Two of my friends were arguing, one being a strict Christian and the other being a strict Mormon. They both have different views on God, Jesus, and the history of the Bible. The argument made me think of one of my other friends, who happens to be an atheist. Obviously, he wouldn't care what the debate was about seeing as he doesn't believe in any of it, but I didn't really know my take on it. I'm agnostic and I was just wondering what everyone else's take would be on the subject.

what subject exaclty?

Is this a "Are Mormons Christians?" question....

Personally I do not follow an Abrahamic religion like Christianity. While I am not really a "religious" person, I am a very spiritual person. I identify as a Pantheistic Pagan (with some Wiccan influences).

I do respect other people's beliefs and I am interested in learning about all faiths, whether or not I believe in them. Everyone has a different path in life and a right to believe what they choose is best, for them, personally. The only point where I start to have a real problem with someone's beliefs, is when people use religion as an excuse to discriminate against others.

Is the subject in this thread "What religion do you think is the true religion"?

88tom1 : I don't really understand the subject of this thread, but I would like to ask you a question. From the arguments that you are hearing, do you think that people with these different beliefs can be all right, all wrong, or one of them is right? And do you think that getting the truth matters to everyone?

I'm basically wondering about the facts. I'm not one to discriminate, but you can't have faith without hardcore evidence. Humans have been attaching beliefs to complete lies since the beginning of time. Now I'm not saying anything people have faith in is fake, it's just that I don't want them wasting their time believing in something if all that happened was that someone misinterpreted a document or a specific event in history and made a story and a religion behind it.

"I'm not one to discriminate, but you can't have faith without hardcore evidence."

Yeah, you can...

you would have knowledge of something if you had hardcore evidence not faith.

I would quote hebrews.... but I don't have my bible nearby

88tom1 : everything needs faith, but it is important for us to know that what we put our faith on is true or not.

One can gain every possible evidence to the world about something, but if one does not have faith in it, those evidence mean nothing. They can help build confidence in faith, but you can have faith even with little evidence.

Truth can stand by itself, but truth can also be exclusive. If there is something true, then there has to be something false, so it is important that one does not just have faith in something just because it suits them or because they can do whatever they want or not really understanding what they are believe in. They do need to look at the claims and see if it is true or at least make sense in their minds.

Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. Sadly, true belief is a matter of the will, and no matter how much logical evidence is presented, some will still choose to deny the God who is there and miss the one true path to harmony with Him.

Christians have no reason to believe that the Bible is not true and adequate. To truly believe in and trust God means to believe that the "Book" that you put your faith in is inspired by God, which means it comes from Him, and it is authoritative in that no other scriptural revelations are necessary.

Two things that all religions hold are that humanity is somehow separated from God and needs to be reconciled to Him. Christianity solves the problem by recognizing that only God could rectify the separation, and that He has done so in the death and resurrection of Christ.

Technically, faith is believing in something without proof. =D

But Christians have the Bible, Muslims have the Quran, etc. And only one is the true religion, which is Christianity. How do I know you ask? Every place, person, and event in the Bible is real.

Even if you are wavering in your faith, God always seems to provide the answers even though he doesn't have to. He

is so kind to us that He will provide 'proof' or little hints to help you believe. He knows we are weak and He is there

for us. Here are a few hints that came my way once. They definitely help. I am a Christian and I am very logical and

scientific-minded. Before I become born again (when I was 19) I was a believer in evolution and all the scientific

'facts' that were so called proof of the non-existence of God. But when you really dig in and start the research on

your own. It just doesn't add up. This is one of my favourite sites:

http://www.eternal-productions.org/101science.html

That website gives a lot of good and compelling evidence that the bible is true. But as is the case with every single person on the planet, we each have to make our own decisions based on the mixture of faith and evidence (some would say the hand you were dealt in this life) that comes our way.

This is also an amazing book that's very scientific but confirms all the things the bible says with tangible evidence. Check it out.

http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/


Oh yeah and here's one more I just thought of. This is a very interesting site as well.

http://www.icr.org/

Robert7 : "How do I know you ask? Every place, person, and event in the Bible is real."

That is the most horrible reason to believe the Bible.

I could write a book containing 100% factual characters, places and events and build a religion around it.... but that wouldn't mean it's true.

Just because the people and places existed should have no bearing on whether or not the story is true.

I'm apathetic toward this universes's true religion. I believe the difference between an Atheist and a Christian is Atheists believe in one less God than Christians, and both don't believe in thousands. But you know what? There's no proof God doesn't exist, so being fully Atheist is a religion in itself. You're holding faith, without proof, that something is true. The very idea of faith is absurd to me.

Agnostic is the only logical religion.

Also this comic.

Shaedo K, I can honestly say that I was conflicted in what I wanted to post next, but you pretty much summed all of it up in a logical and easy-to-understand fashion. Reading this really helped me a lot.

"Agnostic is the only logical religion."

I would change that only slightly..... "Agnostic is the most logical religion."

The idea that every other religion is illogical is in itself illogical. But I get the general idea of what you're suggesting.

I think it is better to be certain about things than the lack thereof.

Agnosticism is not a religion by any stretch of the imagination. Nor are atheism and theism for that matter, but unlike the two of them, agnosticism is not a statement of belief, but rather of knowledge. One can be a simple agnostic, an agnostic atheist, or even an agnostic theist. All it means is you don't believe we can know for certain whether God exists.

religion: 2.
a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects:

agnostist: 1.
a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as god, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.

it -could- be a religion.... but it wouldn't be much of one. And I want to tweak what I said in my last post...

agnosticism might -seem- like a logical religion/belief... but it doesn't actually answer any of the big questions about the universe and our place in it.

While being agnostic doesn't answer everything, it also admits that we, as humans, don't know everything there is to know about the universe and our history. It's better to be curious than to believe something that isn't true, not that I'm saying it isn't true or anything. There are always possibilities.

I don't get the point of this thread.