I do think it's horrible how so many people took religion so damn serious that they would kill others who disagreed with them, some still do that. It's absolutely brainless.

 

 

But as Penguin said, science has harmed humanity, in my opinion in a huge way.

Did science not invent any rather complex weapon, starting from a sword to a nuclear bomb ? Albert Einstein, one of the most important scientists to modern physics due to his theory of relativity, was part of the team that invented and designed the nuclear bomb.

Weapons such as guns and especially bombs have killed millions and millions, and it's very likely that humanity will sc**** itself of the earth should it ever come to a nuclear war.

Might as well get the flames going because once a few people see this... it's all the thread will amount to.

 

Qwesty, there is much debate regarding the canonical gospels. For instance, the gospel of John has been deeply debated. It's authoriship is still unknown. However, it's universally accepted that John the Apostle wasn't the author. That is why it is the most comprehensive gospel. It's been revised multiple times over the years. It takes from all of the gospels and ties the stories together. Without the Gospel of John, the 3 other gospels contradict each other to some degree.

 

Also, the original Bible on had 3 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). In the 2nd Century, the Book of John was added in an attempt to create "Gospel Harmony". That's when the discepancies started to emerge. It's the equivilent of you and I tring to tell the same story, but they sound different. The stories should be the same, yet perspective is different.

 

 

 

Very true. I wouldn't call it debating, but rather enlightenment. There are a lot of people in this world that are Christian, but do not know or understand the origins and history of Christianity. It is very complex to digest. Furhtermore, there are many working peices. Doesn't make it wrong. However, most people that speak against Christianity are looking for something simple. Christianity is anything but simple. However, it Christianity's complexity that makes it a powerful religion.

 

The issues are that there are dozens of authors to the Bible. Therefore, there are multiple acounts of what actually occurred. Also, the Church of England screwed things up when the royalty thought they were decendants of Jesus and thus they can come up with their own interpretation of the Bible (i.e. King James Bible). Furthermore, the Counsil of Trent, in 1546, canonized the current version of the Catholic Bible. A lot was added to the Bible at this time. Of course, this is an oversimplification to the reason why Christianity is heavily debated, but these type of actions have added to the debate.

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Again, the Epistles are also a much discussed subject. The authorship of the Johannine works are still getting parsed, with some understanding and still a lot of undiscovered history.

 

As I understand it, they were written by John the Evangelist. Since the writtings are all different in writting style, however, there are schools of thought that suggest that the Gospel, 1-3 John, and Revelations were all authored separately. Some churches believe that John did not author any of the books. It doesn't change their importance though.

 

I wasn't trying to provide opinion in my previous posts. The Gospel of John is a tough one since there isn't clarity as to who "John" is that wrote the Gospel. The description of the author is "the disciple whom Jesus loved". In the 2nd Century it was widely believed that it was John the Apostle. Therefore, the Gospel was according to John. However, as I mentioned before, the Johannine works are still studied and discussed, without clear concensus. i.e., the Roman Catholic Church believes that the works were authored by one person, other churches believe that there were many authors.

 

If you want my opinion, the Gospel of John is the most complete Gospel. By this I mean, the most polished and spiritual.

 

And for the record, I spent a lot of time during my undergraduate years in university studying various religions. My family is Christian and fairly religious. Therefore, I have always taken to learning more about Christianity. I do not claim to know more that others. I just like the discussion. However, it's probably not best to have this discourse on these forums since most of these kids hate the idea of God or Jesus.

i'm talking about the civil war in rome between the christians and the pagans that resulted in the emperor converting to christianity and forming a council to decide on the contents of the bible. jesus wasn't considered god in human form until that moment. 

why cant we all agree that all religion has it's similarities and that whether someone is christian, Buddhist, or muslim doesn't matter as long as we keep the philosophy of peace and goodwill to others that our world will become a better place? then maybe we can truly help those in desperate need in places such as the congo, etc. seems like most people do good deeds only because they think it will better there chances in heaven which seems kind of selfish from an outside perspective. im in no way accusing everyone of this nor am i down playing religion as a whole but when you include a large percentage of the worlds population into various religions you have to wonder who all is sincere and who all is just following the leader. 

i respect religion and i may have posted some rude comments in the past or said some rude statements in religious debates with friends but with age comes maturity (better perception) and i understand how sensitive this topic is and saying rude and negative things about christianity (or other religions, depending on location) is like talking bad about someones family because it's been apart of their lives for so long. i only wish that devout religious individuals should keep an open mind to science and try to include it in their OWN personal view on creation and life. whether you're inspired by your religion or life experience shouldn't matter in the long run because we all have one thing in common and that is consciousness and we shouldn't let that go to waste.  

 

i'm not talking about tampering with the bible, i'm talking about the formation of the bible itself. tampering with the bible is how other denominations such as baptists and methodists got here :). 

there is nothing wrong with believing there's a god and following a religion, but it's wrong to limit someones knowledge based off a book that isn't accurate. the bible has good stories that teach people life lessons but i think people should not take it so literal. there are a lot of metaphors and potential translation errors that could cause people to misinterpret the whole thing. for example jesus being a shepherd and jesus being a carpenter and us being his children. the carpenter being the foundation for the philosophy, the shepherd being jesus guiding us through harsh times, we are his children meaning he is the teacher and we are his students. jesus saying he is the son of God and believing in him will lead us to heaven could mean that we are all sons and daughters of God in the grand scheme of things and believing in him could mean trust his logic because being a good person should surely lead people to heaven.