Oh yeah, you are totally right, it's actually a real problem especially in the Christian Evangelical community. People aren't interested in LEARNING about their faith and scripture, they just want things told to them that make them feel good, like a bad self-help book.The second. Most people don't hear from the first group.
The First Admendment Wins Again...
- Thread starter sixpackshaker
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Chibibar
Problem is that not everyone can think like that. I mean some people cannot accept the hand they are dealt with (i.e. hard life etc etc) without knowing that they will be rewarded in heaven. It is kinda like justify their existence. Now some people can just live a life and enjoy it, but other wanted more and can't get it (due to whatever reasons or limitation) and thus organize religion is formed. (my personal observation)
Necronic
Staff member
@ Espy
Yeah, ask the average Evangelical to tell you the difference between the Esseenes, Pharisees and Saducees. Or get into a conversation about whether the Nephilim were actual physical giants or are they references to the old greek heros. Or about how the names of certain things in Genesis (like the ocean I think) were existing gods, but were used in such a way to imply the the Hebrew God had dominated or de-animated them. Or, my favorite, talk about what the Septuagint is and how it relates to question about the translations in the King James bible, and more interestingly, how it relates to the Quran and the laws about translating it.
See, this is why I always hated that George Carlin bit about "can god make a boulder so big he couldn't lift it" thing. That's simply stupid. Religion is an *incredibly* interesting subject. Part of the problem is that a lot of biblical studies in the evangelical community ignore the old testament. Which is really interesting since the evangelical community is heavily Pentacostal who reject cessationism meaning that they follow old testament beliefs about speaking in toungues and the like. And of course there is cherry picking justifications for hate out of the old testament.
Which....is hard not to see as a bit retarded.
Yeah, ask the average Evangelical to tell you the difference between the Esseenes, Pharisees and Saducees. Or get into a conversation about whether the Nephilim were actual physical giants or are they references to the old greek heros. Or about how the names of certain things in Genesis (like the ocean I think) were existing gods, but were used in such a way to imply the the Hebrew God had dominated or de-animated them. Or, my favorite, talk about what the Septuagint is and how it relates to question about the translations in the King James bible, and more interestingly, how it relates to the Quran and the laws about translating it.
See, this is why I always hated that George Carlin bit about "can god make a boulder so big he couldn't lift it" thing. That's simply stupid. Religion is an *incredibly* interesting subject. Part of the problem is that a lot of biblical studies in the evangelical community ignore the old testament. Which is really interesting since the evangelical community is heavily Pentacostal who reject cessationism meaning that they follow old testament beliefs about speaking in toungues and the like. And of course there is cherry picking justifications for hate out of the old testament.
Which....is hard not to see as a bit retarded.
Wow. I'd like to assume you aren't trying to insult religious people, but it sure appears that way.
Looks like he is simply giving his observation in why religious people are religious. I've never known chibi to intentionally insult someone.
Thats because you clearly can't think for yourself.
DUH.
@Necronic: May I give you a "preach it brother"? My focus is on OT studies and after 3 years of working on my Masters I'm just scratching the surface here. My stint teaching OT stuff at a local college has only solidified my view that most churches are terrified of the OT and don't have any idea of how to actually talk about it/preach about it. I'd like to help change that a bit. It's not actually as scary as they think, but it does require a pretty good dig into Hebrew culture as so much is lost if you try and apply a modern understanding to it.
Nor I, which is why I felt he might appreciate knowing that his post gives that impression.
You know Poe, people who grow beards only do it because they are naturally weak chinned people, they use it to cover up their naturally weak chins and dribble stains. The don't know how to just be happy with their chins and so must use their facial hair to make up for what some of us just naturally can do.
Seriously though, it's totally cool for people to have opinions, even if they are negative, but it doesn't mean they can't be offensive. If I didn't know Chibi I would say that his comment was a mildly offensive post. As it stands I doubt he really meant it that way.
Seriously though, it's totally cool for people to have opinions, even if they are negative, but it doesn't mean they can't be offensive. If I didn't know Chibi I would say that his comment was a mildly offensive post. As it stands I doubt he really meant it that way.
Necronic
Staff member
Took a number of classes in college on Judaism/Torah/Pentateuch, one of them was a Dead Sea Scrolls class. Now that's some interesting shit. All that said though, I will admit I am not a big fan of organized religion myself as its too easy to control the interpretations.
Take for instance the Islamic view that Allah and the Christian/Jewish God are the same. I buy it. Muhammed gives a constant nod to "the people of the book" and also admits that (while not the messiah) Jesus was a very important prophet (if not the most important). Many terrorist muslims may ignore these passages or focus on the ones where it is considered acceptable to kill "people of the book", which is an interpretation that militant clerics will focus on. As well, most evangelical christians (and possibly most christians period) don't recognize this, many probably would have a scanner moment before they excepted it.
Which, from where I stand, is choosing to ignore a lot of history about the development of the Christian/Jewish God. He didn't just appear from nowhere. Yahweh was a Sumerian diety first. This means that Christians and Jews worshipped the same God as Sumerians. You could argue that since the Sumerians didn't worship Yahweh monotheistically they misunderstood his essence, true, but that same argument could be applied to Islam. They also worship the same God, just with a different interpretation.
And these superficially strong differences in interpretations can cause division between groups that have historically acknowledged their relationship as worshiping the same God, and are maintained by organized religions that focus on building painfully detailed interpretations and sets of rules like Hallawah and Shariah etc. as though they will further cement what is effectively a best guess on an impossible question.
TLDR, I'm a Taoist. Everyone's on a right path but its impossible to get to all the way to the Truth. Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Taoists and Universal Field Theorists are all headed to the same point, but from different directions. When it seemed that they couldn't get closer they set up tents and started laying out fortresses of interpretations and laws and looked at the other guys and said "Hey, that's a crappy place to build an ideology. Bake em away toys".
Having problems putting this into words, but....that's why I am Taoist (who, by the way, can fuck it up with the best of them. All you have to do is look at the retarded pantheon that they came up with to see how organization completely ruined that religion can get. I still don't understand how in the world Taoism can even have a pantheon.)
Take for instance the Islamic view that Allah and the Christian/Jewish God are the same. I buy it. Muhammed gives a constant nod to "the people of the book" and also admits that (while not the messiah) Jesus was a very important prophet (if not the most important). Many terrorist muslims may ignore these passages or focus on the ones where it is considered acceptable to kill "people of the book", which is an interpretation that militant clerics will focus on. As well, most evangelical christians (and possibly most christians period) don't recognize this, many probably would have a scanner moment before they excepted it.
Which, from where I stand, is choosing to ignore a lot of history about the development of the Christian/Jewish God. He didn't just appear from nowhere. Yahweh was a Sumerian diety first. This means that Christians and Jews worshipped the same God as Sumerians. You could argue that since the Sumerians didn't worship Yahweh monotheistically they misunderstood his essence, true, but that same argument could be applied to Islam. They also worship the same God, just with a different interpretation.
And these superficially strong differences in interpretations can cause division between groups that have historically acknowledged their relationship as worshiping the same God, and are maintained by organized religions that focus on building painfully detailed interpretations and sets of rules like Hallawah and Shariah etc. as though they will further cement what is effectively a best guess on an impossible question.
TLDR, I'm a Taoist. Everyone's on a right path but its impossible to get to all the way to the Truth. Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Taoists and Universal Field Theorists are all headed to the same point, but from different directions. When it seemed that they couldn't get closer they set up tents and started laying out fortresses of interpretations and laws and looked at the other guys and said "Hey, that's a crappy place to build an ideology. Bake em away toys".
Having problems putting this into words, but....that's why I am Taoist (who, by the way, can fuck it up with the best of them. All you have to do is look at the retarded pantheon that they came up with to see how organization completely ruined that religion can get. I still don't understand how in the world Taoism can even have a pantheon.)
If only God would have continued to send prophets as He did when the various scriptures were written... (shameless plug)
This seemed incredibly timely considering.
Cracked.com... 5 ham fisted religious sites
Cracked.com... 5 ham fisted religious sites
Well, you know, that's just like... your opinion, man.You know Poe, people who grow beards only do it because they are naturally weak chinned people, they use it to cover up their naturally weak chins and dribble stains. The don't know how to just be happy with their chins and so must use their facial hair to make up for what some of us just naturally can do.
Part Deux: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12919646
Wait, talking to members of a crazy group actually helping? Nowai.
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