LOL "There are none more ignorant and useless, than they that seek answers on their knees, with their eyes closed" ..... trying to 2nd guess what every other poster they have on ignore is saying.
Then what "is the f'n" purpose in your trying to imagine a "power" that could be anything the Universe itself is not? Why do that? You say something cannot come from nothing ...so where did your "power" come from?? By postulating it , you're only question begging aren't you?
Those stories about the miracles of Christ were meant to be symbolism. They were not intended to be taken literally. There is truth in the Bible as it pretends to how to live which was the purpose of the teachings of Christ . Christ basically says that you are what you think. That the key to life is a positive attitude. If you could get past your immaturity and fears you could learn a lot by studying some of the stuff he taught. You have to understand that Christ taught no Theology what so ever. "The Church" was invented by Man for power and control.
why does there always have to be a purpose to all this? is that Freud's SUPER EGO talking ya, you have a purpose that purpose is to mate with as many females as you can. there it is that's what your here for are you going to argue with that!
I use to own an employment agency years ago. There is a large church around the corner that I have been helping with "Job Fairs". Actually we are doing some work on it tomorrow. I am not a member of the Church and basically told a couple of people who told me that I was welcome to join etc that I had no interest in it. That I didn't believe the way they did and quite frankly told them that Church was a sad place to go to see all these people being told "stuff" that wasn't true. People go to church to hear the truth but are being told fairy tales. A book that I found back in 1990 or so started me on the path of reconcilling the stuff taught in the church with what Christ was really all about is called "The Sermon on the Mount" tha was written by a guy named Emmet Fox. The book was written in 1934. It was the first book I had found that made sense out of the Bible. http://emmetfox.wwwhubs.com/ "The first thing that we have to realize is a fact of fun-damental importance, because it means breaking away from all the ordinary prepossessions of orthodoxy. The plain fact is that Jesus taught no theology what-ever. His teaching is entirely spiritual or metaphysical. Historical Christianity, unfortunately, has largely con-cerned itself with theological and doctrinal questions which, strange to say, have no part whatever in the Gospel teaching. It will startle many good people to learn that all the doctrines and theologies of the churches are human inventions built up by their au-thors out of their own mentalities, and foisted upon the Bible from the outside; but such is the case. There is absolutely no system of theology of doctrine to be found in the Bible; it simply is not there. Worthy people who felt the need of some intellectual explanation of life, and also believed that the Bible was a revelation of God to man, drew the natural conclusion that the one must be with-in the other; and then, more or less unconsciously, pro-ceeded to manufacture the thing that they wished to find. They did not have the spiritual or metaphysical key. They were not upon what is called the Spiritual Basis, and consequently they sought a purely intellec-tual or three-dimensional explanation of lifeâand there can be no such explanation."
Well I guess it's better than hanging out with drunks in a bar. There has always been the general teachings for the masses and esoteric for the adept.
This is what you wrote. "Satan is God's proctor, pass his tests you win." Yes, I reject that. Test what? Win what? Eternal life? I have that without the test or the winning. Get to heaven, or condemned to hell? Neither exist, except in the here and now as a result of our actions. I'm past all that right and wrong, good and evil, rewards and punishment nonsense. It makes no sense. There is only the Creator of the light AND the dark. The Creator has no human qualities. It's only function, that I can understand, is to provide balance. I believe there may be other reasons for a Creator to exist, but don't know exactly what they are, yet. Light/positive energy and darkness/negative energy occupy the same space and the same time in a spiritual sense. Both are there for us to tap in to. Light is not good, darkness not evil. They just exist, both as a result of the Creator. Where those with opposing views and I part company is they ask why does there have to be a Creator? I say there has to be? Those that are of the Agnostic or Atheist persuasion ask valid questions. Who is this Creator? Who created the Creator, and why? Those are valid questions and I don't have the answers. I seek those answers, even if it comes to pass that I am wrong. Where you and I part company, both of us believers in something, is you seem to have put a personality on God, one that very closely resembles that of a Sociopath. See qualities below: 1. Contemptuous of those who seek to understand them 2. Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them 3. Authoritarian 4. Secretive 5. Paranoid 6. Only rarely in difficulty with the law, but seeks out situations where their tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned, or admired 7. Conventional appearance 8. Goal of enslavement of their victim(s) 9. Exercises despotic control over every aspect of the victim's life 10. Has an emotional need to justify their crimes and therefore needs their victim's affirmation (respect, gratitude and love) 11. Ultimate goal is the creation of a willing victim 12. Incapable of real human attachment to another 13. Unable to feel remorse or guilt 14. Extreme narcissism and grandiose 15. May state readily that their goal is to rule the world Worship that? Never! Now if I'm wrong in my assessment of your beliefs, then could you please explain to me just one simple thing to start with. Why the need for a "test", of any sort, let alone my faith?