i'm not trying to pigeonhole Muslims - it's just rather hard from my perspective to refrain from doing so. Islam appears to me as an extremely fractured religion: how can two completely separate entities (the peace-loving and the jihad-wannabes) coexist under the same umbrella of Islam legitimately? i'm of the opinion that they can't, but the sheer number of so-called extremist converts apparently proves me wrong. these religious leaders/jihad-mongers amaze me: they preach extracts of the Qoran applicable to their movements and successfully coerce masses into thinking its the gospel truth (pardon the irony). Islam is the only religion i can think of which can be abused to such an extent; it's been spread out so thin that there isn't room for moderation: you're either religiously extreme or you're peace loving.
Christianity isn't exempt from criticism either. in fact, it's one helluva gigantic conundrum:
- Christianity is the amalgam of the Gospel and the practice of Sun-worship, combined by the roman emperor Constantine (ooh, the irony) for reasons of having a common faith amongst the peoples of his empire (they were largely sun-worshippers but Christianity was up-and-coming).
- We church on sundays even though the Sabbath is a saturday. The calendar of days that we use is in itself a product of pagan thought (monday is moon-day, tuesday is thor's-day, and so on), and therefore is in defiance of Christian anti-pagan sentiment.
- Christ wasn't crucified on a friday; scholars can't be sure what day it really was either. And even if he was crucified on a friday, it goes against his own prophecy that he would be entombed for 3 days and nights. do the math, and what you have is a grand total of roughly 36 hours before he was discovered 'risen'. to quote a californian academic journal, "If someone deliberately shortchanged you like that at the supermarket, you could have them arrested".
- Our bibles are selectively compiled by the roman catholic church, and exclude books such as the 'secret' Gospel of Mark, which was deemed detrimental to the church's movement.
- Even in the bibles that we hold today, chapters of the New Testament are in blatant contrast to each other, but we either don't notice it... or in the case of scholars of the faith, simply choose to ignore it. take Jesus' last words, for example: in Matthew and Mark its "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?", while in John it's simply "It is finished." and while googling the day of Jesus's death, here's what i found: "in the grand scheme of things, it is not all that important to know what day of the week Christ was crucified. If it was very important then God's Word would have clearly communicated the day. What is important is that He did die, and that He physically, bodily rose from the dead. What is equally important is the reason He died - to take the punishment that all sinners deserve. John 3:16 and 3:36 both proclaim that believing, or putting your trust, in Him results in eternal life!"
not exactly very inspiring, is it?
just some stuff to think about. there's plenty more up my sleeve, but it's a lazy sunday afternoon.
have a nice day ahead, folks.
10 comments:
Never. Trust. Religon.
That's my point of view anyway.
are you christian? hahaha.
yeah, i am. which makes the topic all the more entrancing to me.
i must admit i'm hardly the best one around though. and from the heineken murals all around, i guess that's kinda obvious. -laughs-
islamic fundamentalists cannot be condoned certainly. however a there is a more insidious threat which has been allowed to continue subtly and in a manner which withholds information to the public
have you noticed how CNN and even BBC only broadcast the killing of innocent Isrealis? what about the thousands and thousands of palestinians killed in collateral? CONVENIENTLY overlooked by mass media controlled by the USA. were there nuclear weapons in Iraq? NO? then why the fuck was the US allowed to mercilessly kill thousands for a war which had absolutely no objective whatsoever? while all the other countries in the world stood by pretending not to notice or help prevent such a war.
seriously, don't blame islamic fundamentalists (not entirely anyway). they do what they do out of pure desperation rather than malice. moreover, they represent but a small fraction of the islamic community as a whole.
yes, people may ask me to tell that to the people killed in the bali bombings. but i will ask them to tell the families of thousands of middle easterners killed by the US and other foreign nations that they were justifiably massacred by the armies. so fuck that
just like palestinian suicide bombers blowing up themselves. they sure as hell don't do it for fun. they do it because they have no more use to live at a border where they are going to die sooner or later (usually sooner) anyway.
haha jus my two cents worth. i get worked up by these things.
jus like how damned NS has taken my vacation away! assholes.
haha looking good btw. catcha round the void deck soon eh you.
indeed an effortless display of knowledge from the neighbour. haha. yeah, thats quite a good point man.
that's the sweet spot about the star spangled banner, innit - ranging from worldly issues (selective ignorance of hard fact in favour of the 'good guys', as mentioned above) all the way down to their own suburbs; have you even tried counting just how many supposed black male suspects there are around?
haha. good luck trying to run from the long arms of the law, policeman.
well now ynoe why im not exactly a fan of christianity. its sucha juxtaposition it hurts.
so you can either believe in the bible and go to church every sunday to be enlightened on what's in it even tho mostly everything in there is a lie and contradicts itself,. (like burning the pagans but the religion itself being half-pagan) or you can believe in a God that isn't sure of what He is.
of course, tehre's also how tons of books were eliminated from being in the bible, or how everything was air-brushed to look the way it is today, or the mistakes made during the translation of the bible from one language to another (Mary isnt a Virgin.. twas a word in her name that got messed up during the translation and she was sposed to be smth else, i cant remember what tho.. but a careless mistake during the translating made her a Virgin), or how tehre' so many variations of the bible that is open to so many forms of interpretation..
the most delicious part is that it can never be rectified since we're sposed to trust the words of the bible, and besides, it would be sacrilege to think that we were even qualified to edit the bible as we werent THERE (so to speak) to witness the happenings and all.
so all you gotta have is Faith, and one must wonder if this faith is misplaced. a friend ocne told me that he didnt know all the answers to why the bible and God were they way they were, but he said that all he had was faith, and faith defies logic. and we're talking about a guy who used to be anti-christian and question the religion in every way he could.
as an author once said, "youth is naive and faith is blind."
i've been doing and will do what Darth has said: Never trust religion. (perhaps the lessons it teaches but never the stories they weave)
YO WONG!
Haha, trust you to open up a topic such as this.
Anyway, dun really know much about all this, but let try to explain some points....
3 days and 3 nights... seems like the calendar is messed up and all right? Well, if you subscribe to the THEORY that he was in the tomb for 36 hours, mind you it's a theory cos it was definitely not explicitly written in the bible anywhere in the 4 gospels that he was in the tomb for 36 hours. Well, for one, he didn't die on good friday and rise on easter sunday. That's just men trying to get a long weekend out of this. Well, what if i said, Jesus died, was buried, then TWO sabbaths passed, and he rose on the morning of the 4th day, making it exacly 3 days and 3 nights? Well ,according to the original greek version of Matthew, it was said 2 sabbaths, one the weekly sabbath and the other the annual one pased. believe the argument?
About Constantine and pagan worship, well, the dude just converted to Christianity from pagan worship.Some of the things he implemented might have tended to pagan worship at the beginning, but he was still learning wat Christianity was! Progressive la... but wat the heck. If he's supposed to be perfect, than there would be the holy quadrinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit and erm... Constantine.
And about the Sabbath thing... it's a long story that goes back to ten commandments, guidelines etc., no point for me saying out.
As you can see, when it comes to religion, or in this case, Christianity, we can argue our side until the world ends. Being fair, both parties will never be able to convince each other with words and facts alone. Which is true that, do these facts really matter? Yup, it might matter for arguing and debating purpose. But as i have explained a few so-called controversies above, are you convinced? Though it makes sense, i doubt so. It's always tendency to support and argue your original believes.. =)
That's the problem i guess. Pple tend to look at Christians and judge what God is like. Well, if christians are supposed to be perfect in the first place, why the heck do we need God?
And instead of reading websites on "christianity and its false teachings", "Jesus the liar" etc., have you tried reading the bible by itself? And if it means nothing, have you ever asked the meaning of it, not with a mind bent on contradicting it, but trying to accept the truths?
And then you'll ask, wat the heck, i'm leading my life the way i want it... even if God exists, so wat? We'll just leave each other be. Well... if you really think of it this way, then isn't it making the matter to be really shallow? That sorts of qualifies all the facts mentioned in the blog that makes God a fake, an excuse to ignore a higher power... agree with me? both answers to the question will only prove my point. There's really more to Christianity than the old grumpy "so-called" Christian auntie who hates your guts and to go to church every Sunday cos that's the norm for Christians.
Haha, anyway, just my 2 cents man. Sure, in a worldly sense, faith is blind. Even if you can't be bothered, do yourself a favour and find out more about the truths of the bible, and i think you'll understand what i mean when i say "It takes more faith to not believe in Jesus than it does to believe in Him".
lol. i'm surprised you never knew that i read the bible religiously every night during cadet course, woon; i daresay i pretty much finished the new testament as it is.
sabbath wise, i do believe that its either-or: it was either the annual sabbath (because of some festival of whatnot, i cant rem), or the normal sabbath. they weren't mutually inclusive sabbath occasions.
three days and nights is a direct prophecy Christ made. can dig this up but the house is kinda dark right now to read.
Constantine's conversion to Christianity is debatable. some claim it to simply be out of faith; some say it's just because he believed the Christian God helped him once in battle (from then on he adopted painting crosses on his shields); and some even claim proof that the religion was forced upon him only at his deathbed.
dont be silly la, i dont go around reading websites that diss Christianity. i'd much rather play dota. i dont dispute that God exists, and i don't shy from the fact that i'm Christian; however, i do think it's foolish to know that there's discrepancies and selectively choose to ignore them in favour of blind faith. because blind faith is just that: blind.
haha.yup, point taken that you should not ignore discrepencies. I don't. I usually go find out until i'm convinced. faith goes with truth.
nah, and i think faith and blind are mutually exclusive. Kindof overused by pple that they become a single term.
and yes, i know you read the bible every night. What, you think i actually could sleep with the lights on and all?
Wow...in my honest 2 cents worth opinion, the fact that Lazy wong actually gives a shit abt these discrepencies abt God, the bible bla bla bla...it's pretty miraculous by itself.
I guess in a world where everyone has a mind of his/her own,it's hard to prevent facts from being distorted thru time isn't it? look at the course of history.
More often than not, we don't get all e facts, and plus the individual differences, i think it's only normal. After all, whats most impt is we all can't deny that God doesn't exist.
Oh, and abt the lights being left on, i guess willard's the only who slept with the lights on all e time since all of us do read the bible before we slp at one pt or another.
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