Stuff Related To Religion And Existence

The idea of penance has been around from the beginning of the Church. There was a mention of penance in the Old Testament, regarding animal sacrifices, but they were symbolic sacrifices. However, there was the cost of them and the time to go buy 1 and take it to the priest. A Catholic might say that Matthew 3:7-8 is proof that penance is required but what about Micah 6:6-8? That verse could be saying "what's enough?" (it mentioned thousands of rams and the firstborn which he'd only have 1 of). Some of the suffering Christians experience could be seen as God forcing penance on people. A person could never make up for their wrongs, considering how God feels about justice. But that’s a standard of justice. So God could still want you to make things up to him. If you are not a Catholic and you sin, I think you can have a feeling of wanting to quickly do something to make up for it, since you might die soon after. If you sin, you can naturally feel that you want to make i

An argument for the belief in Purgatory regarded: I Corinthians 3:10-15. The letter (1 Corinthians) was written (in 55 A.D. according to my Chronological Bible) to a young church in Corinth, Greece, during the time of the Roman Empire. How would people, new to Christianity, understand the verses? The Catholic church didn't completely formulate doctrine on Purgatory until much later/1274 when they put forward official Catholic church doctrine of Purgatory. Looking at the verses: Via preaching Christ, Paul laid a foundation (Jesus) and thus helped form Christianity. Part of verse 13 means this: the Day of judgment will reveal it. Their work will be revealed with fire. The fire will test it. The fire is likely God's judgment testing their work. This would also apply to good people not in Purgatory. This could weaken the possibility/likelihood that the fire talked about in verse 15, refers to Purgatory. Certain building materials, such as gold, silver, stone, wouldn't burn up/w

John 1:10 - Even though Jesus made the world, the people of the world didn’t recognize the creator/God. (who people would argue did acts of God) Why would that verse be said if Jesus was some angel, like Jehovah's Witnesses believe? Jesus grew in wisdom. That could’ve been because he had to suffer/be tested like a human. Revelation 1:1 - God gave Jesus that revelation. So Jesus maybe wasn’t omniscient at that time. God feels compelled to act one way. God holds the right to some information first, before Jesus? It may be possible that Jesus had received the knowledge of that revelation (and all the rest of the knowledge that Jesus lacked) from the Father, after his death. In Revelation 1:17,18 Jesus (it is clearly talking about Jesus due to the next verse) is called ‘the first and the last.’ In Isaiah 44:6 (from the original ancient Hebrew) God is called ‘the first and the last.’ These verses also mention 'first and last': Isaiah 41:4, Isaiah 48:12, Revelation 22:13, Revelat

Why does God want people to believe and why does he want to punish those that don't? It seems like the picture is being painted that it is “clear” that Jesus should be believed in. Romans 1:20 means that creation is obvious evidence of godly power. So God thinks we should ‘obviously’ believe in God and Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 contains proof that God wants to defeat some human reasoning, and that he likes things to appear foolish to some. God doesn't want people to boast that they’re wise. Why? Sometimes people think they know more than they do, which God might not like. Some non-Christians believe Genesis portrays that the Earth isn't very old/that the creation days were literal days. (the book: Six Days or Millions of Years was convincing) Many tests done on things like fossils make people think that the world is much older. (which gives more time for Evolution) Some people didn’t think belief in god was necessary since evolution could account for our existence. Thing

Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) believe that most people will be resurrected in the time near the end, and given another chance. (priests that used to be humans, are supposed to teach people about things then) So the test of faith wouldn’t be much of a thing. Therefore God could have made some things more clear. i.e. JW's believe that God and Jesus are separate beings. God wouldn't want people thinking that Jesus was God if Jesus was not. (God is supposed to be jealous: Exodus 34:14, Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 4:24) John 1:1 could've not called Jesus ‘god’. A JW thinks that God doesn't see the future all the time. If that were true, perhaps God wouldn’t know that calling Jesus ‘god’ would cause an issue. Isaiah 46:9-10 makes me think that God can see the future all the time. According to the Bible, God foreseen the exact types of wounds that Jesus was supposed to receive. So God is supposed to be able to foresee the future. It would be wise (God is supposed to be wise) to u

A Jehovah's Witness (JW) said 'I don't presume to know what God finds offensive but if he asks me to steer clear of using blood because it is sacred then I will err on the side of caution'. JW's use Acts 15:29 to support that belief. I read Acts 15:1-29. It seemed to me that the context implied consuming blood. They mentioned old rules that were to be kept. (an old rule was to not consume blood) Some blood types are compatible. God didn't make it so that all blood transfusions would lead to rejection. One blood type is universal, which exists for a reason. JW's are OK with organ donation. So why not blood donation? God could have made it clearer if he didn't want people to have blood transfusions. The Bible could have said 'do not mix your blood with other blood' or 'do not mix your blood with blood'.

An omnipotent god could feel the good feeling that love provides without needing someone to love. (but...) A god could create emotions for itself. The idea was inspired by Star Trek: Voyager. (it was Q/his species, I think) God could do anything it wants, but it may not be omnipotent, in 1 sense. God's essence could be invulnerable to certain things i.e. its power (meaning it couldn't harm or change itself). How God works would be like a rule of existence. So its invulnerability could be a law. God could use antimatter to remove someone from existence. God could put itself in the place of a person and make itself forget that it is a god. i.e. to enjoy a TV show. Only some people may be reincarnated, if everything is a dream. For people that died young: After looking into what their future would have been, had they not died young, God could, if God deemed them worthy, give them all their memories/change them into the person that they would be if they had lived that full life. Ev