Commuters get 'ashes to go' at train station

in response to "Sin1".  Stephen Hawking is no more perfect or omnipotent than anyone else who ever lived, and there are plenty of scientists who do embrace a belief system right alongside scientific discovery.  For one, why not try googling the former head of the Human Genome Project, one of the greatest acheivements of our modern era in the realm of scientific understanding.  Francis Collins was very much an atheist, and yet it was when he set out to discredit religion that he found his faith, and while he considered many different major religions, he ended up choosing to accept Christ as his Savior.  Now, he does get some real flak from jerks like you who think that all faith is merely fairy tale, and he also gets flak from Christians who feel threatened by the theory of evolution.  Unless you are a hardcore Biblical literalist, thinking that even the Old Testament, which has been translated and transcribed many times before reaching us, is meant to be taken literally on every single page, there is no reason to believe that God couldn't have established the rules that govern natural selection.  Francis Collins keeps on believing despite his detractors in the scientific community, and he keeps on forging ahead in the realm of genetics, applying scientific principles some Christians incorrectly feel they must reject in order to maintain their faith.  Some Christians do not feel that religion should be questioned, but I and many others disagree-- what good is a foundation that cannot stand up to being tested?  I sincerely hope and pray that you, "Sin1" find your way back from what is obviously a spiritually desolate place, and that if you don't, that at least you'll stop spewing hatred.  There are enough people, both atheists and people who call themselves Christians (as well as other religions) that do wayyyy too much of that already.

While I can appreciate why some would feel more than a little uncomfortable about such a solemn activity taking place in a train station, I still think this could be a very good thing.  After all, our Lord was born in a feeding trough, so ours, at its purest, has never been a religion divorced from the mundane (and sometimes unpleasant) realities of life on this side of heaven.  In case you are wondering, I'm not Roman Catholic, although my best friend (other than my husband) is, and one of my siblings married a Catholic---they are raising their children as such.  I'm an Episcopalian, and while we do tend to embrace many of the traditions that RCs hold dear, we obviously have our other foot firmly in more Protestant ways of thinking.  These days, say 'Episcopal Church' and people probably think about the gay-clergy thing.  To address my feelings on that, I do not agree with the idea, but not exactly for the reason you may think, since we are all sinners of one sort or another.  It's just that the man who brought the controversy to the forefront by getting ordained (while openly in a gay relationship) wants to regard that particular rule as archaic as the one about not working on Sundays.  It seems like a 'slippery slope' to me; I am not so ignorant as to think that homosexuality is contagious, but I've always felt that our (or anybody's) clergy should lead by example as much as possible.  You could get folks trying to rationalize away all sorts of different sins rather than understanding that such things prevent our getting closer to God.  I have no problem sharing a pew on Sunday (or any other day on which we gather) with an openly gay person (and I have from time to time), but it does trouble me if they try to don the vestments of a priest.  I don't feel like I'm on a high horse in saying that because I myself never felt up to the calling of a priest (although our Church does allow for women to pursue that vocation).  Instead, I choose to serve in typical modes available to lay-people such as myself.  Even if my church ends up settling this matter on the side of the gay clergy (it's still somewhat up-in-the-air, it seems) I won't leave my local church, and if we were to move, we'd still consider Episcopal churches in our search for a worship community (our other top choices would be Lutheran and UMC).  In my community, some folks left our church (even though we were never likely to get assigned a gay priest) and formed an Anglican church, which is very similar except they use an older version of our prayer book and probably the hymnal, as well.  They also do not allow little girls to be acolytes, and a woman priest?  Fugetaboudit.  I myself have never felt a need to attend a service there (alhtough I did go to one at a similar start-up elsewhere once) but everyone who has visited says that the way in which it was founded casts a pall over everything--it has a "heavy sadness," as a friend of mine put it.  Of course, the original Episcopal/Anglican communion was founded under inauspicious circumstances, but many decades have passed since Henry VIII, so while I'll be the first to admit that it was not founded for the best reasons, it has been the denom of choice for many good people, and it continues to be so.  After all this talk of denominations, I've gotta say that I consider anyone who follows Christ to be my brother or sister, and I do my best to be patient with those who do not believe, because there but for the grace of God go I, and you have a better chance of turning somebody's heart towards truth if you do your best to reflect that truth accurately, which is to say to abandon hatred and prejudice and embrace the inherent good which is still in this post-Fall existence part of everyone and everything.

@Sin1 Response to Sin1

 

My friend, a degree in metaphysics is NOTHING. You don't know all of the universe and how it runs. You're saying your smarter and you know better than God? You are only looking at the scientific view point of it all.. you need to look at the WHOLE picture. Who created ALL of the universe and everything created in and out of it? Does your metaphysics degree explain that? You quote Steven Hawking as though he is the ONLY ONE who knows everything about the WHOLE universe or any other scientist. God will reveal to us as much as He wants to reveal about the universe to us. Their are somethings we will NEVER understand. That sounds like a difficult concept to understand, but its the truth. Their are many other things we do not know about... They are only known to God and we will never figure it out no matter how many degrees or how much knowledge we have.

 

May the Lord Jesus Christ help you to understand this

Jesusiswatching...  you don't have a clue regarding the historical Jesus.  Jesus did not come to "conquer all religions!"  He especially did not come to conquer Christianity - he is the reason for Christianity!