Hail full of Grace, the Lord is WITH YOU, blessed art thou among women!- Gabriel :)
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb- St. Elizabeth :)
The Hail Mary in scripture :)
Jesus and Paul aren't necessarily polar opposites, it's just that many literally interpret a person that was very Mystic, which distorts the message. Paul was a Mystic, he believed that Christ/God was within all, there is no male or female, etc. Jesus taught that God is within all.
I used to...
I disagree that we shouldn't venerate her. Not only is she the mother of God, but that also makes her divine itself. Even the Catholics will say I'm going into heresy here, but I agree with the early Gnostics that if Jesus was "God the Son" then Mary was the embodiment of the Holy Spirit, which...
Write the book with their own hands and then say "it is from Allah"= writing commentaries and pretending that the commentaries speak for God. Something I've seen many do this.
"Distort the book with their tongues"<----key phrase
This speaks of those who use the Bible for profit gain...
Personally I don't know if Mary remained a virgin her whole life or not, but to me, it wouldn't make her any less blessed. I have a very unique view of Mary and I believe she deserves great veneration and honor from all. Veneration equal with or greater then that of Jesus.
I define God as at least being a power higher then humans, if we think of like the devas and Olympians, we might say higher life form. God does not necessarily need to mean all-powerful, etc. in my mind.
I think it's not that non-Abrahamic religions don't have a concept of divine justice, many believe in karma. I think we just realize how messed up and unjust the idea of an eternal hell is. For references see my replies in the Hell thread. If God is able to stop people from going to hell but...
Hey you admitted that they had no idea of "sexual orientation" or that homosexual tendencies were somehow abnormal. When did they come to be viewed as abnormal? When did humans come to see same sex relations as so abnormal that they needed to demonize gays?
The answer is obvious to anyone who...
So where did this idea of "sexual orientation" start from? Hm? Obviously they had no trouble going with others of the same sex, showing that homophobia did not exist in humanity's infancy. The homophobia stems from "somewhere".
Isn't it obvious that Matthew and Luke give two differing narratives of the virgin birth? If they are literally true then only one can be actually true, because the two differ.
Matthew- Announciation to Joseph, Magi, Jesus born at home, Slaughter of Innocents, flight to Egypt
Luke-...
Notice that those who embrace the virgin birth as literal fact won't address both Luke and Matthew, they'll address one or the other. Wonder why that is?
What if God were the God of all humanity, including the Israelites, and Jehovah was just how God appeared specifically to the nation of Israel? Besides, I don't assume that the Bible is without cultural bias. What seems more likely to you, that God would be jealous, or that a ancient people...
I suppose so, but one of the claims of most Hindu gurus is that all religions are paths to God, and it just so happens, one of the claims of more inclusive Christians is also that religions are paths to God. :)