Does God accept all forms of worship?

By the rationale of “what the Bible says”, you’re probably doomed to hell if you’re not Jewish (Old Testament) or Catholic (sponsors of the writing of the New Testament).

If there is a god, I imagine s/he doesn’t need our worship at all. If s/he does, I imagine all forms of loving worship would be acceptable.

If god exists, which I very highly doubt, he/she/they have not made their preferences very clear. How can anyone be sure which is correct? Most religions claim the same things, theirs is the word of god, but that doesn’t make any of it true. There is no more reason to believe one over the other, so the truth is.. no one knows.

Why does it only matter what the Bible says? The Word of God is written places other than the Bible.

I believe that God accepts all forms of worship. Either way, worship does not consist of merely prayer, it is a way of living life.

God doesn’t care what/who/when/where/how you do.

Any god that may exist will respect any attempt to live a good life, if that god is good. Only an evil god would punish people for trying to do the right thing, since it would not be humanly possible to injure or harm a true god, and therefore only our intentions are of worth. Of course that is also assuming that any god that may exist also is interested in humans.

If God exists, I believe s/he would want our respect, not worship.

Yes – and, as history shows, he also accepts virgins, lambs blood, live chickens, genocide all in his name. I imagine he’d also take warm chocolate chip cookies.

or is that me?

George Carlin on Religion and God, he lays it all out pretty well.

…but he loves you. :)
@everephebe That is one of my favorite skits of all time.

@JmacOroni I ♥ George Carlin, however my “Religious Views” on facebook reads: Stephen Fry.
Sorry Sun & Joe Pesci, I’m going with the tall witty gentle gay guy.

George Carlin – Saving the Planet is another brilliant skit. Not that I agree with it all… :D

Thanks for the dose of laughs and truths from George, @everephebe. I’m switching to Joe Pesci.

There are many religions and there are also many Christian religions who claim to follow the Bible – the Word of God. However, comparing the religions I know and talking to people of other religions there is quite a conflict of how to worship.
What did Jesus Christ, one of the most respected religious teachers in history, say on this subject? “Enter through the narrow gate,” he told his disciples. Why? “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”—Matthew 7:13, 14, The Holy Bible—New International Version.
So is Jesus saying that if you don’t worship God then you are heading for destruction?
Jesus also went on to say that there are those who are like sheep in wolves clothing. Also that there are those who say “Lord, Lord did I not do good things in your name” and he says that not all of these will enter into the Kingdom of the Heavens. So clearly, Jesus was saying that not all religions are acceptable to God. It is therefore imperative that we search out the true religion.

I never understood what sort of superior being would need to be worshipped. Isn’t being superior/creator of all things/eternal, etc. a good enough salve for the ol’ ego? What, all of creation has to suck up to it as well? If this were a human being demanding constant worship and praise, we’d say s/he had some sort of narcissism personality disorder.

Thinking people need to ask themselves some questions before they behave. If it makes sense to you, then go for it. “Praising god” never, ever made sense to me, but I thought I had to to be a good person, raised as I was in the Pentecostal church and having converted to Catholicism as a young adult. And then I thought about it.

God is a higher being and what he wants is respect and for us to progress because it helps him progress as well. When we become a higher being he will have advanced even further than he is now. All scripture, churches, religion and for that matter science is only there to help mankind progress. It all works out and in time we will all be like he is now. There is a statement that I grew up with that states. God was what man is and man can become like God is. In a nutshell that is our purpose in life and when we get there we will be available to help others in their progression. It’s GOOD!!! (Jim Carey style).

I believe that God has much more important things to worry about.

No one should be able to answer this question.

What constitutes worship? The Old Testament puts great emphasis on form. Obedience to all of the strictures and rituals of the Mosaic law defined what worship was. The New Testament stood that on its head by saying that it isn’t about the form; it’s about love. If there’s a “takeaway message” from the NT, it’s that love and compassion are the guiding principles, and that they take precedence over any concern with points of doctrine or formalistic considerations.

That was the insight at the heart of all of the “Axial Age” religious and philosophical traditions: it’s about love and compassion, not form. There’s a magnificent poem by Rumi, the 13th century Sufi (Muslim) poet, that captures this beautifully. It has Moses overhearing a shepherd in prayer. The Shepherd is addressing God in very familiar terms:

“God, where are you? I want to help You, to fix Your shoes
and comb your hair. I want to wash Your clothes
and pick the lice off. I want to bring You milk,
to kiss Your little hands and feet when it’s time
for You to go to bed. I want to sweep Your room
and keep it neat. God, my sheep and my goats
are Yours. All I can say, remembering You,
is ayyyyyyy and ahhhhhhhh.”

Moses can’t stand this and berates the shepherd for such doctrinally incorrect language:

“Don’t talk about shoes and socks with God!
And what’s this with Your little hands and feet?
Such blasphemous familiarity sounds like
you’re chatting with your uncles.
Only something that grows needs milk.
Only someone with feet needs shoes. Not God!
Even if you meant God’s human representatives,
as when God said, ‘I was sick, and you did not visit me,’
even then this tone would be foolish and irreverent.”

But then God dresses Moses down :

“You have separated Me from one of my own.
Did you come as a prophet to unite, or to sever?
I have given each being a separate and unique way
of seeing and knowing and saying that knowledge.
What seems wrong to you is right for him.
What is poison to one is honey to someone else.

Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship, these mean nothing to Me.
I am apart from all that.
Ways of worshipping are not to be ranked as better
or worse than one another.
Hindus do Hindu things.
The Dravidian Muslims in India do what they do.
It’s all praise, and it’s all right.

It’s not Me that’s glorified in acts of worship.
It’s the worshippers! I don’t hear the words
They say. I look inside at the humility.
That broken-open lowliness is the Reality,
not the language! Forget phraseology.
I want burning, burning.
Be friends with your burning. Burn up your thinking
and your forms of expression!
Moses, those who pay attention to ways of behaving
and speaking are one sort.
Lovers who burn are another.”

I don’t read Matthew 7:13, 14 like you do, @Butterflies61 . I don’t think the “narrow road” is just another, more doctrinally “correct” set of practices. I think it’s the path of unconditional, selfless love and compassion. Few, indeed, find it. Self-serving behavior is the default “wide road leading to destruction”, and many follow that. Even they will make a show of good deeds, but that’s not what counts. Their heart is still with the self.

@Butterflies61 according to the Bible, the god Yahweh is only interested in certain kinds of worship. He certainly gets mad if you worship other deities. In fact, he commands you to commit genocide against people who worship other deities in the holy land. (Deuteronomy 13:12).

The holy book of your “true religion” also says that the sky is a solid dome that holds up an ocean (Genesis 1), that slavery should be legal (Leviticus 25:45), and that unbetrothed rape victims should marry their rapists (Deuteronomy 22:28). It’s also the only religious text to command genocide (see also Deuteronomy 20:16 and the entire book of Joshua).

So I’m not sure why any sane person would care what this text says, beyond that of historical study. Perhaps you’d care to enlighten me?

Yes——As long as you live a moral life that follows the basic teachings of Jesus, then you are entitled to life everlasting. What that “life everlasting” is, I’m not sure.

I agree with @Faiblesse – who can possibly answer this question? no one.

We all will have life everlasting but some will just progress further than others. It is a matter of what one has learned and accomplished while in this life. Everyone that exists will have the chance to progress to a higher being and everyone will in time.

According to the Summum cult.

Likewise, according to the videogame Final Fantasy X, when you die your spirit goes to a very beautiful place called the Farplane, and fallen civilizations can exist forever in the dream world generated by saints who turn themselves into stone.

I love the games of Final Fantasy and have played most of them. Oh by the way there is no cult that I am aware of that I am a member of.

Okay, Summum “religious tradition.”

My point was that you keep on making these posts and saying things as if they were objective facts… rather than, you know, completely unevidenced claims based on a fictional belief system (and a very obscure one at that).

My claims are my own and they are fact for me because I have been through it and seen the things that I speak of. I am not a member of Summum but I am friends with many of them and I do meet with them sometimes in their pyramid on Thursdays.

@Qinqu. I think you are a little out of date there. We are no longer under the Mosaic law so many of your points are now irrelevant. The Laws as they were then were for a reason, that reason no longer exists as Jesus Christ did away with those laws with the sacrifice of his life.
As to the dome over the earth – sorry you lost me on that one.

@dxs According to the Bible, Life everlasting is living forever on a Paradise earth. Psalm 37 v 9 – 11 and also v 29 refer to such. Revelation 21 v 3 & 4 show that there will be no more pain or suffering.

@Butterflies61, so you believe that Jesus abolished the old laws?

Even so, why would that mean it would be wrong to follow the Mosaic law? I understand that Christians believe that we don’t have to follow the laws to be saved (because of grace), but I don’t really see how this translates to “It is wrong to follow God’s laws.” You don’t have to look both ways when you cross the street as an adult, but that doesn’t imply it’s wrong to do so.

Re: the sky dome, see Genesis 1:6.

And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky.

The Hebrew word translated as “dome” here is raqiya, which means “that which is hammered out.” It’s also sometimes translated as “firmament,” or “expanse.” What’s clear is that the raqiya (which God calls Sky) is solid. Because that’s what the word means. And also because it has “windows” that God opens to let the rain through in the flood story. Rain comes from the ocean (the “waters”) that is above the sky. The sky is a solid expanse that holds up this ocean.

The sky-dome also holds the sun, moon, and stars. See Genesis 1:14. They’re “set in” the dome. In Joshua 10, God stops the sun (and moon) from revolving around the Earth. So everything you’ve been told about heliocentrism is wrong too, according to the Bible.

This shouldn’t be surprising, because it’s exactly what everyone in ancient Mesopotamia believed about the shape of the earth, and the Bible is Mesopotamian mythology.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . Salivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Is our Salvation, The Precious Gift from God?
Is Salvation our just reward, for good works?
Were we Commanded, to earn our Salvation?
Are corporal vehicles lease agency contracts?
Why do His Creations require His Forgiving?

Did God plan this need for Him to Forgive us?
He Created our needs and knows our desires.
Is Forgiveness the best thought through plan?
In owning a monopoly on Forgiveness of sin,
God Wields The Power to charge us any price.

Many gladly pay in advance, with their lives.
Planned puppets, offer Him their obedience.
Profits are Created, to build imaginary need.
Minions of God, lead us to believe trumpery.
As we make believe, we trumped our enemy.

We boldly avow, belligerent vicious censure,
Sowing misinformation, to vilify and malign,
His victims preference, as vile hostile heresy.
We fervently champion the paragon of bigotry,
Our ignorance triumphs in perpetuity, by stealth.

Exploited by the power of glittering gold alters,
Few can see the light, fewer become The Light.
Mankind is one of Natures ambitious Miracles.
God takes the jubilant praise and glory Himself,
With the fairness of a conniving cowardly pimp.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . – J. Allison

▪ “All religions are paths leading to God.”
Oh, Hell no!

▪ “It doesn’t matter what you believe if you are sincere.”
Oh, Hell no!

John 14:6 Jesus says “No one comes to the Father but by Me!”
Even Soloman, the smartest man who ever lived, weakened his beleifs in advanced age, and allowed icons of other gods in his home. God punished him for this.
The Bible tells of God punishing those who give inappropriate sacrafices.
You will excuse me if I don’t think of George Carlin as one of the prophets of the Lord. Yes, it’s funny and all, but it isn’t His Word.

Some people are qualified and can and have answered this question in books. People that have died, gone to heaven or hell, and come back.

Heaven is for real A young boy’s account of his four minutes in heaven.

23 Minutes in Hell

Akiane (her parents were atheists and Akiane had no religion in her life)

@SpatzieLover, regarding “Heaven is for real,” this is the kid who reports that Jesus’ eyes are blue like a stormy sea, right? LOL

What do I know. Maybe the kid really did go to heaven. Surely 11-year olds never make shit up for attention. Likewise, parents are never gullible and/or charlatans.

From Amazon:

He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how “reaaally big” God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit “shoots down power” from heaven to help us.

I’m pretty sure I saw that Adventure Time episode, too.

@SpatzieLover

I’ve had several near death experiences, and the time when my heart stopped, I have to tell you…
I experienced nothingness… And it was beautiful.

Death means it’s over. True nothingness is incomprehensible, and completely unfathomable… It’s amazing, beautiful and peaceful & well, no words describe it.
I experienced nothingness, just try and wrap your head around that. If it doesn’t blow your mind… nothing will. :D

NDE explained.
10G is heaven.

By the way this is my 666th response. :D

@everephebe I did not share above, because I’ve shared it many times before here in Flutherland my mother’s personal account of her experience in heaven.

@SpatzieLover Did you click the link?

link

@everephebe I don’t consider Penn & Teller to be experts on heaven or peoples accounts of their personal experiences

@SpatzieLover Not them, the Air Force guy!

I’ve been there and came back and I’ve talked with many that have passed this mortal existance. Life is an opportunity to experience and learn what it is we need to evolve/progress to a higher level of existance. There are many that are watching us as we are being prepared for the change. It is about time for that to take place and it will be wonderful. It is called the Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord. The Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel has now been fulfilled. That is a key to what is next.

@Butterflies61
but the bible is an exaggeration. It is not meant to be taken literally. Did God really create the world in seven days? It’s just to grasp the concept of there being no pain and suffering but only happiness in heaven.

Ask God. Be prepared to wait a very long time for an answer.

@SpatzieLove Nobody has ever died and returned to tell about it. Some people have suffered cardiac arrest and had no pulse for a time, then been brought back around, but they were not brain dead. What they “saw” while in cardiac arrest could be real or could be a product of intense and unusual brain activity. But once all electroencephalographic activity in a person’s brain ceases, they are gone. They are then actually dead. And nobody has ever come back from that sort of real death to share their experiences.

@ETpro The explanations that so many science and physcologists give are an attempt to explain how something they can’t understand is. I really get that it is difficult to believe in something that does not have solid evidence for an explanation and I really do appreciate that fact. But for most that have these experiences will tell you totally different and tell you they were there and saw things that science cannot explain. I know it is something that those who need to have an explanation for everything have come up with to explain things. And I don’t doubt but what those who explain it as some sort of activity in the brain that causes it but it is only something that happens when the brain is this way or that. Now I hope you don’t think this is an attack by any means whatsoever. I am just telling you that I understand those that cannot except that something really did happen and it was not physical nor was it measurable through any science. Just please talk to the actual people who know what happened to them. Not some of them who have now been convinced by others who keep telling them things were not what you saw but here is an explanation. Talk to those that have been there and touched, saw, talked and had an experience that science cannot explain or understand because it is not a physical thing. There are many and science doesn’t have the answer. We do we were there. Just a thought @ETpro because I do respect how intellegent you are and very good your comments are.

@Summum You can see things that science can’t explain in a dream, or under the influence of drugs such as LSD or particularly DMT. You’re welcome to believe in whatever you wish. But science is not falling apart when it refuses to accept things because there is no tangible evidence for them. It isn’t saying that they do not exist, only that it can’t conform their existence. Here is a humorous tape that explains my attitude and the scientific method beautifully.

People who believe in mutually exclusive Gods have, during near death experiences, seen the heaven they expect to see or the hell they are sure exists—not the one that obviously erroneous competing religion says they should see. Now if they were seeing the one and only true heaven, you’d think it would look the same to all. We wouldn’t find a heaven where God the Father, The Holy Ghost and Jesus hold court, another where there is just Allah and 76 virgins, and another heaven where Krishna and a whole pantheon of Gods rule.

@ETpro Yes I know that science is not falling apart but they cannot solve all the problems nor can they explain them all. True there is no physical tangible evidence but that doesn’t mean things of that nature doesn’t exist. Science is a wonderful tool and it has helped mankind tremendously but it is not an answer all for everything. It cannot be. I do understand and love the science and how it searches for answers. That is my purpose in life is to find answers and science cannot answer them for me. But my experiences do and have answered them for me. I just want to show I hold nothing at all against science and I want all to know our science is very limited by the limitations of our imperfect 3 dimensional world.

@Summum Duly noted. In fact, I said above that science hasn’t answered everything. That’s no reason to quit asking, though. Had we done that, we’d still be walking around on a flat earth and dying on average at the age of 35.

@SpatzieLover, why do you believe your mother went to heaven?

@thorninmud How did Moses know of the “I was sick and you did not visit me” passage? It wasn’t written till over 1500 years after Moses’ death.

@FireMadeFlesh Oh sure. Rumi was not interested in creating an historically accurate document. His “Moses” is just a straw man representing all those who are sticklers for form. To hell with chronology. Yay for poetic license.

@thorninmud Fair enough, I shouldn’t take it too literally. However I can’t agree with you that self-serving behaviour is the default. In my opinion, the default behaviour is well-intentioned ignorance. When a natural disaster occurs, even the most self-absorbed people sympathise, and some even donate to help out. Humans are fundamentally good – we just get too absorbed in other things to focus on whether or not our actions are actually doing good.

@FireMadeFlesh That’s actually what I think too. I say pursuit of self-interest is our default mode, not our fundamental nature. When events shake us out of our self-involvement, we often show our expansive, compassionate nature; but that’s not where we tend to hang out. Most of the time, we’re busily chasing our desires in one form or another. That’s where our minds go by default under ordinary circumstances.

@Qinqu. Hebrews 9:16 says that a covenanter must die for a covenant to become valid. But God made the new covenant, and he did not die. So how can we understand this verse?
We read at Hebrews 9:15–17: “So that is why he [Christ] is a mediator of a new covenant, in order that, because a death has occurred for their release by ransom from the transgressions under the former covenant, the ones who have been called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance. For where there is a covenant, the death of the [human] covenanter needs to be furnished. For a covenant is valid over dead victims, since it is not in force at any time while the [human] covenanter is living.”
God is the actual maker of the law covenant but he stated that he would make a new covenant. The book of Hebrews, specifically Chapter 9 shows the various roles Jesus played in regard to this new covenant. Just as Moses was the mediator between the Isrealite nation and God, so Jesus is the mediator between mankind and God. The difference being that Moses did not have to offer up his lifeblood, animals were used whereas with the new covenant Jesus offered up his lifeblood.
With regard to the dome. I am with you now.
Specifically, the earth has an abundance of liquid water; it is located at the right distance from the sun; and it contains the right mixture of atmospheric gases, including large amounts of oxygen.
in the creation account on Day Two God made an expanse by causing a division to occur “between the waters and the waters.” Some waters remained on the earth, but a great amount of water was raised high above the surface of the earth, and in between these two there came to be an expanse. God called the expanse Heaven, but this was with relation to the earth, as the waters suspended above the expanse are not said to have enclosed stars or other bodies of the outer heavens
Genesis 1:6 says that God produced the “expanse,” or atmosphere then, verses 11 and 12 describe God as causing grass, plants, and trees to appear. All of this is evidence of the existence of oxygen, which later would make it possible for man and animals to sustain their lives by breathing.

@dxs The Bible is not an exaggeration. However, it is also symbolic. For instance, the earth was not created in 7 literal days. The Bible tells us that 1 day is as 1000 years with God, so we have no idea really of how long it took him. But the Bible does tell us he rested on the 7th day and we are still in that day of rest.

@Butterflies61, that’s not really a straight answer.

I asked you if you thought Jesus abolished the old laws. You gave me a spiel about mediation. I understand the mechanics of Christ’s salvation. The question is, is it wrong to follow the laws God gave Moses now? I understand it’s not “necessary,” but is it “wrong”? Please answer this question.

As for your explanation about the raqiya, you are incorrect. The waters above the raqiya do enclose the stars and the sun and moon, because these bodies are set in the raqiya. The Bible understands celestial bodies as moving lamps set in the solid dome of the sky.

I also utterly fail to see how you get anything to do with oxygen from the description of the raqiya.

@Qinqu. Yes I did answer the question, you obviously don’t understand. As Jesus is the mediator through his sacrifice, we are no longer required to offer sacrifices for offences against the Mosaic law. Christ did away with the old law and gave us a new law. The Kingly Law.
The “kingly law” rightly has the prominence and importance among other laws governing human relationships that a king would have among men. (Jas 2:8) The tenor of the Law covenant was love; and “you must love your neighbor as yourself” (the kingly law) was the second of the commandments on which all the Law and the Prophets hung. (Mt 22:37–40) Christians, though not under the Law covenant, are subject to the law of God and his Son, the King Jesus Christ, in connection with the new covenant.
If you are adhering to the Kingly Law, then you probably keeping the old law anyway apart from the fact we do not have to offer animal sacrifices.
As to your 2nd point, I am not wrong. ‘Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters.’ Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so. And God began to call the expanse Heaven.”—Genesis 1:6–8.
Some translations use the word “firmament” instead of “expanse.” From this the argument is made that the Genesis account borrowed from creation myths that represent this “firmament” as a metal dome. But even the King James Version Bible, which uses “firmament,” says in the margin, “expansion.” This is because the Hebrew word ra‧qi′a‛, translated “expanse,” means to stretch out or spread out or expand.

1. You didn’t answer my question. I know you don’t think we have to follow OT laws anymore. I asked if you think it’s wrong to follow OT laws.

2. I’m not sure why you brought up the KJV. We can go back to the original Hebrew.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7549

The raqiya is a solid object, according to the Bible. And the sun, moon, and stars are set in it.

And while I think it’s rather obvious that Genesis borrowed from Babylonian myths (most notably the flood story), that’s neither here or there.

@Qinqu I think you are nitpicking here. If we are under the Kingly Law which encompasses the Mosaic law it is obviously not wrong to follow the OT laws. However, because the Mosaic law was for the benefit of the people they did not require a police force, health service or social services as we know them today. Those laws ensured that people acted honestly with one another and also took care of their health issues and social issues. For example, the fact that a life for another ensured they did not commit murder – if it was an accidental death then they had the cities of refuge to flee to and had to obey the regulations whilst residing there. With regard to the rape of a virgin if she did not call out at the time then she was held as much responsible as her rapist, if she did call out then the death penalty was called for on the rapist,. Slaves were not slaves as we know them, it was to help them should they fall into financial difficulties and after 7 years were then “set free”.
As for the sky being solid – I have never heard of that. If that were the case, how come satellites and space rockets etc can go up. If it were solid they would not be able to penetrate space!!

The Aaronic law was fulfilled by Christ and now it is the Melchizedek law or higher law that is on the planet. The Dome of the Rock was built it 691 after Israel was over taken and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed. They Jewish people no longer offer up sacrifices because they no longer have a temple alter to do so. It makes the people of Israel Desolate.

@Butterflies61, a couple of points.

• First of all, it’s interesting that you sound like a moral relativist. I also take it you disagree with God when he proclaims in Deuteronomy 4:2 that the OT laws are the best ever, and that all societies on Earth should look at them and marvel at their wisdom. Jesus also said people who follow the laws and urge others to do the same will be called “greatest” in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17), and Paul called the law “holy, just, and good” (Romans 7:12). But it sounds like you prefer American-style laws to the Mosaic ones.

• You are mixing up virgin rape with married-woman rape. If a guy has sex with someone else’s property (i.e. another man’s wife), then the crime that is being committed is adultery. If this happens in a city and the woman doesn’t scream loudly enough, it is assumed she is party to this adultery, and she is stoned along with the man. However, if a man rapes an unbetrothed virgin, it’s not adultery (she isn’t married), so he isn’t killed. The girl is the property of her father, which is why the rapist must pay her father the brideprice: you break it, you buy it. This may seem barbaric to us but of course God knows best when he characterizes women as property and gives us laws that do not punish rape for rape’s sake.

• You are talking about Hebrew slaves. It’s true that Hebrew slaves are set free after 7 years. Foreign slaves, however, were not. See Leviticus 25:45. Also, you could legally beat your slaves as much as the Romans beat Jesus before they crucified him (Exodus 21:22). How is that different from American slavery of blacks?

• Why can satellites and rockets penetrate the raqiya? Well, if you believe what the Bible says, clearly they can’t and all of modern science and technology is lies. You might also ask how scientists can believe the earth revolves around the sun, when the Bible says the sun is set into the dome of the earth’s sky. Or how there can be at least 1.5 million species of insects when the Bible says Noah hand-collected every animal and brought them on the ark.

The other option is, of course, that the Bible is Mesopotamian mythology. Have you considered this possibility?

“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche

The Bible certainly does not say that all paths lead to God. But maybe the Bible is wrong. Why is that the standard by which we are judging? There are other putative holy books, and nothing distinguishes one as more accurate than any other. Reflection on what a truly good God would have to be like, however, might lead one to think that claims to the effect that there is only one way to please God are human exaggerations.

That said, sincerity is probably not the proper standard either. A belief can be both sincere and irresponsible. But it does seem like only an unreasonable God would punish human beings for using the rational capabilities He gave them just because He didn’t also give them enough evidence to reasonably conclude that He exists. If there is a God, and if any single religion is correct to the exclusion of all others, then it is largely by luck that anyone has come to such conclusions.

@Butterflies61 I see that much of the text (aside from the scriptural citations) in your answer above has been copied and pasted from elsewhere. I see you’re new to Fluther, but the understanding here is that if text is copied from another source, it should be in quotes and the source credited.

@thorninmud – excuse me. I am not copy and paste. What I write is what I know and believe.I read and study a lot. Do you mean to say that what information I glean from every publication has to be “quoted” if that is the case I might as well tell you every word comes from either the Bible, the dictionary, encyclopedia, reference books of all types including creation, etc.

It’s when you use text copied verbatim from another source. For instance, I see that this text—“A woman who has been raped has a right to be highly offended, as this is a major crime in God’s eyes. Under the Mosaic Law, a man who raped a woman was to die “just as when a man rises up against his fellowman and indeed murders him.” (Deuteronomy 22:25, 26) While we are no longer under that Law, it gives us insight into how Jehovah feels about rape—a horrible wrong.”—also appears in exactly the same form here.

And this paragraph—“The Bible makes it clear that God does not approve of ‘man dominating man to his injury,’ and this would include abusive slavery. (Ecclesiastes 8:9) For example, God’s Law to Israel stated that kidnapping and selling a human being was punishable by death. (Exodus 21:16) True, a system of servitude existed among God’s ancient people, but that did not resemble the tyrannical form of bondage. Indeed, the fact that some Israelite slaves chose to remain with their master when they were eligible for release is clear indication that slavery among God’s people was not abusive.”—appears here and other places.

Using information gleaned from elsewhere is fine, but when you’re actually using whole sentences (or more) composed by someone else, that calls for quotes and a citation.

This text is also stolen, and has been stolen several times: “True, a system of servitude existed among God’s ancient people, but that did not resemble the tyrannical form of bondage. Indeed, the fact that some Israelite slaves chose to remain with their master when they were eligible for release is clear indication that slavery among God’s people was not abusive.”

It can be found, with minor alterations, here, here, here, and here. Indeed, Google searches for the key phrases yield quite a few results.

[mod says] Plagiarized content removed. Sources must be cited.