christian individuality

[connermt]

At what point did the individual interpertation become more important than the christian guidelines?
- Bob says smoking is a sin. His 'brother-n-christ' Larry says it's not a sin.
- Mary says abortion is a sin, while another member of the same church says it is, but only in certain circumstances.
- Mark wants prayer in public schools, but Scott, his pastor, doesn't.
- Mike wants the church to stay out of the gay marriage debate - saying the legality of it is not the church's business. Kay, a member of the same church, is heading up the DOMA champaign and disagrees with Mike on this issue entirely.
In all four scenarios, each person is basing their POV on specific scripture, individual experience, and what "god's telling them".

Is it possible for individual people to believe in the same god, yet have different POVs on the same topic(s) while providing scripture to support their claims? Looking around, the answer is YES, but why?
Why, if there is a right & wrong to each item, doesn't there seem to be a communication from 'up on high' to the individuals showing the right and/or wrong way?

Christianity allows a high degree of individual interpertation. Is that a good thing?
Why or why not?

[redo]

Is it possible for individual people to believe in the same god, yet have different POVs on the same topic(s) while providing scripture to support their claims? Looking around, the answer is YES, but why?
Why, if there is a right & wrong to each item, doesn't there seem to be a communication from 'up on high' to the individuals showing the right and/or wrong way?

Christianity allows a high degree of individual interpertation. Is that a good thing?
Why or why not?

Look at all the different religions who use the bible as their guide, and it is evidence to something. You have all these different people believing that God is showing them a different way, and some are even willing to die for what they believe.
God sees this and yet allows all the confusion as though He isn't worried about it at all. That should tell us that all the confusion is a part of the big plan.
When I look at the world I see a bunch of people believing what their circumstances in life has brought to them. That's just exactly what I would expect to find if God has chosen to give us free will, and allow us to attempt to save ourselves as we make our own choices of what we will believe.
Its sad but it is a good thing, because this is what has to happen if we are to learn how to live through eternity without destroying each other. This confusion will only last for a little while. There is coming a day when God will put an end to all the confusion, and peace will come at last. It will have to be a God thing, because we will never learn to love each other without God's help.

[Dantalion]

Is it possible for individual people to believe in the same god, yet have different POVs on the same topic(s) while providing scripture to support their claims? Looking around, the answer is YES, but why?
Why, if there is a right & wrong to each item, doesn't there seem to be a communication from 'up on high' to the individuals showing the right and/or wrong way?

Christianity allows a high degree of individual interpertation. Is that a good thing?
Why or why not?

Look at all the different religions who use the bible as their guide, and it is evidence to something. You have all these different people believing that God is showing them a different way, and some are even willing to die for what they believe.
God sees this and yet allows all the confusion as though He isn't worried about it at all. That should tell us that all the confusion is a part of the big plan.
When I look at the world I see a bunch of people believing what their circumstances in life has brought to them. That's just exactly what I would expect to find if God has chosen to give us free will, and allow us to attempt to save ourselves as we make our own choices of what we will believe.
Its sad but it is a good thing, because this is what has to happen if we are to learn how to live through eternity without destroying each other. This confusion will only last for a little while. There is coming a day when God will put an end to all the confusion, and peace will come at last. It will have to be a God thing, because we will never learn to love each other without God's help.

Well, you could start by letting every denomination rewrite the bible in a way they see fit and thn call it 'denomination X's bible'
when a document can be interpretted to be both against and in favor os slavery, and that document is supposed to be holy scripture you get your morality from, that is a big, big problem.

[connermt]

Is it possible for individual people to believe in the same god, yet have different POVs on the same topic(s) while providing scripture to support their claims? Looking around, the answer is YES, but why?
Why, if there is a right & wrong to each item, doesn't there seem to be a communication from 'up on high' to the individuals showing the right and/or wrong way?

Christianity allows a high degree of individual interpertation. Is that a good thing?
Why or why not?

Look at all the different religions who use the bible as their guide, and it is evidence to something. You have all these different people believing that God is showing them a different way, and some are even willing to die for what they believe.
God sees this and yet allows all the confusion as though He isn't worried about it at all. That should tell us that all the confusion is a part of the big plan.
When I look at the world I see a bunch of people believing what their circumstances in life has brought to them. That's just exactly what I would expect to find if God has chosen to give us free will, and allow us to attempt to save ourselves as we make our own choices of what we will believe.
Its sad but it is a good thing, because this is what has to happen if we are to learn how to live through eternity without destroying each other. This confusion will only last for a little while. There is coming a day when God will put an end to all the confusion, and peace will come at last. It will have to be a God thing, because we will never learn to love each other without God's help.

Confusion is a good thing? Seems that confusion causes people not to follow god, which isn't something god is said to want.
I would expect that a deity, who is interested in our eternal souls and has all abilties, would allow for free will, while not allowing for confusion. It would all "make sense", even to the most mentally challenged among us. Yet, this isn't what's seen in the real world.
To me, that doesn't equate to a great, good, solid plan, but a cluster_____.

[Dantalion]

Is it possible for individual people to believe in the same god, yet have different POVs on the same topic(s) while providing scripture to support their claims? Looking around, the answer is YES, but why?
Why, if there is a right & wrong to each item, doesn't there seem to be a communication from 'up on high' to the individuals showing the right and/or wrong way?

Christianity allows a high degree of individual interpertation. Is that a good thing?
Why or why not?

Look at all the different religions who use the bible as their guide, and it is evidence to something. You have all these different people believing that God is showing them a different way, and some are even willing to die for what they believe.
God sees this and yet allows all the confusion as though He isn't worried about it at all. That should tell us that all the confusion is a part of the big plan.
When I look at the world I see a bunch of people believing what their circumstances in life has brought to them. That's just exactly what I would expect to find if God has chosen to give us free will, and allow us to attempt to save ourselves as we make our own choices of what we will believe.
Its sad but it is a good thing, because this is what has to happen if we are to learn how to live through eternity without destroying each other. This confusion will only last for a little while. There is coming a day when God will put an end to all the confusion, and peace will come at last. It will have to be a God thing, because we will never learn to love each other without God's help.

Confusion is a good thing? Seems that confusion causes people not to follow god, which isn't something god is said to want.
I would expect that a deity, who is interested in our eternal souls and has all abilties, would allow for free will, while not allowing for confusion. It would all "make sense", even to the most mentally challenged among us. Yet, this isn't what's seen in the real world.
To me, that doesn't equate to a great, good, solid plan, but a cluster_____.

I miss my old nickname

[dianaiad]

I miss my old nickname

Don't. Your new one, if you do some digging into it, says pretty much the same thing, only punnier and snootier. I like it.

[redo]

Confusion is a good thing? Seems that confusion causes people not to follow god, which isn't something god is said to want.
I would expect that a deity, who is interested in our eternal souls and has all abilties, would allow for free will, while not allowing for confusion. It would all "make sense", even to the most mentally challenged among us. Yet, this isn't what's seen in the real world.
To me, that doesn't equate to a great, good, solid plan, but a cluster_____.

If you will kindly allow me to ponder what God has to be doing if He is a good God, maybe we can make sense of things.
Before God created mankind He already knew what we would be capable of. He knew the horrors that would come if He allowed us to have free will because of our pride and self-centered ways. Yet for His on reasons He decided to create us anyway, but not without a plan to help us conform to His righteousness.
From the beginning God has been allowing mankind to make our own decisions about how we will live our lives. However we have a problem, because we are a bunch of sinners and our sins are killing us. Sin has caused all the suffering we see in this world, and God isn't going to allow it to continue on forever.
To end the sin problem God has chosen to allow us to rule our own lives for a while and experience the consequences that comes from our many sinful mistakes. When this is over the horrors that came to this world will be enough to keep us from ever sinning again. This thing is all playing out right here on planet earth, and when it is over there will never be any sin again, because what it has caused here will be enough to keep all creation from ever going there again. God is good, but our sin has cause a lot of bad things to happen in this sick world.
God can do anything with His creation, and if He chooses to show us the horrors that can come from the consequences of sin by allowing us to live our own lives the way we want in this world. We will recognize the evil that our way has caused, and we will all be changed. God has a great plan, even if it is hard while we are going through it.

When we die and leave this life, a new life begins in which we will never die again, so we had better know how to live in it or the future would be worse than living in the movie Nightmare on Elm Street. Eternity would be a long time to spend with a bunch of evil sinners.

[connermt]

Confusion is a good thing? Seems that confusion causes people not to follow god, which isn't something god is said to want.
I would expect that a deity, who is interested in our eternal souls and has all abilties, would allow for free will, while not allowing for confusion. It would all "make sense", even to the most mentally challenged among us. Yet, this isn't what's seen in the real world.
To me, that doesn't equate to a great, good, solid plan, but a cluster_____.

If you will kindly allow me to ponder what God has to be doing if He is a good God, maybe we can make sense of things.
Before God created mankind He already knew what we would be capable of. He knew the horrors that would come if He allowed us to have free will because of our pride and self-centered ways. Yet for His on reasons He decided to create us anyway, but not without a plan to help us conform to His righteousness.
From the beginning God has been allowing mankind to make our own decisions about how we will live our lives. However we have a problem, because we are a bunch of sinners and our sins are killing us. Sin has caused all the suffering we see in this world, and God isn't going to allow it to continue on forever.
To end the sin problem God has chosen to allow us to rule our own lives for a while and experience the consequences that comes from our many sinful mistakes. When this is over the horrors that came to this world will be enough to keep us from ever sinning again. This thing is all playing out right here on planet earth, and when it is over there will never be any sin again, because what it has caused here will be enough to keep all creation from ever going there again. God is good, but our sin has cause a lot of bad things to happen in this sick world.
God can do anything with His creation, and if He chooses to show us the horrors that can come from the consequences of sin by allowing us to live our own lives the way we want in this world. We will recognize the evil that our way has caused, and we will all be changed. God has a great plan, even if it is hard while we are going through it.

When we die and leave this life, a new life begins in which we will never die again, so we had better know how to live in it or the future would be worse than living in the movie Nightmare on Elm Street. Eternity would be a long time to spend with a bunch of evil sinners.

There's much grand and imaginative thinking there. Quite a fun read. What I find odd about this whole concept you outlined is the human-like thinking that seems to be attributed to the very non-human god. It seems that if god could do anything, this life, as it is with the sin, punishment, etc wouldn't be necessary.
Many people say "you can't have darkness in light" or "you can't know love without knowing hate" or a myriad amount of other opposite comparisions. Yet, with god, all things are possible. ALL things.
This means, by definition, you could have free will (since christians love to harp about FW and how that makes everything OK in regards to responsibility) and not be punished by death, hell or any other negative/bad thing life's full of.
Could god make hot water cold? Yes.
Could god make short tall? Yes.
Could god make life sinless without having to worship, or even know, him? Yes.
But he didn't. To me, that speaks to a very questionable deity - to say the least.

[redo]

There's much grand and imaginative thinking there. Quite a fun read. What I find odd about this whole concept you outlined is the human-like thinking that seems to be attributed to the very non-human god. It seems that if god could do anything, this life, as it is with the sin, punishment, etc wouldn't be necessary.
Many people say "you can't have darkness in light" or "you can't know love without knowing hate" or a myriad amount of other opposite comparisions. Yet, with god, all things are possible. ALL things.
This means, by definition, you could have free will (since christians love to harp about FW and how that makes everything OK in regards to responsibility) and not be punished by death, hell or any other negative/bad thing life's full of.
Could god make hot water cold? Yes.
Could god make short tall? Yes.
Could god make life sinless without having to worship, or even know, him? Yes.
But he didn't. To me, that speaks to a very questionable deity - to say the least.

I love knowing that you can enjoyed reading my post. Its not necessary that you believe the things I say, but that you do read what I write is very much appreciated.
The God who created everything we see around us is capable of doing anything with the things He created. To me believing hat He can do anything is no problem to accept. However I understand how you see things differently. In your view God should just be able to cause us to reject sin like He gives instinct to the animals. If God can cause a joey to climb into its mother's pouch after being born, why couldn't He cause us to not sin by instinct in the same way.
If we did everything by instinct we wouldn't be like Him, and I think that is the reason, because God created us to be like Him. We are like God in that we have free will, unlike the animals. Birds that fly south for the winter just know what to do to follow the warmer weather, but how do they know that. God gave them that ability, so He could have given us the ability to refuse the sin that has caused so much suffering if He chose to do it that way.
God could have done a lot of things, but He knows the best way to fix the sin problem so that we can be like Him and live forever. He created the universe, so I will trust Him to know the best way things need to be done to get the results He wants for the future.

[alive]

Is it possible for individual people to believe in the same god, yet have different POVs on the same topic(s) while providing scripture to support their claims? Looking around, the answer is YES, but why?
Why, if there is a right & wrong to each item, doesn't there seem to be a communication from 'up on high' to the individuals showing the right and/or wrong way?

Christianity allows a high degree of individual interpertation. Is that a good thing?
Why or why not?

Look at all the different religions who use the bible as their guide, and it is evidence to something. You have all these different people believing that God is showing them a different way, and some are even willing to die for what they believe.
God sees this and yet allows all the confusion as though He isn't worried about it at all. That should tell us that all the confusion is a part of the big plan.
When I look at the world I see a bunch of people believing what their circumstances in life has brought to them. That's just exactly what I would expect to find if God has chosen to give us free will, and allow us to attempt to save ourselves as we make our own choices of what we will believe.
Its sad but it is a good thing, because this is what has to happen if we are to learn how to live through eternity without destroying each other. This confusion will only last for a little while. There is coming a day when God will put an end to all the confusion, and peace will come at last. It will have to be a God thing, because we will never learn to love each other without God's help.

At least a atheist isnt confused...We might not have all the answers but we do have some...And we dont male up any as we go..