Power of Prayer?

[DavyR]

Taking The Mikado again, eh?

[chesters1]

my biggest fun was banning the uni departments christmas tree because of its lights ,nothing actually lawful in them as they are supposed to be double insulated but bulbs ofcourse are not and in a public place even more dodgy .i switched them off removed the plug and put hazard tape around it and a do not use sign on it.

within minutes of getting back to the office the department heads arse sucker demanded "it was fixed"

 

i say things like "when is this swine flu going to clear up" in supermarkets ,great fun

i have also found scuffling my feet in my new shoes makes a very loud squeak on sainsburys floor.i shuffle til i'm punched by my mrs

 

i got a verbal warning for using the word s.h.it in an email describing the pay when asking for a raise ,not that funny but a reworked one a week later got a result

Edited August 13, 2009 by chesters1

[kleinboet]

I see we are back to the OT again (some 80% of Israelis are NOT Christians, but Jewish!)

[gozzer]

I'm an atheiast, and as such I try to avoid religious 'debates' unless they're forced on me.

 

I do get puzzled at what an individual or group actually believe is the 'true' religion.

 

I keep hearing talk of "the Christian religion", but as it's been said there are so many branches of Christianity each with their own way of looking at things, and often seeing other branches as not true, or 'sub beliefs' compared to their own.

 

I did a bit of googling and came up with this link.

 

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_defn1.htm

 

 

But it is probably impossible to have any large group of adults reach a consensus on precisely who is a "Christian," and who is not.

 

There are on the order of 1,500 denominations, para-church organizations, and other groups in the U.S. who consider themselves to be Christian. 1 Added to this are thousands of independent Christian congregations which are not affiliated with a denomination. They all trace their faith tradition back through many schisms to Jesus and the twelve disciples. But they use many different paths to link back to Jesus.

 

Around 1,500 denominations in the US alone! All with the same 'roots' but a different interpretation on the same info'.

Each convinced that 'their way is the right way'.

 

I believe that most other major 'religions' have similar offshoots, so it seems a case of a 'flooded market', with too many choices for those with a 'need' to buy into.

 

I can understand how some people 'need' a faith, something to 'believe in', either to try and make some sense of their existence, or to try and get some perceived 'comfort' in bad times.

I can't for the life of me understand why, if their belief/faith is indeed absolute, they should feel the need to defend it with such vigour. If they're so confident in their belief, then surely it should not need any defending.

 

John.

Edited August 13, 2009 by gozzer

[Worms]

I see we are back to the OT again (some 80% of Israelis are NOT Christians, but Jewish!)

KB you seem adamant that anyone referring to the OT is not referring to the christian religion.

Just a quick Google for Church of England and Old testament threw this up from http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/texts/OT.htm

Protestant Christians recognize only the books of the Old Testament that were included in the Jewish Bible, while Catholic and Orthodox Christians include several more books, known as the "Apocrypha" as part of the canonical Old Testament. The Apocrypha is discussed in the next article.

 

The total number of books in the Hebrew canon is 24, the number of scrolls on which these works were written in ancient times. The Christian Old Testament contains a larger number of books for two main reasons. The Catholic canon, which was based on the Greek-language Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, absorbed a number of books that Jews and Protestants later determined were not canonical; and Christians divided some of the original Hebrew works into two or more parts, specifically, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles (two parts each), Ezra-Nehemiah (two separate books), and the Minor Prophets (12 separate books).

 

The books of the Old Testament that all Christians agree on are:

 

LAW/PENTATEUCH:

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

 

WISDOM/POETRY:

Job

Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Songs

 

MAJOR PROPHETS:

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

 

MINOR PROPHETS:

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi

 

HISTORY:

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1, 2 Samuel

1, 2 Kings

1, 2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

 

So it would appear that the Old testament (or at least cherry-picked bits of it) is relevant to Christianity!

[corydoras]

Old testament, New Testament makes very little difference to me. Both are riddled with contradictions, false hope, and broken promises.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/chri...cer-with-prayer

 

If you KNOW your God is real, why do you need faith?

[Worms]

Old testament, New Testament makes very little difference to me. Both are riddled with contradictions, false hope, and broken promises.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/chri...cer-with-prayer

 

If you KNOW your God is real, why do you need faith?

And if you have faith why do you need a god?

[corydoras]

KB you seem adamant that anyone referring to the OT is not referring to the christian religion.

Just a quick Google for Church of England and Old testament threw this up from http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/texts/OT.htm

 

 

So it would appear that the Old testament (or at least cherry-picked bits of it) is relevant to Christianity!

 

Matthew 5

(Verse 17)'Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil.

(Verse 18)For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

(Verse 19)Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Edited August 13, 2009 by corydoras

[chesters1]

I'm an atheiast, and as such I try to avoid religious 'debates' unless they're forced on me.

 

I do get puzzled at what an individual or group actually believe is the 'true' religion.

 

I keep hearing talk of "the Christian religion", but as it's been said there are so many branches of Christianity each with their own way of looking at things, and often seeing other branches as not true, or 'sub beliefs' compared to their own.

 

I did a bit of googling and came up with this link.

 

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_defn1.htm

 

 

 

 

Around 1,500 denominations in the US alone! All with the same 'roots' but a different interpretation on the same info'.

Each convinced that 'their way is the right way'.

 

I believe that most other major 'religions' have similar offshoots, so it seems a case of a 'flooded market', with too many choices for those with a 'need' to buy into.

 

I can understand how some people 'need' a faith, something to 'believe in', either to try and make some sense of their existence, or to try and get some perceived 'comfort' in bad times.

I can't for the life of me understand why, if their belief/faith is indeed absolute, they should feel the need to defend it with such vigour. If they're so confident in their belief, then surely it should not need any defending.

 

John.

 

why does an omnipotent god need a man in a dress to speak for it and to defend it?

 

 

not sure why this bit came up :

 

"I see we are back to the OT again (some 80% of Israelis are NOT Christians, but Jewish!) "

 

yes your probably right but arnt christians and moslems a bit jewish seeing as the roots are the same ,theres little different in the two latter faiths only the christians have stopped the more barbaric practices preferring to use technology to throwing stones and throat cutting ,now to get rid of circumcision and all the barbaric bits of the bronze age have gone.

 

one of my old employers was jewish turned buddist (his mother was hardline jewish and not nice with it) anyway he informed me he had bought a "shrine" (its infact a pretty "cupboard" a scroll sits in) from japan.

on its arrival i dragged the laege box it was in into the living room where it was going to reside ,i inscrewed it and a fine bit of work it was .he went on about the japanese link (Buddhism isnt gardening related in surrey as far as i know) so i asked him if it were japanese and not say american did it get better reception (tongue in cheek) he got a tad upset .

he used this bit of wood very often and him and his mrs did their chanting (the poison dwarf mother returned to the states) but i often wondered if actually doing something would have worked better ?

he didnt do to well here in his film producer roll so went back to the states but trying to take a full jerry can of petrol in the container (kindly donated to my landy by the packers of the container) showed perhaps his roots were still firmly in his mums beliefs

Edited August 13, 2009 by chesters1

[corydoras]

why does an omnipotent god need a man in a dress to speak for it and to defend it?

I always thought that omnipotent bit was a typo