Well, sort of,lol. Your not going to hell if you dont believe in God,He forgives. As long as when he comes to judge you are awed and apoligize.
We have freewill so we dont have to believe in Him . It depends on your life, the decisions you made and how you lived. You can go to hell even if you believe in God.

Thanks,
I hope this archived, and St. Peter has WiFi, because I'm citing it. And I'm not trying to be funny or a smartass. :P

More importantly, nearly infinite amount of different occurrences could have lead to something similar. Or completely different. That's completely irrelevant. Any result is a result, and it's one-in-a-very-big-number chance.

Say you walk across the desert. When you hit the oasis, you dump the sand out of your sneakers. What are the chances just those few thousand grains of sand got picked up on your 30km trip? If you had wobbled a bit to the left on your second step, it would be a completely different result. Or if you had looked 1/100" left at half way instead of 1/99". It doesn't matter. In the end you still have some sort of result.

Those sand grains that got chosen might think it's mighty important that just they got picked up. They might think that it's a proof of a supernatural force. But in the end, the person who has the sand in his shoes doesn't care which specific grains they are. Just like the universe doesn't care what ended up happening on our planet. The result is relevant only for us - and it's amazing only to us. The rest of the universe could have just as well lived with any other result over here.

Im a tad confused.. didnt you say earlier that the world needed christians...

You are correct MrsDork.

But--I'm going to put one more fly in the mayonnaise.

How many sins do you have to commit in order to not go to heaven?

I said people of faith, and religious people. And I am kinda being funny by saying that I am citing your post about not having to believe in God but only be awed at Judgement, ask for forgivness, and had led a moral life, to not go to hell. I'm not saying I'd get into heaven, I'm sure that is reserved for believers. I've read Dante and all the cool people were in purgatory anyway. Most of my experience with believers, is that I was DEFINATELY going to hell unless I believed, and or was born again, no matter how good a life I lived.

So the only important things are to live your life well, and only believe in God when he finally personally proves his existence to you beyond any doubt?

I have no problem with that. I get to live my life the way I want to, focus on important things rather than waste my time worshipping something that isn't provable, and in the end he'll show up and prove himself and it's gonna be all good after all.

Well considering im not God haha
um im not too sure but one sin is too many in God's eyes and as long as your GENUINELY sorry and didnt commit the sin with the idea "oh well ill confess later" your all forgiven and such...I think anyways.

~makri thats what I'm saying about "pre-meditated sins" if you will, you cant be liek "um ok theres no God today, but if he comes tomorrow Ill be like WHOOPS SORRY", it doesnt work that way. Im saying were human we make mistakes and God forgives.

I don't believe in the theory of evolution, which is to say, really, macroevolution - the evolving of one species (not breed) to another, aka, chimps to human. Microevolution is evident; macroevolution has yet to be proved in the fossil record, and is mathematically impossible in the small window of time between the cooling of the earth and the first evidence of life, which appeared in the Cambrian explosion.

There is plenty of evidence for ID. To mention Newtonian gravity as the standard belief is true, but, there is a greater understanding of that basic aspect life - gravity, which is better understood and explained by quantum theory. Similarly, ID is the superior answer to the complexity of life.

Could macroevolution not be a product of billions of years of microevolution?

Ding Ding Ding!
Very Good!

OK. But what would lead you to believe that you'd be forgiven?* Adam and Eve were sorry, yet they still got tossed out of the Garden.

*(I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but you stated earlier that you believed that the Bible is true. The answer is there, and you're so close. There is just one thing you need to do to be forgiven for your sins.)

Yes, you need to go to confession LoL

Oooooh. My heart! I'm dying of a heart attack! Quick, get me to a confessional!

What if I were to tell you that Man's intervention is not necessary. What if I were to tell you that God took care of all of this?


Acts 16:16-17
Acts 16:30-32
Romans 10:9

and of course

John 3:16

Look em up. I did, and it changed my life.

But it's a damn strong indicator, since they're both part of the same belief system.

WTF!!!!!!!!

You just said that the very reason why the non g-d thing doesn't work is because its to unexplanable, but your g-d therey is "rather hard to fathom" A bit of a double standard if you ask me.

Man it is amazing how things like this eccalate! I'm with blurmore on most of this, and the whole idea that, "it can't be fully explianed , so it's not true" just gets me pissed!

Sometimes i wish that some parts of religion were true, beacuse it can be a great comfort, but really, when it think about it, i rreally believe the world would be better off withput religion. (yup, i said it)

I will do that..but, I think that Confession is just a "step" in the forgiveness process. I think it makes me feel better to confess, but I think that I can get the sme forgiveness by praying.

and to respond to everyone else...
I said Religion wasnt simple...it is hard to fathom

A couple of things,
1. What will it take to put it through your heads, NO ONE in the evolutionary feild says that we evolved from monkeys. We evolved WITH monkeys, and are in no way on a sperate plain.
2. THERE IS EVIDENCE FOR ID???? please, if there is, show me!
3. How in the world do you think macro evolution works? THere will nvere be a half fish half cow. Every step becomes its own species, and intermediate, so you won't find "evidence" of it in the fossil record.

Why?

God doesn't call us to be Defence Attorneys, Judges, Juries or even Court Reporters.

He calls us to be witnesses. If someone chooses not to believe, let them. It may not be their time to believe yet, if ever. You should try your best, but if they refuse to believe, arguing is probably not going to help.

Imagine you're blind on a cruise with other blind people and the ship begins to sink. Another ship comes by and throws ropes in the water. Someone near you tells you about a rope next to you. You grab it and are saved. You hear another person near to you. You yell "grab the rope! You'll be saved", but they argue with you saying they don't believe the rope is there or that it's not attached to anything. They say you don't know what you're talking about and that you're stupid for believeing in such foolishness.
They say they'll be fine and take their chances.

You should try your best, but there are a lot of others that will drown if you don't move on.

I understand, but I like to try my best to convice everyone, because I think everyone has the potential to believe.

If that's a metaphor for religion it doesn't make much sense. In the metaphor you are holding in your hand, tangible evidence for a rope. In real life, there is no tangible evidence for a god.