Originally Posted by CNC
Originally Posted by Driveby
Again, an honest series of questions for you CNC, Irish, and others as well. No disrespect intended at all..

When you read about another ancient culture telling stories about sky men riding in on a fiery dragon and such……Do you believe all of it literally happened??.....Why do you suddenly change your metric for what’s believable when the judgement is on your own belief??.....If you’re gonna go with the theory that anything is possible when it comes to God to explain humans poofing into existence then you should also believe that there could have actually been men riding on fiery dragons…..

That being said…….I still look at a lot of things in the Bible with a grain of salt……Just like with anything else we have only been told the parts that folks wanted us to hear…..These disciples could have very well had that ethical logic that jawbone spoke of where you see something as ok to do if it serves a greater purpose……They could have all been on a life mission to save the souls of the world and felt like some details were ok to fudge if it accomplished the goal…..I’ll admit that I’m very skeptical of all of the “magic” and such……For example, I think Moses went up on a mountain and whittled on a rock for a while and came back down and told the crowd a little white lie for the sake of control and to get folks to act the way they needed to…..Its classic human behavior……

As far as Jesus specifically…….Its one of those things where I don’t know for sure……Like I said in a previous post…..I do recognize that if nothing else, for one individual to have the kind of impact his life had on the world is pretty miraculous in and of itself……and when it comes to a life to model my own after I have no problems in trying to follow the example that he set for us…..Those principles are the same ones that I naturally feel like are right in my heart or conscience …….Is he my Savior??.....I suppose I could logically concede to that because I’ll admit that going to church has definitely been good for my family and put me on a better path for life in general……and that church is there because of Jesus……Is he the son of God??.....This is where I want to believe such but I cant help but to also recognize that we are not the first and only humans in history to believe really strongly that someone was God or a god, etc……We’re really giving ourselves a lot of credit here to think that WE are the ones who have gotten it right and everyone else is wrong and burning in hell.
On the dragon riders, no, I don't believe the stories to be true. Why? Because those stories do not offer any evidence of being real. The Bible offers evidences that have indeed been confirmed by science itself. It's up to us to make efforts to study those evidences and come to a conclusion of what we believe.

On the Bible issue, if we view the Bible as being a story book filled with lies, why should we believe any of it? Why should we model our lives out of lies? If we are, we are engaging in an exercise in futility. We may as well live our lives as we please and enjoy ourselves while we are here because it's all a lie. Why go to that trouble?

As to giving ourselves credit for being right when others are wrong, when multiple things conflict in details, not every one of them can be right. Someone has to be wrong, It's just a fact. If the stories and myths are correct as well, why choose to follow Christianity rather than one of the other beliefs? Why are you looking into Christianity rather than Buddhism? There has to be a reason for your choice.

Based on your responses, you are an agnostic. I'm not saying that to insult you or calling you a name, I'm just pointing out that you fit that description with your beliefs. You want to believe but there's a part of you that can't so you have your doubts about the Bible being entirely real. That's not to cast a bad light on you at all because everyone has to start somewhere. Not everyone was born into and raised in a "religious" environment. You seem to be trying though and you are looking, that's good. I hope you keep looking and sincerely hope you find your answers.

The true mark of a man is not how he conducts himself during times of prosperity, but how he conducts himself during times of adversity.