Quote:
Originally Posted by celeste  With all respect, I don't appreciate your sarcasm, Antiventurecapital. Maybe you don't believe in the Bible and maybe it isn't applicable to you. But other people believe in it.
I personally do, and I have found that it helps me grow in life. It is true that Christians will be rewarded in eternity according to how we live their life on earth. So the point you were trying to make about the "impoverished masses as docile as sheep" doesn't mean that they don't have a voice. It is merely an encouragement for the "less fortunate" people, saying that they have something to look forward to when they die. They may not have much of a "voice" or "influence" now, but what counts is how they choose to use the resources/abilities that they presently have. Life here on earth isn't everything, it is just a prelude to our life ahead. |
There are some good points in the bible, and some helpful to growth. But that doesn't necessarily mean the whole thing is true.
For example the bible fully endorses slavery and the oppression of women.
Most people would dismiss those sections as being 'related to the times' and then start to pick the pieces that still apply. Well, if
humans are allowed to decide what is still the word of god and what isn't, then it isn't the bible you believe.
But you.
But to answer the original question.
Freedom brings me happiness, and to be in constant state of creation and challenge.
To be making useful things and contributing to others and to myself.
I ask a counter question. What is it about god that make you so happy? What do you do with him that you enjoy?
Whenever I hear a sermon like this I feel like AntiVC said, that the people preaching it are usually just trying to convince themselves of it. Because most of them rarely seem truly happy with their own life. So try to convince themselves they are happy by trying to get other people to come and 'feel happy' with them.
They seem to just be 'killing time' until they die so the can go to heaven where the 'happiness' is.
Your comment about the death bed is partially true. I would hazard a guess that no almost one has died wishing they had enjoyed their life less and worked more.
But I would counter that with I would be confident guessing that about the same number of people died saying 'I wish I had gone to church more' on their death bed.
Most people regret not enjoying their life. But just because they regret working too hard and not living life doesn't automatically mean that god is what they regret...
Most religions are virtually 'anti enjoying life' anyway. They tell you to constantly deprive yourself more and more, and to punish yourself and feel guilty whenever you don't do
exactly what a more than 2,000 year old book says.
If we read a book written 2k years ago telling us about any other subject, we would chuckle at the simplicity and stupidity of these people. A book on medicine, or healthy living, or the earth being flat!
I mean c'mon, these guys couldn't work out that Planet was round, but you are claiming that somehow
the one and only subject they got right was the best way to live your life? (except for this bit, and this bit and this bit of course. Aka the xxx edition bibles.)