Charismatic Chaos

I suppose it *could* suggest that. Remember the Israelites? How they knew what their responsibilities were before God and yet they kept slipping? Worshipping other things? getting greedy for the spoils of war? Maybe even fudging a bit and putting words in Gods' mouth? Words such as "kill all of the enemies women and children...(except rape the women first) We can get back to your assertion that without evidence there is no reason to believe in God....and we can discuss the nature and character of such a God should One exist...yet you seem to stand on the idea that He is unnecessary. Maybe that is so for you. He gives you that freedom. And to be honest, Christians ourselves are not often his best advertisement. We all fall short. None of us does enough. His banquet is symbolic, however. It is about food that nourishes the soul. if you can find it without religion, more power to you...but it is my belief that you will never find it without Him, since He is the bread of life. he is not standing in a lineup with a spaghetti monster, Buddha, and Muhammed.And I don't care what the character in the book said about giving away everything as a theme. Ultimately it is true but noone expects us to feed and clothe everyone and leaving ourselves with nothing. You yourself don't even believe that He exists, yet you would embrace a socialist society. fact is, there isn't one yet and anyone who sells everything and waits for their comrades to help them will end up freezing to death while they wait.

Yes, that suggests that there was no real "communion", that it was a one-way street with the priests telling the people what God wanted. You're making that up. As far as we know, those words came directly from God, just like, "Love thy neighbour." There's no "seem" about it. Unless you can demonstrate otherwise, He is as unnecessary as a herd of unicorns. What if it's poison? (Jim Jones.) He really is though. Jesus did. He said God would take care of you if you had faith.And I don't care how much you malign the book. It carries more weight than your wishful thinking. I embrace a socialist society because we are an inherently social species. We are a socialist society despite the evil forces that support selfishness.And our socialist society is necessary because there is no God to do it for us. Have you driven on a road lately? Did you build it yourself? Tell it to Jesus.

When I see obscure creatures or organisms, I think of what possible relevance would it be for God to have specifically created it -- assuming that a God exists, of course. And its just one more reason that makes me doubt it -- or that if a God of sorts exists that it be more deistic than theistic.

Yeah, and that doesn't strike you as odd? Why are there millions upon millions of different species if there was not some relevance to them? The bible, written by humans, is notoriously human-centric. Go figure.

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Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

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I dunno, Jesus, because I have no idea how you measure worth. Are we more valuable than the birds of the air? Do they suffer for endless and timeless eternity for daring to ask such a heretical question? Seems to me being a human is both a blessing and a curse.I look at the simplistic pleasures of my dogs... There is an unmistakable intelligence there. An unmistakable love and joy. They just want to be around me and to express love for me and to have me express it back to them. There's no ulterior motive. Its genuine. Simple. Beautiful. And yet we are taught that when they die, they just die. But when we die we enter on to eternity... or so we're told.But this kind of human-centric thinking belies credibility that God spent all this time creating all these other things to only focus on us. It really makes you question whether God created man or whether man created God.

Woops! That character was Jesus. Doesn't that matter? The 'no-one' here is you and us. And it's us that reckon it's ok not to do what the book says you must. Your god said that you should do it.But of course no-one actually does do it, especially the established churches that bask in wealth. What I don't get is why you don't appear to think that this is a problem. You're deciding you know better than your god? You don't actually believe in him do you?

Only if you want to be perfect in the eyes of God.

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Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments. Which ones? he inquired. Jesus replied, ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.

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All these I have kept, the young man said. What do I still lack?

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Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

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Then Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

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