Christianity OT | Gold Necklaces With A T On It

Thread: Christianity OT | Gold Necklaces With A T On It
Nymphae said:
I like what Lennox was saying along those lines, he uses an analogy of a woman baking a cake and there being a panel of the worlds top scientists invited to test it, and tell us everything about it. They tell us literally every mechanical thing they possibly can, from each discipline, from the particulars of chemistry to how it will taste, etc.

But then they are asked, why did she bake it?

You literally cannot answer this question with science. It's unobtainable information. It needs to be revealed to you, intentionally by the person, and you will never be able to figure that aspect of the universe out scientifically.
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When materialists hear "why", they revert to scientific "cause and effect". So the Why for the cake (which they hear as the initial Cause for the cake) is because some chemicals in her skull sloshed this way, just so, which began the movement toward the pans and the cookbook, and then some hormones pushed some emotions, and some memories sparked other memories, and the skull meat moved the muscles in her hands, and she baked the cake.

"Why" doesn't truly exist in the secular world. It's a metaphysical question. Some materialists go as far as to agree that "Why" doesn't exist in their paradigm, explaining that Why is just a convenient social tool for human-apes to better organize our species.
 
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DonDonDonPata said:
When materialists hear "why", they revert to scientific "cause and effect". So the Why for the cake (which they hear as the initial Cause for the cake) is because some chemicals in her skull sloshed this way, just so, which began the movement toward the pans and the cookbook, and then some hormones pushed some emotions, and some memories sparked other memories, and the skull meat moved the muscles in her hands, and she baked the cake.

"Why" doesn't truly exist in the secular world. It's a metaphysical question. Some materialists go as far as to agree that "Why" doesn't exist in their paradigm, explaining that Why is just a convenient social tool for human-apes to better organize our species.
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Yeah that is where they would go with it for sure, but it doesn't actually answer the question for them simply because there is an explanation that doesn't violate natural laws. Without the personal revelation, this specific information is entirely unknowable to science, thus it cannot tell us everything about the universe.
 
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Walking my yard today and looking at the flowers juuuust beginning to come up. We have some bulbs coming up, and some flowers already blooming, as well as "weed" like speedwell (top) and wild violet (bottom)

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These throwaway weeds are pretty, but they are annoying. They crowd out grass and aren't very easy to get rid of. I don't mess with them too much but I'm also not the empty-headed "every weed is just a plant out of place" sort of gardener. Reminds me of Jesus' saying:

And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?​
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Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'​


I thought of the concept less poetically and more... technically. How would a jeweler or a clothier make something like this for Solomon? I thought. Seems like it would've been pretty hard back then. The flowers are very fine/thin, especially the speedwell. So to weave a cloth and cut it and sew it in such a small, delicate shape would've truly been a tough job, beyond the technology of ancient times. Nowadays the result might use plastics or polyesters to pull off the effect but how close would the imitation be? If God can so casually fill my lawn with flowers more intricate than the best human imitations, I can trust God to provide for my needs. I can walk my bare feet over the reminder of this truth, in a yard provided in exactly such a way.

I have found a lot of comfort reflecting on how God provides for me and my family, thinking back over tough times of my life where I was pulled through. David understood

I will remember the works of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds.​
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Meditating on these things is a good habit. Not that a person should always dwell on the past or replay past victories/traumas in their head during the day. However, I try to remind myself how God kept my foot secure in such-and-such situation, thinking on the details of the story while praying about how it resolved. It's a way to help narrate my own life and remind myself / anchor myself on the truth that has carried me.

When it comes to apologetics, I think there's a ton of value in learning christian history and learning arguments from famous christians of the past. This is nutrition for our faith. But examining our own lives for evidence of Jesus' guiding hand is a more intimate, mundane practice that christians should embrace as well. The inner life of a christian is often neglected as long as we are attending the proper amount of church (per our denomination and culture). Pray and reflection in that secret place where no one except the Father can credit us or pat us on the back is the genuine kingdom of christianity.
 
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I grew up devout Mormon. I did not figure out that it was all a fraud until about 18 months ago, now in my forties.
I am now trying to figure out my blind spots from growing up in Mormonism and understand better about the world, myself and this new paradigm of seeing life, the universe, and everything. What books would you recommend that I read? So far I've read:
  1. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  2. Free Will by Sam Harris
  3. Waking Up by Sam Harris
  4. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
I would be interested in reading a book about the major world religions, their beliefs and history. I want to understand better morality without religion. And I am open to any titles on other topics you suggest that you think would help deprogram my brain.


why do these people hate mormons so much?
 
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Snes nes said:
I grew up devout Mormon. I did not figure out that it was all a fraud until about 18 months ago, now in my forties.
I am now trying to figure out my blind spots from growing up in Mormonism and understand better about the world, myself and this new paradigm of seeing life, the universe, and everything. What books would you recommend that I read? So far I've read:
  1. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  2. Free Will by Sam Harris
  3. Waking Up by Sam Harris
  4. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
I would be interested in reading a book about the major world religions, their beliefs and history. I want to understand better morality without religion. And I am open to any titles on other topics you suggest that you think would help deprogram my brain.


why do these people hate mormons so much?
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Sorry not sure what you're asking exactly, are you looking for books on Buddhism and Hinduism, I think a general religion thread would be a better place to seek those answers.
 
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@Snes nes if you're open to recommendation, I would read through the gospels and read a book specifically about how Mormonism twists scripture. I've known several mormons and jehovah's witnesses over the years who woke up to what their denomination was doing and turned away from the gospel entirely. Without knowing more about you personally I would ask that you don't turn away from the christian Bible, just know that you were lied to by "wolves in sheep's clothing". Jesus Christ and his gospel are true. Searching through buddhism and atheism won't answer your convictions toward mormonism.

EDIT: oh looks like I didn't grasp the meaning of your post. I dunno all of the reasons for why they hate mormonism, but it does have some sketchy doctrines / practices that go beyond traditional christianity.
 
I was brought up to be religious, both parents and grandparents were Christian. But turned Atheist in my teenage years and if i was honest was probably arrogantly so. Was anti religion and looking back ultimately believed in nothing. I can see why now though as a lot of media absolutely dunks on religion, well Christians anyways and i got heavily influenced by that. And it still does, recently saw a trailer for young sheldon on TV and they chose a clip of him being anti religion and god. Wow so edgy!

But sometime in my mid 30s i had an epiphany if that's the correct word, and i can't remember what the catalyst was but i returned back to a more faith based belief. And would probably have fallen into the Agnostic category, i didn't want to believe in nothing as that's just pointless afterall? Plus seing all the degeneracy and vacuous behaviour that soceity now promotes as normal and healthy i felt i didn't belong in that world.

Now i fully believe in a creator or grand architect, there's too many coincidences for all of this to be random so long story short I've gone full circle back to being religious and would happily identify as a Christian now.
 
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teezzy said:
What's the biggest different between Orthodox and Catholic?
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I'm posting this while recovering from a gigantic Easter lunch 🥴🥴🥴

For laypeople, it's the often different Easter date, Byzantine style icons vs statues and the lack of seating in Orthodox churches. Some Orthodox churches and countries run on the old calendar which is 13 days behind, but all celebrate Easter on the same date because that's based on the lunar calendar.
The Holy Fire miracle is pretty cool. Makes for a cozy Saturday watch on TV and by midnight the fire arrives in many churches in Eastern Europe.


Other differences nobody cares about unless you're clergy:
- Papal primacy is not respected
- some Orthodox churces are autocephalous (they don't answer to the Patriarch of Constantinopole, but they're all friends unless political bullshit comes up)
- Orthodox priests can marry
- the Orthodox don't kneel during prayer (you can do it but nobody cares)
- Catholics use unleavened bread in their rituals, the Orthodox use leavened bread
- different Easter meaning: for Catholics, salvation was achieved because Jesus paid the price with his suffering. In Orthodoxy, it was achieved through Jesus's triumph over death.
 
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So I didnt mention it here but my grandmother passed last Wednesday. She was one of the key figures of my childhood, a second mother in a sense, who continually guided me to church every Sunday (and a big ol' breakfast at the local Coney Island after mass). I still attend that church fwiw.

Either way, today is her viewing, and tomorrow is the funeral where I've been granted the opportunity to read the Prayer of the Faithful

To say I'm nervous about choking up there due to sadness is a huge understatement

Either way, just wanted to share that here.
 
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teezzy said:
So I didnt mention it here but my grandmother passed last Wednesday. She was one of the key figures of my childhood, a second mother in a sense, who continually guided me to church every Sunday (and a big ol' breakfast at the local Coney Island after mass). I still attend that church fwiw.

Either way, today is her viewing, and tomorrow is the funeral where I've been granted the opportunity to read the Prayer of the Faithful

To say I'm nervous about choking up there due to sadness is a huge understatement

Either way, just wanted to share that here.
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Sorry to hear. Did you have lots of contact with her after your mother's passing? Must be extra difficult. Don't worry about crying, I know I would.

edit: father's side?
 
teezzy said:
So I didnt mention it here but my grandmother passed last Wednesday. She was one of the key figures of my childhood, a second mother in a sense, who continually guided me to church every Sunday (and a big ol' breakfast at the local Coney Island after mass). I still attend that church fwiw.

Either way, today is her viewing, and tomorrow is the funeral where I've been granted the opportunity to read the Prayer of the Faithful

To say I'm nervous about choking up there due to sadness is a huge understatement

Either way, just wanted to share that here.
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that sucks bro I wish her the best.
 
Fushitsusha said:
Sorry to hear. Did you have lots of contact with her after your mother's passing? Must be extra difficult. Don't worry about crying, I know I would.

edit: father's side?
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Mom's adopted mom. My mom and her sister flew here directly from Poland in the 70s. Grandmother was 93, technically my great aunt - I think. Either way, we were very close. She was grandma, while my Dad's mom was "grandma 2" almost. Out of all her grandkids, her and I were closest. I was always over doing yardwork/chores, she even used to buy me cigarettes when she figured out I smoked at like 17 :LOL:. Nobody else in the family smoked but her so we'd bond over cigarettes, black coffee, and Diet Pepsi. We were friends moreso than just family members.Growing up, my mom had legit mental health issues (psych ward stuff) and my parents were dirt poor so my grandmother would contribute and help out constantly. You don't forget things like that, y'know?

I actually have been living in her old house here for the past 7 years or so while she was in the nursing home. Taking care of it, paying the bills, admittedly making it my own more than I ever shared with her. Guess I'll be actually be buying it shortly. It's very strange to think about, but it's super important to me to keep a place like this in the family. That's neither here nor there though. Just rambling.

I don't really cry. It's weird. I'm sure I'll break at the viewing. I don't even like seeing people like that. So cold and lifeless compared to how I recall them.

Sometimes you wanna stop the world from changing, and no matter how deep you dig your heels, you can't prevent it. Shame.
 
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Nymphae said:
I like what Lennox was saying along those lines, he uses an analogy of a woman baking a cake and there being a panel of the worlds top scientists invited to test it, and tell us everything about it. They tell us literally every mechanical thing they possibly can, from each discipline, from the particulars of chemistry to how it will taste, etc.

But then they are asked, why did she bake it?

You literally cannot answer this question with science. It's unobtainable information. It needs to be revealed to you, intentionally by the person, and you will never be able to figure out that aspect of the universe scientifically.
Click to expand...
What's the Christian/religious answer to same question? I tried searching the comments for a timestamp but couldn't find one, and those debate formats are too terrible to watch the whole thing.
 
I finished Early Christian Lives, a short compilation of christian biographies from about 350AD to 550AD which consists of

The Life of Antony, by Athanasius
The Life of Paul of Thebes, The Life of Hilarion, The Life of Malchus, by Jerome
The Life of Martin, by Sulpicius Severus
The Life of Benedict, by Gregory the Great

A very great blessing that modern christians can easily find these and read these, and bless Jesus for preserving the church to keep these documents over the centuries. I enjoyed reading through these a lot, and I will re-read them again. The focus is on the christian ascetics during the critical time that followed directly after of the Arian heresy ripped through the church. The Catholic and my Eastern Orthodox churches are faithful to preserve these stories and teach about these christian saints, but it's not as common in the Protestant milieu.

Reading about their humility and wisdom has sharpened my own conviction toward abstinent behavior / fasting / refraining from things as a means of disciplining my spirit and walking toward Jesus.
 
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teezzy said:



I found this very informative
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I think the main difference between Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant is that all three have their own definition of how "essential" the church is to salvation and to the community of Christians.

On one end of the spectrum, Protestants admit the basic need of a church but do not ascribe absolute doctrinal power to the church. For me (a Lutheran) this is a blind spot, because we can thump on sola scriptura all day long but that document was preserved and canonized by the CHURCH. It's illogical. Protestants need to reevaluate sola scriptura because it isn't actually a biblical doctrine. At the core, The responsibility of salvation and obedience to Christ is on the individual, so while the church is a divine gift, salvation can be won outside of the church.

Orthodox are kind of in the "middle", as their doctrine says that "we know where salvation is found, in the Orthodox Church". They don't straight up deny the salvation of non Orthodox but they leave that to God instead of codifying explicit doctrines and papal bulls.

Catholics have traditionally been straight-up "if you're not Catholic and partaking the Catholic rites and sacraments, then they're not valid and you're doomed", more or less.

All three stances admit the church is necessary for the transmission of Jesus' gospel and for the Christian community, but disagree on the matters of ecclesiastical authority on earth. Protestants lean heavily on "my kingdom is not of this earth" while on the other end Catholics lean heavily on "on this Petra I will build my church" and keys of heaven and stuff.

I believe we're all brothers in Jesus if we worship him in spirit and in truth, as scripture says. Our denominations are valuable arguments and disagreements because we should not be lazy with the gospel entrusted to us, but ultimately we must live by the law of love ("and they shall know you by your love for one another") and not despise other denominations.
 
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Frankly, I'm Catholic because that's how I was raised and what I know. Spent a long time during my teen years resenting it all and have found so much comfort in my recent return. I have a lot to learn and re-learn coming at all this with an adult mind.

The Orthodox stuff seems super appealing though. I love the traditionalism of it all. Bells, stained glass, and incense galore.

I should invest in a nice cross later this year
 
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My wife went to the church in Riga today to light candles and say her prayers for people. She usually does this every second Sunday but today she woke up and said she had a bad dream about her family in Ukraine.

Thats my religious story for today.

I took the kids out bike riding, no one fell off and no scratches which is a god given miracle itself
 
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King of Foxes said:
My wife went to the church in Riga today to light candles and say her prayers for people. She usually does this every second Sunday but today she woke up and said she had a bad dream about her family in Ukraine.

Thats my religious story for today.

I took the kids out bike riding, no one fell off and no scratches which is a god given miracle itself
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This prompted me to look up Christianity in Latvia and I was surprised to see that Lutheranism is the main denomination followed by Catholicism.
 
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