To be TOTALLY honest - yes the Christian God is forgiving but he is also a dominant God. Remember Noah's Ark?

Noah's ark.. man, that subject sparks off some very heated debates.

My personal theory about all that was just that it was based upon an actual flood within the middle-eastern area, but was over exaggerated based upon the fact that they hadn't seen or known much beyond their small part of the world..

No, I don't believe Noah managed to get 2 of each animal upon the ark and no, I don't think the Lions ate the Unicorns. biggrin:

Jesus is also an important religious figure in the the 'bible' of the Islam, the Koran. He is mentioned several times. They call him Messiah. They don't consider him to be the saviour though. Just an important prophet. But Mohammed is more important to them. So I think Chritianity came first, before the Islam. Because Mohammed was born after Jesus was.

If Noah's Ark was a true occurance then the Human race would be one huge sickly inbred familly.

And what about Adam and Eve then...literal interpretation of the bible...nah...not a good idea.

Also if the story of Adam and Eve were true, the case would be the same.

I personally like Bill Cosby's version of Noah's Ark though.

Yes, that's true.

I do believe Muslims call Jews and Christians "People of the Book". I'm not sure if they have any other recognition for religions such as Hinduism or Bhuddism. I'm not trying to offend any Muslims here, I just don't know much about the religion, and it's just something I do think I recall reading.

The Adam and Eve story is one of the main reasons I feel it hard to believe any of it.

To be told that we are being punished by God because of their sins and that we all descend from the same two people is just too far fetched for me.

But then if you mention that a Christian will always say it isn't meant to be taken litterally and that it is only a way of expressing other things to us.

If you can say that about one part of the Bible then how can you guarantee any part of it is factual?

Such as the miracles Jesus performed.

I just don't get along with it at all.

If I am to believe in something I'd like it to be believable. You might call that skeptism, but I think I have enough reason for it.

It's not the mircales and such that I look for in religons, but the teaching of those religons.

well guys id like to say thanx this is the longest one of my threads has ever gone without being loct!thanks biggrin:

I consider the Bible to be a guideline. It can be a guideline for non-Christians as well, some stories are really interesting. That's why I think everybody in the West should at least have some basic knowledge about the Bible, since Western culture is in large measure based upon it. Not all stories are true. Miracles of Jesus, well, some might have happened; if something happened in that time that people did not understand, it could easily be described as being a 'miracle'.

There are many useful messages in the Bible though. Like in many books. In this case, the Bible happens to be the book Christianity is based on. Many stories were written down many years after the event happened. Told from father to son. Later translated from Hebrew to other languages. Many 'facts' might have altered because of the oral tradition. Much like the game children play in kindergarten. I think the game is called Telephone?

Nice example of a mistranslation is this:

Catholics say the 'virgin Mary' gave birth to Jesus. But I believe (read it somewhere) the translation of the original text is 'the young woman Mary'. A young woman may be a virgin. But I know of many young women who, well, are not. So I guess some scepticism is in place when reading the Bible. Many Christians and Catholics will not agree with this, even though this particular example were to be true (I am not sure). This is only on example, there are many more (minor ones). Understandable, Hebrew is not the easiest language around...

And since we're starting about the Bible and scepticism and literal interpretation, we might as well broach a habit many people have: Drawing sentences or parts of stories out of its context. By doing this, the Bible has an answer to almost everything, anything, supplying bot arguments and counter-arhuments to support the very same opinion. Help!

I think the bible has really changed since it was first created. IT was changed to fit into everyday life even though it is not supposed to do that. And I am typing this while listenign to Dead Kennedys - Jesus was a terrorist lol...

I wouldnt consider being derived from two differnt human beings incorrect. If you think about our chances of being here against the chances of us not.... Things worked out in man's favor. Humans (or what eventually became humans) was nothing but a single celled organism, and if you trace it back farther just a pool of genes that mutated into humans. But the chances of adam and eve being right... Not very good at all.

Timeline
Jesus Birth
Jesus spreading the "word of god"
Jesus's death
Muhammed finds religion and reads the bible and old testement
Muhammed forms Islam
People think hes crazy
After muhammeds death Islam becomes popular in the Middle east and regions of africa above the Sahara

No dates but that is right

aww what the hell I always kill the good topics.... cry:

I will use my supernatural powers to make this thread...REVIVED!