Who is God?

[Red Devil]

So, if you're stuck underwater, that funny feeling of drowning is just the way your mind perceives it at the time?  

The sky is not blue. Diffused sun light filtered by the atmosphere is perceived as blue, by human eyes.
Water is not wet. Your skin feels wet when it gets water on it.

Its tempting to respond to some of the other opinions here, but I am just going to return to my state of mild despair at just how easily young humans can be brainwashed into believing such total rubbish.

Just one little point, Its only humans who go to heaven/hell? Right? presumably all the other beings just get what I said we all do? Right?

[mrtwosheds]

So, if you're stuck underwater, that funny feeling of drowning is just the way your mind perceives it at the time?

Well I am fairly certain that fish don't perceive that particular experience the same way at all.

Just one little point, Its only humans who go to heaven/hell? Right? presumably all the other beings just get what I said we all do? Right?
I still want a response from those of faith on this.

[sabrebattletank]

Anyway, I propose that the christian moral system is actually more primitive then an atheists morals.  Let me explain before you stop reading or bring up the idea that any number of people you have or have not met posses morals.  The idea that you do good because someone will slap you on the wrist when you do not is a simpler version of the religious view, but it possesses a similar quality.  The need to have something looking over in order to prevent evil, or the idea that if nothing was going to punish you later then there would be no reason to ever do good.  The moral atheist, on the other hand, does good in order to do good, not because they expect the action to be reinforced or the opposite action to later be punished by some higher power.

Again, it depends on which atheist morals: hedonism, the idea that you should do whatever is pleasurable, is technically a moral system and can exist in atheism, but I would say that that system in particular is more primitive than atheist morals. However, that is not to say that all hedonists go around hacking and adulterating and being gluttonous and killing people for sport; hedonists can also take pleasure in service to the poor and in art, etc.

On a slightly different point, the problem that many have with organised religion is each one believing that it is solely right, and because it is right they have the duty to impose every doctrine on others.

The Catholic Church doesn't think that it has the sole mandate on divine revelation nor the only correct understanding of God. It does recognize that it has the most complete understanding, but also that other religions may have truth to them as well.

[Warfreak]

I personally don't think so, seems a bit too biased for some(thing?) apparently inheitably just to do.

You have those that act and those that think. (Instinct vs. Will, im not saying free as 'aparrently' its not anymore).
Can't punish a lion for surviving, but you can reward a person for not killing for the hell of it.

[Red Devil]

I've seen dogs with more honor, righteousness, and integrity in them than a lot of people ever had or will have.

[Warfreak]

Which is exactly why I feel not only humans go to heaven... I do feel only humans go to hell however. 

[Red Devil]

"All dogs go to heaven" 

[Darkplanet01]

What that definition of religion implies is that Christians believe in a heaven in the clouds with little angels flying around and everyone worshiping God for all eternity. If you look at Jesus' teachings, he emphasizes that the Kingdom of God is "at hand" -- implying that it's not about a heaven up in the clouds, but about life on Earth.

That's also not entirely true either -- Immanual Kant devised a moral system without the use of God. In fact,  Kantian morality is more strict in terms of behavior than Christian ethics in many several instances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative

What I meant by what I said was that there was no basis for morality based upon atheism. It is well and truly possible to have an atheistic moral system, but it has no basis.
Oh, and pointing to wikipedia articles isn't the most accurate method. Many people have failed, or lost marks in, school tests, assignments etc. due to using wikipedia. It is a very inaccurate site.
And when Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand, he did not mean life on Earth was supposed to be heaven. Watched the news lately? The deformed world that we live in couldn't be classified as 'heaven' by any means. What Jesus meant could be that God's Kingdom is coming 'soon', that he was standing right in front of them, and he was the key to the Kingdom of God. It could be many other things than what you pointed out.

[Darkplanet01]

The sky is not blue. Diffused sun light filtered by the atmosphere is perceived as blue, by human eyes.
Water is not wet. Your skin feels wet when it gets water on it.

Its tempting to respond to some of the other opinions here, but I am just going to return to my state of mild despair at just how easily young humans can be brainwashed into believing such total rubbish.

Just one little point, Its only humans who go to heaven/hell? Right? presumably all the other beings just get what I said we all do? Right?

Humans are the only ones with souls, therefore they (we) are the only beings that transfer into the spiritual realm after death.

[Feared_1]

Humans are the only ones with souls, therefore they (we) are the only beings that transfer into the spiritual realm after death.

[sabrebattletank]

Oh, and pointing to wikipedia articles isn't the most accurate method. Many people have failed, or lost marks in, school tests, assignments etc. due to using wikipedia. It is a very inaccurate site.

It is less inaccurate than you think. Granted, we aren't talking about a "scientific" article, but still: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/12/69844

[sabrebattletank]

And when Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand, he did not mean life on Earth was supposed to be heaven. Watched the news lately? The deformed world that we live in couldn't be classified as 'heaven' by any means. What Jesus meant could be that God's Kingdom is coming 'soon', that he was standing right in front of them, and he was the key to the Kingdom of God. It could be many other things than what you pointed out.

But he could have. Follow this logic. IF what Jesus meant was that life on Earth was supposed to be heaven when the whole world was converted, then the disciples had a reason to travel and spread the Good News. Why DID they go out and evangalize, anyway? The Jews weren't big evangelicals. They didn't come from an evangelical tradition. The Epistles of Paul can thought of as letters trying to get people to convert to this new offshoot of Judaism. Paul was perhaps the best businessman ever, trying to sell his product, The Way, so that the world could become heaven.

[Feared_1]

You spread the good news to GET TO heaven, not to convert the world into heaven. I am trying to follow your logic, but its hard to follow when it breaks off and begins elsewhere.

[sabrebattletank]

Feared, remember that in this system, heaven isn't somewhere "out there" that you have to you "get to," its something that will be triggered when the whole world believes these things, follows these laws, worships this God, ect ect.

[Red Devil]

Heaven and Earth are two completely separate things/places.  Heaven and Earth are going to be transformed into a new Heaven and Earth after the millennium.