I have not yet decided if DarkMagician exists or not. Both sides have good arguments, but there's just no convincing proof.
I've never heard anyone seriously argue or present evidence that Jesus did not exist. That's like trying to claim that the pyramids were built by aliens, or that Napoleon was actually a cleverly designed cyborg puppet, or that Julius Ceaser never existed. Our understanding of history is limited to the accounts of the ancients, which are certainly not 100% factual but are our only view of the past.
The only question in the air is whether or not he was really the Son of God, not whether or not he was a real person.
You know, I WOULD go on vacation when you start talking about the Passion.
Darn work-at-home aunt.
Anyway...
I don't have much to add...I haven't gotten to see it yet. However, I am going to go. I plan on it, and if I have to buy junk tickets to see it at the dollar cinima here, I'm still gonna do it. Blood and gore aside, I happen to like highly emotional movies, as opposed to shoot-and-kill movies, and I do know that the Passion is going to be very emotional for me. (I almost said gory movies, but I realized that very few people would get the distinction)
My relationship with Christ is deeply personal. Every easter, I imagine what he went through. I break down and cry. And I thank God that there was a good ending to it.
As far as "expression-of-faith" goes...
If you get ticked by one Christian saying that they're right and you are wrong, think of it this way.
My book says that there is only one way. This means that either your books are wrong or my book is wrong. There is no way to tell which is right until it's too late. And according to my book, there's no way to cover the bases. You either are or you're not.
I choose to believe that my book is right. This may be seen as intolerant by some people. However, I have this lovely image, courtisy of my overactive imagination, of me standing at the "pearly gates" and a non-christian being dragged off to Hell, and hearing my own voice saying "Oh, well. I guess you were wrong after all."
This is something I cannot do. I happen to love people too much.
Yes, a few crazy people screwed the religion up. A few more made the orders and screwed with enough minds to kill millions. Personally, I believe there is a special place in hell...or purgatory...for those morons.
"Remember that the definition of an adventure is someone else having a hell of a hard time a thousand miles away."
--Abbykat, NaNoWriMo participant '04
Coloring tutorial It's a little like coloring boot camp. Without the boots.
I choose to believe that my book is right. This may be seen as intolerant by some people. However, I have this lovely image, courtisy of my overactive imagination, of me standing at the "pearly gates" and a non-christian being dragged off to Hell, and hearing my own voice saying "Oh, well. I guess you were wrong after all."
I dunno. I like to think that it dosn't matter what religion you are, as long as you are a good person God will let you into heaven. I mean, if you were born and raised to belive something than chances are, your gonna believe it. And you're not gonna change what you believe on someone elces say-so. If you did that than you couldn't have had too much faith in your first religion to begin with. So whats to say that it's gonna be any different after you converted. I think its better to have true faith in something, than to just go along with what other people say because you're afraid to be wrong.
Of course. That's why I don't evangelise in here. I know that nobody will be listening and everybody would be flaming.
However, when I read "I am the way, the truth and the life no one gets to the Father except through Me" and other verses like it, I start praying for my friends that they figure it out some day...and that God will give me a chance to talk to them about it...because I can't take the chance that they might go to hell because I kept my mouth shut.
And if that offends you...well, this time I'm NOT sorry.
CW
"Remember that the definition of an adventure is someone else having a hell of a hard time a thousand miles away."
--Abbykat, NaNoWriMo participant '04
Coloring tutorial It's a little like coloring boot camp. Without the boots.
*resists urge to quote Old Testament*
*stuffs mouth with cookies*
As far as mistranslations go, though, it's really hard to put stock in a book that was originally written in a language that, for the most part, exists only in the form of the Bible. The New Testament is obviously a different story--the Gospels are written in a language we know really well, and haven't undergone too much translation--but as far as the Old Testament is concerned, I've studied too many languages to read any translation of it without near-total skepticism. People translate something like the Bible with a clear agenda, so their translation is naturally going to be biased towards the meaning they want to read into it, as opposed to the meaning that might have originally been intended, and it's way too long to give a word-for-word interlinear translation to the public to read without driving them even more insane. Even the English versions of the New Testament are complete butcherings of the Attic Greek. Hell, the Gothic translation of the Bible is better than most English versions, and the guy that wrote that down had to invent his own alphabet! I guess what I'm saying is, even if you believe the Bible is the word of God, there's no way to tell what those words actually mean with any degree of accuracy in the first place.
In conclusion, I give you the following:
"In the beginning there was the ratio; and the ratio was in proportion to God" is, linguistically speaking, a perfectly acceptable Bible verse.
'Nuff said.
<KensouX> DEVO-Bot spouts out the mad phrases, tweekin' your brain harder than 35 cocaine cases.
Well since we are slipping back into religion instead of the movie, these are my personal beliefs:
Well, I believe no matter who you are, what you've done, or what you believe in, you will EVENTUALLY go to Heaven. If someone were to be banished to Hell for all eternity, then that would go against the FACT (stated in the bible that is, blah blah blah) that God is All Forgiving. If God is not all forgiving, then he contradicts himself, if perfectness contradicts itself, it ceases to exist. I know SOMETHING exists because I cannot deny my own existance because someone has to be there to deny it....ANYWAY if you are say Hilter for example, you will go to Heaven, but only after answering for your crimes in Purgatory (ah good old Purgatory, who could forget you?).
Being Roman Catholic, this isn't exactly what the Pope preaches, but I think this is how you can look at it.
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson
I was talking to friends about possible titles for The Passion of the Christ II, the inevitable sequel. Some of my favorites included:
The Passion of the Christ II:
- The Son Also Rises
- The Return of the King
- Judgment Day
- Dead by Dawn
- Crucified in 60 Seconds
- Die Hard with a Vengeance
And it got to the point that I thought of using my mad photoshop skillz to make some movie posters out of these. My proposals were as follows:
The Passion of the Christ II:
- The World is Not Enough
- The Mummy Returns
- Jesus and the Last Crusade
- Back in the Habit
- Jesus, Dead and Loving it
- Look Who
dark magician claims to be god. but i think the goobla has too. and yarps claims to at least be a mini-god (whether that means he is a god of small cars, or short skirts, i am not sure). do any of you guys have a son who kicked around jerusalem about 2000 years ago by the name of jesus?
Magellan ... super hero cadets - their worst enemy is themselves! Loxie and Zoot ... cos nudists have adventures too y'know!
I personally am not religious, and I do not ever see myself becoming religious. But I have a lot of respect for people with faith. As long as they can listen to me and respect my beliefs in turn, without trying to pressure me into believing they're the only possible "right" way, it's all dandy. Really, if they don't like me talking about the atheist way being the only way, why would they think I'd want to hear them speak the same of their religion?
Nowadays a lot of religious people, Christians mostly, are appearing too fanatical for my tastes, which makes it really hard to try and talk to any.
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