This is a topic which used to fascinate me as a teenage. In the past decade I have avoided discussion because I came to the conclusion that it was fairly pointless. There can be no sound argument formed to determine if there is or is not a 'God', nor can there be one formed to decide which version of scripture and belief is correct if it eventuates that there is one.
There are many forms of scripture used and different belief structures formed by loosely 'christian' groups (in this I include Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and any offshoots from these groups).
Protestants - Try your best to live by the commandments of Jesus, and your immortal soul will live in peace in heaven for ever, if not, then the lake of fire awaits.
Catholics - Do pretty much what ever you want as long as you don't use contraception, just confess your sins every sunday yadda yadda yadda.
Mormons - here it gets interesting. When Christ was 'dead' for 2 or 3 days (depending on how good your maths is), he did not go to hell to teach the sinners and offer them salvation, he actually went to America and taught the people there. They made a perfect record of his teachings on gold tablets. These tablets were later found (along with a heavenly translation device) which lead to the writing of the Book of Mormon. Because this is a perfect record, perfectly translated, this is of course the true teaching of Christ. The imperfect bible is also used as a secondary tool, where any inconsistencies between the two books arise, the book of Mormon is deemed to be correct. There is no hell, just different levels of Heaven (7 from memory). If you lead a good life, have lots of kids and don't drink coffee you will be on a higher level of heaven after death. But no one (apart from Jesus) can ever get to the same level of heaven as God.
Jehovah's Witnesses - again, things are interesting here. We do not have immortal souls (and to teach or believe that we do is a sin in itself). But our mortal bodies will literally be resurected on judgement day. After that point, we will live on a perfect earth with pretty butterflies for ever more (but don't forget that we do not have immortal souls, or you won't)
Add to these sets of beliefs the wild off shoots (e.g. southern baptists who believe that the bible tells them to kill all black people) and the fact that the base scripture is shared with both Jewish and Muslim scripture and the hopelessness of the situation becomes even more apparent.
I guess the point of this thread is to gather people's points of view around the wild inconsistencies in the scriptures used and beliefs held by a large portion of the world's population. How is something so irrational so important to us? Please add your own point of view and try to avoid killing others whose views differ from yours.....
There are many forms of scripture used and different belief structures formed by loosely 'christian' groups (in this I include Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and any offshoots from these groups).
Protestants - Try your best to live by the commandments of Jesus, and your immortal soul will live in peace in heaven for ever, if not, then the lake of fire awaits.
Catholics - Do pretty much what ever you want as long as you don't use contraception, just confess your sins every sunday yadda yadda yadda.
Mormons - here it gets interesting. When Christ was 'dead' for 2 or 3 days (depending on how good your maths is), he did not go to hell to teach the sinners and offer them salvation, he actually went to America and taught the people there. They made a perfect record of his teachings on gold tablets. These tablets were later found (along with a heavenly translation device) which lead to the writing of the Book of Mormon. Because this is a perfect record, perfectly translated, this is of course the true teaching of Christ. The imperfect bible is also used as a secondary tool, where any inconsistencies between the two books arise, the book of Mormon is deemed to be correct. There is no hell, just different levels of Heaven (7 from memory). If you lead a good life, have lots of kids and don't drink coffee you will be on a higher level of heaven after death. But no one (apart from Jesus) can ever get to the same level of heaven as God.
Jehovah's Witnesses - again, things are interesting here. We do not have immortal souls (and to teach or believe that we do is a sin in itself). But our mortal bodies will literally be resurected on judgement day. After that point, we will live on a perfect earth with pretty butterflies for ever more (but don't forget that we do not have immortal souls, or you won't)
Add to these sets of beliefs the wild off shoots (e.g. southern baptists who believe that the bible tells them to kill all black people) and the fact that the base scripture is shared with both Jewish and Muslim scripture and the hopelessness of the situation becomes even more apparent.
I guess the point of this thread is to gather people's points of view around the wild inconsistencies in the scriptures used and beliefs held by a large portion of the world's population. How is something so irrational so important to us? Please add your own point of view and try to avoid killing others whose views differ from yours.....