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Religion and you.

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Diablos

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Basically this thread is for you to express how you feel about your religion, or how you feel if you do not have one at all.

I don't.

I have no shame in admitting that I don't conform to any religion, and I do not believe in god. Yeah, the thought of knowing that nothing happens after we die is definately menacing to the mind. That's why I also wonder if some people just accept religion to take their mind off of what really happens after death? Like some people don't want to face the reality that there is no kingdom of heaven?

But to go back to why I don't believe... it's quite simple really. If there is this god that loves us, will protect us, is righteous, defies evil... if he creates us, why are we put on this earth? Earth is a mixture of the concept of heaven and hell. There is a lot that is not right in this world. A *lot.* If god really cared about everyone and loves all of his children, why are they required to live a life on earth, as if it is some kind of test to see if you can get back into heaven? I mean seriously... what kind of sick bastard would do that to his "children?" Surely someone that loves his children and does not want them to be tainted by the evils that exist would keep them where he is. That in itself just tells me how flawed the concept of the afterlife is. God is in the afterlife, is he not?

Don't think I'm questioning religion for the sake of wanting to believe... rather, I am asking religious people how they see the idea of a god and afterlife as real.
 
Hi, I just want to get this in before this thread goes batshit crazy go nuts.

My name is Duke and I practice the philosophical belief of Therevadan Buddhism. Some people call it a religion but I don't.

Thanks folks!
 
Raoul Duke said:
Hi, I just want to get this in before this thread goes batshit crazy go nuts.

My name is Duke and I practice the philosophical belief of Therevadan Buddhism. Some people call it a religion but I don't.

Thanks folks!
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How can an overweight man teach self control?
 
I have no faith. I think thats fine, I don't care what happens when people die, we all just rot away... I sometimes think religion is for weak minded people who don't want to find answer but have some imaginary person "tell" them.
 
I'm pretty religious.

I don't know that I'm so good at explaining why I feel religious to other people, though ... and I'm always reluctant to even try, because I don't want to contribute to other peoples' negative feelings about religion should I do a poor job of explaining myself :\
 
Not very religious, I delved into some Buddhism here and there.

One thing that nags me is I can't picture a god that would let people suffer in the after life just because they didn't chose the right religion to worship dispite being a good person.
 
I was an alterboy way back when my daddy used to preach. Now, though, I really don't give a shit either way. The people who push their values and pass judgement on others really fucking irk me, however.
 
Incognito said:
I was an alterboy way back when my daddy used to preach. Now, though, I really don't give a shit either way. The people who push their values and pass judgement on others really fucking irk me, however.
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"You rang?"

Look this thread will not go crazy if everyone respects different viewpoints. A Christian could do what he and other Christians think is tearing apart my opinion and I could care less, because I also tore apart theirs. It's fair game. Tolerance is the key.
 
I'm agnostic, with a slight interest in Therevada Buddhism, but I have no self-control and few morals, so it'd just be me breaking the Eight Fold Path repeatedly.
 
HomerSimpson-Man said:
I can't picture a god that would let people suffer in the after life just because they didn't chose the right religion to worship dispite being a good person.
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This is why certain branches of Christianity basically equal a right to be ignorant and close-minded.
 
One thing that has always bothered me is the introduction of evil into the world. If God is wholly and absolutely good, and everything in the beginning is completely good... then how does evil even come about?

Man falls from grace, right? But all he knows and everything in the world is 100 percent good. How can he even possibly think of choosing evil? He has no precedent to do so as nothing on the whole fucking planet is evil. It can't come from within because he is inherently good and nothing on the planet is evil from which he can learn from because everything God created was good.

So how the fuck does evil enter? God himself?

Some will say well Lucifer tried to be like God and thus evil came about. Well why the fuck would Lucifer try to be God? He can't even possibly think of doing so. He has free will, but the only things he knows are 100 percent completely fucking good. So he can't do it on his own.

Anyone understand?
 
Teknopathetic said:
I'm agnostic, with a slight interest in Therevada Buddhism, but I have no self-control and few morals, so it'd just be me breaking the Eight Fold Path repeatedly.
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Really? You seem like someone with a lot of self-control and a very, I guess, "personal" set of morals.

I believe in self-control and morals. They are NOT tied to religion. You can have good morals and not be religious.
 
Well I think the majority of GAFers, well OT GAFers are either athesit, or agnostic, there are only a few theists - dont know if any are hardcore literalists though - so youll probably get the same answers.
If you read the ENTIRE bible, koran, torah etc, you realise that it belongs on the same shelf as LOTR,Oedipus , The Iliad etc. Parts of it are just plain embarassing, and its obvious that its an attempt by a 2000+ year old civilization to explain the world around them. Some of the tales are usefull (although 'inspired' by other teachings - the Golden rule is much older than the NT), alot of it is just plain silly.
I often wonder if the leader of the greatest empire ever bought into Budhism, how the world would be different today. Who knows. I do know that it seems some people actually NEED it to keep sane, moral, and well usefull to society, so I realise atheism isnt for everybody.

Anyone understand?
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No. The Problem of Evil is only a problem with a fully omni-benevolent god - and if you listen to some ahem fundies ahem, they dont think their god is all loving at all. Infact the whole omni-* characteristics Christians have given god is just a product of "making shit up" syndrome.
 
Widfara said:
One thing that has always bothered me is the introduction of evil into the world. If God is wholly and absolutely good, and everything in the beginning is completely good... then how does evil even come about?

Man falls from grace, right? But all he knows and everything in the world is 100 percent good. How can he even possibly think of choosing evil? He has no precedent to do so as nothing on the whole fucking planet is evil. It can't come from within because he is inherently good and nothing on the planet is evil from which he can learn from because everything God created was good.

So how the fuck does evil enter? God himself?

Some will say well Lucifer tried to be like God and thus evil came about. Well why the fuck would Lucifer try to be God? He can't even possibly think of doing so. He has free will, but the only things he knows are 100 percent completely fucking good. So he can't do it on his own.

Anyone understand?
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All I knows is that everytime I see your avatar I get happy inside. Shane McGowan is who I worship. None of this Jesus malarky for me!
 
Crutch of the week. Not feasting upon "the opiate of the masses" makes me, by default, better than the proletariat swine. It also frees me up to partake of the real opiate of the masses: opium.
 
I'm an atheist.

My parents never practiced any kind of faith... my father is an atheist too, and my mother believes in reincarnation.

When I was young, I was never really exposed to any kind of religion at all, until I went to school and made religious friends. My grandparents also made me go to church service on holidays, but never regularly. All in all, I haven't spent much time in a church.

I used to go to a youth group at the church all of my high school friends attended, on Wednesday nights. I went because it was very fun, and full of great people -- quite a liberal church, I'm sure many of them were aware I'm an atheist but they never tried to force any beliefs on me. It was really nice. I learned a lot about Christianity and the Bible while I was there, too, and it was really interesting.

Religion interests me greatly and I love talking about it, but I can never in the future see myself being a part of any religion or worshipping any God.
 
White Man said:
Crutch of the week. Not feasting upon "the opiate of the masses" makes me, by default, better than the proletariat swine. It also frees me up to partake of the real opiate of the masses: opium.
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Mmm... opium. It's whats for dinner!
 
hXc_thugg said:
All I knows is that everytime I see your avatar I get happy inside. Shane McGowan is who I worship. None of this Jesus malarky for me!
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Awesome. The Pogues are my favorite band; they're influence on my life is amazing.
 
Good point DaMan.

Also, isn't it true that the bible was translated by monks... by hand... for years and years and years? How can one trust this as being accurate?
 
"Really? You seem like someone with a lot of self-control and a very, I guess, "personal" set of morals."

I have little will power, actually, and I'm really apathetic towards a large portion of things that are socially (and a small chunk of legally) "wrong." See: That adultery thread.
 
Greenpanda said:
I'm pretty religious.

I don't know that I'm so good at explaining why I feel religious to other people, though ... and I'm always reluctant to even try, because I don't want to contribute to other peoples' negative feelings about religion should I do a poor job of explaining myself :\
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Do you question your own beliefs? And if not, why?

hXc_thugg said:
All I knows is that everytime I see your avatar I get happy inside.
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All I knows is that everytime I see your avatar I want to punch baby penguins and sea otters in the face.
 
Teknopathetic said:
"Really? You seem like someone with a lot of self-control and a very, I guess, "personal" set of morals."

I have little will power, actually, and I'm really apathetic towards a large portion of things that are socially (and a small chunk of legally) "wrong." See: That adultery thread.
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I'm surprised in a way but I'm still not sure where you stand...

Lots of people are apathetic towards adultry because it is out of their hands and personal. We can't police people that have already committed adultry, all we can do is realize it is something that would hurt someone you loved and something you should not do. That's where I draw the line anyway.

I'm very apathetic towards the whole Clinton and Lewinsky thing for example, because even though he lied under oath, ultimately what happened is not the business of anyone but him, his wife, his daughter, and Monica. That doesn't mean I think it is right, but I mean, what the fuck am I gonna do about that? It didn't influence anyone else except for a bunch of losers with no integrity that think they can cheat because the President did. And people like that are always looking for an excuse anyway.
 
Teknopathetic said:
"Really? You seem like someone with a lot of self-control and a very, I guess, "personal" set of morals."

I have little will power, actually, and I'm really apathetic towards a large portion of things that are socially (and a small chunk of legally) "wrong." See: That adultery thread.
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Looking at your avatar with "Safety Dance" playing is the best thing ever.
 
Diablos said:
Good point DaMan.

Also, isn't it true that the bible was translated by monks... by hand... for years and years and years? How can one trust this as being accurate?
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I dont think any Chrisitan would dispute the fact that the bible was written by man - but this leads to all sorts of problems regarding infalability, interpretation etc - Fact is Chrisitanity has thousands of denominations, disagreeing on MAJOR parts of the bile (particularly parts that say you are going to fry for eternity, and how you get to heaven - plus you have the fact that its based of another religion entirely, Judiasm - with alot of pagan influences as well. (Islam is in the same boat). Then you have politcs in the mix, with the Catholic church controlling what went into the official version etc.
 
cloudwalking said:
I'm an atheist.

My parents never practiced any kind of faith... my father is an atheist too, and my mother believes in reincarnation.

When I was young, I was never really exposed to any kind of religion at all, until I went to school and made religious friends. My grandparents also made me go to church service on holidays, but never regularly. All in all, I haven't spent much time in a church.

I used to go to a youth group at the church all of my high school friends attended, on Wednesday nights. I went because it was very fun, and full of great people -- quite a liberal church, I'm sure many of them were aware I'm an atheist but they never tried to force any beliefs on me. It was really nice. I learned a lot about Christianity and the Bible while I was there, too, and it was really interesting.

Religion interests me greatly and I love talking about it, but I can never in the future see myself being a part of any religion or worshipping any God.
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Then why go the Atheist route, Agnostic seems more reasonable.
 
For me, I don't care about believing in religion, nor do I care about NOT believing in religion. My responses lately have been, especially to those people hawking their beliefs on the street...

"Hi, I'm ****, do you believe in God/Jesus?"

--"I don't care."

"So you DON'T believe in Him/are you atheist?"

--"No, I said I DON'T CARE."

Following this is the usual street rambling which I can never remember partly because I'm probably reading something or going somewhere, partly because I just want the person to go away, but mostly because I just don't care about the whole thing.

IS there a supreme being out there that created everything or was is all just a lucky strike of proteins?

I don't care.

EDIT; the lack of care only applies to actual belief; I'll still read various religious texts for whatever reason. Stuff dealing with Hinduism or Indian mythology gets a major thumbs up from me. Very fun to read.
 
Diablos said:
Good point DaMan.

Also, isn't it true that the bible was translated by monks... by hand... for years and years and years? How can one trust this as being accurate?
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I'm not sure about Islam, but I can tell you that Buddhism is in the same boat. The Tipitaka(teachings of the Buddha) were passed down orally for years after his passing and committed to writing some four hundred years after his death on palm leaves.

But honestly, as much as I do enjoy reading various Buddhist writings, pretty much all you need are the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path in my opinion. And maybe the Anapanasati Sutta, concerning using the breath as a focus for meditation. At least, that's what I focus on, although as I said before it's more of a philosophy that I attempt to live my life by(not doing so well in staying away from intoxicants, I'm afraid) than what most people would think of as a religion.
 
Der Kommisar said:
Then why go the Atheist route, Agnostic seems more reasonable.
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Maybe because that's not how she feels?

I think athiest and agnostic are more alike than they are different. Both do not believe in the "god" that most people do. The only difference is athiests think there is NOTHING, agnostics think there MAY be something. I am caught somewhere in between, and this is why I think the two are more alike than different because you can kind of go from one viewpoint to the other very quickly. Based on what I can only know and see, yes, there's nothing. But how was space created? Something had to create that. Was it an act of something we cannot simply understand or is it the act of some higher power? Who knows, and who will ever know. We will either know when we're dead... or we won't know anything, not even that we ARE dead, when we're dead.
 
One conclusion from religion that makes sense is that it simply doesn't matter. Catholicism at least dictates that it is impossible to understand God. Yet it still tries to. But if it is impossible, then it really doesn't matter. And if it doesn't matter, then why care?
 
Raoul Duke said:
I'm not sure about Islam, but I can tell you that Buddhism is in the same boat. The Tipitaka(teachings of the Buddha) were passed down orally for years after his passing and committed to writing some four hundred years after his death on palm leaves.
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:lol That's accurate!!
 
Religion is interesting as systems created by man. However I find it impossible to believe that a perfect being like god would allow for such an imperfect method of worship. I also find it extremely cocky and funny to think WE think god reasons on the same level we do.

WE ARE DUMMIES.
 
Diablos said:
Maybe because that's not how she feels?

I think athiest and agnostic are more alike than they are different. Both do not believe in the "god" that most people do. The only difference is athiests think there is NOTHING, agnostics think there MAY be something. I am caught somewhere in between, and this is why I think the two are more alike than different because you can kind of go from one viewpoint to the other very quickly. Based on what I can only know and see, yes, there's nothing. But how was space created? Something had to create that. Was it an act of something we cannot simply understand or is it the act of some higher power? Who knows, and who will ever know. We will either know when we're dead... or we won't know anything, not even that we ARE dead, when we're dead.
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You're pretty much right.

Atheism is characterized by an absence of belief in the existence of gods.

An agnostic is someone who believes that we do not know for sure whether God exists. Some agnostics believe that we can never know.

See: http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/intro.html
 
Then why go the Atheist route, Agnostic seems more reasonable.
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You can be an atheist towards certain god(s), in particular ones with ALOT of detail (namely the Abrahamic religions) and characterisitcs that are in conflict, dont reflect the world that we live, or you just dont believe the people that made it up. You can be agnostic to a 'god' type of being at the same time.

One conclusion from religion that makes sense is that it simply doesn't matter. Catholicism at least dictates that it is impossible to understand God. Yet it still tries to. But if it is impossible, then it really doesn't matter. And if it doesn't matter, then why care?
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Because you will fry for eternity? Organized religions have all the hallmarks of a con - promise of a reward for something in return (but only when your dead !), with a threat / warning of some kind if you dont partake in whatever they are selling.
 
I guess I'm agnostic. I did have a pretty big breakup with a girl a few years ago due to religious differences though, that was a long time coming. She was hardcore catholic (unless it was inconvenient for her) and is now involved with the church.
 
Diablos said:
Maybe because that's not how she feels?

I think athiest and agnostic are more alike than they are different. Both do not believe in the "god" that most people do. The only difference is athiests think there is NOTHING, agnostics think there MAY be something. I am caught somewhere in between, and this is why I think the two are more alike than different because you can kind of go from one viewpoint to the other very quickly. Based on what I can only know and see, yes, there's nothing. But how was space created? Something had to create that. Was it an act of something we cannot simply understand or is it the act of some higher power? Who knows, and who will ever know. We will either know when we're dead... or we won't know anything, not even that we ARE dead, when we're dead.
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Personally, I think saying that you KNOW there is nothing is just as ignorant as saying that you KNOW there is.
 
Widfara said:
One conclusion from religion that makes sense is that it simply doesn't matter. Catholicism at least dictates that it is impossible to understand God. Yet it still tries to. But if it is impossible, then it really doesn't matter. And if it doesn't matter, then why care?
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I can only guess because they seperate god from his teachings. Like, his teachings are clues or guidelines but god himself will not be known until you die.

Kind of sounds like a game.
 
cloudwalking said:
Because I don't believe in a God. I just enjoy learning about religion.
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Same here. As someone with a deep interest in Western art, a solid understanding of the faiths that influenced the relevant civilizations is necessary, just as it's necessary to understand the fragile political situation of Restoration-era England if you want to understand Gulliver's Travels. Without religion, Milton and Dante's work simply could not exist. Neither could Phillip Pullman. Religion is very important, but not for the reasons the masses think it is.
 
People like cloudwalking and white man will have easier lives simply because they have enough respect for religion to learn about it. In a mostly religious society, it's not a bad idea to get acquanited with religion, even if you do not believe. I'm too rebellious to care, but kudos to people that still try to understand it from a religious person's point of view just for the sake of getting along with them. I can't do that though.
 
I wont learn about it cause I dont care. However I will tolerate it and make reasonable attempts to respect it if informed accordingly.

I dont have time to learn what you guys think, its none of my business. I have my own universe to contend with.
 
I'm a weak athiest. I was raised Catholic, but extremely poorly. The Catholic church should be embarassed and ashamed that they could confirm someone as poorly educated about their teachings as myself. Or maybe that would make them proud... *shrug* I really, really regret getting confirmed, but I was still working out my lack of faith. I think it's pretty ridiculous that they expect 13/14 year olds to make that kind of decision. I can't stand walking into a church anymore. Vile places.

I've got a pretty big beef with organized religion though, at least western religions. They seem to just promote ignorance. I have far less distaste for the people who are intelligent about their faith and pursue and question it in a personal manner.
 
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