Well the bible don't really say much about masturbating. But Lust is one of the seven deadly sins, and marturbation is a product of lust. I mean its not very pleasurable to jerk it to a picture of a 1978 Ford Fairmont.
Agnostic are people skeptical about the existence of God. They do know that something 'up' there exists. They just don't know what it is. The Gnostics believes in God. In fact they believe in one Supreme God. But they also believe in a lesser God whom they think is the creator of this world.
The "what kind of Christian are you" quiz rocks It give you a chance to say "Jesus was gay." Somebody had a sense of humor on this one.
"God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that." - Joseph Campbell I think bible is a metaphorical story trying to get a point across, "The Good News". It is not an unbiased journalistic writing. But that does not mean it lacks historical relevance, or truth. When people get caught up in "don't do this or that", turning the bible into rule book instead of a guide book, it becomes oppressive. Bad things follow... The biggest problem I have with modern Christianity is the idea of living for your "death", not your life. That is why I relate more to Buddhist thought. (heaven is right here and now!)
I'm pretty sure Franklin was a deist. Wait. . . wasn't his picture on the Quaker Oatmeal box? Oh, I give up. BTW, I think George Washington was a deist too.
I think you misunderstand both Christianity and Buddhism. Note the present (not future) tense in this passage: "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life." (1 John 5:11-12) Buddhism (at least the original form), on the other hand, IS about getting out of this life.
Romans 1:18-32 The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth of their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like ortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather that the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the saeway the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sounds like it's a punishment to me. I don't know about you all, but I don't like the thought of being given over to anything.
Wow...I think you might misunderstand Christianity. I could see someone making that claim about Islam...you deny deny deny so you can do whatever you want in heaven...including sex with virgins and the like. Purity isn't so pure in that view, it seems to me. But Christ said the Kingdom of God is HERE! Right now...right here! Eternity begins TODAY. It's about having a relationship with an eternal God. The gift of Jesus Christ makes a difference right now in my life...not just when I pass on.
The point I was trying to make is that most Christians think they are living this life for another. I believe the "Kingdom of God" lies within. I'm not sure what you mean that Buddhism being about "getting out of this life". I don't see it as escaping life, I see it as invading life.
One thing about Homosexuality and the bible. One can say that it is a sin. Fine but Jesus talks about not ranking one sin ahead of the other. Also Jesus says flat out that if one gets married and divorced that they shouldn't marry again. Now many of the fundimentalists that like to slam homosexuality are remarried, themselves. I know of several personally. There isn't a large Christian crusade against people on their second or third marriages. Sadly for whatever reason some people like to highlight certain things and prosecute them with much more vigor than others.
I agree that one sin is not worse than another, but your understanding of the Bible's teaching on divorce and remarriage is incorrect, IMO. Here's what the scriptures teach: This means that if a spouse commits adultery, then the innocent party may put away that spouse and is free to remarry. However, the spouse that committed adultery does not have the Biblical right to remarry. As Christ himself said, adultery (or the more broad sexual immorality) is the only way that a person can divorce and remarry, and in that case only the innocent spouse can do so.
Read what the scriptue says. Whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. I understand about the first quote too, but that wasn't the one I was referring to.
That is correct, if a person marries a divorced person who is not Biblically allowed to remarry, then they are both committing adultery. But if a person marries a divorced person who is Biblically allowed to remarry (ie, their spouse cheated on them, which led to a divorce), then they are not committing adultery.
I understand there are very diverse forms of Buddhism now. Originally (and I believe this is still a mainstream view among many Buddhist denominations), Buddhism teaches that this life and all other reincarnated lives are illusionary. The fact that we have so much pain is because we cannot see that the "reality" as we perceive it is actually empty. So the goal is to get out of these cycles of illusionary existense. That's what I meant when I said Buddhism was about getting out of this life. I don't know what you mean by "invading life." Are you talking about doing good deeds to people?
