| | Matthew, you wrote:
I see more than just rules in Christianity, Alien Youth. I see a religion that condemns me as evil because I possess reason, emotion, and volition. I can think, feel, and choose -- and by Christianity's standards that makes me a sinner. Remember the myth of Adam and Eve? Original sin?
I see more in Christianity than mere rules. I see pure evil. A truly loving god would not demand servility, blind faith, fearful obedience, and self-negating worship of its creations. Considering what your Bible says God demands of his followers, I can only conclude that you worship a demon.
I have to say, it seems to me you're reacting against your experience of the Catholic "Church" rather than Christianity: Papal infallibility, auricular confession, justification by works, Mary worship, transubstantiation, idolatory and pagan rituals - all these heresies were exposed in the Reformation as non-Biblical.
Humour me for a moment while I talk about God as if He exists and created us. He gave us a means of survival, our reason. Of course He wants us to feel - it is one means by which He relates to us. Volition? He desires that we choose to know Him - He doesn't force it, but gives us free will. So, reason, emotion and volition are not sinful, although some of what we feel and desire can be.
Having chosen to obey God's commandments, through a reasoned faith, you can trust His purposes by the nature of who He is. Indeed, His rules concur with our own moral sense and are certainly not pure evil, (even if some Catholic dictates have been). And He expressly forbids any worship of His creations - that is idolatory. Considering what you say the Bible says God demands of his followers, I can only conclude that you have not read it. (It's futile to read it unless you believe in God - return to that first.)
CatG, at least you've not thrown out God with the Catholic Church; let me address your question:
As a believer in God, which is the truer portrayal of his word - A human being standing before you created in the perfection that God intended or a series of stories told to generation after generation, transcribed and translated until it reached the form that we find it in today?
Without the Bible, how do you know what "God intended"?
The Bible is not simply a series of stories that devolved into their present form. If you sincerely look past the liberal spin and into the question of the historicity of the Bible, you'll discover it's a trustworthy document that records actual events. (I touched a little on this matter in regards to the New Testament in the "Near Death Experiences" thread.) You attribute creation to God - how much easier is it to believe that through a desire to communicate with His created beings He has inspired and preserved the writings of certain men? Believing in God, you'll discover this is the only conclusion to be drawn.
God authenticates His Word, and therefore it is authoritative. Thus, we know we do not share the original perfection of the first humans, Adam and Eve, but are made after their image, post-Fall. We are imperfect - religious or not, we all know this.
I accept that many homosexuals believe their condition is part of who they are, but must defer to the Biblical diagnosis. Some have become Christians and have gotten rid of this demon. Others are used by Satan as fodder for scumbag politics (none of those here, I know), or to splinter churches. No self-righteousness here, I have plenty of my own faults; condemn the sin, not the sinner.
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