Intelligent Design ruling

[mtrycrafts]

Its nice to see religious organizations acknowledge that ID is NOT science based and does NOT belong in biology classes. Philosophy / Theology that’s another story.

Intelligent Design NOT Science: Vatican Paper

The previous Pope had no problem accepting evolution. It is the hard core fundamentalists who will never accept it, never.
The Vatican has some exceptional scientists among their ranks.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Oh, C'mon now

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060127/ap_on_re_eu/did_jesus_exist

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

The problem with the atheist is the church is a totally voluntary organization... or is it???

 

[furrycute]

Does anyone still pay the Church 10% of his/her annual income?

 

[mtrycrafts]

The problem with the atheist is the church is a totally voluntary organization... or is it???

Well, their members are members partly based on fear, no? Fear of going to the underworld? And through brainwashing? They set up the conditions.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Does anyone still pay the Church 10% of his/her annual income?

I try to pay myself, my own church with membership of one

 

[JohnOAS]

Does anyone still pay the Church 10% of his/her annual income?

Yep, tithing is far from dead. I know for a fact some of the evangelical christian cults here require it (sorry, strongly encourage it, no church would demand anything would they? "Give whatever you can brother, or burn in hell!!").

Statistically Australian's are a comapritively non-religious bunch, so imagine if we've got 'em here, there'll be bucket loads more elsewhere. Our evangelical groups are mostly offshoots of US based cults anyway.

 

[furrycute]

Is tithing tax deductable? If it is, it's not such a bad thing.

 

[JohnOAS]

Is tithing tax deductable? If it is, it's not such a bad thing.

It certainly is here in Australia. Donations to churches are generally classified in the same way as donations to registered charities here.

Personally I think the churches ought to pay the tax on member donations, (insert your favourite deity here) knows the churches get enough tax breaks already. In fact we have a lot of businesses complaining about the unfair playing field, as some of the churches are quite savvy about buying businesses and/or operating them in ways affiliated with the church so as to receive such tax breaks. I wont cut and paste large slabs of text here, but here's a link for those interested in such things.

Hillsong Ratbags info on the Hillsong cult. In the interests of fairness, you can visit the Hillsong web mothership here. Always amusing.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I love all these upstart style churches. You see these so called "pastors" driving around in their Lexus LS430's and Jags, and wonder - man, they've already reached Heaven. Why preach?

Here's a perfect example. They've been in and out of trouble here in central Ohio for years.

http://www.pfo.org/parsley.htm

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

How do these churches get followers? Are there seriously a large number of traditional church members who spontaniously think "Gee, what I really need is a belief system thats 342% more total horseschit. yeah, that'll solve all my problems. I'll go drink some strychnine and juggle a snake."

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

How do these churches get followers? Are there seriously a large number of traditional church members who spontaniously think "Gee, what I really need is a belief system thats 342% more total horseschit. yeah, that'll solve all my problems. I'll go drink some strychnine and juggle a snake."

You should see the billboards on the extreme southern end of town. This is the blue collar side of Columbus, and people do two things down there - drink, and collect welfare checks. If they see a promise for a better way of life on a billboard, man, they're there.

 

[Leprkon]

One day all the scientists came before God. They told Him he was no longer necessary, as they could use DNA and other processes to do anything He had done.

Gold told them to make a man the same way He did. The scientists bent over and grabbed a handful of dirt and said "NO PROBLEM".

God simply said, "unt-uh.... you make your own dirt"........

 

[Leprkon]

Does anyone still pay the Church 10% of his/her annual income?

this is a really interesting point... Other than Abraham, who gave 10 % of all he had once when he met Melchizadech, and an unnamed rich person, who gave a third of all he had to the poor, the Bible never said anyone had to give 10 % of everything to "the church", but "to God"

In several places, it actually describes the people "giving" the tithe as "eating it within the walls of the temple".... The priests would historically stop by each table and take a select portion from each table, but there was no 10 %.

If read directly, you give 10 % to God, not to the church (or to a pastor/priest/rabbi/cult leader).... As long as you are honoring God with your gift, you meet the wording of the Bible.

 

[JohnOAS]

If read directly, you give 10 % to God, not to the church (or to a pastor/priest/rabbi/cult leader).... As long as you are honoring God with your gift, you meet the wording of the Bible.

How do you give 10% to god anyway?

A rabbi, a priest, and a minister are discussing what they do with donations to their respective religious organizations. The minister says that he draws a circle on the floor, throws the money up in the air, and whatever lands in the circle, he gives to God, and whatever lands outside the circle, he keeps. The priest uses a similar method. He draws the circle, but whatever lands outside the circle, he gives to God, and whatever lands inside, he keeps. The rabbi has a slightly different method of dividing the money. He throws all the money up in the air. Whatever God wants, he keeps...

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

John OAS: How do you give 10% to God anyway?

Plant a tree - a really big tree.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Plant a tree - a really big tree.

How about a tall building? I haven't seen a tree lately that comes even close to 1000ft

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

How about a tall building? I haven't seen a tree lately that comes even close to 1000ft

How about half that height? Try to guess the age of the oldest tree.




The oldest tree in the world is the called the Methuselah Tree and it is a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata var. longaeva, also called simply Pinus longaeva). This wind-blasted, gnarled tree is 4,767 years old, and is located in California's White Mountains.

An Australian eucalyptus, at Watts River, Victoria, was over 150 m (492 ft.) tall.

Info taken from ecoworld.org

 

[The Dukester]

How about a tall building? I haven't seen a tree lately that comes even close to 1000ft

People already tried that; the tower of Babel. You see what happened after that. I give at least ten percent to God through my church. Leprkon is correct. The New Testament does not mention a certain amount to give, just to tithe. Ten percent is a good guideline as it was used in the OT. Give whatever God tells you to, though, and you will be good to go. It all belongs to Him anyway.

 

[JohnOAS]

People already tried that; the tower of Babel. You see what happened after that. I give at least ten percent to God through my church. Leprkon is correct. The New Testament does not mention a certain amount to give, just to tithe. Ten percent is a good guideline as it was used in the OT.

I would recommend a quick read of the wikipedia article (here) or just google it. The exact amount is going to come down to how much faith you have in the translators of the "original" bible, which obviously wasn't written in English.

Give whatever God tells you to, though, and you will be good to go. It all belongs to Him anyway.

Do you mean this figuratively, in otherwords, whatever "feels" right according to some sort of intuition interpreted as God's will, or do you actually receive direct messages about how much to give? I'm not being facetious, I know some people really do believe this.