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What exactly does Hanukkah mean? How does it differ from Christmas? "Christmas is supposedly the celebration of the birth of Jesus" No, Christmas is QUITE DEFINITELY the celebration of the birth of Jesus. *** Sorry, this was supposed to be a response to AgnusDei's answer, not a separate answer. There doesn't seem to be a way to delete it.

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Jesus or Santa? Jesus is God made flesh, and God is the very source of reality. Santa on the other hand is not even real. So how could this even be a question?

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Is it possible to be 'better than yourself'? From a theological point of view, I think it could be said that our consiousness is suspended between our own Self, which is more illusion than reality, and God's Self. To be submerged in our own Self, is to be submerged in evil or delusion, but to be raised above it toward the Self of God is to ascend toward Good and Wisdom. So I think the answer is Yes, it's essential to be better...

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If God forgives everyone, then why do people still go to hell? Because everyone is free to follow God (and therefore the things pertaining to God, such as compassion, humility, and charity) or to reject God and reject those things. Sins are forgive of anyone who repents of them, and follows God away from them toward goodness. Forgiveness is inapplicable to those who decide they'd rather hold on to their sins, or rather not be humble before God, or...

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If enough ice is placed in boiling water it'll cool down. So if millions of people were to enter Hell, wouldn't our comparatively cool bodies soon cool Hell to the point that it's actually comfortable? No, the temperature of hell is maintained by the burning of fosil fuels. However, when Al Gore dies, he's going to change all that. (Sorry, it's late, I must be getting slap-happy.)

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Everyone says "God loves you." But every relationship I have or have had has failed, so do I have a failed relationship with God too? How do I know I'm loved by God? Yes, we all have failed relationships with God. That's why we're not yet in heaven, and why life can be so hard. But God created us so that he could lead us, if we're willing, into a loving relationship with him that is the source of enormous peace and happiness. How do you know you're loved by God? If you can't see it in the present look at the past. Sooner or...

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Wouldn't it be better if there were no religions? Religion is the living of life based upon what is learned from the Author of life, including, but not limited to, humility, charity, and compassion. Would it be better without that? No. No, it wouldn't.

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I've committed minor sins (e.g. stealing, lying). Am I going to be damned to hell for this, or will confession save me from this? It's not confession that saves, but repentance. The life of repentance is nothing but following God on the path leads AWAY from sin. Acknowledging your sin, and asking God's help to rid your life of it, are essential steps in this. It's a life-long process, and the hells, from which the desire to sin comes, desire nothing more than your condemnation and destruction. But the...

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Does the fact that different religions have a different types of deities nullify the concept of God? Sure, just like the different concepts of the moon held by the ancients nullified the concept of the moon. I for one think they were all nonsense. A big white thing moving across the sky. YEAH, RIGHT! But seriously, I think the more constructive thing is to look at how the ideas are not so different. Sure the Greeks had their "gods", but they also had "God". If you...

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Why don't people in Heaven come back to Earth to visit? Here on earth, we're simultaneously in the material plane of existence and the spiritual plane of existence. In heaven (and hell) the same connection to the material plane no longer exists. (The senses of the mind are all still there, but they act through the spiritual body alone, and secondarily through a material body.) The material plane can't be visitied without a material...

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If heaven exists, and a person grows up not being told what is right and is wrong, and this person constantly commits sin, is it unfair that this person goes to hell when they weren't even aware of it existing? Everyone grows up in some framework of right and wrong (some frameworks better than others). Within each person's framework, they develop the character which will lead them either to heaven or to hell. God is the only path, but God has laid out a unique path for everyone. There is no sin that can't be forgiven... except, of course, for the sin of giving up the path.

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If there is a God, why did He create the Earth? The purpose of creation is a human race which could freely share in the goodness of life that is inherent in God. Earth exists so that the human race can reproduce and fill the heavens, but more specifically, that there can be a place where good and evil (life and the lack of life) can commingle, both within societies, and within individuals, so that individuals can freely become who they will...

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Does religion really matter, or is the important thing just belief in God? The life a person leads is what matters. If this life is what is meant by "religion", then religion matters. If this life meant by "faith" or "belief" then faith or belief matters. If there is a belief which has no impact on the life being lived, then it means nothing. Those who think it does are those of whom Jesus said, "Many will say Lord, Lord, and I...

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Do we all believe in God, because we are innately weak and need to have a greater being over us? No. We don't all believe in God. Those who do believe in God, do so because of the fact of God, and because God provides the means of learning this fact to anyone willing to do so.

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Is it possible to doubt the existence of God based on logic and science, yet still have faith that God exists? Yes, temporarily. The ability to do so at all is a sign of humility. Eventually, over time, the things one is taught, the things one feels and percieves, and one's reason and logic, will either all come into agreement, or else some parts will loose out and get killed off by the rest. To have any real shot at intelligence, one must relentlessly pursue the underlying truth in each of...

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In what language did God say "Let there be light!"? In Genesis, the uses of phrases such as "God said" and "God saw", don't make much sense if considered literally. Why would "God saw" ever be used of an omniscient entity? However they make total sense if you think about them in a more abstract sense. So "God said to Adam..." may mean that Adam perceived the truth of the thing from God, perhaps by...

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Can a person believe in both the evolutionary theory and Creationism? Neo-Darwinism is inherently atheistic, (although Darwin was not) because it specifically claims, based not on evidence, but upon certain of Darwin's words, that the process of evolution is driven by RANDOM mutations. It is impossible for all mutations to be tried, so if the directions of evolution are truly randomly, then there is either no God, or else he has no concern whatever for his...

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Why is it common for people recovering from drug abuse to turn to God? Additiction is the aquisition of a destructive instinct. Animals, and humans who live as animals, cannot act contrary to instinct. Therefore, overcoming addiction necessarily involves the elevation of the self above the animal plane of existence. The acknowledgement that there is more to oneself that the animal part is essentially the acknowledgement of God.

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If there really is a Heaven, what is it like? Heaven is an increadibly varied place. More varied than earth. No short description is possible. Read "Heaven and its Wonders and Hell -- From Things Heard and Seen" by Emanuel Swedenborg. http://swedenborg.newearth.org/hh/hh00toc.html

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What is the meaning of life? The meaning of life is Life. A person is not a life, but a form of life, that is, a receptacle of life from God. God is Life Itself, Being Itself, and Existence Itself. Everything else proceeds from him. We are here in freedom, to align ourselves with life, which is actual existence, which is heaven, or else against life, with is death, or hell. The nature of Life Itself, the nature of...

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If there's one sign of a person not to trust, be it physical or a character trait, what would it be? If a person brings up (especially if it seems inapropriate to do so) how they have pure motives, or about how they are honest, or (in the case of a salesman) how little money they are making on this deal.

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If BC means "before Christ", how can Jesus' birth be recorded as between 6-4BC? Although, B.C. stands for "Before Christ," the calendar system is based (thankfully) on a fixed date, rather than the evolving theories of the acutal date of the birth of Jesus. That fixed date was determined by the man who started the system back in the 6th century A.D., obviously without the scholarship we now have that shows that the actual date must have been between 3 and 8...

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Why is it that Canada and the U.S are the only major countries bordering each other that does not have weapons on their borders poited at the each other? First, depending on your definition of "major country", this is not unusual at all. (e.g. in Europe) These conditions exist because A) they are economically and politically similar enough that the motivation for immigration is relatively small, and the legal quotas for immigration from one to the other easily accomadates this demand. B) the countries are close allies, and there...

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How can I create a simple EXE file to use with an autorun.inf file, so that a TXT file opens when a CD is inserted? Hmm... I wonder, couldn't you just do: [autorun] open=notepad.exe yourtextfile.txt ? Or if it won't necessarily be able to find notepad.exe in the path, then also make a copy of notepad.exe to burn on the CD?

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If computers work in logic, how do you program a computer to generate random numbers? To research these types of random numbers, do a search on PRNG, which stands for "pseudo-random number generator", which is the first, purely logical, type; and "entropy accumulation" which is the second type. The difficulty with the second type is that you've got to figure out how much randomness (entropy) you're gathering. For example, if you want to get a...

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Is there a place where I could propose a software idea and then community members could volunteer to help? I'm not much of a coder, but I have a relatively simple idea for a utility but I don't know where to get help. That might be tough. You might have better luck trying it yourself, and when you run into difficulties, asking questions about the specific problem you're having. There are lots of places to do that -- such as the newsgroup for the language you're coding in (e.g., on http://groups.google.com/).

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