What is your religion?

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:11 am

Quark: 100% makes no sense to me

What level of exam was this?

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:21 am

darkpoet

I think, I will start my own Religon. It is of Irish descent. It's the Religon of Guinness. It will not cost you anything, but you do have to bring your Guinness. The Church of Guinness will have plenty of bathrooms too.

yeeeehaaa. Why haallelujAA. (while doing a bit of a jig)

Im joining - infact at this moment im proclaiming my faith to the world.
Im wearing my Guiness (always capital letter) t-shirt.

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:23 am

@Tom: Its bring your own Guinness

In sermons preached by Father Darkpoet

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:34 am

I don't believe in any transcendental beings, gods or others. (I hesitate to label myself as an atheist, because sometimes in debates, the words "christian" and "atheist" are used as if they were at the same level, two standpoints at the same scale. It's not, since the variety of other life philosophies and moral system an atheist can believe in or choose to follow are much broader in variety than being christian. But atheist as opposed to religious, will probably work better as a comparison.)

My personal view of life and humanity can be described as preexistentialistic with a streak of humanism. I believe in the free will of man and the responsibility for one's acts. Contrary to Sartre and other pure existensialits, I do not belive in a free will independant of premisses - to me, like many of Sartre's critisists, it's elitism to believe a poor starving child born with HIV in an area with no clean water, has the same possibilities of executing his free will as I and you have.

Why I hold the beliefs I do is a very long story based on a mix of philosophy, history, psychology, biology and just looking at the world around us. It's deeply connected to my views of the human nature. I view us as a result of evolutionary processes, just like all other living creatures on this earth. Because of the way our hands and brains have evolved, we have more power to control, change and interfere with life processes on this planet than any other creature has. With that power comes responsibility. Consciousness means possibility to choose. Also, we are born with fewer innate insticts and abilities than any other species, we learn via social modeling. The vast flexibility given by our broad genetic variety, gives us the power to create our world. Man made himself, as a famous antropologist once said (forgot his name).

Sorry for the rambling, I'm getting tired after a couple of really hard weeks...

scully1 · Post by **scully1** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:38 am

Originally posted by rapier:
Atheist.
God(or anything "greater" than mankind...satanism is on the rise in Germany...)is for people who can't accept reality...(IMHO, of course...)

Hmm...that must be why people keep telling me that I'm not really the Queen of Zynotranskabakitania...

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:40 am

Is irreligous a more apt description than aethiest?

Hard weeks of what, if I may ask Miss Elegans?

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:54 am

Originally posted by loner72:
If you believe this, how can you say you're a Catholic? Catholicism is a belief, not a race or nationality...If you don't believe in the Bible you cannot be a Catholic. Period.

Re: God "letting" people burn in hell. Not in the Bible, and not in the teaching. People send themselves to hell. God does not send anyone there.

Loner, since you are a bible scholar, I understand you often think people misinterpret text in the bible. But I have several Roman Catholic friends and colleguages from different parts of the world, who would be deeply offended if you said they did not have the right to call themselves Roman catholics because they, like Raven, think the bible also contains a lot of crap. I suppose it has to do with what we mean by the word "crap". Crap in the sense of not relevant today, not something they believe in, or not the word of god or christ but rather the words of latter interpretors and people who wrote down, compiled and edited the text - I know no catholic or other christian who believes in every single word in the bible in a literal fashion.

Re hell: I haven't read the bible since I was in a christian primary school, but I was under the impression that god was the one who set the conditions for when people go to heaven or hell? IMO, if god sets the conditions and also have the power to control the process, he is the one ultimately responsible.

Please don't get offended by my post. I understand you have taken a lot of sh!t for being christian, but believe me, so have I and many non-believers for not being...respecting other people's believes about fundamental things in life and ultimately, about life, is sometimes very difficult.

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:00 am

All you atheists reminded me of an old [url="http://sinfest.net/comics/sf20010815.gif"]Sinfest[/url] strip.

[ 08-17-2001: Message edited by: Kayless ]

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:00 am

Originally posted by Gruntboy:
Is irreligous a more apt description than aethiest?

Hard weeks of what, if I may ask Miss Elegans?

Of work - my lab has finally opened again after a long period of rebuilding and change of technical eqipment

So, now I'm ready to perform more sadistic, painful and malicious experiments on more people than ever

And yes, I think for me, irreligious would be a more appropriate term than atheist. Not because of what the word atheist really means, but rather because it has such a strange loading in some debates.

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:21 am

Wow CE, you're a real sadist.

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:24 am

I just happen to be a Christian with some Jewish heritage who comes from a patriotic, pro-life, pro-Republican Party, anti-taxes, anti-foreign policy, biblically literalist family. But I don’t burn people of other religions and I even find certain Zen and Buddhist teachings to be fascinating in their own regard. I'd like to think that an open-minded Christian isn't an oxymoron.

Darkpoet · Post by **Darkpoet** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:27 am

Originally posted by Gruntboy:
Wow CE, you're a real sadist.

Grunty, I'll make the Bishop of the Church of Guinness. The arena will be finished for the Games next week.
I went out and bought Lions, Tigers, Bears, and some rabid evil Rabbits. : D

scully1 · Post by **scully1** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:28 am

@CE: Re hell: There are as many ideas about what hell is as there are minds to interpret the doctrine. Some theologians believe that hell is only a temporary state (something akin to purgatory). Others (Balthasarians) claim that Christ emptied hell after his death and broke its power, so there are no more people in hell at all. The Bible itself is unclear on the issue. If you read the Old Testament wisdom literature, there is a teaching that "the wicked" will be destroyed. That originally meant destroyed in this world. Later there is an idea that there will eventually be a resurrection of the dead -- in body. There is no such thing in the Bible as the soul existing seperately from the body. That is a Greek, not a Semitic, idea; and the only place it is found in the Bible is in the book of Wisdom, which is only found in Catholic, not Protestant, bibles. St. Paul also speaks of a resurrection of the dead but he too speaks of the soul and body as one entity. The idea of the soul as being somehow seperate and self-sufficient would have been incomprehensible to him. What I'm trying to say is, all the Bible says on the subject is that all people will be judged on the deeds they did in their earthly lives; and the good will live in peace and the wicked will be "destroyed."

Why do people have such a problem with this? Personally I like the idea of some kind of hell. Because if everyone around here had their way and there was only a heaven with some kind of marsmallow hearts-and-flowers bleeding heart guy running it, Hitler would be there too. You all mean to tell me that you wouldn't like to see guys like Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot and all the rest of them destroyed or punished for a million years?

Give me a break.

"God sets the conditions." Well, yes. This is his planet, damnit, and he has set some ground rules for it. The point is when you break one of those rules, you ought to own up to it, realize the wrongness of your action, take responsibility like an adult and be sorry. If a person lives their life outside the universal law of love, they are in no condition to stand before Love itself. By their own hatred, their actions of violence and injustice, they close themselves off from the embrace of their Creator. they are the ones who don't want it. In this way they send themselves to "hell" -- whatever it is.

Re crap: I see your point. But even with outdated cultural things, I would never call that stuff crap. Those seemingly useless or offensive things are invaluable for understanding the context in which things were written. They are the only thing that saves us from calling the entire thing crap. For example, you can look at the treatment of women in the Old Testament and get outraged, and call that crap; but based only on that you can then say the entire work, every verse in every book, is crap. Just because that one thing is. That's wrong. When I say that someone who calls him/herself Catholic or Christian in general must believe in the Bible, I'm talking about the basic moral and theological truths it presents. In order to get to those you have to learn how and why the books were written. You have to learn how to "weed out," as it were. So none of it is "crap". It all helps with understanding. To use the word "crap" to describe a book that has been pored over and researched by the some of the world's most brilliant minds for thousands of years, debates on which are still raging and will likely never be settled, is egotistical, arrogant, ignorant, and boorish, to put it most kindly.

Maybe it's just a personal quirk I have; but I'm about to spend a fortune getting my Ph.D. in the study of the Bible, and I just don't like to think that I'm leaving home, moving even further away from my boyfriend than I am already, going to a strange place, and spending money I could be saving for my not-getting-any-younger parents, and wracking my brain over ancient languages like Syriac, all for the sake of "crap".

[ 08-17-2001: Message edited by: loner72 ]

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:38 am

Re crap: I see your point

This is *priceless*

Thank you ladies

Darkpoet · Post by **Darkpoet** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:43 am

Bathrooms are on the left. No crapping on my floor.

scully1 · Post by **scully1** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:45 am

LOL @DP

You are making a convert out of me. *gulps Half & Half*

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:48 am

I don't drink half & half...

...its *crap*

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:49 am

Originally posted by Gruntboy:
Wow CE, you're a real sadist.

Yep

Spread your brains, people

Originally posted by Kayless:
I just happen to be a Christian with some Jewish heritage who comes from a patriotic, pro-life, pro-Republican Party, anti-taxes, anti-foreign policy, biblically literalist family. But I don?t burn people of other religions and I even find certain Zen and Buddhist teachings to be fascinating in their own regard. I'd like to think that an open-minded Christian isn't an oxymoron.

Wow! With that background, I'm impressed you are so tolerant and open minded (well, seem to, at least

) I don't think open minded christian is an oxymoron - I have many christian friends and relatives who are among the most open minded people I've ever met in my life. (My professor, for instance).

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 8:00 am

Maybe it's just a personal quirk I have; but I'm about to spend a fortune getting my Ph.D. in the study of the Bible, and I just don't like to think that I'm leaving home, moving even further away from my boyfriend than I am already, going to a strange place, and spending money I could be saving for my not-getting-any-younger parents, and wracking my brain over ancient languages like Syriac, all for the sake of "crap".

ohh dear then you have a problem

@Tom: Its bring your own Guinness
In sermons preached by Father Darkpoet

Guiness mmmm - ohhh yah dats origt - i dont mind a bit of da old preaching - as long as i dont have to listen to it.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 8:06 am

Hey darkpoet

what about a 'The Church Guiness' thread?

well wat about it? finnaly something worth getting on your knees for