The thing that gets me, really gets me is the fact that entrophy exists.
Think about it.
Entrophy is the deterioration of..whatever.

Its the slow decay of the Universe from a pristine state.

Heaven is supposed to be filled with gold and diamonds.
Streets of gold.
The Universe is filled with decay and change.
No matter where you "Look" in the Universe, decay and change is happening.
Is heaven beyond the Universe?

As a man, I exist in a Universe of entrophy.
Everything I 'know' is subject to the laws of entrophy.
The only thing I 'know' is entrophy.
To offer me something that is not entrophic would be alien to me.
I can't even imagine a truly non-entophic reality.
How could that be appealing?

In order to have appeal, one must inderstand that which is being offered.
I have NEVER experienced a moment wher entrophy was not present.
While I can "Imagine" a world without entrophy. I have yet to actually experience it.
Until I do, it remains in the realm of fantsy.

Is the entrophy of the Universe a planned condition?
If so, is this a condition only relative to man or is it a condition that is beyond God's ability to control.
If entrophy is by God's design, why?
If not, is God as all powerful as we are lead to believe?

Now let's assume its be design.
This means that God created man and put man in a controlled environment.
He purposely introduced entrophy into the equation.
Why?
Perhaps He is testing to see if we can think outside the box?
But then, that would go against the religion He wrote.
Perhaps He intended us to never understand and Eve's First Sin threatened that with the concept of reason?
Perhaps tjhere is no reason, that the Universe is out of God's influence and God, like man is subject to the forces of nature?
Frankly, it doesn't really matter, Entrophy exists and NOTGHING you can do will stop it.

Sorry, I mistakely hit quote when I really wanted to hit edit.
So it is in a dystopian relaity....

Grow up

When I was a child I was taught all about religion (the 'Catholic' version of it) but I have grown up I put all that in the same category as belief in Santa Claus, great for small kids but quite unnecessary for those who have grown up.

I respectfully suggest that 'believers' in any form of religion Grow Up and become normal adult human beings, casting off their childish beliefs as being suitable only for children.

Perhaps we should all perform the Uttarabodhi and Ganesha mudras

An August Midnight - by Thomas Hardy

A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter—winged, horned, and spined—
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While 'mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands...

II

Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.
—My guests besmear my new-penned line,
Or bang at the lamp and fall supine.
"God's humblest, they!" I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.

respectfully, I am quite grown. and 'normal' adult human beings generally pick the things in books to believe based on the integrity of the authors, the logic of the book, how it is re enforced with their own experience and logic, and the presence of general and longstanding consensus. All these things are true of the Bible for many grown ups.

The Bible is a collection of fairy tales, written by unknown (only assumed) authors over a wide range of time and in a language that nobody speaks today. As a philosophy and spiritual guide for some people, it is no doubt 'useful' but there are people who believe every word, although these people argue among themselves over which version they believe in and how they should interpret the words they find in their version.

The JWs for example call themselves 'Christian' but they don't believe in the Holy Trinity (an essential belief for Christians) and their own Bible has chunks cut from the main Anglican Bible because these words don't fit with their particular beliefs. How can any adult take such people seriously?

Awesome; I always find the works you share incredibly meaningful.

not so much. trinity is not in the bible. Christian simply requires Christ and biblical belief.

I know many Christians including a number of priests in our Church Of England (Anglican) and they have always said that belief in the Holy Trinity is part of Christian belief (bit not if you are a JW - that was my point).

Our local Anglican Church here is, "Holy Trinity Church"

I dont know about the Church of England, but I do know the Trinity is not in the Bible, but only how some interpret what is there. It is not a universal belief of Christians. Christians try to follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ according to the Bible. Jesus Christ never mandated or verified the trinity. So, I would not consider it necessary to believe in Trinity to be a Christian. I would think, as the name implies, that Christianity is about following Christ. He spoke of commandments and how to treat each other, he never said he was a part of a Holy Trinity though, that was an interpretation others made much later. It is mostly a semantic argument, in my opinion, and not vital to believe the three in one interpretation, in order to follow Christ.

Like my children are a part of me and from me, they are also individuals and we are not all the same. The bible is clear that God created mankind. It is clear that God sent his only begotten(born of woman) son, Jesus, a savior as human to save us, and God also supplies the Holy Spirit, a helper in spirit form, to guide us in life.

Have a look at this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/trinity_1.shtml

It says: The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most difficult ideas in Christianity, but it's fundamental to Christians because it:

* states what Christians believe God is like and who he is
* plays a central part in Christians' worship of an "unobjectifiable and incomprehensible God"
* emphasises that God is very different from human beings
* reflects the ways Christians believe God encounters them
* is a central element of Christian identity
* teaches Christians vital truths about relationship and community
* reveals that God can be seen only as a spiritual experience whose mystery inspires awe and cannot be understood logically

I guess it depends on your denomination as to whether that is important, but this is a BBC (English) website and the contents will apply to our Church Of England. They also apply to other denominations here in England - Methodists, Catholics, Baptists and members of the United Reform Church.

It's probably different in other countries, which does go back to my earlier comment that different religions, and different denominations within Christianity, each have their own interpretation of the Bible, and in some cases their own version of the Bible which is different from other versions.

How can every word in the Bible be 'true' when there are so many different interpretations. A good example is the complete misunderstanding of the phrase that a man should not sleep with his brother or another man. This is taken by those who don't like gay people to mean that gay people are somehow 'forbidden' to exist. Those who are gay, or totally accepting of gay people to mean something completely different.

Interpretation is what it's all about, so that naturally leads to discussions including how many angels can sit on a pin head!

These are the only two verses in the entire bible that explicitly deal with homosexuality and they are both part of what’s called the ‘Holiness Code’ from Leviticus 17-26. The holiness codes outlaw a lot of things, like wearing garments of two fibers such as cotton socks and a wool sweater, eating shellfish, getting a tattoo, or working on Sunday. Leviticus also calls for the death of those who commit adultery, or brides who on their wedding night are discovered not to be virgins, or even disrespectful teenagers. There are all sorts of violations that we overlook now because times have changed and what is seen as an abomination has also changed.

There are people who have never heard of Jesus, including ones who came before Christ, who follow Christ more closely than many Christians. Jesus is God in human form that many of us can relate to. The Bible serves as a language to describe Him. God can speak truth through all people and nature, as well as the authors of the Bible. Only you can experience and sense God in your life; no one can do that for you.

There is also not specific mention of abortion. But there is mention that GOD forms and KNOWS Us in the womb, implying that life inside of us is not ours to discard, but HIS, just like any other human he has formed.

There is mention that God created man to have a WIFE, not a husband, and that the desired relations of God are either celibacy (it is good to sustain from sexual relations) or take on a spouse. THere is no place that really varies from that in any way promoting or encouraging other actions.

ADultery is clearly wrong, as an act. And all acts can be forgiven through repentance. but it is not repentance if we dig our heels in and CHOOSE to make those actions the basis of our lifestyle.

I agree, there are all sorts of violations. However, forgiveness is also offered with repentance. It is not offered to those who do not or will not choose to even try to turn away from those violations, at least not for those violations.

The mystery is only that we don't know what God, in the end, will forgive or not. I am of the dream that he may forgive those who are misled and confused, as opposed to those who are merely defiant, because the world gives us many mixed 'moral' messages and it is easy for kids, especially now, to grow up with confused hearts and minds. I think there are a lot of people who seek 'love' through their sexual interactions, rather than merely appeasing lust. I hope such people that society has convinced to equate sex with love are considered for their 'intent', but the Bible also says nothing about that.

It seems to me that the Bible says things about the morality that existed two thousand years ago, but nothing we can relate to these days. Unless of course we try to take the words, translated as they are into modern English, and then interpret them in a way that by amazing coincidence just happens to fit the prejudices of the reader.

Thus different people with different sets of opinions and prejudices will read the same words in the Bible and come to completely different conclusions as to what those words mean.

Such disagreements are held so strongly that they are the cause of wars between different faiths, as witness the Christian persecution of Muslims in the past and the understandable persecution of Christians today by some Muslims. Although it's wrong, it is at the same time very understandable that these things happen.

If there was no Bible and there were no believers, people would no doubt find other reasons to go to war.

The world would be so much better off if everyone just grew up and started to accept other people as being 'different' but not inherently 'bad', just as nice but a bit different. Then we would all be happy!

In terms of not seeing people as inherently 'bad' I completely agree. I think overwhelmingly, people do good and bad things, whomever they are. But only they and their creator can ever know how much of either they have done.