What's your Religion?

[DM Chicken Little]

All i have to know...and this just is my point of view...

If you have faith, and are able to accept somthing greater than yourself...

Who are any of us to question God Almighty?

And is that not the Shibboleth of testiment?

[Muletang]

I'm not questioning anybodies personal diety, anything that makes the world go round if you ask me, live and let live all the way. I think personal religion, the relationship you have with whatever being centres your life is a good thing to develope upon.
What I object to is the institutionalisation (is that a word?) of such things into a group that then tries to influence the way everybody else should think and if it doesn't get its own way, manipulate things so that it can be the most crappy it can be towards others; primarily those that don't think the way the aforesaid institution does. All the other theological stuff is just interesting chat that nobody can prove right or wrong and that those with faith will always find an argument against.

The thing that gets me is: if God did present itself, then would everybody bow down and worship? I don't think I would. Fair enough, oooo proved me wrong, but I wouldn't believe anymore than I do today in...telephones say, or buses, or grass. I'd just know there was something at the end of the tunnel.
Its not as if he would be angry at me; what did it have to be angry or sad or..any emotion for that matter, before creating humans and seeing that those pesky glands it had created were now firing signals into that bugger of a brain and making people act all weird. That seems more feasible than the free will thing for leaving us alone, it just got hacked off with our mood swings and thought 'bugger you lot'. We've kinda given God human qualities, make it act like we would, when if it is this incredibly groovy master in the sky you'd think it would be able to rise above such pety human constraints.

[DM Chicken Little]

I dont see religion, and God as the same thing.

Im sure im in the silent majority, but I am rarely someone to keep quiet. I see religion as the structure temple of faith built by man. I see God as something different. I have pulled back to Faith, when seeing holes in science that no one could explain to me. I appeal to Faith when i see the horrors which J4 described, and I depend on Faith to show me the path from right and wrong.

I dont see the Bible as literal truth...it is an anthology of story and ideas written in another time. However the messages in it do teach great ideals and morals.

Ive long felt religion and politics try to mesh more than they should. The Faith i know is not a set of rules and law, it is a way to live an exist. Even if I am wrong, and God in any form does not exist, I think the lessons and ethics the stories teach benefit society.

Jeh said it best, either you have faith or you do not. But i do wish that religious heads would accept a great responsibility and collaberate with each other so that conflict over God will end peacefully.

[Starkwolf]

I repeat...."on the seventh day God created man. . .a week later man returned the favor."

We can never know all the answers, we can speculate, wonder, and create ideas to wrap our minds around. That is religion in its basic form, a group of ideas mingled together to help a group of people understand what they cannot understand.

Faith is something differnet I think, faith is the ability to allow you mind to believe the is something bigger than yourself, and to accept that and just...believe. You don't need religion to have faith. I have plenty of faith and a complete and utter disregard for religion.

But, I don't feel that just because someone goes to a building to pray or looks to someone else to talk to God makes them...foolish, I just believe some people need help beliving in something they cannot see, and I must admit most people find the warmth and safety of a community of people who believe the same thing very comforting.

Religion and Faith are two very different things that tend to get meshed together. You can have faith without religion...but can you have religion without faith?

[DM Chicken Little]

nod nod...

There is one of my favorite quotes:

God made man.
Man made science.
Science then destroyed god.

[s4rx7]

A hostile entity actually would at least account for human suffering. After all if a god is all powerful and loving then there is no reason that we should suffer. Every rape, every murder, goes on under the watchful eye of this hypothetical being. Of course, he would have the power to stop it instantly but he does not. He watches. I guess he can't stop that any more than he can clearly communicate.

Oh, I've heard theories as to why he doesn't stop it, mostly people repeat the words "free will" like it is some sort of answer. You have to wonder what kind of entity would create a bunch of rapists in the first place. In christian mythology this "god" not only created rapists and murders but also "lucifer" and all the demons. Interestingly, you never hear this refered to as a mistake or failure.

Then you have of course other forms of suffering, like cancer. Aparently "free will" isn't the only reason you suffer. Oh no. While this benign and all powerful diety could snap his hypothetical and free all of us cancer without infringing on free will, he chooses not to. Generally I have heard that he is "testing" us.

Why this hypothetical creature is "testing" us is anyone's guess. Aparently it is for his own amusement. He likes to watch us suffer. Or he is trying to sort us into two buckets, "pass" and "fail". Why he created a bunch of creatures that were going into the "fail" bucket is another great mystery.

Aparently, this hypothetical creator has trouble making things that work the way he wants them to. Of course that would be no suprise because he can't (or won't) communicate with them either.

I would be truely fearful to live in the presence of a arbitrary and incompetent being who watches while his creatures hack each other to little bits so that he can identify which are broken and should suffer even more.

God does not create everyone as in he doesn't sit down and piece you together and then write out every action you will ever do, he does not control everyone, if he did, we would be nothing more than remote controlled robots. What purpose would that serve?

I'd don't subscribe to the idea that God is "testing" us, however I believe alot of suffering is caused by free will. Take cancer for instance, alot of them are suspected to be caused by pollutants in our food chain. Heavy metals in our fish, toxic chemicals in our water ways, even in the air we breath. Why are these pollutants in our enviroment, Greed. If God clicked his fingers to clean it all up each and every time would we learn from our mistakes? Would there be something driving our Doctors and scientist to look for cures?

OK so what about natural diseases that kill, slowly and painfully, that are not man made, not indirectly caused by man's own influenace. How many of these are left, how many of these has man discovered cures for? Our own natural desire to improve, to learn has solved many of these problems. How many have died to prolong countless others?

As for God not talking to us, I'll admit I've never heard him, but I have seen some freaky things. I was sitting on the train talking to my sister, when she got up and started talking to some guy half the carridge up. Now I wouldn't have giving this bloke the time of day, he just looked too much like a shady character for my liking. Two stops later he gets off happy as larry and my sister comes back and tells me the guy she just spoke to had only just got out of prision a couple of days ago. While in prision he had been praying for help, the freaky part was, that the reason she walked over and started to talking to him was because she got a "feeling" that she should talk to him.

My sister has always been far more religious than me, so maybe our ability to communicate with God requires tuning or maybe she's just a little psychic.

From my understanding God want his subjects to believe, have faith and returns his love. If we had no choice in the matter how could there be love? So for love to exist there must be a choice, for there to be a real choice you must have the ability to choose. So what needs to exist for us to have a choice, another option. What benifit would there be of having two good gods? Your choices would be limited, that and well God's the jealous type. So an evil option is the only real way for humans to have total freedom to choose.

So now we have Good, bad, a set of rules to live by, a random point in which each life can end, and the ability to choose how we will our lives, and how we treat those around us.

Then again it's only my point of view, and we may all turn out to be nothing more than fancy fertiliser.

[Fate_Aki]

Religion in general is always controvertial. So, don't let this thread get any of you going too much into it. I was curious when I started it to see what the average Dasaria player and dm's belief/religion would be. I think the majority here are Atheists and Agnostics. For those that do not know the difference, Atheists do not believe in a God. Agnostics do, but don't really care or in general practice worship God.

Kimmy, I was once Wicca myself so don't feel alone. I still agree with many of the same ideals of the Wiccan philosophy, (Blasphomy!) Hehe, but in truth I don't believe there are many religions differ in the "Common Sence" rules of thumb.

Faith is a wonderful thing (Making sure I'm not standing on a soap box.) and to have it is something I never would have dreamed I would have myself. My choice in Religion is how I choose to worship/behave in order to better myself and help those I can around me and close to me. God is your focus, your guide if you will.

Some times you didn't quite understand what was said, but if you can understand the person, you should understand what is expected of you and thus making the decission on your own you will find that you don't have to always hear the message to get where you are needed and/or wanted. Sometimes you just have to have faith in yourself and know that you are making the right choice.

I'm learning that in life you are giving free will in order to be tested. It is expected that you will make mistakes, so that is why repenting is allowed so those that stray are not left behind. God is forgiving and only asks that you are able to forgive yourself for your sins.

[Muletang]

My sister is a Wicy wicy wild wild Wiccan. Another close family member is very Buddhist, I was Christend Catholic and went to a Church of England school, and am now the Me'ist I mentioned before (read Atheist +).
No point to this post, just in a sharing mood

[Redder]

Science did not destroy God, science in fact validates God.

I studied industrial chemistry and quite often the question "why" would come up - yet there is no answer - only that it is the way things happen - which in my book says "divine intervention".

Circa 2500 B.C in the Akkadian writings:

Gods are the Beacons of Numinosity that guide the existence of all living. Ours is the Mystery that sets the pace towards Eternity. We change and yet we are Eternal. Ours is the Source, Many are our Names and yet we are all One.

[s4rx7]

God is not all knowing in the sense that he know what you about to type. He's all knowing in a scientific stand point, he knows how the world is put together.

But I thought the dude was omnipotent, which means all knowing, I didn't know it was selective. (These are not sarcastic replies mate, just incase they come across that way)

omnipotent: One having unlimited power or authority

You have to accept that your action/s where wrong and understand why it was wrong.

Agreed, but how many people batter there wives, fight on drunken on saturday night, murder death kill and then go repent on sunday. Fair enough they might not actually get into heaven, but the priest who sits in a booth and tells someone to go say hail marys (or whatever it is that goes on) is giving off the idea that they are forgiven, so wahay I've got a clean slate for the week, come ere mate *smack*. So any personal responsibility is gone, because you can get some guy to power shower your halo and away you go. These priests that are getting called out for the most vile of crimes, in one report a church spokesman is quoted as having said something along the ines of "the church is all about forgiveness". Sorry, but if there is a god, he should be sucking you straight into the 7 circle of Hell with him right now mr priest just for entertaining that thought.

I also find it very...*searches for the most friendly words but fails so goes for it anyway*...up your own arse (not directed at anyone here by any means) to designate yourself a vessel towards God. I mean fair enough preach good stuff, act as a guide and teacher if you must, but to actually say that others cannot communicate with god without some intermediary..? well...[/quote]

OK here is where I will more than likely get into trouble. There is what God said and there is what Popes said. Unfortunately Catholicism had a very shacky start, alot of priest where actually iilliterate. The original translations of the bible into english was done in secret. In times past only Catholic preists where able to actually read the bible, the rest made do with sermons (might be the wrong name).

Now unfortunately political ideology has caused a number of problem for Christians. The Catholic church in it's effort to expand it's iinfluence and align itself with the political powers incorportated alot of pagan festivals into it. Now I think it's called the day of the dead, but that now has a cross being carried at the front of the parade and a few other changes.

The Bible does not tell us that Jesus was born in decemeber let alone an exact day. This was a conversion of a pagan sun gods festival (from memory), but hey Jesus was born, so may as well celebrate it some time

Anyway back to the point and me getting into more trouble. So eventually some people caught onto what was happening and they didn't like it. So now you have Catholics and Protestants.

So what's the difference?

"The Protestant goes directly to the Word of God for instruction whilst Catholics consults the teaching of thier church, and prays through the medium of the Virgin Mary and the saints."

huh?

Protestant reads Bible and prays to god.
Catholic goes to confession, prays to someone (Mary or Saint) to speak to Gods on thier behalf.

Oh OK what else?

The Pope is reasponsible for the interpritation of the Bible and all deemed relivant matteral (letters and such), and passes down orders in a hierarchical system. So every one toots the same horn.

Protestant based churches on the other hand have no single head to look up to, they get into big rooms and discuss issues based soley on information in the Bible.

Both are open to abuse.

Yeah OK so how does all this answer Mule's point about Hail Mary's?
When a protestant repents, they are asking the big guy directly for forgiveness and he reserves the right to hold his answer until your judgement day

Why the heck didn't you just post that bit?
to encourage others to read up on the history of what they are being told, I mean I wouldn't want to be doing something just because some rich people didn't like poor people doing the same thing as them.

Can I hurl abuse at you now, you sick twisted freak?
Sure thing but no coconuts.

[lankycheese]

Science did not destroy God, science in fact validates God.

I studied industrial chemistry and quite often the question "why" would come up - yet there is no answer - only that it is the way things happen - which in my book says "divine intervention".

My exact thoughts in simpler words. Good work Redder!

[Meldvion]

Science did not destroy God, science in fact validates God.

I studied industrial chemistry and quite often the question "why" would come up - yet there is no answer - only that it is the way things happen - which in my book says "divine intervention".

In my book, that is called "Unanswered question". There is always an answer.

[Ohio41]

http://media.damnfunnypictures.com/pvid ... t_book.wmv



Thought you all might enjoy this.




If you focus, you'll see a Pittsburgh Steeler shirt a guy in the video. So ha!

[Redder]

In my book, that is called "Unanswered question". There is always an answer.

I would not stand up and say the world is flat - I agree there is probably an answer to some of these things - yet even the formation of a single electron and they way it behaves is truely amazing and should be mathematically impossible - yet we are surrounded by them - co-incidence?

[wanderer]

perhaps this will be the swan song of this ugly duckling...

let us imagine that there are only one hundred religions.
christianity is one of these religions.
that would make christianity's chance of being the correct religion 1%.
within christianity there are over 26,000 different denominations. this would bring one's percentage down considerably if one believed that one had to worship one's deity correctly to achieve salvation.
it could be argued that all gods are a manifestation of one god. the christian god is held to be all loving. if all gods were manifestations of one god, and this god happened to be all loving, it would make no sense. i say this because christianity itself teaches that those that believe differently should be destroyed (ex. 22:20). one may argue that this is in the old testament and that the new testament does away with the old testament. however, if this were true then the ten commandments are void as well as they are not found in the new testament. (given, some commandments are given by jesus. yet these commandments are not all the same and there are only six of them.)

if anyone is interested at this point, i will continue.