What can a person enjoy without God that they cannot enjoy with God?

I couldn’t help but be amazed with how many people listed sex as something one can enjoy that science does not say is dangerous or risky. Apparently no one reads newspapers, magazines, watches tv, listens to the radio or uses the internet. I see the warning advertisements about STD’s all the time.

I am sure everyone has already heard everything I am about to say, but hopefully this time it will actually sink in and help keep you from having a lifetime of grief, hardships and aggravations. Perhaps even save your life.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and ASHA (American Social Health Association), more than 1 in 5 people over the age of 12 have a NON CURABLE STD. (That statistic even surprised me I knew it was high I did not realize it had increased so much since the last time I looked it up.)

I can hear it now, everyone saying well if protection is used you are safe so it is still ok to do whatever with whoever as long as both agree to it. Unfortunately, you are only semi-safe if the protection is covering the infected area. There are some of the STD’s that are transmitted by skin to skin contact of an infected area (which is not always the genital areas). That means you can acquire some of the STDs WITHOUT having sexual intercourse, simply close physical contact is enough. And the really “fun part” many of the STD’s have very few, if any, visible symptoms until later stages. So an infected person may not even realize they are infected until the disease has already started doing damage to their body. By that time the person many have spread the disease to who knows how many others (directly and indirectly).

A summary of the reports listing the stats and information I have listed can be found on Portland Maine’s Public health division web site: http://www.portlandmaine.gov/hhs/phhivstdpreventio...

So nothing personal but, religious or not, the science facts regarding having multiple partners, casual sex or doing much of anything with someone other than one’s life partner scares me a lot more than any of the religious taboos.

Christians cannot enjoy benefits of stem cell research?

On that topic, the media has done a great injustice by lumping all forms of stem cell research together with embryonic stem cell research. The difference basically being with the embryonic stem cell research one has to kill the donor in order to harvest the cells. Christians as well as many non-christian scientists have an issue with doing that.

However, contrary to what the U.S. media tends to present, stem cells can be harvested from many other sources other than aborted embryos. For instance stem cells can be found the fluid found in the umbilical cord of newborn babies, in the bone marrow of adults as well as in the tissue of several organs.

As for benefits of stem cell research scientist in England seem to be far ahead of the US. Plus in England, for the most part, they do NOT use embryonic stem cells. The benefits are looking very promising and they are already showing very real results.

For those that would like to learn more about stem cell research here is a site with some information that is not overly technical but still provides good information:

http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/

For some general information about the breakthroughs regarding stem cell research check out:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/patient-...

Like I said Christians, for the most part, don’t have a problem with stem cell research or the benefits. The problem most Christians, as well as many in the medical community, have is with the ethics regarding how some of the research is conducted and how the cells are collected. Especially since other non-lethal methods of acquiring the cells are available.

While not related to the question, I am going to put this in for the people who said or implied that Jesus never existed.

Please take a few minutes and check out a short writing called Did Christ Exist? Located at:

http://troach.org/faith/dchrstexst.htm

The page does not try to prove if Jesus was the Son of God or not. However, it does make some interesting points regarding His existence using text from roughly the same time period.

Non-religious and even anti-christian text are predominantly referenced.

Christians do not believe in the truth or freedom? If a person has never been around True Christians I can understand the confusion and why this might be suggested.

While there are many principles true Christians live by, two of the basic corner stones of Christian life are the golden rule that says, “Do to others as you would have others do to you.” The second, is probably most clearly stated by Proverbs: 14:15:

Which says:

The simple believeth every word:

but the prudent man looketh well to his going. (KJV)

Or put another way.

A simple man believes every word he hears;

a clever man understands the need for proof. (New English Bible 1970)

Thus, if you run into a person claiming to be a christian, who is not trying to do what is right/best for everyone, not trying to be honest to everyone, and not looking for the truth in everything . . . I have a secret to tell you . . . a person like that is NOT a Christian nor are they following the teachings of Our Lord.

I am tempted to discuss a lot of the misconceptions listed regarding Christianity which have been stated in some of the answers. But I am already getting far more off topic than is appropriate. However, I will say there are a lot groups that claim to be christian, which do not follow any (or very few) of the teachings of Our Lord. Often picking and choosing sections to make The Bible appear to say something very different than what it actually teaches.

This is one reason I try to remind people to:

Never confuse the practices of the people with the church,

Never confuse the practices of the church with religion,

And Never Ever confuse the practices of religion with God.

As for best answer the reason I picked the person I did was for their statement:

There is nothing you can't do besides you will guard yourself against doing or being stupid …

For the reality is, in many ways science is much more strict about the things we should not do than most any religion. But, alas, most people ignore science regarding what they should, or should not, do also. Just consider, how many people do not exercise, over eat, drink excessively, or abuse legal as well as illegal drugs.

With slight exaggeration, according to science, even breathing is harmful to us and bad for the environment. Harmful to us because of all the pollutants we inhale which can cause various health problems and bad for the environment because every time we exhale we release carbon dioxide A.K.A the dangerous gas that is causing the green house effect/global warming.

Honestly, I don’t think there is anything one can do which science, in some way, does not say is bad for us.

So, rather than worrying about all the things that science says can harm me, someone else or the environment, I’ll just stick to living the way Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ truly instructed us to live. If everyone truly followed His teachings (HIS teachings, not what many claim He taught), doing what is truly right not just for ourselves but everyone; and not motivated by greed, money, power, self interest, lust, etc., it is very likely most of the world’s problems would disappear. (Think about the true root cause of most of the world’s problems and you will understand why I say that.)

But alas I know that will never happen, for it is the nature of people to take the easy paths of life or the path that appears to have the most self-benefits.