₦airaland Forum

~Lady~:
It tells me that these people didn't think the way we do because they didn't live in our time. And that in order for us to understand what they wrote, we have to understand how they thought. Instead of thinking how we do today, think how they did then. You will then understand what their message is.

I believe Noah's story took place, I just understand how it is he thought. I don't think he knew that the earth wasn't flat and that there were other people who lived in other places in the world. I think he thought that the world was what he could see. So the world he knew is not the world we know, so don't use the world we know as a standard to the world he knew.
It might say world, but you have to understand what world meant to him.

The Bible should be read as it was written and not as if it was written today.

I thought he was looking at the world through God's eyes, since most christains believe that the bible is God's word written by people inspired by him? Will an all knowing God inspire someone to write something so wrong? what about the tower of babel? I just want to know how you understand all these stories.

tpia:
back up your claim with facts.

The first thing I can advise you to read is Job. That one comes to mind immediately.

Why does God encourage people to praise him, give offerings unto him and spread his word? I stand to be corrected but are'nt all this methods of affirming his existence?

chukwudi44:
Please anybody forcing you you give money to the church is a thief and should be treated as so

I wonder why God the greatest provider still need people to give him money.

tpia:
I don't see why God has to show Himself just because people are doubting.

He doesnt really have to prove anything to anyone.

If there is God, people's doubting doesnt change that fact. If there's no God, people's doubting doesnt change that either.

thats the way I see it.

whether you doubt or believe affects you, not God.

God is not man who needs affirmation to feel important.

This is false read the bible and the koran.

I was watching a program on Russia Today tittled Surrogate mothers. Due to advancement in reproductive technology women with damaged uterus (due to abortion or illness) but are are still capable of producing reproductive eggs can now have their eggs fused with the sperm of their husbands through artificial insemination and placed in the womb of another woman who will then go through the gestation period and deliver the baby. People pay as high as $60,000 just to have babies of their own through this method. So my question goes to the women in the house, will you agree to have another woman give birth to your child or children if you can't give birth to them yourself due to damaged womb? Or can you become a surrogate mother to a close relative or a very good friend who can not get pregnant naturally due to the reasons i aforementioned and give happiness to the close relative or friend's family?

~Lady~:
You are making the same mistake that a lot of Christians even make, taking the story of creation and Noah literally. You fail to think like those who lived at that time. Let me use Noah as an example, known fact is that there are records of floods that took place in history in the place where Noah lived.
If I were living in Noah's time, I would think that the world was what I could see, therefore only that which I could see is the world. I wouldn't think the world is round and that it is very large. I wouldn't have known that there were places like Asia and Europe (as it is called today) and that people exist there, therefore if I were to describe the world, I would speak of my surroundings, my environment.
There would have been a flood, and at the level the water rises the eyes can see "the end of the world." If you've ever been to the beach and look at the horizon it would seem that the world just ends where you see the sun setting and that that's the cut off of the earth. SO imagine how people who lived at that time would've thought. To them that would be the end of the earth, especially since it wasn't until a few centuries ago that man discovered that the earth isn't flat and science was already existent at that time, so even scientists thought the earth was flat.
So like I've always said, how about you start reading the Bible as if you lived in the time these people lived. I can only describe something as far as my mind would understand it, so they dsescribed this flood as far their mind would understand it.
Do I believe that the whole world was covered with water, no, do I believe the message that was conveyed in the story, yes. DO I understand how these people could think that the world ended as far as they could see it? Absolutely. Centuries from now, our descendants would think we were plain stupid and the "theories" or "stories" we have today would be refuted by "science"

I have to run will be back to finish. Bye

I have a question for you, If you believe that Noah's story did not take place as was suggested in the bible because the bible clearly stated that it was a global flood what then happens to the rest of the stories in the bible? Do you believe in the Tower of bable story too? What do all this stories tell you about the veracity of the bible.

Christains want their God to come down and show himself to the skeptics but so do moslems, they also want Allah to come down and shame all the Christains,Hindus and Jews. Hindus want their Hindu Gods to disgrace all those that do not believe in them by coming down,( I wonder where the Gods are going to come down from). The question is if there is truly a God then why did he not reveal himself to the whole of Humanity? Why did he reveal himself to ancient jews, Arabs, Chinese, Indains and Africans and called them his chosen people? Jews were the chosen ones according to the bible hence God decided to reveal himself unto them, arabs were the chosen people according to the koran infact the koran went as far as declearing arabic the language of Allah. The Indians were the chosen ones according to the hindu Gods and the circle continues.

We have moslems, hindus, buddhist and christains all claiming to have seen or encountered their God or Gods in one form or the other. This to me proves the lack of existence of all of them. The problem is that there is no universal God there has never been and there never will be. Even christains have different conception of who their God is, same with moslems, hindus, buddist etc. The fact that we are here arguing about the existence of God or Gods say alot about God or the Gods. If there really is a God we wont be here arguing about him, her or them. why are we not arguing about the existence of the wind, sun, moon or stars?

Which of the Gods do you guys want to come down? is it Allah, Jehova, Buddah, Zeus, Skivnah, Sango?

Watching romantic comedies can spoil your love life, a study by a university in Edinburgh has claimed.

Rom-coms have been blamed by relationship experts at Heriot Watt University for promoting unrealistic expectations when it comes to love.

They found fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Notting Hill often fail to communicate with their partner.

Many held the view if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you telling them.

Psychologists at the family and personal relationships laboratory at the university studied 40 top box office hits between 1995 and 2005, and identified common themes which they believed were unrealistic.

The movies included You've Got Mail, Maid In Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and While You Were Sleeping.

The university's Dr Bjarne Holmes said: "Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7784366.stm

busybein:
it hardly kills them,unlike d way it kills non atheists


@topic
i repeat again,how can d devil attack his own people?

By devil i understand you mean there is only one class ofdemons and devil since i believe you are a christain. right? why does the devil assuming there is only one type of devil attack moslems, hindus, shirks and voodoo worshippers? mazaje ,chris, wirinet and some other posters have been asking that question and all you guys are coming up with are nothing but ridiculous and twisted answers.

janami:
@post

To each man his own belief, but i do know that the spiritual world is more real than the physical one
Job 1:6.

you do know or you do believe? there is a great difference btw the two.

wirinet:
What do u mean by we have biblical and non-biblical writings? are u saying we have non-biblical sources of the existence of jesus?
What do u mean that it is a fact that a man named Jesus walked the earth? Do you have any hard evidence of his existence? Statues?, personal writings? pictures?, other important personalities from that period have their statues or writings surviving till this day. Caesar, Josephus, Pliny, etc. Jesus did not leave a trace of evidence that he ever existed. The pictures we are fed with were drawn by renaissance artists. Even his people the jews do not accept his existence as portrayed in the Bible. The gospels were written by foreigners (romans), according the the prevailing beliefs about 60 years after the supposed death of jesus, for certain unknown rich men and authorities.

So Lady, would you say, Achilles, Galgamesh, Perseus, and sango walked the earth?

Yes the very definition of belief means accepting something without proof. Since you have no idea of science but only know how to enjoy its benefits, i will fill you in. Science starts from observation of phenomena, then accurate recording of the observation, then building of an hypothesis th explain the recorded data. If the hypothesis is able to predicts all or most conditions or recorded observations, it then becomes a scientific theory. It is the made available for anyone to test the theory.

You do not have to be there during the cambian period to know what the cambian period is like. You can study soil samples and fossils within a particular soil or rock stata to have an idea of the period named cambian period.

Yes, we were not there at the big bang and do not have sufficient proof of its existence, but it is still the most plausible explanation of our expanding universe, yes the universe is expanding in all directions (inflating), if you have other better logical explanations, i am ready to be your convert.

Your pope said God is not an inanimate object, that can be tested. Then what is it (God), is it an animate object?, is it an object at all, does he look like a man[b](white man of course), [/b] with mouth, legs, and bottom siting on a golden throne?, at least it is not feminine. does he speak, hebrew, latin, arabic or greek. (remember the english translation of your bible is recent).
Please ask your Pope since he has seen God and his abode.

Very Interesting, some people will brand you as the an agent of the devil for daring to use your brain to think and ask difficult questions.

Blood_Shed:
because they don't exist.

Goblins and demons, fairies and angels, they all don't exist. i find it funny that these people are claiming such things exist, saying we know nothing about a supernatural world, yet they don't know themselves.

How can you try and explain something you don't know? That's like trying to explain long division when you only know short division.

I read some thing similar on this board when somebody stated that claiming to know what you don't is the lifeblood of religion, which i believe is true.

junegirl:
@bindex

Hello bro, I really appreciate your question. It's time we stopped swallowing everything our parents/ teachers/ society teach us hook, line and sinker. Our society taught us to believe in witches, wizards and all what not. I doubt if there is any Nigerian family that doesn't have one tale or the other to say. it is so bad, some of us are even taught to avoid certain tribes because they are "traditionally diabolical." It's a good thing you're so well travelled. I think what obtains there is a pointer to the fact that individual reality is relative to individual consciousness, and societal reality is relative to their collective consciousness. If Europeans don't believe in witchcraft, how can they have witches then? What you don't believe in does not exist for you, simple. If witches exist here, it is because we created them. How? Through our beliefs, solidified over time, from generation to generation. Contrary to popular belief, believing is seeing and not the other way round. If you believe in something, it will take root in your sub conscious and once it does that it will manifest sooner or later. So collectively, does the Nigerian society believe in witches?

Interestingly and well put out. My thoughts exactly but i know so many people will dissagree.

Ndipe:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=202985.msg3194589#msg3194589

Click on the above link. Sort of addresses the question though mine was on the exclusivity of the practise of witchcraft in Africa.

Very interesting thread you have up there.

thehomer:
They can be phobias, or she may just be acting. Many people do that.

It's plausible

thehomer:
What they call attacks are psychiatric illnesses. The example you gave

is a sypmptom of a psychiatric illness called obsessive compulsive disorder.

Interesting, but how then do you explain all the screaming, shouting and crying from the young hausa girl in response to the koranic verses were read out loud to her?

Pastor AIO:
Why don't Aljanu and various djinns possess christians. Why don't satanic demons possess buddhists? Why doesn't Sango possess moslems, only arabic sounding spirit? I think if we can answer these then we'll have made great strides to answering the main question.

Very Interesting.

Pastor AIO:
most christians? That's new.

Sorry many Christains was what I wanted to say.

Why is it that most christains believe that my man (Obama) is the anti-christ? It's really ridiculous.

The old testament is very similar to the koran, The new testament is almost like the haddith but with less violence compared to the haddith.

francessby:
I am Heavenly made

So is every body.

Anybody?

I just got back to nigeria about 6 weeks ago, and all i see is "demonic forces" in action every where i went. I visited my girl's house and discovered that her 14 years old younger brother was attacked by evil spirits, he was taken to a prayer house where he still is as at now, we payed him a visit and during our visit i talked to him about how he felt and what was really wrong with him, he told me that he see things and hears voices most especially when he is in the dark that he wouldnt want to discuss with me, he urged me to just continue to pray for him. I visited kano(my home state) i was born a muslim but we converted to christainity when my mum decided to convert to her previous religion after the death of my dad(she became a muslim after they got married) and in kano i experienced the same thing.

I visited my moslem relatives on the other end (I still lie to them that I am a muslim to gain acceptance) and experienced the same thing, there was a girl who is a relative of a wife of my cousin, she was attacked by Aljanu (evil spirits ), and was brought to a mallam who lives in my cousins vicinity, we took the girl there and the mallam began to pray for her using the Koran, once he started praying for her she began to scream, cry and roll on the floor, she begged them to stop reading the Koran and promised to leave the young lady alone and never to return, they asked the so called Aljani what his name was, his age, where he came from and the reason he got hold of the young girl, the girl said somethings and continued to shout and scream when ever the mallam read the verses from the Koran, the young girl kept saying things that were not very clear and of no particular meaning, she was speaking in tongues the way christains do, in short it was really a DRAMICTIC scene, having been brought up as a muslim i had witnessed such events about twice or trice when i was a kid but it was really strange and eerie since i no longer believe in islam and had never witnessed such a thing for a very long time.

I came back to Benue and the same saga continued, I visited one of my friend and his brother inlaw was also attacked by "demonic forces" we went to visit him in the church, there is a place where they housed the demon possessed individuals, there were many people with different levels of insanity inside the building when we entered. When I went in I chatted with a few of them, I asked them how they were feeling and some told me they were getting better, one of them confided in me and confessed that he still keeps hearing voices urging him to kill the pastor and the guy that takes care of them, i was bewildered.

I have been living in Europe for the past 3 years, i earned my masters degree in Sweden, I have been to Germany and Ukraine. Europeans are mostly atheist as i found out when i went there, infact most of the people i have meet there(i have meet quite a lot of people there) were atheist. why don't they experience any witches, demons and Aljanu? i have never experienced or heard about anything like that amongts my european atheist friends, infact they don't know what it means to be possessed by evil spirit, I am an atheist leaning agnostic who believes that there are somethings that appear supernatural based on my experiences as a former moslem and christain. I am asking this question because most of the people here in Nigeria are blinded by dogma, which makes it difficult to have this kind of discussion with them, they start quoting from the bible or koran things they have little or no knowledge about besides i don't want to sow the seed of suspicion amongst my family and friends with such questions since every body here is very religious, and as the saying goes when in rome do as the romans do, so my question to any one who feels he has an answer is, Why is it that witches, Wizard, Aljanu and Demons never attack atheist but only attack religious people?

Gamine:
Pardon us sir.

Our Use of English.

Religion can indeed be described as a way of life.

But i doubt Jesus came to Establish a "Religion" (organized)

He came to save lives, thats all.

Mohammed SAW the last prophet of Allah was sent to save lives too

My heart tells me that race will not be a factor but my head tells me it will. . . . remember the bradley effect. . . . . . . .

. . .or any other religion with an afterlife. This is one of my biggest problems with and arguments after life-including religions. I ask the question:

"If God wants to love us and be with us so much, why not actually be with us in heaven for eternity? There is absolute no need for living away from him in a natural world for decades if he wants to be with us all".

Certainly, if any of the religions with an afterlife are true, then their God obviously did'nt think this one through.

any body here who might have an answer?

@ pilgrim
Why must it be you that postulate and propagate God's positions? I personally find it a bit funny, that an imperfect creation of a supposedly perfect God is stating his thoughts and positions on how he should be understood and perceived.

A_K_O:
God is the same yesterday, today and forever!!

The old testament God is definately not the same with the new testament God, There is more than enough difference between them.

A_K_O:
So you give [b]G[/b]od a nationality based on five out of several books?

I wonder

i believe he meant the God of the old testament.

God in the bible said he created both good and evil.