I have a question for everybody.

As a Christian that believes in Evolution and also doesn't believe in the entire bible literally, a thought dawned on me that I don't have a full answer for right now.For those of us who believe in God, or whatever Divine Presence but don't believe in the complete inerrancy of our Scripture (Bible, Torah, etc.) just what the heck are we supposed to believe?Think about it: We're sure of a Creator and God, we've been religion hunting/agnostic and have come to the firm conclusion that X religion is the right one. But we don't take all of its scripture literally.
So... what do we belive in about it?And for those who believe in God, but none of the organized religions on this earth, what do you believe about Him/Her/Them?Not really a post for arguement, but I'd really like to have some discussion on this one because I'm clueless.[This message has been edited by Born2Preach, 04-10-2004]

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.

I know Skepticality very well; I tell her she's way too trusting in what people say.I am very skeptical about the idea that we know what our atmosphere was like when the earth was created, and many others. However, I am also a little skeptical about some of the events in the Bible. I believe firmly in a Creator that sent himself as a man to die a human death for our sins, but that's not only from historical evidence but also what I feel inside.God is something you feel, not something you're taught, Helen Keller is a prime example. However Omnipotent God is humans are quite fallible, so I am very skeptical of what a human would claim to know about God or Divine events that happened before his time.If we don't question authority, bad things will happen. I'll see if I can get that video, but in return you read '1984' by George Orwell and 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley to get an understanding of the importance of being skeptical of everything you're told.

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.

Interesting outlook, I'd honestly never thought of being irrelevant to whatever Power is out there watching.Thanks for the input but somehow I've got a feeling that if some Creator created everything, then everything would have at least a small purpose. For example, the life at the bottom of the ocean may not have much to do with organisms on land, but their purpose could be to just flourish under the surface and create something wonderous to be observed, not only by the Creator but by the Creator's creations as well. I know that sounds like something a naturalist hippie would say, but there really is something beautiful about life itself, so why shouldn't it be everywhere?

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.

That's sort of what I have in mind. Whether some of these things happened or not doesn't matter entirely; the message is still there. Jesus taught in parables and though most would agree the exact situations of the parables did not take place, the messages are still taken seriously. So why worry about whether or not Moses did his thing in Egypt; has anyone thought of that part of the Exodus as a metaphor? It sounds a lot like a certain journey I'm going through that every other Christian alive is going though now.

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.

I understand it's just a rhetorical question, but beauty is not something you 'know', is it? It's something you just.. sense. I hope that conveyed the concept properly.But I DO know that I find the universe beautiful in all its savage wonder. And until you find me a space alien that will disagree with me, I will stick to my tentative knowledge of existence and say the universe is beautiful.

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.

"A foul stinch is obviously a protection device from instinct to prevent you from eating things that are going to make you sick."But I'm not talking about percieving ugliness. Percieving beauty and lack thereof can be put close together but not exactly the same.
More on this here..."I'm sure there are a lot of people that don't see what everybody else see's in Brittany Spears"Yeah, obviously. I don't like blondes myself. But we can all see why she and other women are attractive and it's because what we call marks of beauty are, according to instinct, signs of good health and fertility. But sexual attraction is not what I was addressing.Is there any primal benefit from liking the starlit sky? I know no person who thinks a clear night sky is hideous. Even a cloud cover in a lightning storm, though dangerous, is quite beautiful in its own wild way. Sure some people are afraid of thunder, but to see a stillframe of a lighting bolt zigzag across the sky is something I've yet to see addressed as 'ugly'."it's obvious that an alien is not going to have learned that same sense having had different experiences..."Those are big assumptions. How do we know aliens live in noticably different environments? You seem to know a lot about what aliens think. Maybe you could give Elvis my regards?"I mean good God man, haven't you seen pictures of extraterrestrials! They are ghastly beings!"If you mean the stereotyped big-eyed ones, they're not so bad. If I had big eyes and sticky fingertips, the better to gawk and feel the females of the same species. I'd say they've got it good.But if you mean these aliens you keep talking to who have had different experiences and think our universe is ugly, you'll have to show me a picture.

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.

apparently my humor has eluded you as well. My humor thrives on sarcasm, please keep this in mind.

Some friendly pointers on this:"And another story that grabs me is the tower of babble; supposedly it reached to the havens"First off it's Babel, as in Babylon. Not Babble, the babble tower would be a large, vertical soccer mom convention.It never reached the heavens according to scripture, it was actually nowhere near completion when God created different languages to stop the builders from communicating. Personally I think he stopped them so they wouldn't waste materials and because assuming they kept going up, the tower would either go JANGA or they'd parish from the thin air way up to wherever."Well to barrow a quote from a vary good move it is (not)what you have faith in it’s that you have faith Dogma I love that move and recommend everyone to watch it and listen to it "I put that 'not' in assuming you meant to put it there. Anyway, are you sure about that? Is it still okay to have faith in an ink plot?
Some could argue that 'God doesn't exist and the ink plot does so it's better' or some stuff like that, but whatever. 'Faith' is not knowing, but believing. Please keep this in mind.By the way: A name like 'The Pure One' with a picture of a dragon along with the fact that you've replied to me exlusively so far, not to mention the 'unique' spelling, makes it incredibly obvious who you are. Don't think I'll go easy on you, Wolfski.

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.

So the errancy of the words written and rewritten by humans makes you conclude that God doesn't exist?

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Wanna feel God? Step onto the wrestling mat and you'd be crazy to deny the uplifting spirit.