Jesus

[VauxVeteran]

Spare one for this great man, religious or not, btw I'm not, but I do appreciate ppl who make a difference.

I've always had the opinion of him being a genius among fools and control freaks, look in to the stunts from the stories and you can quickly see just how advanced he was, walking on water = low tide viewed from a distance, and so on, son of god I think may have been a bit of a self proclamation as I personally see god not as a man but as the sun, no sun everything dies, there's nothing more of a deciding factor as that as to the issue of a god, then we have the commandment's, if everyone lived by these how much of a better world would it become overnight, of course it'll never happen because man's inbuilt nature wont allow it, such has been my level of thought on it lately I'm thinking of going to church, something I've never done before except for weddings and funerals, and although you know I like a wind up and a joke, I am serious on this one this time, there's a complete lack of faith right now and I think it's contributing to the negative world we find ourselves in right now.


What do you feel/think?

[yorkshireborn]

wot u been drinking

ofcourse theres a god i watch em every sat

[spoons]

OK, firstly I dont believe in god and I'm not religious.. so here goes...

I think that a 'Jesus' character did exist, and, as you say VV, was a very advanced person for his time.

I think the Bible is a good 'rule book' which intends to bring 'civilisation' and 'order' to the community.

I think 'God' and 'gods' were used as the unknown threat, to keep people in check as there always has to be a higher authority to keep order in the masses. Its human nature to fear something we dont understand.

I think its a good thing to have a 'rule book' so people can turn to something stable when life throws them off track and they have no one to turn to for guidance. Churches do have a place in society.

However, I feel that these people are then open to be exploited, whilst in their 'hour of need' by control freaks or benevelent dictators who pose as 'god fearing' or 'caring' and take advantage of them.

Then you have the 'angry' people who want to belong to a 'religion' and then go fighting anyone else who isnt in their 'religion'. These people are just as dangerous as the above in destroying lives.

In some ways a new rule book needs to be implemented as, in my opinion, society at the moment is unballanced...

- We have too much exposure to Violence, Hard S3x & Media Publicity including Human Attrocities which is de-sensitizing us all
- We have far too much debt in this country!!!.... which makes us all feel pressured to keep up

Why is it that we have never been so wealthy, but everyone is stuggling to keep up? 90% of the things you use today (or desperatly want) didnt even exsist 150 years ago !!!!.... Now tell me you need them !!

- We all travel far to long to get to work and our family is no longer near us for support
- We have lost the basic needs for existance, far to much stuff we dont need pushed down our throats
- We dont give our kids enough time, and generally society doesnt have the skills anymore to make sure they grow up correctly and balanced
- As a result, kids do not have any respect for adults anymore, as we are passing all the control to them !!!! and taking control away from us.
- In this age of electronic communication, communication skills are at their lowest !!

I've probably missed out a whole bunch of stuff, but thats about it... before this thread is inevitably closed

(no offence to anybody by the way...)

[AndrewTi]

Spoons has put across exactly what I was trying to get at.

Thanks.

The main problem I have with it all, is this all seeing, benevolent, powerfull being.....

9/11, Aberfan, Lockerbie... all things that could have been prevented, but brought pain and misery to 'normal' people like you and me.

Like Spoons said, no offence to anyone, but I'll believe it all if I see it.

[Gsi3.2]

well, with apologies to the god fearing amonst us, i beleive Spoons has hit on more than 1 root cause of the breakdown of or society..too much of the above rings so true in my opinion..

[Duncan]

I've probably missed out a whole bunch of stuff, but thats about it... before this thread is inevitably closed

Can't see any reason why the thread would be closed - certainly not at the moment.

[VauxVeteran]

Can't see any reason why the thread would be closed - certainly not at the moment.

You'd better not on this occasion

well, with apologies to the god fearing amonst us, i beleive Spoons has hit on more than 1 root cause of the breakdown of or society..too much of the above rings so true in my opinion..

If ppl like us can see it, why can't the ppl elected to ensure cohesion see it and respond to it?

I personally fear we are heading for another Vietnam population cull before long, and I don't mean Iraq, once the population becomes uncontrollable in a reasonable manner it becomes draft em in and use em up, this them clicks in the after effect of ppl being nice to each other and the communial feeling, like what happened after 9/11 in the USA for a while, if you could just select the disfunctional and bums it would probably be a good idea, but my experience sees it that the ppl you want to keep end up dead and the ones you don't are still walking around.

I can give an example of some of this, talk to a recreational drug taker, ask them what last night was like and the answer is....I dunno I was outta my face, then ask why they take the drugs, and the answer is to have a good time, now what is the point of a good time if you can't remember it? just shows how backward the brain is becoming, roll back 100 yrs and the buzz for a man would be that he'd got a new invention to work, but now it's .....yeah man I did more drugs than you that makes me well hard dunnit, followed by I gotta go Jeremy Kyle is on the phone wanting to book me for his show titled.....I robbed a store,beat the wife and nicked the kids piggy banks, but I'm not a bad person.

[mickeyc]

Apologies but I'm a theology under graduate!!!

Firstly let me say that as a Christian, I'm certainly not offended by any of this and infact am encouraged that you guys feel able to have this discussion.

I work for the Church of England and in my view it has lacked appalingly in what was after all Jesus final command. As the old saying goes, Jesus told as to go out and tell his story and we created the church!!! The church for generations has missed the point and while it has been splitting, arguing and squablling within itself, it hasn't been effectively been not only sharing the story, but neither has it made any appropriate attempt to engage with a culture that has moved on so much. The means to an end has become an end in itself.

This cultural 'thing' is one of my bug bears in terms of how the church conducts itself. I agree with so many things that have been said above, they are all very much sentiments of this post modern culture (this is my attempt at a theory anyway!! ). Postmodernity means that culture does not see any absolutes. We have gone past the stage of "I think therefore I am" to a place that questions what 'I' is.

The church has to make more attempts to engage with culture in a way that is relevant. For example the church expects people to come to it on a Sunday which has traditionally been the case since eternity, however rather than inviting others in, the church needs to be out there alongside folk, getting to know them and showing them the faith they have in action rather than preaching it. The church in my view has spent far too much time pontificating and sitting in judgement and far too little actually showing people the difference that the christian faith can make on someones life.

The problem is that the old ideas are so ingrained into peoples psyche that its very hard to get them to change. In the context of church I'm seen as a rebel and a trouble maker simply because I don't beleive that the old traditional ways (although I respect them) have any credance with this culture.

For me Jesus was a very special person and seeing the film "The Passion" again last night just goes to show me how much I beleive he did for me. But for me it's so much more than just beleiving the words in the Bible though I read them everyday (not all of them!!). I believe it's having a real, vibrant and almost conversational relationship with God, and acting on his teachings in the rest of my life.

Hope this hasn't turned into yet another preach. Apologies to anyone I might have upset or offended but these are just my views, please feel free to disagree.

[Ian]

I believe that Jesus did exist and was the son of God sent to explain to us, one last time, because He has certainly explained many many times prior how we are living our lives badly, to mend our ways. I also believe that the terrible things in our lifes are humanitys doing, not Gods. He gave us free choice, but also gave us the rules to abidd by. Every individual who has an interest should read the Bible, but make sure they take from it what they wish, not what the churches decide to tell them to believe. Thats my biggest bug bear with the churches. The average Joe can make his own mind up. The days have past where we needed to be instructed in the meanings. Now we need guidance on how to find our own meanings.

[ditchp]

im sorry if i offend anyone with this comment but,


religion is a way for the minority to controll the majority what ever faith you happen to believe in,

i am sure many people will agree/disagree with this but that is just the way i feel... who ever says that killing people in the name of a god is justified is exploiting his/her possition within that religion and only ordering the brain washed fools to do as they wouldnt dare do themselves,
if there was a one true god then all acts of violence like this would never happen, i also believe that each to there own and do not judge peoples faiths, beliefs or religions.

well thats my pennies worth on this and sorry if i have offendered anyone out there,