Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Religion Extinctions - Coming? Is there a trend where you live?

Hey, just wondering, no insult intended here...

Can you put that in English? Not even sure who you're responding to, Sir.

Josh

And keeping the cheerio intact whilst behind bars. At least for the mooslem converts. grin

Nonsense. Jesus himself refuted that.

... according to the books written down a couple of centuries after his death...

The Old Testament is pretty much intact. The Hebrews saw to that. Heck, they even have counters to count the number of letters in the Torah.

The New Testament did not have that luxury.

This is over simplistic, but it's in line with everything else I've studied on the subject: http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html

Basically, you had a man named Jesus who did cool stuff and you and the Mithraic cult. Early Christians and Mithra worshipers used the same buildings, and the two got mixed up. It's not a far stretch at all.

Josh

There are lots of diversions from Christianity, Josh, and you have found one flavor.

It's no secret that December 25 is not the actual birthday of the Lord. That date was selected by Constantine and the church he fostered that we know today as the Roman Catholic church. It was selected either to allow pagans and Christians to celebrate the same main holy day or to spite the pagans and usurp their holiday, depending on which explanation you believe.

The birth of Christ was much more likely in mid-April as evidenced by the biblical passage of shepherds watching their flocks by night in the fields. This only happened in the early spring as the lambs were birthing. Recently an astronomer found an eclipse that occurred on April 17, 6BC, that could have produced a phenomenon such as the star of Bethlehem.

You're at least 50 years behind archaeology. They've authenticated copies of the gospels back to within 1 generation of the originals.

Then we have Luke's own words. He put pen to paper, not oral at all.

1:1 � Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,
2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eye-witnesses and servants of the word.
3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,

+1000

You have so many things wrong in that post that it's hard to see how you could come to your conclusions in any objective way. As Rock Chuck said, you're at least 50 years behind archeology's discoveries. But you're right about Paul -- if his letters are authentic (unless you define "authentic" differently than I understand it), then it's hard to conclude that later Christianity invented the deity of Christ, a belief St. Paul firmly held in the first century.

Some people investigate these things with their conclusion in mind at the beginning.

Steve

And we 'find a specific religion' to fit our own needs and perceptions.

I know that before I became a Christian, I was guilty of the above.
Somehow, though, God helped me to see past my bias? and accept Him as Lord, and I am very grateful for that.

I'm truly glad that I help people of faith.

Thanks to your encouragement - I'll do a lot more of the same. I like helping people! I also enjoy getting PM's from people who are struggling with their faith (or lack of it) and I want to share my own story of how I finally broke away from bonds of the church, the fears that accompanied that move etc.

So - with the blessing of believers - and non-believers alike - you can plan on my continued attempts to elevate science - at the expense of superstition.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Does not an atheist make.

Brian:

You like that song, do you? How about the rest of the lyrics.



Or this.



As a neo-Marxist, I mean. Not just an athiest.

- Tom

The European Economic Community is, an example of, what I think Lennon was talking about. 1000 years ago - till recently - Europe was nothing more than huge collection of warring Kingdoms and Principalities. Now, it is one, more or less a borderless continuum of comparatively peaceful, relatively prosperous states.

In regards to Lennon's other line you quoted - the one about "no possessions" - I've got to admit that I've done extremely well in the "collection of possessions" department. The way I live now - is beyond my wildest dreams growing up. People say I live in a mansion - set in the middle of a wildlife park.

But, I have also come to realize all my earthly wealth can't buy happiness. The only way to be truly rich is to reduce the desire for material things. You can either keep increasing what you want - or you can simply decrease what you think you need - in order to be truly "rich". I think John Lennon, with all of his huge material wealth - understood that.

Here's where I live. As far as you can see - I own. In addition, my own property is surrounded by thousands upon thousands of acres of Crown land that I can hunt on - whenever I wish.


Here's the creek running through the middle of my land. Huge salmon spawn there in the fall - trout live in it year round.


Here's the view from the hill behind me - looking down on my land.


Not too bad - at least, for a "Marxist" - eh?

beautiful Brian


touched by the hand of God for certain


buy hey you knew that

Isn't that the ultimate goal of Marxism? Funny how the state has usurped many of the roles of religion and religion dies out where that happens.

I think you are right Brian. Some religions are dyiing out. In fact, I haven't seen "A Scientific Pantheist who enjoys sharing his beliefs" around here in ... well... forever.

Definitely ahead of the curve. Of course those "ahead of the curve" will be wondering what happened when millions of people disappear. Probably just chalk that up to a massive alien abduction. Then the calamities will come, but I'm sure those "ahead of the curve" will blame at least some of the calamities on global climate change and thank something (don't know what) that those millions of people are gone and not emitting CO2 any more. Some of the rest of the calamities will probably be attributed to the same aliens who abducted the millions who suddenly disappeared. Be careful though when someone wants to put 666 on your hand or forehead - that will probably be your last chance to change your mind on whether you want to be "ahead of the curve." Of course, at that point, it will be easier in a lot of ways just to go with the flow, so it is doubtful those who look at themselves as "ahead of the curve" today will change their minds. Signs of the times.

When the Gov't gravy trains collapse, people will flock back to religions.

So you can imagine no possessions. You just can't bring yourself to follow through.

I understand.

- Tom