Okay, this is going to be the hardest post for me to write...but I need to say it. When I first was led to this Forum by some very kind hearted and caring women who saw me getting "hammered" on that "other" Senior Forum and invited me here I never knew I would find not only a Forum home for me...but a place where I would once again end up questioning the faith and belief that had become such a solid "rock" in my life. The one God of the Bible had long ago convinced me that He was real and that His promises in His Word the Bible were true and never changing. But then I walked into a place where everything I believed...was not believed by others. At first I absolutely did not believe that people our age not only did not believe in the same God or the Bible that I believed in...but had the "conviction" to say they didn't...just as I had the conviction to say I did believe. From the younger generation I could "understand" this...but not from people my age. I could have left this Forum at the first "words" of different belief's..especially the "Big Bang" theory believers or those who believe "nothing at all." And I think the reason I didn't leave is because even though we didn't agree on one God and one Truth...most people on here respected what I believed...even though I wanted to "shout" at them...and sometimes did at their non-belief. I stayed and I am so thankful that I did. There are so many that shy away from sharing their beliefs...maybe because they feel they will get "hammered" by those who don't share their beliefs too but I hope it's because like I have learned we can respect other's beliefs even if we don't share them. What I have learned here is that what I believe hasn't changed at all...though at times I had to take a break and reexamine some of my beliefs to be fair to myself and everyone else. In the end...I still believe there is only one God and one Truth written in the Bible. But I have learned to respect others beliefs too. In the end I know there can be only one real Truth and I hope we all end our journey on this earth there. Because in my belief I really would love to see all of you in Heaven and in the Mansions the Jesus who is the forgiver of our sins is right now building for all of us. Do I think my beliefs are better than yours...not anymore...but I do believe and want us to all end up in the same place. The place I believe we end up in after our earthly life is Heaven....where is yours?
On my mother’s side, Native American, I was taught there were many roads and languages that led to the Creator. On the other end of that spectrum, my father’s Christian side taught that there was only one way, and one language. So I am somewhere in between the two, and I see this as a good thing. My maternal grandmother reminded me that we had no written bible, and only until recently, did we acquire a written language. This was important to understand, because the Creator must reflect the earth and all it’s living creations needs at the present time of those needs. I ended up hating my father’s “fire and brimstone “ way of belief. What I eventually understood from him was that many can have totally different understandings of the same belief. I don’t think I’ve ever met two Christians that have had the same understanding of what a Christian is. Many years ago, I started to read the basics of as many beliefs as I could find, and I found more similarities than differences I thought.
There has been so much conflict over the years that has been caused by religion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war#Christianity Certainly in the UK, religion has been used to keep the serfs in their place and to promote those who declared God to have chosen them to rule. Certainly in America there are people who claim to have spoken to, and been told they are the prophet of, God. Interestingly, these prophets advocate polygamy and subjugate women. Now we have Christians against Muslims, each of them declaring their God is the true God. What a load of hogwash! I simply can't bring myself to believe anything other than religion has been used by man to control humankind from the outset; no more, no less. Now, if you want to talk about spirituality......................
We believe in God and his son Jesus Christ. We pray often, but not in public (our choice). There is only one person in my life that has got me closer to God and that is my wife. That's it.
For me 'religion' should have been a lot simpler, giving guidance and that's it I do believe this world was created, its too perfect not to be Life is hard - so many challenges, but for those of us that do see the beauty, it is a blessing not to be ignored
Well-spoken, @Patsy Faye , and my beliefs are probably fairly close to that in many respects. As you say, this world is to perfect in every way, to have just fallen into place haphazardly. As @Jeff Fogey mentioned, sadly the Bible and other religious books have always been used to control people’s lives and also to dictate what they should believe. I blindly followed what I had learned in Sunday School and church , pretty much unquestioningly , for most of my life. When something didn’t make sense to me, I just accepted that it was something that I was not able to grasp the meaning of, not that what was originally said had been re-written and re-translated enough that it no longer meant what God was trying to say to us. Now, I guess I am what is called a “fringe Christian”, in that I no longer just accept what I have been told all of my life, and I am studying to understand God better. As I read, if I can see where I had a wrong idea, then I am willing to change what I believe ;because what is important to me is the finding of truth, and a better understanding of God, and not that I cling to the ideas and rituals that I was brought up believing in. I believe in a young earth, divinely created, and not in the millions of years old earth that science tells us that it is. They have found bones of what we call dinosaurs that still had some flesh on them, so they were obviously not millions of years old, and I think that men and dinosaurs lived together on this earth at one time. I am still reading and learning, and I also at this time think that there is reason to believe that not only have we been lied to about the age of this earth; but possibly even the shape of it. If a person accepts the Bible literally, then it definitely points to a flat earth, enclosed by a dome, and there are more and more people who are now looking at this possibility. All of the ancient people had just about the same viewpoint of the earth, regardless of what part of the world they were from, and they also had the story of the worldwide flood.
We were watching a programme recently on pyramids throughout this world In one, was carvings of dinosaurs - amazing to see I agree these animals walked with us
Look up the Fibonacci sequence and follow the links to see how perfectly aligned this world really is.
I believe faith and religion is simple Patsy...it is mankind that has changed or added to the simplicity and made it so "screwed" up that many people don't want to have anything to do with it now.
I would like to talk about what spirituality is as defined by you and what it means to your life @Jeff Fogey
I thought about the title of this thread over night, and I realized that being on this forum has allowed me to, “come out of the closet”, concerning what my beliefs are. I’ve always been surrounded by those that tried to convert me one way or the other, or they wanted me to know I was going to hell for having my beliefs. This forum has giving me the space to view things from many perspectives, and has helped me to solidify just what I do believe. Other than my husband, @Yvonne Smith was the first to not condemn me, but to help me except the expansions of my personal beliefs. She also led me here, where I feel I’ve found a second home. So I feel I’ve had to opportunity to heal, and learn about who I really am here amongst friends.
Because I wanted to speak honestly without offending anyone and with the hope that others would want to post in response. Talking about faith and having others share their opinions is important to me yet I have learned that how you say things will often end up leading to no discussion at all and I didn't want that to happen.
My faith in God is strong, although I don't always have the spiritual strength to live my faith. I have a good idea as to what I believe about God but I don't often get involved in doctrinal disputes because I realize that knowledgeable and sincere men of God can nevertheless differ on many of these issues. I don't know that anyone sets up to establish a doctrine based on anything other than the Word of God, but I think that sometimes our understanding of the Bible might differ. If so, we can't both be right so at least one of us has to be wrong, and I have a hard time believing that God is going to punish us for not getting everything right. I also think that, among all of the Christian churches, some of the differences are based on honest misunderstandings of the Bible or on unintentional man-made doctrine. For example, I was once a member of a church that believed that instrumental music in the worship service was wrong. That didn't bother me because there's nothing so wrong with a cappella, but neither did I see that this was something mandated by God. I can't see that as a salvational issue either way. That's why it might seem like I think pretty much everything is okay sometimes. Often, I know what I believe my obligations are but I'm not so sure that I'm right and you're wrong. I don't believe that the Bible gives me all of the answers. At least not clearly, as there often seems to be room for a substantial margin of error. I am sure that the Bible gives the answers to the questions that matter, but He also gave us a mind that wants to have all of the answers. Given that we want to have all of the answers, we have a tendency to fill in the blanks with whatever makes sense to us, and sometimes we call it doctrine. People have been burned at the stake for filling the blanks in differently than someone else.