I guess everyone views the way of worship diffrently. But there are things that pull away from what the important thing is... which, IMHO is your relationship with God. Anything that pulls away from that neglects the reason for there being a church in the first place.

I do realize that there are businesses that need attending to, but only to an extent.

In retrospect, I look back at my time in the youth group back at my home church and really lament not being in it anymore. For some reason, it seemed as though there wasn't all this debate over all the crap previously stated in this thread. Oh well...

I agree. The whole Bible is a story describing how valuable we are to God. He sent his only son to earth to die for our sins because he values us so much. No amount of sin cheapens our worth in his eyes.

In regard to mission trips, I think their great. As for going to some distant country and risk your life helping other people, that's a stereotype. People need help all over the world, not just in third-world countries. Does this mean everyone should become a missionary? Most certainly not, different people are called to serve in different ways. But I still think going on a mission trip (to anywhere, far or near), is a great experience.

I've been on a few mission trips myself, and honestly, they are a lot of fun. Most certainly not like people think they are. Sure it's going out of your comfort zone, but it's 100% worth it.

TAI Mom and Dad go to "third-world countries" with there church. But then again.. They also have the money to do that.

Today, we watched a film for Invisible Children. Some of the things I saw in that video made me sad. However, at the end, I felt like the people at IC were just drawing people to come help them do... whatever it is they're doing. They're like, "We need to help these children and we need to blah blah blah." They talked about a "rebel" army in Uganda and how they were taking kids and making them killers. They said that we need to help, but what can you do against a vast army unarmed? You can't do anything except hide with people in fear of being killed. The only way to fight back against it is to fight back with your own weapons. protect the kids and try to prevent anymore from being abducted and used as tools for war.

I get the message of what they were saying, but honestly, there's not much we can do there unless we help them fight back.

Not entirely on topic, but I just thought I would introduce this here.

I see your point Kratos, sometimes it's hard to find a peaceful solution to something where the other side doesn't want to co-operate at all. To be honest I don't know any easy solution, it would be nice to find a solution where no one had to get hurt, but it just doesn't seem possible.

True. It's too hard to find peaceful solutions these days. And people make the U.S. sound like we're terrible people for killing civilians and other stuff and "starting" wars. However, that's for another topic.

Music, People, and the Nighttime is my Trinity and the City is my church.

The Nightclub is my altar.

Unfortunately, I don’t receive communion enough, but at least I attend church most weekends.

Well, I guess to get back on topic I'll though out an opinion and see what it turns up.

I believe, despite alot of people's opinion, one can never set foot in a church and be more Heaven-bound than church goers.

I mean, I believe God wants us to go to church... if nothing else than to spend time around other Christians. But again, your relationship with him is the heart of the religion... or so I think.

I guess it's a matter of your calling. If you feel that God wants you there... Go. If you feel your relationship with God is fine the way it is, great. As long as you and God are on the same page.

I agree with Lantis, going to church doesn't save you, it's true belief in Jesus that does. Nor does communion save you, it's just a physical way of showing remorse for your actions.

If all of you have a different interpretation from the canonical, i.e. if a “fundamentalistâ€

It's not the sin part that gets me. It when people begin telling me that my life has no value and that nothing on this earth even matters. I hate being told that the only thing that matters is God and that everything else doesn't matter. There's a purpose of having other people and things on the planet.

OK, but if you DISAGREE with those people who tell you these things, then what causes you to hate hearing it?

because they try to tell you constantly, even if you show that you don't like hearing it. Instead of just saying, "Hey, man, sorry. I'll leave you alone about it," they keep pursuing in order to try and change my way of thinking.

You are talking about a church that you used to go to that you no longer attend, right?

Do they still manage to contact you somehow?

I'm on a college campus and one of that church's members lives right down the hall from me. Kinda hard to run from them all.

I can understand how it can be annoying to be in that situation, but it seems as though if you tell the guy, "I don't agree, I don't wish to discuss this and anytime you bring it up, I'm going to ignore you and walk away" and then hold true to that you should be fine. I consider it no more rude to do that than to have him constantly try to convert you when you have admitted that you are not interested.

Kratos has a super-good point, which I think adequately explains the reason for the recent growth in Atheism.

I'm a Buddhist, which is pretty much Atheism.

Buddhism says that the idea of the duality of life (the physical and the spiritual) is not worth worrying over. Because an after life, deity, and one's personal judgement are unclear, it's not worth wasting physical life, the one we're sure about, over it. If it turns out out there's an after-life, sucks to be us. If there isn't, cool. Doesn't matter. We'll see.

What I think the reason for all the de-valueing of life is that life sucks. No good deed goes unpunished, suffering everywhere, ice caps melting, property values skyrocketing, just pure suck. So why not believe there's more than this? Why preach it? It's always great to have people agree with you.

That's what I think. Now you think it.

@SSD256

Are you saying that 'life sucks so why don't Christians see that' or that 'life sucks so what is wrong with Christians preaching something more than life'?

Yeah, I worded that pretty clunkily. Plus I'm a pretty ambivalent guy these days.

I guess I'm saying life sucks and everyone copes with it differently, so humor them.

Easter is not actually about the resurrection of Christ. It's the Spring Solstice celebrated LONG before Christ was even on this Earth. Christmas is the same, it was the Winter Solstice. It's just that during the Holy Crusades Christians killed off most all the other religions. According to historical evidence, Jesus died somewhere around August I do believe. That is for another topic though. I am an Agnostic. I believe in Spiritual Humanism to some extent though. My religion before all else would probably be Love. Even there I am confused though. It's too hard to have all the answers all the time. I believe no man is worth more than any other overall. Sure, one man can be smarter than another, but then again the other man could have a skill that brings him above and beyond the other's intelligence quotient. My skills lie in helping others, but I am horrible at advance mathematics. I can do Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry on a college level. I just can't remember all the equations. I have horrible motivation too, but other who are perceived as less "sharp" than I, have wondrous motivation for even the most mundane of tasks. I made this equation quite some time ago, let's see if you guys can decipher it. It's an equation for the value of a human life. If you believe anything should be added, you disagree with something, or you need something explained. Just let me know. This is not a measure of your own self-worth. This is from the standpoint of someone who knows all actual values. I would need to write another equation if you wished to some up your own self-worth.


(701.) My Life
=---------------------------------------------------=
X = L
L =((C-F)/(M-l+f)) to the power of ω
C = ΩT
F = t/Ω
M = αN
α = m+i
m = -Ω/(T-t)
i = -Ω2/(T2-t2)
N = -l
l = (ΩC)/m
f = mαt

X = Who I Am
L = The sum of my life
C = Correct Knowledge
F = False Knowledge
M = mistakes I've made
l = lesson I've learned
T = truth I am taught
Ω = My Logic
t = falses I am taught
α = my error
N = my naivety
i = others ignorance
m = my own ignorance
f = False lessons learned
ω = Faith