LGBT Religious or not?

Shakti

Hi,
Just thought I might try a poll, so why not pick a safe topic like religion right! .....
So religion does it figure in your life an to what degree?

littlehedgehog

I have no issue whatsoever with other people having a religion - It's not for me, I've no interest in it, and I've no real sense of spirituality.

I have a massive issue when my life is impacted by other people with a religion.

I don't shove my lack of religion down their throat or use my lack of religion to keep archaic laws on the books, and yet they feel the need to do so.

This makes me very, very angry.

plein de force

No belief in any religion whatsoever and not interested in the slightest so it has 0 impact on my life

Freiheit

I'm a humanist which is a life philosophy akin to Dawkins and Hitchens except secular ceremonies to mark major events such as marriage, death, births do exist, similar to those of the church but without any reference to God. I'm not lapsed, so didn't vote, I'm a committed but not bible thumping atheist.

A lot of prejudice in the world is due to religion. I believe in a world based on veriable evidence, on ideas which are testable, not in ancient fables.

bodice ripper

I think if you're LGBTQ and follow any of the abrahamic religions you need your head examined.

I think if you are straight and follow any of the abrahamic religions you need your head examined.

Seriously, invent something as powerful and liberating as the printing press, and boom the great unwashed want bibles. morons.

and as for LGBTQ catholics, why not put your own eyes out as well? Its the no-homers-club and you are the homer. They hate you, don't kiss the ass that is $hitting on you.

wonderfulname

Have a bit of compassion bodice ripper, in this country its probable that religion will have become an integral part of your identity before you even realise you're LGBT. You don't have to be a moron to be religious, just indoctrinated.

LGBT Catholics are generally more than aware of the churches standing, it makes things pretty sh*t for them to say the least, really, you call the religious morons then completely miss the complexity of this topic...

Platinum2010

Freiheit wrote: »

I'm a humanist

A lot of prejudice in the world is due to religion. I believe in a world based on veriable evidence, on ideas which are testable.

All of the above .
I have a theory based on a religious grouping nearby about why people chose religion

wonderfulname

Platinum2010 wrote: »

I have a theory based on a religious grouping nearby about why people chose religion

Most don't, its just drilled into them from an early age. Bring up a couple of kids with no religious influence and see how many leap into jesus' arms...

Chuchoter

I'm an atheist. I don't have a problem with religious people, but it bothers me when people can't recognize the damage their religion does to the world.

bodice ripper

wonderfulname wrote: »

Have a bit of compassion bodice ripper, in this country its probable that religion will have become an integral part of your identity before you even realise you're LGBT. You don't have to be a moron to be religious, just indoctrinated.

LGBT Catholics are generally more than aware of the churches standing, it makes things pretty sh*t for them to say the least, really, you call the religious morons then completely miss the complexity of this topic...

oh I have all the compassion in the world, I am also just furious about it. most of the time I feel bad, and every once in a while the anger boils over into "hey, stop making the the damn fetters holding you down, it is stupid. I am angry for what these people do to you, and you should be too." particularly with catholics. it is a central point of the religion that you believe that hateful little man in the vatican is infallible. either you believe the things he says, and you are a catholic, or you don't and you aren't. Being an a la carte catholic is already daft, doing so when it explicitly says you are evil for being who you are is just out there in my opinion.

and, to be fair, it did start the post with "I think". I would be entirely against any move to stop people from being able to get bibles/go to mass/ utter the vile poison of their faith. but i think it is stupid.

my grandmother who I love dearly and whose opinion matters to me above all others is (allegedly) catholic. She loves me and my girlfriend and thinks she is the best thing that ever happened to me. I still think its stupid that she would allow her membership of that religion be counted when this poxy country makes desicions based on its catholic voting base.

Platinum2010

wonderfulname wrote: »

Most don't, its just drilled into them from an early age. Bring up a couple of kids with no religious influence and see how many leap into jesus' arms...

My children will grow up in an environment with a humanist view on life . If they chose religion in the long run thats up to them , religion is just not for me though . I agree with Nietchze's key Theory though

wonderfulname

bodice ripper wrote: »

oh I have all the compassion in the world, I am also just furious about it. most of the time I feel bad, and every once in a while the anger boils over into "hey, stop making the the damn fetters holding you down, it is stupid. I am angry for what these people do to you, and you should be too." particularly with catholics. it is a central point of the religion that you believe that hateful little man in the vatican is infallible. either you believe the things he says, and you are a catholic, or you don't and you aren't. Being an a la carte catholic is already daft, doing so when it explicitly says you are evil for being who you are is just out there in my opinion.

and, to be fair, it did start the post with "I think". I would be entirely against any move to stop people from being able to get bibles/go to mass/ utter the vile poison of their faith. but i think it is stupid.

my grandmother who I love dearly and whose opinion matters to me above all others is (allegedly) catholic. She loves me and my girlfriend and thinks she is the best thing that ever happened to me. I still think its stupid that she would allow her membership of that religion be counted when this poxy country makes desicions based on its catholic voting base.

Ah, now you bring in a la carte catholicism, who says a gay catholic is an a la carte one, and not just depressed and screwed in the head over the whole thing? It's not daftness or stupidity, the problem does not lie with the individual, rather the institution. This even goes for the a la carte ones, it's all just baggage.

I completely agree that people should not be adding their weight to a statistic when it does not belong, thats why I was doing so much gentle nagging here during the census, but it wasn't to tell people what to believe, it was to get them to assess their beliefs, doing the former is counter productive and disrespectful.

blorg

More important is the level of development of a country frankly. All countries with legalised same-sex marriage are traditionally Christian countries. The same goes for all countries with same-sex civil partnerships, all Christian. Non-Abrahamic religions may be theoretically more liberal as to homosexual relationships but this does not play out on the ground if the society is conservative.

Also worth noting that none of the non-Abrahamic countries in Asia recognise even same-sex civil partnerships, not even the highly-developed ones (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau.)

Aard

I've stopped debating religion with people. I get upset, the other person gets upset, no middle ground has been reached. It's entirely pointless.

I'm not religious. I don't "have" a religion. OK, so my name is scrawled in a book in a church somewhere, but that's the extent of it. Oh, and I've apparently engaged in mass cannibalism on account of being down with the whole transsubstantiation thing at the time. But can a kid really be religious? I don't really care as it doesn't affect me any more. It's not from being homosexual that I've lapsed (again misleading -- I "lapsed" aged 13 or so when, y'know, my brain started working); more to with having generally considered the subject.

I guess the only thing about religion that pisses me off today is that Ireland isn't a secular state. That's more to do with establishment and institutions, though, than regular people.

apache

religion is a funny thing. i am an atheist. but the way i was brought up was very religious. i had to go to mass until i rebelled and jeez did i rebel :P

i am living my own life now for a long time - a very long time. i moved out of home at a very tender age.
i do however understand that my parents have relied on religion in very difficult times. it is essentially the reason why my mother is alive today. she believed in it through her sickness.
if that gives her a crutch as opposed to the medics who am i to stand in the way?
she believes she is alive through religion. i would not take that away from her.
i must respect her beliefs no matter how much they gall me.

and i think in a small part of me if it was not for her faith she would be dead. well that is fact i think. she got the strength and courage from her god.

i would not dismiss it even though i don't believe in it.

yes i don't believe in all this crap but i see how it can help people. i think at the end of the day people need something to hold on to. and that has to be respected.

Freiheit

Abraham cooked his daughter on God's orders, is this really a God who can be loved and worshipped?...This Abraham, Godfather of 3 faiths.

My families rejection of my identity is due to societal norms they grew up with which were derived from the church. The church whose doctrine is based on no evidence just attitudes, including prejudice of the time and fables. You know there's no contemporary records of the existence of Jesus. Detailed Roman records exist, yet none for Jesus.

The Church established heteronormativity and narrow gender identities. They are responsible for a lot of the prejudice lgbtq people have faced.

Apparently in the pre-christian era such identities were far more acceptable.

There's no evidence for the existence of any supernatural realm.

Platinum2010

Freiheit wrote: »

. They are responsible for a lot of the prejudice lgbtq people have faced.
.

They are responsible for far more prejudices than that eg
Mentally ill people are guilty of witchcraft and should therefore be killed

mcmoustache

I honestly don't understand how a gay person would want to belong to any of the main religions. These religions are conservative and homophobic. If you believe in the Abrahamic god, surely you know that he (yes, he not she) has issues with what you do in the privacy of your bedroom and will punish you, not for being gay but for doing gay stuff?

It's all nonsense that everyone should avoid but for gay's particularly, it's totally incompatible with their selves.

allydylan

i was raised Catholic but i now am an atheist

Shakti

Religion in its most benign is for me like 'Country music'......
Some of the stories are interesting but too much of it is downright depressing.

Ambersky

I dont believe in a personified deity but I still feel there is a spiritual dimension that is important to me.
Now thats a very difficult one to talk about because of course it requires a definition of spirituality.
I have found that when spirituality is mentioned, especially in lesbian circles, people equate it with New Age spirituality, which I think of as the stuff that rushed in to fill the void left behind by organised religion.
That stuff Im really not into and nearly as much as Im not into the organised christian religions.

Asry

aw I'm the only devout person. Go me! *waves a little 'lamer' flag*

Meesared

Asry wrote: »

aw I'm the only devout person. Go me! *waves a little 'lamer' flag*

foreveralone.jpg

blackcat123

Before I realised I was gay, I was a catholic, I left the church after coming out to myself.

I was just wondering what have other people's experice's been with religion and being queer.

Your thought?

Annasopra

Thread merged with a previous thread

Shakti

thread merging nice....

I used to have a massive chip on my shoulder about the catholic church but with the slow eroding of their significance and relevance and the ultimate illumination of the bigotry and harm they have caused in the Irish politic and life along with gay byrne et al. its more of a french fry now.

Aard

What's that about Gay Byrne?

Shakti

Aard wrote: »

What's that about Gay Byrne?

He acted as the broadcast media wing of the catholic church for about 25 years or so before he went all Deepak in the last five.

Fuinseog

Freiheit wrote: »

Abraham cooked his daughter on God's orders, is this really a God who can be loved and worshipped?...This Abraham, Godfather of 3 faiths.

My families rejection of my identity is due to societal norms they grew up with which were derived from the church. The church whose doctrine is based on no evidence just attitudes, including prejudice of the time and fables. You know there's no contemporary records of the existence of Jesus. Detailed Roman records exist, yet none for Jesus.

The Church established heteronormativity and narrow gender identities. They are responsible for a lot of the prejudice lgbtq people have faced.

Apparently in the pre-christian era such identities were far more acceptable.

There's no evidence for the existence of any supernatural realm.

given that gays are beyond the grace of God it hardly comes as a surprise that most lesbians and gays are not religious.

blackcat123

Are there are LGBTs here who follow a non-christian religion ?

It appears that most of us are atheist from reading this poll

DubArk

Answered a similar question in the LGBT forum here a few months back (felt safe in here) it was on the lines of “Homosexuality versus the Bible” and the thread was moved over to the Christian forum unfortunately :rolleyes:. I was attacked and vilified by the moderator there and sent away with a flea in my ear.
I have no time for religion what so ever especially the Catholic Church. Recent headlines in the press remind me everyday why I willingly reject them. Their intolerance is a constant reminder of how harmful they are.
To question them is in itself; a sign of my intolerance apparently but for them to ridicule and castigate others is entirely acceptable as long as it’s in the name of their God!? ONE WAY STREET.

Azure_sky

Too late to vote but I'm an atheist anyway. I couldn't go back even if I wanted to.

sherlock123

I've never felt is necessary to have religion in my life. My parents have told me that it is better to have a God and that it makes life easier, makes you more positive. Perhaps I wouldn't be such a pessimist if I believed, but that's not a good reason believe. I wouldn't know what name to put on what I am but I just ignore religion, don't condemn it. Just not interested. I'm still a pretty moral person I think (as far as I can be). I wish I did believe and all that but with the gays association with the church, I could not bring myself to do it. Does anyone here have an involvement with religion?? My gay cousin still classes herself as catholic so there are some people. Sorry if this question has been asked before. I just decided to ask on a whim.

WonderWoman!

My religion - Not placing my life in the hands of some higher being .
I want something I go get it ,I want a change in my life =I make it happen for myself .
No point waiting on miracles because life passes you by

I'm wasted here ....I should become a philosopher:rolleyes:

Morag

There are more religions then just Roman Catholicism.
There are sects of christianity which have no issues with someone being gay and a member of their church and there are none christian religions which don't have an issue with it either.

allydylan

I consider myself atheist, but i follow buddhism and the dalai lama, buddhism is a religion but for me i see it as a way of life.
if others feel they are Catholics, Chritians, Muslims, Hindus then that's they business and i respect that

BlackSpiral

I recently left the catholic church and have been reading alot about different religions
( that includes atheism and humanism-even though there not religions) I would say Agnostic is closer thing to what I believe at this point.

LandL84

I've left catholic church when I grew up enough and could make my own mind about all that jazz... sometimes I question myself why kids are forced to be religious if they don't even have a good understanding, don't know half of the stuff going on (or history of that).. I don't feel I need a religion.