Posts Made By: Mark hoefler

William Paolini said:

In the Movie Contact the question is asked if we are alone in the universe, to which the reply is, "If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space."

Question, let's assume that except for Earth and the Human race, that the universe is indeed devoid of any other intelligent life, maybe any other life at all.

Would you then consider God's work, His creation, as essentially a waste of space if in all the vastness it was only us who inhabited it?

The movie obviously had religious overtones. From a religious standpoint, and in the context of the movie, it does seem appropriate to Jodie Foster's character as non-religious to think this, but does it seem appropriate to Matthew McConaughey's character as a religious person?

William Paolini said:

For the three major religions we usually deal with, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, are the characteristics of God as described in the scriptures from each of these religions, different in any way?

So does any passage in texts from the Islamic scriptures/sacred texts, as example, protray God differently in any fundamental way how scriptures/sacred texts portray God in Christianity, or in Judaisms?

These three religions are supposed to be referencing the same God, so do any of them portray God differently in some fundamental way? If not a fundamental way then in some minor way? If you don't have the references to back up your points, or if the points you provide are your understanding based on what you've come to know about the religions that are not yours, would appreciate that you make that fact clear so we don't have any misunderstandings. IMO it is also valuable to voice what we might have as an understanding based on media or discussion, then hopefully someone who practices the said religion can set us straight one way or the other and give us some references.

For me, I don't have any understanding that the God of Judaism and the God of Christianity are any different in character, motive, or action from each other at all. I don't feel as firmly about Islam though, not based on any evidence from their texts, but just the way the popular American media and culture reacts most of the time makes one feel there must be some fundamental differences -- I certainly don't see any differences based on what I observe from my family members who are Muslims as they paint quite a different picture than th media/popular culture does. So not talking the practices of the adherents to the religion, but talking the source texts which define the religion. Are there any differences to be found there?