Well, At Least SOMETHING Here Is Organized

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

Yep, this thread is about organized religion.

This semester i'm taking a fairly synoptive class on a plethora of organized religions. Now, any idiot can learn about religions. "The so-and-sos believe such-and-such". Whee. Point being, that isn't the same as believing in it, experiencing it, and whatnot.

So....i want to know what religion you are and i want to know WHY. And i want to know how you got to be that religion. And what you think of it. And how devout you are. Or something. I basically am just wanting to know about your experiences.

It should be noted (yet again) that this is organized religion in question. I don't want any self-righteous huffs pretending to be "intelligenter-than-thou" because they've renounced organized religion and blah blah blah. If you're one of these liberal free-radical freaks who doesn't "have a religion", feel free to express what you think may motivate others who do. Or talk about what religion your parents impressed on you that you never quite took to, and why.

[NordicStorm]

Basically I'm agnostic (not to mention a self-righteous huff).
Except at 7am when I have to get to school and I got to bed at 3am. At those times I'm a full-blown atheist, because I refuse to believe in such a cruel and wicked supernatural being that would invent 7am. Or at least not have the courtesy to put 7am at, say, 2pm. But I digress.
I was raised Christian (the Lutheran kind) and put through several years of Sunday school and whatnot, but I guess it just didn't stick. I never really made a conscious decision to be one thing or the other. Obviously some of it has stuck, I have, for example, yet to kill a person. But morals isn't a property exclusive to Christianity.
I'm still a registered member of the local church though, so perhaps you could file me under "not particularly devout".
Of course there are some things I like about Christianity, such as a sense of community, helping people in trouble, donating to charity etc. On the other hand...crusades, witch hunts, inquisitions, homophobia...I don't think that's quite what Jesus had in mind.

[gabriel]

i just believe in God...i dont know if what the bible says is true...i believe i can make my own path to heaven...i accept various pieces of various religions as real true

[Beast_Pete]

I'm Roman Catholic... at least I was christened to be that. But I experienced too much about other Christians and the zion, so it was enough for me to turn my back to them.

I'm with gabriel. Thou I don't like the zion, I believe in the existence of God. But I'm not 100% sure about that, and I don't really care about it... it's not my business to judge it... till I live, I won't get any exact information about him/her/it. The most important is to live the best way you can live, helping others, so the others will help you as well.

[Allison]

organised religion is something I loathe more than anything as it is a concept that is beneath my spiritual level. I have no tolerance for organised religion.

[ElDiablo]

Christians to the lions, yay!

[browneyedgirl]

Almost all my family on both sides is Church of Christ(a relatively strict fundamentalist religion), but my paternal grandfather grew up in a Catholic home until he went CofC. I did not go to church regularly until I was a pre-teen&my faith in my religion only lasted a few years and I left it behind. My Ex&I went to church regularly for awhile, but in 1989 I quit for good. I still believe in God, Jesus&the angels, Heaven, Hell, etc. But I do not think a person has to go to church or belong to any organized religion to go to Heaven. God exists everywhere, IMO, especially in our hearts if we are good to others&love freely&unconditionally.

[Twilight Legionnaire]

organised religion is something I loathe more than anything as it is a concept that is beneath my spiritual level. I have no tolerance for organised religion.

I agree with you, 100%. That's all I really have to say about my religious beliefs, don't want to scare the youngsters who read this with my twisted views

[Allison]

oh, I see the redneck chapter of Opus Dei is being represented. Save the backwoods preaching for someone who is interested.

well Twilight, you know as well as I do that these "twisted views" are far more believable than the huge lie that is xtianity. I think the "youngsters" are probably better able to comprehend your (and my) "twisted views" than the older one there. But hey, just for the hell of it, I'm going to tell a small sample of my "twisted views" - a bonus to members just for stopping by.

Jesus is cool, he was a Heathen sage who set out to teach HEATHEN religion (yepp, read the scrolls, people - it's all there) and shit got seriously fucked up once the Romans got involved. They wrote this book of lies and then annexed it with anti-Pagan propaganda and sold the whole package of bullshit to gazillions of blind folowers. That is motherfucking amazing - you know, the Romans should be doing sales seminars. They could probably sell a truckload of shit to a wastewater plant.

Christianity is NOTHING at all to do with Jesus. Never has been. None of that shit about his birth is true. I would have paid to see it if it was. He was the first Heathen to be persecuted and goddamn, I just cannot BELIEVE that he is still being misrepresented and abused after 2000 years. Fuck, that must suck to come back for subsequent lives and see yourself still being exploited from 5 lifetimes ago. I can't imagine WHAT Jesus could have possibly done earn shit karma like that.

You know, I was thinking - blindness is probably the most unfortunate handicap that could plague a people.

[Twilight Legionnaire]

Wow, I actually didn't expect someone to have an opinion similar to mine (so far) on this matter Guess I'll post some of my views on a few others then.

I was raised as an atheist, and therefore my background isn't really good for discussing religions and the way they work, since - until some time ago - I didn't know anything but what my Catholic grandmother told me, and my father denied. Thing is, some time ago, I came across some religious trivia on the internet, and, at first, just for curiosity, decided to research.

And, well, was all this a shock for me I had never spent any time even *thinking* about the phylosophical questions that most religions answer to in their own way, but after this, it became a priority.

One of the first questions that struck me was, "Is there a God? Someone who is clairvoyant and allmighty, and who created the Universe?". Didn't take as much time as I'd think to be able to completely deny this. Saying that there is a God pops up the question: "Who came first? The chicken or the egg?". If we are to believe in the concept of Infinity (and I do believe in it, I do believe that the Universe is infinite, and I do believe in the impossibility to calculate every single digit of π (pi) ), we can not believe that there was a beggining (I'm also going against Science here, since I don't believe in a "Big Bang"), and that all that exists was created by a single being in a certain moment.

But, for a moment let's imagine God as the allmighty and Good supreme being most religions see him/her as. I ask: if He is good, then why did He create suffering, and pain? Why did he create the Devil, a supposedly antagonistic being? According to Christian-based religions, the Devil was created as a means to draw people to Him, and away from Evil.

Weird. Last I heard, forcing people to join you or spend the eternity in suffering at the last level of Hell was called blackmail.

Just a few cents, I don't want to go on a flaming rampage here, no intention to insult anyone or their beliefs, just expressing mine.

[Allison]

that's about how it went down, TL. People have this misconception that Jesus IS God. Jesus was just a normal person. I don't get this whole xtian "God" concept. There is no "God" who is in the sky doing all this shit they claim. There is the divine (neutral) elemental energy of Nature that flows through everything and everyone. Good or evil is determined by mortal beings dependent upon how they choose to manipulate that energy.


............browneyedgirl will be on some other forum in a couple of days as usual repeating this verbatim in a vain effort to feign intelligence about these matters

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

Thanks for that. I tried really hard to make it abundantly clear that this thread had a point, and i see that it and everyone involved in it have been completely condescended upon. That's really helpful to what i was trying to accomplish here. I appreciate it.

[Veripalttu]

I was christened an orthodox, because my mum is an orthodox and the rest of the relatives from my mothers side. About religious beliefs, I dont know what to believe. I'm open to hear about all kinds of opinions and beliefs on why we live, where we came from and where are we going. I find religion fascinating, some let their lives be controlled by these beliefs, is that stupidity, or respectable commitment, perhaps both, who knows?

[iron_thunder]

............browneyedgirl will be on some other forum in a couple of days as usual repeating this verbatim in a vain effort to feign intelligence about these matters

Hey, on an unrelated note, what do you have against her, anyway? No, maybe I shouldn't ask. Nevermind...

As I copy this from the forum rules, I push my glasses up on my nose...


Rule 1
Respect. We rank this rule highest since we are all strangers here and respect sometimes might be a bit off. People are entitled to their own opinions and and those opinions must be respected.


I guess that includes making personal attacks on people...

[khamael]

OUROBOUROS!!!

History repeating...

[browneyedgirl]

OUROBOUROS!!!

History repeating...

Puppets are being recruited as we speak, khamael.

[iron_thunder]

Heh, you know what's kind of weird? (since this topic has sort of gone downhill, much to HvyMtlClickWitch's dismay, I feel I can digress further)....

Since we're all on the Stratovarius forum, it's safe for me to assume that we ALL listen to Stratovarius, even if on an irregular basis. And I'm sure we don't all just like it for Jens' crazy keyboards, Timo's crazy range, Jorg's crazy feet, and ... all the musical craziness. I would think that people would also pay attention to lyrical content on some level. Doesn't Stratovarius suggest tolerance, acceptance, being non-judgemental and so forth?

I guess a lot of us haven't absorbed these simple concepts, or choose to ignore them... I'm not sure which.

Meh, just thought it was something to think about....

[Neorave]

Born and raised Lutheran, Missouri-Synod!

I basically grew up with it, I learned a lot about Christ and Martin Luther (the Reformer), and when I started college, I believed it more because all I learned actually had some historical background.

YAY!!!

and, btw, I (sort of) HATE BEING CALLED A CHRISTIAN! Being called a Christian sounds like you're one of those stereotypical assholes who are so radical, one tiny thing such as the Ten Commandments in a Supreme Court building could ignite them and piss them off. I like being called a Lutheran, it just sounds right and nonstereotypical.

[Neorave]

Doesn't Stratovarius suggest tolerance, acceptance, being non-judgemental and so forth?

If you interpret the lyrics right, then yeah. I like to interpret some of their songs to the Christian beliefs. It just almost sounds right, plus I don't have to listen to that craptastic Christian hip-hop music shit.

[HvyMtlClickWitch]

It just almost sounds right, plus I don't have to listen to that craptastic Christian hip-hop music shit.

Yeah, i'm fairly upset myself with the industry. I'm trying to figure out how all these fabulously talented MCs got pushed out of the picture by guys like....Pettidee. Once Grapetree records started to hit the market, everything went downhill. :yuk:

Whoa, this has a lot to do with the topic. Yay ClickWitch.

[Benphu]

(religion + organization) x stupidity^2 = inquisition

population / inquisition = demographic reduction

demographic reduction via religion = individual mental revolution


I mean, organized religion sucks at this point. I think religion is good to satisfy the stupidity of the masses... but can lead to chaos.

If God, or any higher power or notion exists, it is much above human made "artificial" theological systems.