HIV Vaccine ready for Clinical Trial

---

Thats my signature, a quote from a very funny comedian. Sadly I have tried neither chocolate ginger biscuits nor wasabi crackers...

no no i got that i meant the religion thingbut yeah ive never tried chocolate ginger biscuits either lolbut damn wasabi crackers are so good!i had them in forever, but that just reminded me of themodd conection, but hey it worksginger->eaten with sushi->wasabi also eaten with sushi->crackers are kinda like cookies->cookies in england are called biscuits.there we go hahah

Well the religion thing is easy. You believe in something, you don't exactly know what, you just believe that there is more to life than what you see around you. Then someone comes along and starts telling you that you're right, there is more and you can see it all. As long as you worship a certain something and live your life the way that they tell you to. That one person or group of people have the power to help you achieve enlightenment and everything that you ever wanted, so you respect them and begin to worship them almost as much as you worship their idea of god(s).They claim to have what you want, so you lick their arses to get it.

oh i gotchayeah thats why i dont go to church.you could call me a christian, but i dont belive everything in the bible.therefore if i go to church, they pretty much say everything in the bible is true and youve gotta believe it. Quote:so you respect them and begin to worship them almost as much as you worship their idea of god(s).kinda like catholicism... they worship the pope as much as god... which isnt very good in my opinion.

I'm not sure what translation you're using there, bob - none of the ones I've consulted use the pluperfect. They all use the past subjunctive: "if he were on earth", which can be taken to mean "if he were still on earth". I don't have the Greek to check the original, unfortunately.No-one knows who the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews is. Despite what the KJV editors said, it wasn't Paul, who wrote the earliest books in the New Testament; nor was it any of the Gospel writers. His style is unique.Although some Christians take "No-one comes to the Father except through me" to mean "only those who die Christians can be saved", not all take that interpretation by any means, and it is not the only possible way of reading it. (Indeed I'm sure that Paul addressed this issue, but I can't find it.) Note also the concept of the Harrowing of Hell.

Originally Posted By: aFIREinside32 Quote:so you respect them and begin to worship them almost as much as you worship their idea of god(s).kinda like catholicism... they worship the pope as much as god... which isnt very good in my opinion. Catholicism works on the pyramid principle. The Pope is the top point of the pyramid, above all other creatures and is the closest thing on earth to heaven. Its how the monarchy in England used to see the king.

yeah thats definitely a little messed up if you ask me...

Which brings me to the argument, whats the use in a religion if its all based on personal interpretation? Bad stuff happen when things need to be interpreted.

idk, but its still confusingi mean religion at allits just plain confusing haha

Any thing written can give rise to questions as to how it is to be read. But the best way to start is to read the thing itself, so you see it all together. Most questions are resolved by the wider context.

Well I don't think I'll be reading the entire Bible, I had enough trouble with the fucking Lord of the Rings. Tolkien wrote a great story, but I hated his writing style!

i havent read the whole bible either. well ive hardly read any of it actually LOLoh god i hate LOTRi watched the first movie and fell asleep.well i was sick and at homebut it was still boringand i tried to read the bookbut that was too boring also.

Well because it's divided up into books, you can reasonably take it in chunks. The New Testament isn't too long and, though you'll miss a lot of the background, you can quite successfully start there. The core of Christianity is the Gospels, which are an even shorter read.

What I urge is that rather than following others' commentaries, you go to the original. Every commentary is slanted and deficient in some way or other. I think it's a good practice to follow in general - in literature, in history, and in science, where it's always instructive to look at the original work.

Quote:

Well because it's divided up into books, you can reasonably take it in chunks.

Yeah, thats what they told me about LOTR. It didn't help...

Quote: "No one comes to the Father but through Me!"John 14:6If you don't go through Jesus, you don't go to heaven. That leaves all the poor souls who have never heard of the long haired guy who probably didn't even exists to go spend eternity in either Hell or the much more delightful Limbo! Hahah. way to leave off the end of that quote. who was it that spoke about "tactics" earlier and "misrepresentations"?  Quote: The Bible was distorted from the moment it was created! How can we follow the true path of Christ through a book that omits so much of the Gospels?? A book with multiple translations! A book with multiple interpretations! You don't even realize how lucky you are to be able to read the Bible! In the past only priests could read it to their conjugation, so they could interpret and twist it to suit whatever they wanted! Thats the Bible being "taken out of context." Thats the church, the followers of Christ as a whole, using the Bible for their own purposes. Do you think I am not aware the issues caused over translations? A man nearly lost his head when he didn't translate the septuagint. Many people didn't want it put into a common language so they could control the masses and proclaim themselves god's will on earth.I am aware the issus of retranslating and retranslating the text from one language to another then another.I just find it ironic it becomes so controversial when someone says "People only believe in evolution because they only want to answer to themselves" however, its perfectly alright to say that "all christians interpret the bible for their own gain."

Originally Posted By: bobalicious

How is it different? How does the education system force things upon people MORE than the church does?

Mmm...no one is forced to go to ANY church, much less believe what the church teaches.
Kids are forced to go to school and to regurgitate what they're taught in school in order to be "successful".
Seems pretty clear to me.

Damien...late to the game again.

An education system can change what it teaches to suit the requirements and personal views of the parents and students(often leading to the slow downfall of useful education). Whats said and taught in churches doesn't change, its the same story thats been told for centuries.Better to come late than early, or even not at all!

I don't know about you, but I was forced to go to church by my grandparents.

Whether the "education system" changes its views cautiously, daily, or not at all, the views it's teaches are "taught" to a captive audience of children who have no choice - and who's parents have little choice - on whether to hear it or not. That was your original question, wasn't it?

Quote:An education system can change what it teaches to suit the requirements and personal views of the parents and students(often leading to the slow downfall of useful education). I'm so glad to hear religion is the cause of the educational decadence.I was beginning to think it was magnet schools and being forced to take excessive classes in topics a large majority of the population will never be able to use.