Religion Thread

[Grumpy Cat]

Typing to vent...

It's Easter Saturday night here in Australia. The most important, biggest Catholic Mass of the year. Yes, more important than Christmas. The Resurrection of Christ.
My wife is a good Catholic and she sings in the local Churches choir.
She now and again harasses me to go, but I'm not interested and she knows that. But now and again I go for her. I don't go for Jesus, I go for my wife.
And she pushes our kids to go to. Sometimes she gets me to push them to go. An irreligious guy, pushing his kids to go to church. They really aren't interested either. They do it for her.

So, tonight. She goes off to the big Easter Saturday mass alone, and then half an hour later txts me asking us to come up. So we do. Put on our shoes and drive on up. Find a corner in the crowded, darkened, incense filled church. She's up the front singing. No hope of her seeing us. We have come for her, and she won't even know it.

After an hour... it's a marathon 3 hour service on Easter Saturday... the lights come up, and new members to the Church are announced. Adults who are going to get Baptised.
And amongst them is John. John is a fellow irreligious husband who tolerated and accepted his wife's Churchy ways. He'd also come along to church for her. Because he loves his wife. And she can be a bit scary about her faith sometimes too. She'd talk angrily about how he lacked Faith. And I know that he has been coerced into this. He is getting Baptised for her, and for acceptance by her church friends. That is the point where my blood starts to boil. And I say to my kids "That's enough, lets go home". And we all walk out.

So that's it. I am not push my kids to church for the sake of my wife anymore. I am not going to be part of coercing them into joining the Cult. I am not going to push them into pretending to be part of something just for image, just for my wife's image.

The Orphan Masters Son. North Korea. The Lies we profess to believe so that we fit into Society. Or keeping true to what is inside.

Sorry. I know my rant might offend some people. If so, call me a fool and move on.
But I'm annoyed.

You should only get baptized and go to church if YOU want to do it. It can't be forced - it has to come from the heart and soul.

 

[142857]

I am an atheist.

I stopped believing in God about the same time as I stopped believing in Santa Claus, so I was 8 or 9 years old.

I thought the whole God and religion thing was made up for kids, and I spent years expecting that someone was going to break it to me.

I worked out the truth in my mid teens.

 

[GhettoButterFly]

Well just to add and maybe I posted this long ago, I'm a Baptist (not of the Southern Baptist Convention) and try to understand what God has in store for me. Sometimes I can lean towards the Pentecostal. Then again, it's all "One Lord, One Faith and One Baptism." <3

My faith has helped me through the roughest times and I try to stay sane. Well I'm not one of those mean Baptist people. ^_^;

 

[GoofKing]

Why is it hard for Christians to understand the differences between homosexual lust and homosexual love ?

I always imagined that biblical city that was destroyed by God to be like the modern day porn industry where men and other men lusted for each other without being in love (or the same with women maybe ?) but yet it's wrong for the same sexes to be in love with each other :/ I wonder if the Christian church was built upon homophobia , because I've heard a lot of homosexuals say that it's not a choice, it's the way that they we're born. God wouldn't that cruel to doom people at birth, would he ?

 

[Christy]

Why is it hard for Christians to understand the differences between homosexual lust and homosexual love ?

I always imagined that biblical city that was destroyed by God to be like the modern day porn industry where men and other men lusted for each other without being in love (or the same with women maybe ?) but yet it's wrong for the same sexes to be in love with each other :/ I wonder if the Christian church was built upon homophobia , because I've heard a lot of homosexuals say that it's not a choice, it's the way that they we're born. God wouldn't that cruel to doom people at birth, would he ?

I think it may be helpful to understand that the Christian beliefs are written and defined both in the bible, and also by what the Christian leaders say what God thinks. Which means it is not up to the discretion of Christians to decide what is okay or not okay, or to make the destinction between love or lust as you point out. This means that Christians are caught between what their religion tells them, and what they may or may not personally feel about the topic.

This has resulted in splits in the church, and the acceptance of homosexual people in some churches, but not others. It's a complicated issue for Christians to deal with.

At the end of the day, it's the so called "right" of a Christian to judge another person that I have issues with. As a Christian, I believe it is God's choice who is saved or not saved. No amount of me getting angry at my brother for what I think is "sinning" is going to help.

 

[Vaegrant]

I'm an atheist.

I judge the merits of religious dogma and the resulting actions based on the rules of logic.

I do my best not to insult "good" Christians, Christians who live their lives in logical agreement with their professed beliefs. I do my best to avoid those who do not.

For instance, I believe that a Christian must harbor a deep, deep hatred for people and perhaps me specifically if they publicly profess their faith yet do not ask mine or offer the gift of the gospel. I believe this because, according to Christian doctrine, each believer is tasked with ministering the gospel to all of mankind and that every unbeliever is doomed to an eternity in hell. Therefore, there must be a personal reason that they are not submitting to their calling and are allowing me to go to hell.

But at the end of the day I find religion, faith and that whole bag of tricks just plain silly.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

I'm an atheist.

I judge the merits of religious dogma and the resulting actions based on the rules of logic.

I do my best not to insult "good" Christians, Christians who live their lives in logical agreement with their professed beliefs. I do my best to avoid those who do not.

For instance, I believe that a Christian must harbor a deep, deep hatred for people and perhaps me specifically if they publicly profess their faith yet do not ask mine or offer the gift of the gospel. I believe this because, according to Christian doctrine, each believer is tasked with ministering the gospel to all of mankind and that every unbeliever is doomed to an eternity in hell. Therefore, there must be a personal reason that they are not submitting to their calling and are allowing me to go to hell.

But at the end of the day I find religion, faith and that whole bag of tricks just plain silly.

I don't hate you, my brother. In fact, I'm going to pray for your God fearing soul so that you too can be saved from going to the fiery pits of hell. Now go and sin no more.

 

[IContainMultitudes]

It may be worth mentioning that not all Christians believe in hell or eternal punishment, or they don't look at hell as a literal physical place where you go (some may take more of a "Hell is something you carry around with you, not somewhere you go" point of view).

 

[apt-get]

I'm an atheist. I find the notion of "god" or whatever to be very vaguely defined and usually defined on-the-fly by believes to whatever is convention at the moment. Even if there was a coherent model of god (by this, something where we can tell the difference between god existing and not existing), there is simply no supporting data to suggest the notion of a divine creator.

I don't have a problem with people being religious or whatever. That being said, I can't accept religious points of view as valid possibilities, because if I am going to accept a claim that the universe is a certain way, there had better be a way to check with data. My approach is very experimentally oriented.

 

[Spinosaurus kin]

I see religion as a societal regulation system that uses the defenceless ignorance of children to sway them politically.
Personally, the fact that nobody can agree on what god is supposed to be or do or any congruencies whatsoever caused me to be an atheist. I mean, what supernatural omnipotent being is going to use easily misinterpretable scripture to influence humanity, and then allow wars over which one is right?
I seriously couldn't live in a world where there is a god that doesn't do anything about the world's issues and continuously allows by the very least, 7 billion people to be wrong about it.
My explanation for others being wrong is that emotions cause things to be intuitively obvious, but are wrong, e.g. The world being flat, the sun moving, the moon producing light, the stars being really small. These things are just like the existence of a creator for me. There is just so much emotional attachment to religion that it causes people to hang onto it for dear life.
So what is your explanation for god allowing everyone to be wrong? You don't choose to beleive, so don't use the free will argument.
That's my opinion anyway.

 

[Spinosaurus kin]

I am an atheist.

I stopped believing in God about the same time as I stopped believing in Santa Claus, so I was 8 or 9 years old.

I thought the whole God and religion thing was made up for kids, and I spent years expecting that someone was going to break it to me.

I worked out the truth in my mid teens.

Hahaha! I equate young-earth creationists to children who refuse to believe Santa Claus doesn't exist.
All i care for is the progression of society, and the way religion is used to inhibit that is dangerous.

Believe what you want, no matter how illogical. Just don't try to cause any unnecessary intolerance for people in the process.

 

[Spinosaurus kin]

Just something to think about lol

 

[apt-get]

Just something to think about lol

This is what you are doing:
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