On Sun, 14 Oct 2018 14:37:44 -0700 (PDT), Gary Harnagel
wrote:
A lot of churches interpret scripture in different ways and as
a result
make up their own doctrine.

That is indeed a problem inherent in any religion, or any
ideology
making absolute claims...

This is true of MOST religions, but not all. The development of
Christiani=
ty
had minimal ideology and grew "precept by precept; line upon line."
At fir=
st,
it was only to "the house of Israel" then Peter had a vision
concerning
Cornelius. Then there was the matter of circumcision for the
gentiles, etc=

By the time of the Council of Nice in 325 AD there were two major
divisions
espousing different beliefs about the Godhead, both wrong. Thus it
ceased
to be the faith taught in the first century. This was predicted by
Paul.

This is typical for any religion which grows big: first there is
unity, but later it will split into several mutually competing and
perhaps even fighting fractions. Remember the crusades fought by the
Catholics? They mostly fought against the Orthodoxes. For instance
the crusades brought so moäunh damage to the city pf Constantinople,
weakening the city so much that it later became much easier for the
Muslims to conquer that city.


I suppose you will agree with this;

"God is an extraterrestrial civilization much more advanced than
ours, and Erich von Däniken is his prophet." :-)

Do I have to repeat my thesis AGAIN? That the possibility of an
ancient ET
civilization having godlike powers may quite probably exist should
cast
doubt in any honest mind that atheism is a viable position.

Atheism is not disbelief in naturally occurring advanced
civilizations. Atheism is disbelief in the supernatural, e.g.
disbelief in a creature creating an entire universe just by saying a
few words, as described in Genesis.


Of course, most believe that we will be "spirits" living in a
"spiritual
heaven" but they conveniently forget that Jesus had a PHYSICAL body
when
he appeared after his resurrection, and so will we if we will be
"like Him"=

If so, that physical body didn't obey the law of gravity, or else
Jesus would have been unable to ascend up to the sky as described in
the Bible.