Techniqually, there was not a time before the universe. When this universe was created, time was created as well. (Spacetime)
The thing I hate most about scientists lately, is they don't emphasize the fact that we do not know if there was a time before the universe, and they make it seem that everything they talk about is fact, not theories.
The reasons i do not believe in a god is that more then 2,000 years ago when god first "manifested" himself by sending his son and even earlier then that with the old testament and Judaism; why would he choose to manifest then and no longer after so long. You hear of no burning bush in North Korea where people are being treated a lot worse than the slaves of Egypt. You don't hear of a parting of a sea in Africa; where the racial destruction of people happens on a daily basis. I cannot see how any sentient creature of its right mind could let thousands or millions of people with lives to be lived, be slaughtered and tortured. Like in the holocaust. If god did exist and i knew beyond doubt that he existed, i would never be able to accept him as my god and i would burn in hell before i did.
Extraterrestrial Life I was just wondering what effect finding other intelligent life in the universe would have on the world's religions. The stance that really turns me off about religion, along with many other things, is placing humans at the center. Saying that God created this unimaginably large universe just for us is so childlike in it's understanding. Young children think that everything they see belongs to them, and Christianity takes a page from this youthful misconception. The universe is 14 billion years old. Our planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Humans have been around in our current form for only 200,000 years. We just got here. How arrogant is it to claim that it's all for us, that the whole point of the universe even existing is to test humans' morality on 1 small planet, in 1 galaxy amongst hundreds of billions of other galaxies. Even if intelligent life is not found anytime soon, the sheer vastness of the universe should be enough to humble our species into accepting their meek, yet admirable place in it. So what would happen to Christianity if we made contact with another extraterrestrial civilization on par with, or more advanced than our own. How could religion press on in claiming that we are the reason everything exists? If we find that the universe is teaming with life, can such a self centered religion survive?
Where's my miracle then? Just because you fulfill something doesn't mean heaven can look down upon the scorched earth with indifference.
Wow... I've thought of that maybe exactly lol... I just didn't post because until it does happen, it is still a "What if..." Though I believe there are aliens out there, the universe is too large for just one planet of life.
There is a possibility that space-time is flat. This would make it infinite. That would mean, everything possible, is. There might even be a universe equal too Halo's universe.
want to know something interesting dreaddraco? Inside the event horizon of a black hole where light can no longer escape, time stops. Blackholes can manipulate time through gravity warping it but it doesn't go back words. That would argue for a line. E.G., this is time normally 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... and so on. This is it when you get closer to a black hole 1 2 2.5 3.2 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5. It argues for a liniar structure
Time doesn't stop inside a Black Hole. Gravity manipulates space-time and can distort it. It doesn't stop it.
Before I say anything else, I just want to tell you all that the points in the new religion threads could have easily been made here. But anyway Why do Christians look up to the cross? Sure Jesus may have died to save us, but why constantly look at how he died? It may remind us of why he died, but... when you remember fallen soldiers, do you look at pictures of them smiling or statues of them getting shot? I for one would only like to look at the smiling pictures.
Fear You can't keep the masses under control without fear. Keeping parishioners afraid has been a tool of Christianity since the beginning. They have them paralyzingly scared of going to hell. And what is the only way to avoid going to hell?.......Believe and follow every thing the church says without question. Shoving the image of Jesus's primitive torture/death contraption in their face every time they step into a church helps to instill this fear even further. The cross is simply the past's version of our electric chair or lethal injection table. How such a horrific image came to be such a widespread symbol, found in almost every city in this country, is clear to me. Fear trumps logic and taste. Edit: I totally agree with your statement about spin off god threads. It's just diluting the debate and thinning out the arguments across the boards.
But that's like looking at the gun that killed a soldier. You wanna kinda snap it in half and toss it in a black hole.
You could make a symbolic meaning for anything. But it still was a death contraption back in the day. What if we still had people dying on crosses? Would we look at a cross in church the same way? I just find the "symbolism" to be unnecessary.
Wow, to say something like this you must know little of Christianity, if at all anything. The cross represents what he did for us, and we follow him because of what he did for us. We don't follow the cross, we follow his sacrifice and what that meant. As for the bolded sentence, I honestly don't know how many times I will have to say this for people to finally get it. The only way to avoid going to hell is going to Heaven, which is believing that Christ died on the cross for your sins, to save you from eternal torture, etc. That's IT. Was that so hard?
Like I said, they get you to believe whatever they tell you. In this case they are telling you that a man who lived two millennia ago was implanted into the womb of a virgin woman by the creator of the entire universe and that this man was sent to die in a common death sentence of the day, death by crucifixion, as a way to save all humanity from their evil sinning. Then they tell you that if you don't believe this story you will burn forever in hell. What a choice. Nope. No fear tactics involved in their marketing. I'm just saying....every time you do this: it's as strange as doing this: