wahaha Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I noticed the thread on sexual preference was getting clogged with religion posts, so I made this. Also I am getting fed up with everyone talking about the pope, and want feedback. People.. GOD is NOT Christian. If GOD was, I wouldn't want any part of it. It is the most messed up religion you can choose to practice. You can also do some research online and find all kinds of contradictions in the bible, as well as some claims that the stories in the bible were copied from other religions, and that Jesus did not die on the cross but was near death and healed after they took him down. As for this stuff about the pope. He is a man! He is no more special or closer to GOD than the next person. There is nothing "HOLY" about him. In fact I can say that I probably had more spiritual experiences than he did. And as far as I'm concerned he really did nothing while he held that position. It has become a religion that wants you to pay money to support their lifestyle and beliefs more than help the world. I have had some out of body experiences, so my beliefs of the afterlife are based on that. I believe the religion you believe in shapes your reality in the end. How you treat others in this life, you will feel their emotions. So the saying treat others how you would want to be treated applies. I personally believe that most of the stories in the bible are just that.. stories, they never happened or were made up. Some might be true, but not many. If you's like more info on others experiences, I suggest you visit these websites. http://www.near-death.com http://nderf.org http://oberf.org Some of the stories contradict and like I said before, the religion you believe in shapes your reality in the next realm. So let us hear your opinions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werecow Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 hooo boy!!!! you opening up one biiiig ol' kettle of fish with this one!!!!!!!!! i think ill stay out of this one and just watch the fireworks fly!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuages Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 i think you need an other in there also, there are lots more religions then that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werecow Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 i think you need an other in there also' date=' there are lots more religions then that[/quote'] might include jedi after all this is a sci-fi forum (my daughter said they are trying to start a jedi club at school...one of the kids even tried the wavy hand thing on her...didn't work.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderbear Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 You could at least have had a category for "Other." You left out neo-paganism, the fastest growing religion in America. You left out indigenous spiritual paths. The last one was pretty good, but it was limited to "God," not "Goddess," not many Gods, not Pantheism. So here is my model creed: All Gods are One God. All Goddesses are One Goddess. The God and the Goddess are One. The One is None. The None is the Void. The Void gives birth to the All. All Gods ... Doesn't quite nail it down for me, but reminds me that any one concept I lock into is insufficient to describe any deity that might exist. So I try to stay fluid, avoiding mental idolatry as much as possible. I realize that my "creed" is in itself false and misleading. As the Tao (another missing religion) states: "The tao which can be written down is not the Tao. The name which can be spoken is not the Name." Then there's Aleister Crowley's (I think) instruction: Hold a concept of the Divine in your mind. Now, hold its opposite at the same time. In the resolution of two polar opposites, you have come closer to Knowing God. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuages Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 might include jedi after all this is a sci-fi forum did you ever here about this? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2757067.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendo001 Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 i'm supposed to be a christian............ but i seem to believe there is something more than god, and that god is a man made invention............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolcat13 Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I am a God faring Christian .....however I would be hard pressed to try to sway others to my way of thinking because religion is something that is private and personal . when it comes down to it I believe mostly in the ways of Christianity, however not necessaily in the way of the organised religions that claim to represent Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wahaha Posted April 3, 2005 Author Share Posted April 3, 2005 I tried to include the popular religions that I found listed on 1 website, but the forum only lets you list 7 I think. I try to keep an open mind since having my experiences, but Christianity isn't one of them. It's too harsh for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werecow Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I am a God faring Christian .....however I would be hard pressed to try to sway others to my way of thinking because religion is something that is private and personal . when it comes down to it I believe mostly in the ways of Christianity, however not necessaily in the way of the organised religions that claim to represent Christianity id have to say ditto..the main problem with christianity today is religion...religion is man's way of trying to put himself above god...it should be more of a presonal relationship with god instead of having to go through what "the church" expects before you can grow in your walk with him... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtremeskiing Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 There is no god. God is a creation of the human mind to fulfill the insatiable urge of total control. God was created to control the unknown and unmanagable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuages Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I tried to include the popular religions that I found listed on 1 website, but the forum only lets you list 7 I think. I try to keep an open mind since having my experiences, but Christianity isn't one of them. It's too harsh for me. I'm not christian myself, but christianity is too broad a religion to say that, there are SOOOO many different denominations i don't want to even see a list of them, some deffently non-harsh denominations are the unitarian universalists, which i went to as a child, my dad an agnostic was drawn there, was a very interesting church. Although it was officialy christian, atheists, agnostics, muslism, buddhists, and many other people of different religious faiths attended there. I remember going to a sermen that was on surfing, and that was it nothing religious about the sermen it was simply about surfing. Although united church is a much more christian church then the unitarians, they are still extremely open and the view points even in that one denomination varies. I've been to a few different united church's as my grandfather was a minister, and he still attends church regular, and when my family visited him we would go to church with them. He went through a different churchs in his area all united, but quite different, one was more typically christian, with a minister who was typically christian. My grandfather now attends a united church, actually i think its not a church yet but is official a united mission or something or other. Anyways the minister there doesn't beleive as jesus as the son of god, but views him as simply a teacher, and sees the bible as a collection of stories. So although i am bothered by what i'm sure your bothered by in alot of christian denominations, I really don't like to see all christians grouped together under one-term good or bad. I love my grandfather and deeply respect his faith he has, and i have christian friends whose faith i respect, and with both i see nothing harsh about or anything to criticize that doesn't simply have to do with personal perspective. Alot of different denominations and people throughout history and currently deffently can be labeled as what i would say is beyond harsh, what i would call evil ala hitleresque, but not all christian and denominations or the current form or past form of those denominations that way. The same really goes for any other religion too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synexo Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 Wow the conversation around here has gotten might heavy... soon we'll be waging holy wars against eachother :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werecow Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 i told you this was a big kettle of fish!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderbear Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I am getting fed up with everyone talking about the pope' date=' and want feedback.[/quote'] As a non-Catholic, who has frequently yelled at the TV when I disagreed with this or that papal message, I was surprise to find myself wracked with sobs when I heard this morning that John Paul II had died. Although I strongly disagreed with him on some things, he was a powerful champion of the disenfranchised, the powerless, and the poor. I think he probably would have approved of the Trekiverse if he'd ever watched Star Trek. GOD is NOT Christian. If GOD was' date=' I wouldn't want any part of it. It is the most messed up religion you can choose to practice.[/quote'] Not by half! But yeah, there are those who claim the name of Christian that I'm sure would have deeply offended their founder. If you boil the teachings of Jesus down to their simplest common denominator, you get something like "God is a loving Parent, closer and more intimate than you can imagine." His basic command: "Love and care for each other - whatever you do to another human being you have done to Me." Those are pretty hard to argue with, unless you're an atheist. Even so, on a symbolic level, his Basic Commandment still works. As for this stuff about the pope. He is a man! He is no more special or closer to GOD than the next person. There is nothing "HOLY" about him. In fact I can say that I probably had more spiritual experiences than he did. And as far as I'm concerned he really did nothing while he held that position. It has become a religion that wants you to pay money to support their lifestyle and beliefs more than help the world. I dunno. "By their fruits shall ye know them." Wojytla took a strong stance against the Holocaust, even forging baptismal certificates to help Jewish people escape Nazi extermination. His strong and vocal support for Solidarnosc is thought to have saved the movement from violent repression and may even have quickened the fall of the Soviet Empire. He was a powerful advocate for the poor and an outspoken critic of the excesses of capitalism. He never stopped reminding people, governments, and businesses that the greed which drives Western Society is destructive and ungodly. I disagreed with his absolutist stands on homosexuality, birth control, and allowing priests to marry (to name a few). But I respect and admire him for being a lone voice of power speaking against the basic constructs of Western Society. It surprised me that I had such an extreme emotional reaction to the news of his death. When Reagan died and was being deified by everybody, I kept yelling at the TV about Iran Contra, about Reagan Doctrine US-sponsored Terrorism in Latin America, about the destruction of the social safety net in the USA. Everybody forgot about those things. Obviously, it wasn't a father figure thing with me. I still don't know why I cried so hard. I guess John Paul II/Wojytla had stirred something deep in my psyche and I feel the pain of his passing in some manner. Reagan, on the otherhand, always struck me as a sociopath. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderbear Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 There is no god. God is a creation of the human mind to fulfill the insatiable urge of total control. God was created to control the unknown and unmanagable. To believe this takes as much faith as to say, definitively, that "There is a God." When it comes to the nature and (non)existence of God, I try to practice some humility ... something I'm not very good at! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderbear Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I try to keep an open mind since having my experiences' date=' but Christianity isn't one of them. It's too harsh for me.[/quote'] A very sad statement, since the Founder was a gentle and tender human being, full of empathy and compassion. Whatever harshness you've experienced comes from a perversion of what Jesus taught. The ironic thing is that if you can have love and compassion for those harsh and/or dogmatic people claiming to be Christ-ian, you're acting more Christ-like than they ... B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NiteShdw Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I selected Christianity in the poll, but as others mentioned, there is a wide range of 'Christian' beliefs. I served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico from 1999 to 2001. My faith is a very important part of my life, it gives me focus and direction, as well as goals. I'm studying International Relations because of the experiences I had while living in Mexico (I only saw a few Americans while I was there), and I gained a strong desire to do anything I could to help the poor around the world. That's why I'm studying development, economics, and politics (all part of my major). Personally, I do believe that there are eternal truths. Just as we have learned laws of science, there are laws of nature and of the universe that exist but we do not understand. What I am trying to say is that regardless of the number of religions in the world, there is one truth. My faith is based on the belief in revelation from God. Just as God talked with prophets in the past, the same model continues. It's true that there are a lot of contraditions in the Bible. While I'm not familiar with them all, I do know that the Bible was compiled, translated, and passed down by men, which inevitablely has created some errors (has anyone seen signs in foreign countries translated into English? You'll know what I mean). I respect everyone's right to believe and act they way they choose. However, I also believe that just because one believes something to be true, does not in fact make it true. Think of Waco, Texas, or the KKK, or even the fringe religious groups on the Utah/Arizona border. Most of us can tell that there is something wrong with these belief systems. Why? Religion is an interesting debate, one on which it seems that everyone has their opinion. We can't all be right. EDIT: Anyone that's curious, my Church's general conference is going on this weekend, you can listen at http://www.lds.org/broadcast/gc/0,5161,5177,00.html (not trying to convert, but some people are curious). Available in 60 languages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oma Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 Wow the conversation around here has gotten might heavy... soon we'll be waging holy wars against eachother :) Well, as long as we atheists get to be the umpires I don't mind :) I'd just lean back, declare "survival of the fittest" and open a bag of popcorn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcant Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 unless of course the believers decide to team up and take out the aethiests first! ;) And I come under other Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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