please forgive me piper/quote

""God says,
No one can come to Me,..(God the Father)""

lets think
need god say..*im god..[twice]?

clearly 'god'..isnt saying this
maybe the bible is..but more specificlly the 'auther'..*says
god says..!

[so how does he know?]
if god told him..
how come he didnt tell you?

none to god..."except through My Son(Jesus)."

jersus revealed we are all children of the one father
he said se that ye see me do..YOU will do greater
[greater than god?..[of course not]..

jesus..*man was BORN..of woman
jesus said by your works..[not by me..!]
jesus didnt found a new religeon..paul/saul...did..!
[jesus actually said he came to unite his fathers divided house
[not build a new one]

to see jesus
was to see that our father does
EQUALLY for all of us...[who is not a child of the father?

""Accept Jesus and have a new relationship with God."'

jesus said we can know god personally
my father my father why have you abandoned me...[dont sound like god]

""God doesn't want his Son rejected."'

you can reject me..etc etc
but not the holy..[life]..spirit

""Jesus paid the ultimate price after all.""
as we all do[his big REVEALATION was him surviving his death
as we all shall...

""His life for us.""
please you who love god
must 'get'..god sustains all life
how is ANY death..serving gods LIVING..will/purpose

""God is patient.""
yet killed his own son?
the same as an ignorant abraham tried to do?
god now needs to copy the egsample of a mad man?

""He invites mankind to have a relationship with Him."""

TOO TRUE...!
with him one to one..!

not for the fools..in the street's
but you and good...one to one..
[emmanuel..god with me/you...US]

""Prayer..(talking to God)""

should never be begging
nor boastfull...
[he wont help you get a new boat]

other spirits might help..but god has enough to do
just keeping every life living..


""God gave mankind "free will"
and he wants mankind..*to individually choose Him..."

know he simply wants us..to love the living good
seeing no evil
as he does

love god...by..[loving of neighbour]

I absolutely agree with your definition of "cause", Trav. It never occurred to me that you might have a different one.

>>My contention is that human nature is the cause of war.<<

I absolutely agree that "human nature" is responsible for the act of taking up arms against a perceived threat, or in the pursuit of new power or territory.

But it does not explain why so many wars - or even individual acts of terrorism - have been completely and absolutely defined by the religious proclivities of the participants.

Part of that human nature is, of course, the acceptance of an authority figure. 1930s Germany followed Hitler. Twelfth century Knights and Saracens took their guidance from God. Different voices, same result.

But I'd be fascinated to hear your theory of how the Crusades would have played out in the absence of a religious element. Or indeed, how individuals in Belfast would have identified the people whose kneecaps they wanted to shoot, if they didn't have a religious justification.

Or what was the purpose of 9/11, absent the Muslim vs. Christian motivation?

Any thoughts?

One Under God, have you had any counselling?

Yuyutsu with respect eg: This weekend the world was to end, now putting it into simple language, the person of strong religious belief, living off the contributions of vulnerable people stated this worldwide.
The Pentecostals, Catholic church and all the others, enjoy affluence by emotional fear and exploitation of people, they should be ashamed, but they forgot to read their bible about Jesus and the Temple.
When it comes to cash and a free ride the churches sit on their bibles.!!

Yuyutsu with respect eg: This weekend the world was to end, now putting it into simple language, the person of strong religious belief, living off the contributions of vulnerable people stated this worldwide ( this organisation has cash reserves of USA$72,000,000)
The Pentecostals, Catholic church and all the others, enjoy affluence by emotional fear and exploitation of people, they should be ashamed, but they forgot to read their bible about Jesus and the Temple.
When it comes to cash and a free ride the churches sit on their bibles.!!

Pericles,

[I absolutely agree that "human nature" is responsible for the act of taking up arms against a perceived threat, or in the pursuit of new power or territory.

But it does not explain why so many wars - or even individual acts of terrorism - have been completely and absolutely defined by the religious proclivities of the participants]

Yes it does, because it shows that if religion didn't exist, people would simply define their wars and terrorisms using different proclivities.

Also as I said "so many" is wrong, in the context of the sheer number of wars there have been. Only a small minority of the total number of wars and violence throughout history have been "defined by the religious proclivities of the participants".

Our modern mindset is confronted by extremist Muslim terrorists which paints a very negative picture of religion and violence, but we must at least attempt to resist the urge to see history through the biased prism of being Westerners living in 2011