In Search of The Light...

It may be slightly incorrected to say that God enjoys any particular candidate being in office. I have no doubt that God can help those who have faith in Him get through tough times, and I think that this view may be more applicable to the situation. I don't think that God was happy to have Hitler, or Stalin, or Saddam in power, but they were there nonetheless. The president is in office 8 years at most, and in the big scheme of things, I don't think that God is going to take great concern in presidential elections. I don't mean to prove or disprove your opinion, because it is just that: an opinion. But think about this: is Osama Bin Ladin's God pleased with the outcome of the election? Religion, at least the organized kind, is based on the point-of-view of mortals so greatly, that it almost saddens me that it played such a large role in the selection of a leader that has influence only in the secular world.
 

Good points Amanda, but I'm not saying God is happy George Bush is in power, I'm saying God has a reason for him to be in power. And I have to go on record of saying that there is only one true God. This doesn't mean I hate other religons, and I'm not being closed minded, even if some of you think I am. But I stand for my religion, just like they are doing, but my God is one of love, some Christians may not act this way but true Christinas believe in and show love for everyone. And my God does care, a Father always cares about what his children do, just because he is God doesn't mean he cares any less about us or our own cares.
 

Since I don't consider myself a particularly devout Christian, I feel it my duty to express my opinion on the matter. Note: I still believe in my God and all the morals he represents. I believe that God can control all things, but chooses to give us a lot of free will. This is the only way for us to learn from mistakes and to grow as human beings. If God controlled everything, then there is much less of an enticement for me to try hard in my life. That is my humble opinion, take it with a grain of salt.
 

Good point Chris, but God does allow for free will. We all have the freedom of choice. I like to think we all have a path to God, but sometimes we make bad choices and stray off of our path. But there is always an oppurtunity to make a U-turn and get back on the right path. God knows everything we will do, but we don't. We all have a certian goal to accomplish, but the path we take to reach that goal is full of our own choices, to quote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "You must choose, but choose wisely..."
 

To 1 Life 1 Love, which I take to be either Calvin or Skinny Kid:
1) I do not believe that Christ is my Lord and Savior. I do not believe that belief in his divinity is absolutely necessary to salvation. It is entirely possible that one can believe that Christ is the son of God and that he died on the Cross for everyone's sins, but if all the actions of someone run counter to this belief, I see no way for them to gain entrance to Heaven. On the flip side, someone may have great respect for the being that created this world, and treat all parts of this creation with the same respect. In this situation, whether they attend a church or a synagogue or a mosque is irrelevant to God's judgment of them. The question here is whether membership in a religion is necessary to act in a moral manner. I believe that answer is no. You are right in saying that good, solid Truth cannot be manipulated like Silly Putty. But participation in an organized religion is not necessary to know good, solid Truth. I do not believe that killing someone is wrong because God says so: if I were to put myself in the situation of a family member having been murdered, I can imagine the pain of this loss, and know that it is wrong to inflict this pain on others. I know that I do not wish to die before my time, and through this I can again know that killing another person is wrong. This same process can be made applicable to any other situation where morals may also come into play.
2) I do not believe that God is in control of every single event on Earth. While this may not have been the point you were trying to make, it is what was implied in your comment. God may have a larger plan, and he may influence events that affect this plan, but I have difficulty believing that "every moment and every event" has such a large influence on this plan. You claim that God allows us to have free will. How is this compatible with his controlling all events? 3) If, as the Bible states, "a day is as a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is as a day," and you take this literally, President Bush's two terms in office will take up 12 minutes of God's time. If you had more than 6 billion people to watch over, over 100 nations, would you be worried about the leadership of one, leadership that will change about 6 "minutes" from now?
But let's say that you are right, and that Francis is right, and God is in control, and Bush is in office for a reason. God being in control of all events means that God causes bad things as well as good things to happen. Given this information, no one can guarantee that Bush will lead the country on the right track. God could very easily have led the United States to this situation to teach us something. What information do you have to reject this? I have written this comment to point out fallacies that I see in your thinking. I welcome you to point out the same to me.
 

Where did you get those morals Amanda? Every moral taught in this country is from the Bible. Yes other religions have some of these similar morals but if you learned morals from your parents and teachers it's because of the Bible. And I think I may comment the rest of this to a blog.
 

I think we all must have free will. If we don't, then there's an awful lot invested in the human race for no good reason. Given that each person has free will, and each person chose how to vote (and whether to vote) of their own volition, then it seems the results of the election can be directly attributed to the voters, not to God. But just because he's not changing the outcome doesn't mean he's not watching over us and keeping track of what we're up to. I like to think of God as a parent, and I think any good parent has to let his children make their own decisions, good or bad. We must make our own mistakes in order to learn and grow. Hopefully we are observant enough to realize when we've made mistakes and make better choices in the future. Either way, God watches us and will provide us with opportunities to make similar kinds of choices again.

These are my thoughts, and I mean no disrespect to anyone with different beliefs.
 

I may have gotten my morals from my parents, but if someone knew nothing of the Bible, or any other religion, but could put themselves in the place of a victim of a crime, they would understand that killing someone or stealing something or any other wrongful action cannot be committed in a vacuum. This person would then have to have something wrong with them mentally to commit a crime intentionally. And for the purposes of argument, anger and passion have the potential to overshadow reason, thus a murder based on anger is intentional, but the criminal's mental state is affected during that time.
 

I know the perfect way to settle this issue over free will vs. destiny. Francis, I know God wants you to come to my wedding. If you don't come, then you have free will and I will rub it in your face that I was right. If you do, then I will stop arguing on this matter because I will be happy.
 

*Applauds* Bravo, Chris. An excellent test.
 

So when did I say we don't have free will??? That's right, I said we DID have free will. I want to be at your wedding to Chris, let me see how this drum corps. thing works out and then we'll go from there.
 

What's wrong with using bits and pieces from different religions? I refuse to be labled as any certain religion, because I feel that everyone has different beliefs. Instead of trying to make myself perfect in a specific religion's eye, I will do what I know is right. I also would have to agree with Amanda about the killing issue. I don't think it's wrong to kill because God says so, I think it's wrong to kill because I wouldn't want me or my close ones die. On the other hand, I do believe that it is my Creator who gave me these morals. But I also strongly believe that not all people hate killing. Plently of evidence exists that some humans like to kill, or a least, don't dislike it.
Onto the next issue of pre-marital sex. I really don't think that having sex before people are married is making this a filthy nation. I don't think people should have sex unless they love that person, but I'm guilty of that sin as well. On the other hand, I don't feel bad about having sex with someone I love, whether or not we are married. I surely don't appreciate being told that I am one of the people contibuting to the "filthiness" of this country just because I don't have the same scruples other people do. I'm also not saying that abstinence is a bad thing; I respect my friends who are waiting to get married, but I'm certainly not judging those people who are not.
I also have a few issues with quoting from the Bible. I do recognize it as a holy book inspired by God, but it was not written by God. Human beings are fallible, and as such, may not write it exactly how it should've. Instead of looking at the exact specifics of parts of the Bible, you should look at the broader morals that those words represent.
 

As for a reply to Chris's comment, I agree with you. I cannot claim to agree with every aspect of ANY religion, and thus do not claim to be a member of a specific religion. If you believe that God created each of us down to the detail that we (generally) feel bad about killing someone, then it follows that we were created with the intention that we are each unique. While you may agree with other people, you do not necessarily have the exact same reasoning behind your opinion. Because everyone has the ability to think for themselves (with the exception of severe mental retardation), no two people are guaranteed to arrive at the same opinion the same way, or even to arrive at the same opinion at all. With this in mind, it does not surprise me to see that there are millions of opinions regarding religion. While Christians believe that Christ is the right path, there are Jews and Muslims and Hindus and many others that disagree. With so many options, and common morals between the major contenders, how is one to choose? I believe that God gave us the ability to reason and think for ourselves so that we would use it. I believe the way I do because it conforms with my reason, and Christians believe what they do because it makes sense to them. And there is no doubt that we will make mistakes in our reasoning, but we are all admittedly sinners, in one way or another. I personally believe that learning from mistakes and having faith in what I believe in will earn more approval from God than conforming to a belief system because my parents or peers or even random people tell me I should.

"I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. " - Gerry Spence

And for an ineresting point of view concerning evolution and Christianity, try www.leifwright.com/crap/index.html (The Article entitled "The God of Einstein and Darwin")
 

You go big man. The man that God wanted in office got in. After all it is all in God's perfect will. I dont think that God gets much in to politics but he plays a part in everything that happens. Just as he played a part in you getting in the blue coats. It is to bad that everyone dont understand it this way.

seek His face always