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"Sciene and religion"

For some people it's straight forward, for some they're not bothered and those who can't decide (Agnostics), because I find that each of the topic need more info :

Science
1.The Big Bang Theory - a logical idea, but where does the all the matter in the univrse come from in the first place? Which is compressed in very small space and then exploded.

2.How did the first creatures came into existence out of a stable environment?

3.How did the Big Bang created resources on earth?
e.g metal ores, soil, etc


Religion
1.How did God appear in existence and then create life; perhaps something else created God?

2."God love and care" for people, yet if bad things happen to good people why doesn't God do something about it.

3.How does religion explains the end of life when the sun turns into a red giant and explodes creating a black hole and sucking anything near it?

Which leads me to conclude on my theory that:
God created Earth and all life, then let the people to decide whether they believe in God or not.
Assuming God is in existence, God thought about what life materials life would need and created them within Earth?
The end of life when the sun enlarges and the explodes, perhaps too many people sinned? God did not intend for life to carry on?

Any ideas?

For me, Religious "punishment and reward" trivializes things.
Surely Life isn't God's gameshow? Win and you get the holiday of a lifetime in Paradise. Lose and you're sent packing.

That IS the test - correctly guessing who the correct examiner is! ;-)

Ant wrote:

> Personally, I see life as a bit of a test, with many moments that you
> can enjoy along the way. Pass the test, get into Heaven. If you don't,
> then I suppose its Hell.

Although in most tests, there aren't 100 different examiners marking you on different criteria, each one saying that their marking scale is the only correct one, thus making it impossible to pass according to every single examiner.

So why is sin bad?
What is God punishing for?
Is "sin" disobeying God? Do we burn in hell for not doing everything we were supposed to? (I mean, that would make free will the most unfair burden in the world...)
Or is it for hurting other people?
So God's way of dealing with it is causing you more pain for the pain you caused them, causing them more pain for the pain they caused you...

And who in the world deserves to burn in hell?
An eternity with no hope of relief?
And remember this is coming from the supposed source of all love...


Don't get me wrong, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus but this whole "judgement" thing just doesn't add up...

FinalFantasyFanatic wrote:
> I'd say "don't do this or you'll burn in hell, suffering in
> eternal torment for all of time" could probably be classed as a
> restriction.

People still do it though, don't they? People still sin. Is His word a restriction on you? Surely not, since you don't appear to even believe in him. I don't see exactly what your problem is anyway, look at the 10 Commandments - do not kill, do not steal etc. Unless you're a mass murdered, adulterer who loves to break into people's houses all the time, it's hardly going to hold you back, is it now?

Personally, I see life as a bit of a test, with many moments that you can enjoy along the way. Pass the test, get into Heaven. If you don't, then I suppose its Hell. Living your life in a certain way is definitely part of it, but a relationship with God is just as importanr. Because as I've said before, if there was an absence of sin here on Earth, or if it wasn't 'possible' for us to commit sin, we'd already be in Heaven...so it would all be a bit pointless really.

Tutututut.

Not paying attention ... +3 sins

Ant wrote:
> God simply set out guidelines, he hasn't placed restrictions.

Oh yeah, "do what I say or burn in hell".
No restrictions!

edit: FFF :' }
I hadn't read on!
don't punish me

Meh; always bugs me when religious types say "If it wasn't for (insert chosen holy book), mankind would be robbing, raping, and slaughtering!!"

Guess what; mankind does all that anyway. Mankind has also been caring for others, showing compassion, displaying love and tenderness...all of this since way before someone compiled a book and used it to try and claim credit for the better part of human nature.

To try and claim that a particular holy book is responsible for all that is positive about humanity is a fairly ridiculous thing to say. Sure, it can offer some good pointers ("Thou shalt not kill" is pretty much undeniably a good thing. Unless one is faced with Kilroy whilst in posession of a rusty iron stick), but it is not, and is never, the sole source of whatever your chosen faith defines as "good".

Ant wrote:
>He set
> out guidelines for how we should live our lives, and to be honest, if
> we did all live as the Bible teaches us (and that includes me, because
> like all Christians I'm by no means whatsoever perfect), then the
> World would be a far better place.

That only goes so far, though, doesn't it?
Yeah, the 10 commandments - fair enough.

But it's when you get to the burning / flogging / stoning of slaves / hos / gays / non-believers when things start to get a little fuzzy.

Ant wrote:
> Oh, so you would prefer life if murder was an everyday, normal thing?
> And you think life would be FAR better if rape was approved of?

When did I ever allude to that?

I simply said that the absense of sin would allow people to do what they wished much more easily, when you seemed to think the opposite.

> God simply set out guidelines, he hasn't placed restrictions.

I'd say "don't do this or you'll burn in hell, suffering in eternal torment for all of time" could probably be classed as a restriction.