to where it started...

No, probably not.

I think God has probably left us and started all over again, learning from his mistakes here!!! At least tyhen we can know there is a perfect species somewhere and it lets us know that even god isn't perfect.

Isn't the very idea that God might be flawed heresy to Christians?

Another reason Christianity doesn't appeal to me.

Well he apparantly made us in his image so god knows how absent minded he is.....actually he does doesnt he..

well, He made us in his image and all was fine and dandy till Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the snake - you can believe the pretty story if you want to or not, but somewhere along the line there was a fall from grace. So now, I think, we're the image of God if He looked in a fairground mirror.
I've heard it argued that the 7 days of creation are actually a metaphor for longer periods of time, and so from the creation of man is the Day of Rest - and God's just leaving us to get on with it.
Some people don't like that idea - I don't think it mean's he's disinterested, but it does mean we get free will to what we want.

Tally - I'd rather not have Christian leaders "telling" anything - I prefer them to say "I advise" or "I believe" so people can choose what they want. But life's never that simple.

Ok get this God created adam and eve...right? God created everthing.....right? Including snakes.....so God would know how slippery the snake was......and how curious humans would be.....so why put the snake in Eden with Adam and Eve?????

Yes, that part of the story has never sat very well with me, either. The Christians I've spoken to about it say that God gave us free will, and eating the fruit of the forbidden tree was us succumbing to temptation. But if God was so perfect, and being with God was so good, wouldn't Adam and Eve have figured out why they weren't allowed to eat of the forbidden tree, and therefore not have done it?

When looking at the story more closely, it looks perfectly constructed to illustrate by analogy the consequences of doing something that those set above you deem to be bad.

Can I say something?

Step forward

Seems to me the whole moral of the Adam & Eve story is don't judge God. As far as I have understood what they ate was the fruit(appple?) of wisdom. It gave them an ability to have a mind of their own and see things right from wrong. Which is why God kicked them out because that it something he doesn't want. He has been telling his followers that he is good for the last 6000 years. In the bible he says that smashing baby heads is a good idea and you should kill people who work on sundays. I personally find these things wrong, but saying that is going against God. Since he has said he is good, he must be because apparently he is the one who defines those things. So if a group of Christians kill their disobedient children, they are of course right to do so, anyone saying anything else is against God.

If you've read Kierkegaard he also talks about how it is hybris(greek I know) to try and judge between right and wrong. Doing so is what got us kicked out of paradise and it is only by closing our eyes and doing what God tells him we can regain his grace. Great way of forwarding your cause.

I love forms which ask for my Christian name, cause having not been Christianed, I don't have one! It really unsettles people when you point that out, which is a good enough reason for me. Except, its usually first name on forms these days, not Christian name - poo.

Surely who is a 'pure Christian' is unimportant. As far as the law is concerned, a Christian would most likely be defined as someone who has been pabtised into one Christian denomination or another. A British person is defined as someone born in Britain or who has taken on British nationality, no matter if they have not entered the country since.

I don't think the law says that. By default I'm a Christian, because I was baptised into the Church of England when I was born. Why my parents had that done I have no idea, since they don't go to church or anything, and I don't think they're particularly religious.

However, by choice I'm a Wiccan, and certainly would not like to be categorised as a Christian just because I've been baptised, because I'm definitely not.

In the story of Adam and Eve, the snake was NOT something placed there by God, instead a form for Satan. I think that the point for God is to give everyone free choice... If they want to follow them, great. If not, that's your choice. It was Adam and Eve's choice to eat the fruit and get banned from the Garden. However, that didn't seperate communication with God.

We've been (from a Christian point of view...) talking about why God created man in the first place in school. And i think, in my opinion, that God created man because he wanted to love us... and be loved in return. And that is why everyone is free to choose.

However, there is no real way to know short of dying and seeing if you are just a dead body in a grave or if there is something more.

peace.

I'm sure that if you were to take it to court, you could find some obscure tenet of Canon law whereby anyone who practices a pagan rite is automatically excomunicated. All you would need then is evidence that you have done so, like a video or something.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty together again...

peace.

Hickory dickory dock...

the mouse sat on a clock
the clock struck one
the mouse ran down
hickory dickory dock.

or my personal favorite...
Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb... it's fleace was white as snow...

or even...

3 blind mice, 3 blind mice
See how they run, see how they run...

peace.

They all ran after the farmer's wife
Who cut off their tales with a carving knife

Who on earth decided that was suitable for children?