[Contest] Guess when Kim Davis relents and leaves prison!

GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
I was a military brat, and my folks generally just picked out whichever protestant church was closest/most convenient with a preacher they liked, so as a result we bounced between being Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist.

I gotta say, it seemed to me that the biggest difference between them all was whether we wanted to be forgiven our debts, or our trespasses.

Anyway, now I'm just boringly agnostic. Some say that's just being an athiest without conviction, but I just say nothing's been proven to me either way.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

There's an old saying: The easiest way to make someone become an Agnostic/Atheist is to force them into Catholic School/religious education. I did the whole CCD (Catholic Church Dogma) education from 5-10 and recieved my first communion... and then we promptly never went to church again, except for funerals and SOMETIMES Christmas and Easter. As I kid, I didn't understand any of this, except that if I didn't do it that I would get the snot beaten out of me by my father. As a teenager, I finally realized what it was they had made me do and grew to hate the Church. These days I'm much more mellow about it.
 
Cog

Cog

Even if I consider myself agnostic, I don't hate the church or religion in general. I guess many of you had bad experiences with religious people, but in my case the best people in my life, people who I literally own my life, are very religious.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

AshburnerX said:
There's an old saying: The easiest way to make someone become an Agnostic/Atheist is to force them into Catholic School/religious education.
Click to expand...
That's what happened to me by going to an evangelical college. Obviously I wasn't forced into it, but I thought a religious college would help me get back in touch with my Christian roots. I felt like needed that "meaning" in my life again. Instead, I learned more about why I had lost those beliefs in the first place.
Now I consider myself atheist. I don't hate anyone. I don't care what religion you choose to practice. I don't think believers are stupid for practicing a religion. People on both sides of the issue do and say ignorant things. I look at religion as a personal choice. If you choose to go to church or align yourself with a certain denomination, go for it. I choose not to associate myself with it.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

There are some thoughtful and compassionate religious folks. However, there seems to be very few of them.

Like @Dei, I dislike the hypocrisy (sanctity of marriage comes to mind), but it's the arrogance that I despise. I was taught that Christians are good and everyone else is bad. Hell, I was taught that Protestants were good and Catholics worshiped saints and Mary (false idols).

I used to have fairly strong convictions about religion, but I have become much more agnosticky. I am quite prejudiced against non-thinking zealots and fundamentalists. I don't know if I will ever make the leap to atheism for the same reason as @GasBandit though.

I don't debate people on this. I don't really care what someone believes as long as it's not harming others.

I agree with @WasabiPoptart that (just like politics) it's all personal decisions that are shaped by ones' life.
 
Dei

Dei

I hate people who say shit like "The world is getting worse because people are turning their back on God," or what have you. My kids have NEVER been raised with religion of any kind. They are two of the nicest kids you will ever meet... as long as you don't count the ever traditional mother/daughter fighting that happens the world over. [emoji14]
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

I consider myself an agnostic, and I don't have any issues with people that follow religion, I even have my son enrolled in an Episcopal Church pre-school, but I feel that religion has always been a double edged sword. On the one hand, religion is a strong force for the development of community and can bring great values when open and fair, however, on the other hand that insular sense of community and extreme faith can bring horrible things, like bigotry, hate, and murder.

The sad thing is that the "religion" itself is not usually at fault, just the people who stand at the top of their specific sects and twist the words of God to push their own selfish ends. You can make people often do anything, or believe any stupid belief, whether it's true or not, by invoking the word of whatever being from beyond they stock that faith in. Faith is good when humanity still carries with it the ability to reason, but blind faith can harm more then it helps, because it's less about understanding our world and more about following an instructional manual as read and interpreted by someone else.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
My favorite anthropology professor used to say that there is a big detriment to the fading of religion. It's not godlessness, it's the lack of a regular neighborhood social gathering. As he argued it, this was probably how religious gatherings started anyway, and without church, there's less cohesiveness in a community.
 
Denbrought

Denbrought

fade said:
My favorite anthropology professor used to say that there is a big detriment to the fading of religion. It's not godlessness, it's the lack of a regular neighborhood social gathering. As he argued it, this was probably how religious gatherings started anyway, and without church, there's less cohesiveness in a community.
Click to expand...
That's partly why I have a soft spot for UU's, along with any atheist/agnostic organization that goes beyond the anti-religious rahrah and into the "how do we make better communities?"
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

fade said:
My favorite anthropology professor used to say that there is a big detriment to the fading of religion. It's not godlessness, it's the lack of a regular neighborhood social gathering. As he argued it, this was probably how religious gatherings started anyway, and without church, there's less cohesiveness in a community.
Click to expand...
Does this mean God could be replaced with board games?
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Cog said:
Like patriotism?
Click to expand...
Yes, but I don't think patriotism has as much gravity. Patriotism still falls under our tribal need to be a part of something bigger, but policies change, laws change, the world changes. The USA that existed two hundred years ago was nothing like the one that existed 100 years ago, and in turn nothing like what exists now. We were once great enemies with some countries that an old patriot may have hated, but who are now some of our largest allies and friends (Japan, etc). As generations move on they adapt and grow.

I feel that religion holds more gravity because, at the core, it tries to soften our biggest fear in life, that being what happens after we die. To be in Heaven is to adhere to what God has willed, without swaying, for swaying from the path is sin, and sin takes you from Heaven and throws you for eternity into Hell. It has no room to evolve from that basic outlook and so the core has been the same for thousands of years. If the government says "We think this is wrong!", even those that consider themselves Patriots may disagree, but if the Pope said "God said this is wrong!" then what devout Catholic is going to risk their very soul to disagree? The few that do disagree usually break off and form their own religious sects that carry with it the same problems, just with a different coat of paint.

This is why I love faith, but I dislike most organized religion, because faith can be such a powerful thing to bring people together, but when you organize it under a clergy/leadership that twists doctrine to their own interests and opinions and lock it in a box, it can reverberate and cause a bunch of crap that can last for generations. Oddly enough, I was okay having my son going to an Episcopal pre-school, because I researched into it and learned Episcopal parishes try to compromise between various Protestant and Catholic faiths, while promoting intellectual freedom and individual conscience in matters of faith. That was downright mind-blowing to me, and honestly the only glimmer of hope that the way we treat religion as a whole may finally evolve for the better.
 
Shakey

Shakey

Pope's meeting with Kim Davis not an endorsement - Vatican

The Rev Federico Lombardi said the Pope met "several dozen" people at the Vatican's embassy in Washington just before leaving for New York last week.

"The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects," Rev Lombardi said.
Click to expand...
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Huh. How bout that. You don't often see the word "ratfucked" in a news periodical. Especially when it's talking about the Pope.
 
Frank

Frank

Look, I'm sure that the pope doesn't support gay marriage, he is the pope. What I am sure of about him is he doesn't see it as the big issue that christians in the US do. He's much more about income inequalities and such and helping the poor.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Terrik said:
My take on it is a result of people truly wishing to hell (lawl) that this pope is some new kind of super-leftist-'agrees with all in spirit if not in practice- pope and a show of support for Kim Davis from this generally well-liked personality would shatter that image.
Click to expand...
Or that they had hoped the Pope would treat Kim Davis the same way the technomage treated Londo.

--Patrick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top