Lewis_is_java wrote:
MsRevine wrote:
Studio Banter wrote:
I don't know what to consider myself having read The Old Testament, the 4 Gospels and the Tao te Ching; but I don't believe that a God, in the Christianity viewpoint, would let a bunch of poets create scriptures which the Catholic Church claim as the word of God. Thoughts on the Bible?
I don't have specific thoughts on the Bible, I just think the old and the new testament combined, can teach a person a lot. And that is good. Being faithful has never wronged me. It doesnt harm me or my surroundings, so why not?
Also, God has given free will to people, and the Bible also states that there are negative/evil forces in the world (for example, the devil, demons...), and those influence a person too.
I have always struggled with faith as I wonder if there is a god why allow the things that happen to happen, people say that oh for their to be good there must also be bad for us to know the difference but somethings just are just too much for me to ever beleive that there is a god especially one worth following, I see the belief in evil spiritis to be a way for someone too not take account for their own actions I.e ohh I did a bad thing must be the devil, time to go confession and it never happened
I agree with you.
A lot of people who have faith/are religious abuse the whole idea of repenting. Personally when I am at Hungary, I visit the church, and it feels like people put on a mask, as if it was a competition - who is the most holy, who is the "cleanest" person... and that's fucked up.
Also, horrible things happen, and I do believe that some of them happen because of people's free will, and some because of the evil entities.
For example, if a person decides to steal - it is out of their free will. They might have been influenced by the evil, but as a faithful person they should've known better I suppose.
Now, if a family has a lot of struggles and bad things happening to them, it can be because of the evil forces, but it can also be sort of a "punishment" for past actions (altough it is believed that God is forgiving). Life is complicated, but we learn as we go on, and experience different things.
(this isn't exactly perfect, this topic is extremely complicated, but I hope its understandable to you somewhat).