Careful Now!...Religion thread.

Arcade Panda

So what do ye believe in? If ye believe in anything?!

jumpguy

What do YOU believe in ArPa?

challengemaster

I believe in Common Sense. Doesn't seem to be all that common at times, though.

QueenOfLeon

I was always wondering if one of these threads would come up! Should be interesting

I'm just meh about the whole religion thing. Not at all religious myself, I don't think theres a man in the sky controlling things, but I wouldn't slag people off for their beliefs. I would still respect older people in their praying/going to mass and all that, I wouldn't interrogate them about things, or push atheism on people, if they want to have faith in something thats their own decision.

KnifeWRENCH

I'm an apathetic agnostic - don't know and don't care if there's a god or not.

Long Term Louth

KnifeWRENCH wrote: »

I'm an apathetic agnostic - don't know and don't care if there's a god or not.

But never cease talking about the existence/non existence of one?

Pygmalion

Long Term Louth wrote: »

But never cease talking about the existence/non existence of one?

I've been here for just over a year now, and pretty much spend all day refreshing this forum (slight exaggeration, but only slight) and I honestly don't think I've ever seen him post anything on the topic.

I'm sure you'll be more than willing to provide evidence that it's all he talks about though?

Arcade Panda

jumpguy wrote: »

What do YOU believe in ArPa?

Same as QueenOfLeon to be honest. I'm not religious at all. I respect people who do believe in something though.. I wouldn't ever take the piss or make little of them. It's such a personal thing!

I'd love to believe that there's a heaven, purely for the sake of my Gran. I hope she ended up somewhere great!

Bobalicious93

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

This video pretty much sums up my feelings on religion...

illiop

I'm not sure what I believe. I'd say I'm edgeing towards Panentheism but I'm not really sure. I would definitly say that I believe in a god but I don't agree with organized religon; as...someone in "The big bang theory" said "I'm not opposed to the idea of a go but it baffles me why one would take attendance" (or something along those lines).

I do, however, dislike this modern trend of stereotyping anybody who practices a religon as a backwards, bible-bashing, creationist/fundamentalist. It's one of my pet hates.

EDIT: I also think that I believe in reincarnation but I'm not sure (it sound a bit crazy but I like the idea). Love the name of the thread too!

Pigwidgeon

I was brought up Catholic, going to mass every week, confession, communion and confirmation. After my confirmation, my mum left it up to me if I wanted to go to church or not. I don't think I've been apart from funerals, weddings, etc since.

I believe there's "something" out there, but my beliefs would be more in line with general fate and karma.

I really disagree with the majority of the Catholic Church's standpoints. I think they need to adapt their opinions on a lot of issues, and essentially just need to modernise and "get with the times". Especially after an essay I did last year in college on the Church's effect on Irish society, I think the negatives outweigh the positives. I read the majority of the Murphy report and felt physically sick reading it, hearing how many cases there was and how many cover ups of abuse there were too. I know at the moment, until there is serious reformation and several priests are made leave the church, I want nothing to do with that organisation. Also, some of the things Ratzinger has come out with over the last while, are just ridiculous.

My best friend is the opposite of me, she's a practising Catholic. But my general thing, is live and let live. I'm not going to try and change her opinions.

Colm!

I'm agnostic. We'll never know whether or not there is\was a god. So there's no point in arguing. Believe what you want, but I simply believe that this isn't a subject that we'll ever settle.
Live life with kindness and respect to others, if there is a god, you will be rewarded for it, if there is not a god you will have made life on Earth better for others. And a god that would punish you for choosing not to believe in him because of simple lack of proof is a god not worth worshiping.

Long Term Louth

Pygmalion wrote: »

I've been here for just over a year now, and pretty much spend all day refreshing this forum (slight exaggeration, but only slight) and I honestly don't think I've ever seen him post anything on the topic.

I'm sure you'll be more than willing to provide evidence that it's all he talks about though?

Not exacting the comment at the poster directly, merely questioning the apathetic agnostic in general. Sorry to both if this was misrepresented

laurashambles

I'm an atheist, but it's not something I think about too much.

QueenOfLeon

Arcade Panda wrote: »

I'd love to believe that there's a heaven, purely for the sake of my Gran. I hope she ended up somewhere great!

I'm exactly the same. When older people that I knew died, I'd feel really sorry for them that a certain proportion of their lives had been all about religion, and that there may be nothing for them after all that. I especially felt that when my granduncle, a priest, died. He was such a lovely man...extremely deeply religious but he was so good to us and he would give all us kids all his time and more whenever he was around. I've never wished so much that there was something there for him afterwards when he had spent his whole life dedicated to his faith.

challengemaster

kateos2 wrote: »

I really disagree with the majority of the Catholic Church's standpoints. I think they need to adapt their opinions on a lot of issues, and essentially just need to modernise and "get with the times".

How, exactly?

Essentially, any of their viewpoints have come "straight from god" or the pope, the person who supposedly talks to god and reveals gods will. Changing their beliefs to become more modern would be going against the very god they dedicate their lives to. I don't see how they could actually manage to do something like that without completely nullifying the religion.

edit: I've always loved this particular quote on religion

If one person talks to an imaginary friend all the time, and supposedly is spoken to by them, they're deemed insane.
If a whole load of people do the same, it's religion.

almostnever

I'm a hopeful atheist. As in, I don't believe there's a god but I would absolutely love to be proved wrong.

I hate the notion of not being able to be a moral person without religious faith. I may not practise a religion but I try to be the best person I can be and to make the right decisions for me and to help people out whenever I can. I don't think people need to have a god to have a conscience. I'd like to think if there was a god he'd let me into Heaven whether or not I believed in him if I hadn't done anything horrendous in my life/generally was a good person.

I also hate the "everyone who is associated with the Catholic Church is a paedophile, everyone who is a Muslim is a terrorist" mindset. It's intolerance on a really fundamental level and turns my stomach.

Oh, and I think schools should be secular. Society in general, in fact.

Those are my religious views in a nutshell.

Pigwidgeon

challengemaster wrote: »

How, exactly?

Essentially, any of their viewpoints have come "straight from god" or the pope, the person who supposedly talks to god and reveals gods will. Changing their beliefs to become more modern would be going against the very god they dedicate their lives to. I don't see how they could actually manage to do something like that without completely nullifying the religion.

That's a good point. I'll admit, I don't know a huge amount about the fundamentals of their belief system, but some of the outright bans and damnations to hell for things like homosexuality, women priests etc. could be adjusted slightly without overly destroying the religion, yet they will not extradite priests who have been proven guilty of sexual abuse. As recently heard, the pope refused to accept certain priests retirement.

Just reading back over my own post there, you could say I just don't agree with a hell of a lot of the Church's views.

ohthebaby

I'm a Catholic born and bred. I go to Mass every week despite my grumbles, I say the odd prayer here and there, I put Holy Water on my cat at night, etc. I like to think God exists and that Heaven does too. It's a nice, yet perhaps illogical, outlook and things just seem a bit nicer.

I say I am Catholic but I disagree with lots of the Church's opinions on gay marriage and contraception and all that. I know then that I'm probably a massive hypocrite going to Mass when not believing these teachings but I really don't think though that not agreeing with those things should interfere with being a Catholic or not. As in these things really shouldn't be of concern to our religious leaders. I mean, the main teachings of most major religions, Catholicism included, is to love your neighbour and treat others as you'd like to be treated yourself. Isn't there enough hatred in the world to try fix rather than wasting energy trying to preventing the celebration of love between two people of the same sex? I totally support the calls for gay marriage and I really don't think this makes me any less religious. Less Catholic maybe but not less God-loving. I think.

Also Creationism is silly. So I don't really know where that leaves me. A pick'n'mix Catholic of sorts, if you will.

Pygmalion

challengemaster wrote: »

How, exactly?

Essentially, any of their viewpoints have come "straight from god" or the pope, the person who supposedly talks to god and reveals gods will. Changing their beliefs to become more modern would be going against the very god they dedicate their lives to. I don't see how they could actually manage to do something like that without completely nullifying the religion.

To be fair they already ignore pretty much everything in the bible, so they're not entirely against ditching out-dated beliefs, they're just far behind the general population.

The bible (mainly the Old Testament) tells you that in certain instances it's morally acceptable (and encouraged by god himself) to rape women, kill children for no reason at all beyond where they live and sacrifice animals to make up for the sin of masturbation.
It took a few hundred more years than it should have but that's all frowned upon in all but the most backwards cultures.

If a church wants to start ignoring more of that awful series of books I'd rather smile and nod along than point out that they're going against the will of some hypothetical god.

QueenOfLeon

Another thing that I used to ask when I was fairly young...with all the religions in the world, Christians who believe in heaven and God, Muslims who believe in Allah and judgement day, Hindus and Buddhists believing in many gods....how can assume that you're the one who is right? Isn't it a bit ridiculous to assume that you're right about something with no proof when millions of other people think something different?

I'd just have images of people suddenly reincarnating and thinking shiiiiit, the Hindus were right! :P

Pygmalion

ohthebaby wrote: »

Also Creationism is silly. So I don't really know where that leaves me. A pick'n'mix Catholic of sorts, if you will.

Actually the last pope thought the same about Creationism IIRC, they say that belief in Evolution (or whatever else) isn't against Catholic dogma if you accept that the conditions under which we evolved were granted by God.

They don't specifically say that Creationism is silly or wrong of course, and there are probably tons in the Vatican who DO believe in it, but I think after the whole middle ages thing they're a bit more willing to compromise on scientific matters :P.

almostnever

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

Another thing that I used to ask when I was fairly young...with all the religions in the world, Christians who believe in heaven and God, Muslims who believe in Allah and judgement day, Hindus and Buddhists believing in many gods....how can assume that you're the one who is right? Isn't it a bit ridiculous to assume that you're right about something with no proof when millions of other people think something different?

I'd just have images of people suddenly reincarnating and thinking shiiiiit, the Hindus were right! :P

That kind of reminds me of something Dawkins said (at least, I think it was Dawkins! ) Basically this guy was asking him did he have any evidence that there wasn't a god because he could feel god in his life, and Dawkins replied "but if you have been born in India, you would call that presence one of the various Hindu gods, if you had been born in the Middle East you'd call it Allah." A lot of it really has, it seems, got to do with location. It's funny how people of one religion can so vehemently declare another to be wrong, when neither of them can really prove that they're right and each would object to their beliefs being disregarded by non believers.

I think that's what I'm trying to say. I'm tired. >.<

QueenOfLeon

So wheres the other side of the debate? Come on in!

randylonghorn

challengemaster wrote: »

How, exactly?

Essentially, any of their viewpoints have come "straight from god" or the pope, the person who supposedly talks to god and reveals gods will. Changing their beliefs to become more modern would be going against the very god they dedicate their lives to. I don't see how they could actually manage to do something like that without completely nullifying the religion.

The basic tenets of Christianity are as modern and applicable now as they ever were. The central message of Jesus in the gospels (whether you believe he was the son of god or not) are simple and timeless ... love one another; treat others as you would like to be treated; take especial care of the weak and the old and the children, etc.

It's the baggage of centuries which has been invented by old wizened men in Rome which doesn't take kindly to the modern world, or vice versa. Doctrines have been created based on the prejudices of men, who have twisted and turned the smallest phrase from the old testaments (many written thousands of years before Jesus, by the old wizened men of *their* time) or from the writings of Paul (himself the first of the bitter Roman men) to back up their own prejudices, and then wrapped up in tomes of Latin, and promulgated as God's word.

Jesus never condemned homosexuality or masturbation or women priests, for example. He did, though, protect a prostitute from being stoned, and spent a lot of time complaining about the smug, rich churchmen of his own era.

The son of god or not? I honestly don't know. But his message is still thoroughly modern, if you strip it of all the layers which have been piled on it since by men who are addicted to power and control.

KnifeWRENCH

Long Term Louth wrote: »

Not exacting the comment at the poster directly, merely questioning the apathetic agnostic in general. Sorry to both if this was misrepresented

Well fair enough, but I'm not the apathetic agnostic in general (I have far better things to talk about) so your comment doesn't apply to me. Maybe the only agnostics you know never shut up about religion, but I'm not like that at all!

Pygmalion

randylonghorn wrote: »

Jesus never condemned homosexuality or masturbation

The bible (the non-Jesus parts) did though (some people do argue over translations of the gay bashing admittedly), and not through careful manipulation or selective interpretation, it just comes right out and says it.
It's even more clear about advocating genocide and rape.

So yes, if you believe in the bible as the word of God then you must, as a rule, believe that homosexuality, masturbation and other stuff is forbidden.
On the plus side slaves got a pretty good deal.

Davidius

I don't know if God exists or not as I have no proof either way but considering there's nothing to suggest that he exists I can say it's fairly unlikely.

Konata

KnifeWRENCH wrote: »

I'm an apathetic agnostic - don't know and don't care if there's a god or not.

Snap!

At the moment, I don't believe in God or religion of any sort really. And I don't really care about the ins and outs of why I don't believe in it. I'm not one of these people who will debate the existence of God or the pros and cons of the Catholic Church or whatever. I just don't believe in it and have no interest in discussing it whatsoever.

jefreywithonef

I believe in space.

kev9100

I don't know if there is a God, no-one really knows, but I'm not too fussed either way.


But what I can't stand about religion is that people actually waste their entire lives praying/worshipping to some deity that may or may not exist. I mean, there is so much more life and so many more important things to do. Why waste it?