New Guy...Have some Deep Questions..

[OpenSlate88]

Ok well heres my story. My name is Cory and im 19 years old. As a little kid i was brought up as a baptist and went to church every sunday. As i got older, i stopped going, but would still consider myself a baptist. Well up until about 2 years ago, i started to question my faith and what i believed. Well now im just lost and want to here some answers, now i understand that some of my questions are very wide spread and may not be able to be answered. (Also, Im not sure if this is where this thread belongs, If it needs to be moved, please feel free to do so) Here are some of my questions. If there is only one god that is the creater of the earth, does that mean that every other religion that believes in something else is wrong? If we are ALL god's children, why are there different races and different religions? How accurate is the bible?? If it was originally written over 2000 years ago, and written in (hebrew?) and the english language isn't even that old, how was it translated to be read the exact way it was meant to be?? To me it would be like playing a game of telephone...by the time the story got back to you, its going to have changed in some way. Also, how come all these biblical stories of people who had visions or talked to god, and miracles such as the parting of the red sea never happens today? Im just at the point where i consider myself to be agnostic because im not sure what to believe. Any input would be awesome. Thanks!

 

[Francine]

If there is only one god that is the creater of the earth, does that mean that every other religion that believes in something else is wrong?

If there is one God who is the Creator of the Earth, then every other religion that says there are multiple gods (or no god) is wrong because the truth is the truth.

 

[Francine]

If we are ALL god's children, why are there different races and different religions?

The bible does not mention the concept of race. There are only kindreds and peoples and tongues, who all belong to one race, the human race. There are different religions because when man was scattered from the Garden of Eden, he began to lose the clear memory of when God walked with our first parents, and this became distorted, and eventually bubbled up as a variety of different religions.

 

[Katzpur]

Hello, Cory. Welcome to RF! I hope you'll find some of the answers you're looking for here. One thing for sure, you'll get a whole bunch of different perspectives to choose from. How about you start a thread for each of your questions and see what klnd of answers you get.

 

[Francine]

how come all these biblical stories of people who had visions or talked to god, and miracles such as the parting of the red sea never happens today?

Miracles were sent by God to testify to the veracity of a prophet (such as Moses, or Elijah, or Jesus). Today we have the Sacred Scriptures, so we do not need prophets, and we do not need miracles to attest to the prophets.

 

[Katzpur]

Miracles were sent by God to testify to the veracity of a prophet (such as Moses, or Elijah, or Jesus). Today we have the Sacred Scriptures, so we do not need prophets, and we do not need miracles to attest to the prophets.

I believe that we still need prophets. In fact, we need them now more than we did in the past. Jesus Christ built His Church on a foundation of Prophets and Apostles and Paul said that organization was to continue until we all came into the unity of the faith. Obviously, we're not there yet.

We still need miracles, too, and God still performs them. If He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, surely He would still care enough about us to intervene in our lives now and then. I see miracles as resulting from faith, not faith as resulting from miracles.

 

[OpenSlate88]

So Is evolution a sketchy topic on here? Because im not saying that we evolved from monkeys or anything but i think i do believe that things change over time to better adapt to the changing environment. My girlfriends dad is a VERY close minded religious man who believes Jesus died for everyone and we can sin because of jesus but can ask for forgiveness and he will still love us and he doesn't believe there were ever dinosaurs because the world isn't billions of years old.

 

[OpenSlate88]

Im also not THAT familiar with the bible, ive read parts of it and didn't really understand it, kind of like reading shakespeare. I've read basically about revelations and the raptures. and the basic stuff you learn as a kid.

 

[Katzpur]

So Is evolution a sketchy topic on here? Because im not saying that we evolved from monkeys or anything but i think i do believe that things change over time to better adapt to the changing environment. My girlfriends dad is a VERY close minded religious man who believes Jesus died for everyone and we can sin because of jesus but can ask for forgiveness and he will still love us and he doesn't believe there were ever dinosaurs because the world isn't billions of years old.

I think most Christians on this particular forum take more of a middle-of-the-road approach to evolution. In my opinion, God created our universe and everything in it, but He didn't do so in six twenty-four hour days. I don't have a problem with the earth being billions of years old. I just believe that a Higher Power was at the controls all along.

 

[OpenSlate88]

I think most Christians on this particular forum take more of a middle-of-the-road approach to evolution. In my opinion, God created our universe and everything in it, but He didn't do so in six twenty-four hour days. I don't have a problem with the earth being billions of years old. I just believe that a Higher Power was at the controls all along.

I like that!

 

[Sunstone]

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[arthra]

By the by open slate great questions! I'll be responding to you as a Baha'i!

The open slate wrote:

Here are some of my questions.

If there is only one god that is the creater of the earth, does that mean that every other religion that believes in something else is wrong?

People received revelation since time began in the Baha'i belief so cultural and human foibles and languages affect the outcome..particularly when mankind was mostly illiterate and more visula as far as needing graphic images to portray things.. We should be seeing the simnilarities in religions rather than always looking for differences.

If we are ALL god's children, why are there different races and different religions?

Mankind is one, thus we are really one human specie with origins most scientists today believe in Africa... Mankind is truly One and the sooner we recognize this and act with this perception the better for everyone! The religions are the ressult we Baha'is believe in various revelations from God over the millenia of time that have taken on cultural and local color... various languages, etc.

How accurate is the bible?? If it was originally written over 2000 years ago, and written in (hebrew?) and the english language isn't even that old, how was it translated to be read the exact way it was meant to be??

In my belief the BIble is a record of revelation over about a millenia of time and is part of the spiritual heritage of humanity. It is not a science textbook nor really a history textbook although it has a historical perspective..so there are inaccuracies.
Modern languages can only approximate the meaning of ancient ones... Since the Bible there have been later revelations from God notably the Qur'an, the Writings of the Bab and Baha'u'llah in more modern times. God will also we believe continue to manifest Himself from age to age I believe.

Finally, yes the earth is very ancient and mankind also has been around for millenia..Our appearance has not always been the way we are today.. just as the embryo appears in different forms with gills and a tail but potentially is human also.

- Art

 

[Sunstone]

How accurate is the bible??

No one knows for certain exactly how many mistakes there are in the Bible. The earliest attempt to figure that out took place in the early 1700s and listed about 30,000 mistakes based on a survey of 100 copies. Today, people have about 5300 copies of the New Testament to work with and those who study the mistakes estimate they number between 200,000 and 300,000.

Of course, most of those mistakes are not meaningful. Most are simple spelling errors where the intended word is clear. A few of them, though, are significant.

For instance, the phrase "born again" in the NT is almost certainly a term Jesus himself never used. Instead, it's most likely an addition. Instead of "born again", Jesus most likely meant "born from above" -- if he said it at all.

 

[Francine]

just as the embryo appears in different forms with gills and a tail but potentially is human also.

That embryonic recapitulation meme is an urban legend, like saltpeter in boot camp mess hall food.

 

[Sunstone]

That embryonic recapitulation meme is an urban legend, like saltpeter in boot camp mess hall food.

I don't understand what you mean? It's obvious that human embryos have at certain stages in their development gills and tails.

 

[Francine]

I don't understand what you mean? It's obvious that human embryos have at certain stages in their development gills and tails.

Modern biology rejects the literal and universal form of Haeckel's theory.

Recapitulation theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Valjean]

Evolution is the controversy du jour, at least among American Christians. There have been many others through history -- the propriety of slavery, Copernicanism, Judaizing, &c. The religious eventually make their peace with them and find some other innovation to be incensed about, but, while the controversy rage, it burns hot.

 

[Sunstone]

Modern biology rejects the literal and universal form of Haeckel's theory.

Recapitulation theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OK. Now I see what you mean. For a moment there, I thought you were saying the existence of gills and tails in human embryos was a myth.

 

[Francine]

OK. Now I see what you mean. For a moment there, I thought you were saying the existence of gills and tails in human embryos was a myth.

From the article I cited:

" Embryonic pharyngeal arches are not gills and do not carry out the same function."

"The backbone, the common structure among all vertebrates such as fish, reptiles and mammals, appears as one of the earliest structures laid out in all vertebrate embryos."

 

[Francine]

The religious eventually make their peace with them and find some other innovation to be incensed about, but, while the controversy rage, it burns hot.

In the Twenty-Second Century the big controversy will be over people replacing their feet with a second set of hands through bioengineering so they can work more efficiently in space.