What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

[ShadowIX]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

I believe in me, Dauntless.

[odjnlinus]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

I suppose in a political sense, you can call me Atheist. I don't believe in a god, I don't believe in a higher power, I don't believe in having a soul, I'm not spiritual in any way shape or form. My own personal theory is that having a religion is the cause to humanities problems. Everyone needs or wants an answer to something that no one can accurately explain, which in the end causes more problems.

Whoever created the bible was one creative mofo, I give him props for making billions and billions of people long after he was dead believe in something, they have no clue about.

What I do believe in, is Man's own power to do what he wants, if you want to run for president then run for it, if you want to fly a plane, then fly one, if you want to get into some really crazy college, then study for it. Don't waste hours and hours of your life every year your alive praying it happens, work with your own power, study what you need to study, learn what you need to learn, and make it happen.

I can go on and on about this but that's a cliffnote's version.

[Malacite]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

All that aside, I do read up on other religions, deities and such, as it often has relevance to my hobbies. Religions have touched and formed lots of parts of our cultures, from music, art, theater and even math and science. I think its important to know something of them and foolish to pan it all as something we should do away with.

Same, I often enjoy reading about other religions if nothing else just to get a different perspective and understanding. My Dad is Jewish & my mother is French Catholic so I have a decent understanding of those views.

I'm not against religion, per se, just what others often do with it - that is, using it as an excuse to justify otherwise what would be widely condemned morally such as the crusades, Islamic terrorism etc etc. It's rather sad really, because there have been many positive contributions to society because of Religion - but it only takes 1 bad apple.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

I suppose in a political sense, you can call me Atheist. I don't believe in a god, I don't believe in a higher power, I don't believe in having a soul, I'm not spiritual in any way shape or form. My own personal theory is that having a religion is the cause to humanities problems. Everyone needs or wants an answer to something that no one can accurately explain, which in the end causes more problems.

I disagree heavily, but this is your opinion and you're entitled to it. However, concerning what you're about to say . . .

Whoever created the bible was one creative mofo, I give him props for making billions and billions of people long after he was dead believe in something, they have no clue about.

[Murphie]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

Let's just say the committee that decided on what books would be included in the bible.

[Taskmage]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

I rather doubt the Council of Nicea was consciously optimizing their collection to best persuade billions of minds over thousands of years. Let's face it, if we created a council today to make a book that people would still be talking about in ten years, nobody would remember it after five. The success of the Bible was the product of a stroke of luck and millenia of human history.

---------- Post added at 08:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 PM ----------

Huh. Apparently the idea that the First Council of Nicea was responsible for determining which books to include in the Bible is a misconception. They actually had nothing to do with it and the canon didn't get nailed down until the 17th century. Learn something new every day ...

[Ketaru]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

I rather doubt the Council of Nicea was consciously optimizing their collection to best persuade billions of minds over thousands of years. Let's face it, if we created a council today to make a book that people would still be talking about in ten years, nobody would remember it after five. The success of the Bible was the product of a stroke of luck and millenia of human history.

You know, across the board, things just aren't built the way they used to be. We've created grand architectural designs throughout history. Things that became wonders of the world. Things that have stood the test of time for centuries. Now, I don't think we have it in us to even build anything like the Twin Towers anymore.

Do you think we've made anything: arts, architecture, or otherwise, that is meant to stand the test of time in this generation?

[Aksannyi]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

The Internet? I mean, okay, we didn't make it, but this big thing really came out in our generation, for the most part.

And as an aside, thanks everyone for posting in this thread, honestly, reading what you guys have to say on the subject has been very fascinating and while I don't agree with all of you, I'm glad that we're able to converse on matters like this with open minds.

[Feba]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

Now, I don't think we have it in us to even build anything like the Twin Towers anymore.

Someone hasn't heard of the Burj Khalifa.


Or, you know. Asia.

[Satori]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

When it comes to religion I'm still unsure.
I was christened under the church of England but I'm from a fairly non religious family. I guess I was christened mainly because it was the thing most people do. I was never dragged to church weekly or had it forced upon me. While growing up I mainly only went to church for christenings, weddings and funerals.
When I was about 10 I had an interest in christianity and went to the typical childrens groups and to be honest it freaked me the hell out. I remember having to stand in front of everyone with my eyes closed whilst a ginger bearded guy pressed his hand firmly on my forehead until I fell backwards and was caught by people behind me and was then told I had surrendered myself to the lord.
My parents never let me return after that and to be honest I don't blame them.

The group was run by the parents of some of my classmates. Strangely they were good friends until I came out then it was as if I was satan himself. Oddly the Bible's teachings must have mentioned it didnt apply to them as most of them got involved with drugs, Theft and got knocked up while still in school and unmaried. But I was the bad one apparently because I was gay and apparently it was unforgiveable. Yet peadophiles murderers and rapists god was apparently cool with.
When I was 12 I came home from school to find my grandmother dead on the floor. Which turned me away from christianity, I believed nobody that was meant to love me would put me through that. So I decided to believe a more spiritual force was at work and the beauty of nature. (I'm no hippy)

As I've got older I have realised many religions have themes/characters that crop up somewhere accross the board which leads me to believe.

We're all going to the same place but the way we get there differs, some take the car / bike/ walk / skateboard but we all head to the same place.

I think of the religious texts as a collection of stories much like Aesops fables, Each story giving us guidance on how to behave and be good people in society.
Back then life expectancy and medicine wasn't the best so the man not lying with another man was thrown in there to encourage breeding.

Through time each religion has twisted bits and peices to fit it's societies need. Take Henry 8th for example. So now it's become like a big game of chinese whispers.

I discredit most stories from the bible because science has provided us with so many answers. The evolution of man, Dinosaurs, Our understanding of particles and the big bang theory and the formation of our planet took slightly longer than 7 days. lol.

I do personally believe in balance, Good things happen - Bad things happen.
I believe we have a spirit when a patient dies we are required to open a window for some time to free it. It sounds strange even to myself but sometimes you can feel it.
The body does actually lose weight a few minutes after death something odd like 10lbs I have no idea why that is but it's not gas escaping or "voiding of the bowels" like they say in family guy lol because that happens in a case by case basis. Some bodies I've prepared have errupted others are just still and peaceful.

As a nurse I've seen many things to make me think there absolutely has to be no god of any sort. I've seen children die or abused in the worst possible ways and on the other hand I myself have had to bring murderers, rapists, abusers back from the brink of death or to see them escape from what they did with barely a scratch on them.

The recent Tsunami's, Sept 11th, the 7/7 bombings lead me to believe that nobody is watching us. How somebody that apparently loves us all would see so many of us suffer at the hands of so few is beyond my understanding and if there was a divine being. I'd believe our actions have led to them turning their back on us of themselves are a malevolent force that gains some pleasure from our suffering. Maybe it is something we have deserved twisting the words/orders of the divine to our own will.

Either way I don't bash people for what they believe and when my time comes to answer for not believing as strongly. I'll gladly give my reasons after all I'm meant to be forgiven.

Maybe I'll be condemmed for saving lives. Technically I've been playing god.
Maybe I'd be seen like Jesus, Healing people and sleeping with a big group of men
I grew my hair in my teens too.

But as I said before

We're all heading to the same place. How we get there is up to us.

[Malacite]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

Huh. Apparently the idea that the First Council of Nicea was responsible for determining which books to include in the Bible is a misconception. They actually had nothing to do with it and the canon didn't get nailed down until the 17th century. Learn something new every day ...

Another interesting tidbit is that for centuries the Church didn't allow any public ownership of the Bible.

[Firewind]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

Couple of other Bible facts:

Up until the invention of the printing press, and some time after that until Martin Luther then Henry VIII of England came around and told the Catholic Church where to stick it, translating the bible into your own language was considered heresy after the early 12th century.

The King James Bible is actually the third official English bible (though there have been many attempts at doing it from the 5th century onwards) and while it was commissioned in the early 17th century by James I of England (who was also James VI of Scotland which is what lead to England and Scotland being united and not some bloody conquest like your average idiot wants you to believe), it STILL didn't have an authorised or standardised version until just before the time of the American Revolution.

The KJB also isn't technically the official "Protestant Bible" (for lack of a better term) due to Puritanism having a massive influence on what went into it and how things were translated. In effect it's more like the "Official Puritan Bible" (again for lack of a better term).

Also related to the first point, changing the wording of the bible was considered heresy and that was used to justify banning translations of the bible by canon law. It basically caused a period from the early 12th century up until the 17th-18th century where the vast majority of priests could not even read the bible (obviously priests not being able to read the bible had been going on for much longer but it was during this period where it was most problematic).

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)



Sums up my view of the bible.

[Taskmage]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

The body does actually lose weight a few minutes after death something odd like 10lbs I have no idea why that is but it's not gas escaping or "voiding of the bowels" like they say in family guy lol because that happens in a case by case basis. Some bodies I've prepared have errupted others are just still and peaceful.

I don't know if I should be saying this in the context of this thread, since the idea here was for people to share their beliefs and not disabuse others of theirs, but this particular tidbit is essentially an urban legend that grew out of a set of tests in the early 1900s that had pretty poor scientific hygiene and weren't conclusive by any reasonable standard. The snopes article is fairly detailed: snopes.com: Weight of the Soul

It would be impossible for me to disprove the existence of a soul to you even if I wanted to; I'm just saying the 21 grams theory is not good evidence for it.

[DakAttack]

Re: What do you believe? (RELIGION THREAD. **NO BASHING**)

I'm a Taoist, if anything. I believe in the flow, but mostly as a biological mechanism. Though I've encountered it on numerous occasions, it's elusive and I feel there's a lot more behind it that I can't access. It feels like a door in the back of my mind that will never open under observation.

I believe life works in cycles, and I hope there's something more to it behind the scenes.