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Only three times. ;) I think it's the best movie about Christian believes and Bible. I mean thisQuote:
Originally Posted by PadexArt
is the very esense of the Bible. And still, you can't find that quote in the Bible. ;)Quote:
Jesus said...the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood...and I am there, lift a stone...and you will find me.
Let us assume for a minute that God exists. He created the universe and everything in it. All the planets. All the stars. All the animals, insects, plants etc.
So out of all those fabulous things he created.... why does he ask man alone to worship him? Why don't the animals and insects have to worship him? It can't be based on intelligence since there are other species (e.g. chimpanzees) who are almost as intelligent as man and at least one species (dolphins) is believed to be more intelligent. So why, of all these, is man alone singled out? If worship is important to God, why didn't he give all his creations the ability to worship?
Does God think that man is something special among all his creations? I doubt it. If I was God, I reckon I'd think that stars were the most special thing in my universe. The simple fact is that it's MAN who regards himself as something special. But man is no more special than any other creature. Man just happens to be more dextrous.
God is important to man - but it's just human arrogance to believe that man is important to God.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you here. There are many other inteligent species, but none can be compared with humans in terms of inteligence.Quote:
It can't be based on intelligence since there are other species (e.g. chimpanzees) who are almost as intelligent as man and at least one species (dolphins) is believed to be more intelligent.
Not according to science, Cilu. The average dolphin is more intelligent than the average human. It was only their lack of limbs that prevented them from being the dominant species on the planet.
Can you point me to some experiments/tests that shows dolphins are more intelligent than humans?Quote:
Originally Posted by John E
You know, perhaps dolphins worship a god too? How would you know they don't? ;)
Here's a starting point for you, Cilu but the evidence is pretty well documented. By all the accepted means of measuring intelligence - including behavioural testing as well as examining physical aspects of the brain (size of cerebral cortex / frontal & perietal lobes etc) dolphins come out as being considerably more intelligent than primates (including man). Of course, there are many sceptics because we can't actually prove the theory, one way or the other. However, if the measurements are to be believed, the evidence is compelling. According to that artical, a dolphin's perietal lobe alone is bigger than a human's perietal and frontal lobes combiined (the perietal lobe is believed to be the one that makes sense of the world).
There is also anecdotal evidence that dolphins might even regard man as being God - but again, this is questionable and it can't actually be proved. There's a good possibility that such a theory might just be another manifestation of human arrogance...!
I wonder what those dolphins are thinking of us humans ;)
There's a wonderful quote from Douglas Adams's Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy that goes something like this.....
" Humans believed they were more intelligent than dolphins because they toiled and built things and worked hard whereas dolphins spent all day splashing around in the water and having a good time. However, the dolphins believed that they were the more intelligent species - for exactly the same reason!"
Well, you know... it doesn't matter after all. We have send member of our species to the moon, broken the atom, erected buildings to the sky, created CodeGuru and so many, many other things. All this time dolphins... kept swimming... ;)
And it is said that we are using only 5-10% of our brain capacity...
But let's try to stay on the topic.
don't be so formal with me;)...i ain't no politician...you can simply said somthing like: "I demand your answer at once!!!"...then I maybe saying something like: "Sir, yes Sir! But my grandmother had no tooth, sir!"...then, you try to punch my tummy while I avoiding it...or something like that... :DQuote:
Originally Posted by cilu
anyway, I'm a healthy Antartican who can eat 10kg of penguins non-stop...hunting walrus is my expertise..and you can try polar bear back-riding at my ranch...but just make sure you can handle the sea lion first before involve in such dangerous hobby...
ok..on the serious note :ehh: ...an Asian guy living somewhere in the Asia continent...and sometimes having trouble to behave myself...so, if you found an Asian guy with no table manner, that's me...
on the Darwin issue...this theory is a wackiest theory I've ever heard...this guy had no idea what he's assuming about...
in some ways, we lived to follow the sun but the moon have to follow the earth....but then I can also assuming that the sun didn't have enough gravatical force to pull the moon to migrate around it...the great sun that can pull 9 planets to obey its force didn't have enough strenght to make even one moon to succumb to its force?..so, another Darwin will try to justify this with more assumption...no solid prooof, just another assumption is enough to fool the world... :rolleyes:
for the main issue, the God...it's easy to say to someone that they'd pulled the blinder tighter if they start to think about God existence...but for me, they're actually pull the blinder off their eyes...
my 1st chapter in searching for God was started when a broken rib man told me this: "WYGIWYG..God that has no begiining nor end is just...argh..my eye".....laid down on a couch, when I closed my eyes to sleep, I see the darkness with no beginning and also no end...the poor man's word came in my head...but then I chuckled by saying this: "then the darkness also a God", my mind tricked me...but after several days, the parable still in my head before I started a light search for God....
//I believed the earth is flat when it's created then it evolved to become a sphere...
Agreed - but I think I've asked a valid question here.... Out of all the fabulous, wondrous things that God supposedly created - why is man the only creation required to worship him?Quote:
Originally Posted by cilu
Sorry if this is kind of late. I left work early yesterday. :D But here's what I've found out. Let me focus on the topic about Jacob.
Genesis 32:30 says: "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." If you are using that point to argue that Jacob has wrestled with God himself, then it would be conflicting with what John 1:18 says: "No man has seen God at any time."
So the question now is, who did Jacob grapple/wrestle with? Why did he say he has seen God face to face? To help us find the answer, let's consider the other instances in the Bible where a man has come "face to face" with God.
One example is in the 6th chapter of Judges. Here find an example of a man speaking to God through an angelic representative. Judges 6:11 identifies the message bearer as God's angel." There we read: "Later the LORD's angel came and sat under the big tree that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while Gideon his son was beating out wheat in the winepress so as to get it quickly out of the sight of Midian." This messenger, "God's angel," is thereafter represented as if he were God himself. Take a look at Judges 6:14,15 where it reads: "Upon that the LORD faced [Gideon] and said: 'Go in this power of yours, and you will certainly save Israel out of Midian's palm. Do I not send you?' In turn he said to him: 'Excuse me, LORD. With what shall I save Israel?'" So we can see here that the materialized angel seen by Gideon and with whom he spoke is represented in the Biblical account as if he were God himself. In Judges 6:22, Gideon says: "I have seen God's angel face to face!" The angel spoke precisely what God told him to speak. Therefore, Gideon spoke with God through his angelic spokesman.
Consider, too, the case of Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson. This account also speaks of the angelic messenger as "LORD's angel" and "the angel of the true God." (Judges 13:2-18). In Judges 13:22, Manoah says to his wife: "We shall positively die, because it is God that we have seen." Although he did not actually see God, Manoah felt that way because he had seen the materialized personal spokesman for God.
So in light with the above examples, it is now possible to understand why Abraham addressed the materialized angelic spokesman of God as if he were talking to God himself. Since this angel spoke precisely what God wanted to have said to Abraham and was there personally representing Him, the Biblical record could say that “God appeared to him.”—Genesis 18:1.
Also, an angelic spokesman for God could transmit His messages just as precisely as a telephone or a radio can transmit our words to another person. Hence, it can be understood how Abraham, Moses, Manoah, and others could speak with a materialized angel as if they were talking to God. While such individuals were able to see these angels and the glory of God reflected by them, they were not able to see God. Therefore, this in no way contradicts the apostle John’s statement: “No man has seen God at any time.” (John 1:18) What these men saw were angelic representatives and not God himself.
In Jacob's case, not only did he speak with a materialized angel of God, he also wrestled with it. But it doesn't mean that it was God lost over Jacob. The question is, why did God let Jacob win over his angel? But that's a different topic.
EDIT: The point is, the Bible record could say "God appeared to him" or that men have "seen God" through angelic messengers but not God himself. I'm just sharing the Bible's answer on that one point.
I have never heard that suggestion to be honest. Fascinating link though.Quote:
Originally Posted by John E
at one time sure, If we do use most of our brain at the same time, that is called an epileptic seizure :pQuote:
Originally Posted by cilu
we do use pretty much all of our brain for the various things we do though.
is the assumption that God directly created everything implicit? or is there also the possiblitiy that we evolved to our current state? One possibility is that we were chosen, since we are the only species capable of worshipping God.Quote:
Originally Posted by John E
While Chimps and other great apes do show quite significant evidence of spirituality, it tends to be far more related to nature (rain dances and so on) or simpler things in life. Perhaps they worship these things in their own way.