Hey Religion thats a topic!

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I would not be, I already know some, like Christmas was Roman Saturnalis was well as many other holidays. I know the tree for Christmas is inspired by German pagan traditions of worship around trees or some ritual with trees, and Halloween, is a celebration of the Dead, I'm pretty sure that holiday had pagan origins.

I think in general religion is a means to maintain a sense of balance with respect to morality, but it is obviously something that is more important too and necessary for NTs than for ASDs.

Very well said Epmonandas!! You said it much better than I did!

Atheist. As steviehardy said, I "don't believe in the application of fantasy to explain away gaps in the knowledge of that reality," but I do enjoy some of the rituals, traditions, and music. I put up my Christmas tree because I think it's pretty. I tend to stay away from the "worship" songs, but I like gospel music because of the enthusiasm, and I have a CD of Gregorian chants, which are in Latin so I have no idea what they're saying.

What ?

Like Country Dancing?
or is it Ministry of Silly Walks we're talking about here?

Sorry, but that phrase always annoyed me.

I am forced to call myself an Athiest

But I don't like having to use the term, after all there isn't a special word for the fact I DON'T believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden, so why is there for this?

Sorry - yes, I keep forgetting that a lot of us (including me) do take things a little literally around here.... I hate it too, and its offensive general usage to explain away questions Christians can't come up with real answers for - I mentioned it in a purely cynical way (as is my wont):)

Last edited by TAFKASH on 31 Jan 2005, 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Testify, brother, testify!! ! (errr, or sister - delete as applicable )

neither satanism nor paganism involve worshipping the devil, the latter being some twits who want to subvert a judaeo-christain relgion, which just means they have sort of judaeo-christian beliefs themselves.

paganism gets plenty of knocks as pagans tend not to call down fatwahs on people, or fress up in white, hooded robes with pointy masks and burn black people.

paganism is millenia old, going back to the earliest forms of worship. Wicca is about 50 years old, and so is a new religion. most of the pagans i know are eclectic in the nature of their spirituality, taking bits from wicca, witchcraft, druidry, shamanism, native american stuff, etc., etc.

i am a witch (trained in Wicca - and i MEAN trained - a High Priestess), an Ovate (second level of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids), and use bits from whatever seems appropriate (or even pretty) to me at the time. i used to be a Catholic.

there - i think i've answered all the posts i wanted to. now i', off to start up a new religion - The Church of the Ministry of Silly walks (yay!).

Thank you Vetivert for explaining it better than I could

Church of the SubGenius

http://www.subgenius.com/

*edit: No I wasn't entirely serious. Funny though. I prefer to keep my religious beliefs to myself ta - so have one to ridicule...

...but with more typos!


(ta, Mel!)

Lol, the hummer i see in all this.

True devil worship is where people don't believe satin was cast down but instead was placed so as to give us directions from right and wrong, after all he was supposed to be the right hand of god at one time, the top angel. how could the best fail and fall so bad?, "placed" with powers to tempt and find fault and power and weakness.

No...., we as humans find things that we want to find value of interest and give them our own values, we want to believe in something beyond our own endings and eternal oblivion and damnations. who is to say that heaven is not our minds cleared of all guilt and fault, who is to say hell is not our own guilt revisited 10 times over because we hated our selves for our own miss givings.

who is to say heaven and hell is not our own givings and misgivings and acceptances that our brains will accept when it is dieing?

who is to say oblivion is not our own minds child or not?.

we are all born from a whole universe, we will all go back too it!, spirit world or not, in time we will be recycled to make a new whole, the universe is ever changing, if it was not it would have no meaning, but then again who am i to say it is this way?, eternal growth, eternal change, the universe becoming all that infinity can become. to say the universal mind don't grow is to say god is limited, (if there is a god at all.).
If there is a god its purpose would be to know and love its self (to better its self and to know its self and all that it can be all at once.) for there is no other but its self. to say we are other then god (if such a being existed) is to say god is not all that there is/was in the beginning, to say god is not all that there is is to say there was something before it came into beginning. and if there was no god, then infinity its self is another name for perpetual growth, never ending, and just like we exist from the quagmire of oblivion and time so would a godly mind, given time, and who says that in infinity that time has not yet been met?....

yet again, I may be wrong.

To me the question of god is mute, its we who must grow and learn in the time we have for its all the time we got to make a difference. a difference in what i am not sure, but a difference none the less, its a craving we all feel. a craving to grow, to change, to become,,,, our selves.

If its power you seek then that you may find, but is it truly what you seek when its for the most part to server the purpose of who and what you are? only you can answer that, if you have a purpus at all. only you can answer that for your self. your answer is your path. the path you choose.
if you only ask what rewards you will get, your hesitating and the path is not right. choose your path, you only got one life to live. (lol, or do you?)

Tim.

Question, if you believe in heaven, what do you expect from it? a pre-programing of what it should be? someone to tell you what to do to be happy? someone to give you a job that makes you happy? someone that gives you something to do that would make you happy? ARG!!
brilliant colors you would get used too? someone to dazzle your senses to give you a brilliant world that lasts till you get used too it? someone to tell you that all the wrongs you had done is forgiven to make you feel at peace? please tell me what is your heaven?! !!? someone to tell you they love you no matter what a murderer or bully you may become you can be forgiven? and whats hell? what do you picture and are afraid of?

I make no assumptions.
I await your answer!

TIM

Yes I am your temptation unto question, answer me!.

I think you meant the former there (pedanticism ed)



"...and the Lord didst come down from the mountain unto the multitude, and lo, they didst see he was moon walking unto them...."

hmmm i guess i worded my self wrong again, no one seems to understand my questions nore my comments for there have been no answers that are pliable or realistic. once again i am ignored. lol.

oh come religious ones, i am up for a debate :OP
no, i don't believe in a devil, to me your all angels and devils, we make our own stand and reality's.
but true reality stands on its own, it is, we are, it all exists!

Heaven is the very last thing I want to have to put up with when I finally become personally acquainted with the worms.... My favouritest saying ever: "Life is but a brief and turbulent interruption to the eternal bliss of nonexistence"..... Its the maxim by which I live my life. I might even use it as my sig at some point.... hmmmmm....

Perhaps, it is human need to know they can take their grievances to some authority higher than all authority, and perhaps altar or change the cause of their greivence, even if it is in some small way.

I could expand on the arguement of your philosophical religious questions. What if there is only one lifeforce or lifeform or soul in the universe and it just jumps endlessly from one biological being to the next and because it exists in a state or phase beyond physical, time has no effect on it. Or it could be a handful of energy beings or souls as some may call it, that live like coexisting parasites. The biological form cannot live without one and it needs one to inhabit. There is physical evidence of sorts that we may be be energy based life forms, after all our brains operate on electricity. Perhaps we have part of our existence in the metaphysical universe and this is the source from which all paranormal events originate or can be explained. It is not necessarily a matter of religion but of the physical world.

I can explain the question of all religions thus, I don't know that there is not truth in religion nor do I know there is truth that all religions are wrong and there is nothing out there. It is simply enough to question, which I submit, whether you are religious or not, is our right and our purpose to do. We question everything, that is why we have brains. If religion were as simple as some faithful beleived it to be, then why were humans given brains with the ability to question and discover truths and answers, instead of simple or no brains which could follow this invisible omniscient lord blindly like lemmings. Faith was never meant to be followed blindly, why then did even Jesus feel the need to perform miracles? Why were there so many prophets thoughout time constantly reinforcing the beleifs of people? And where are they now, did religion suddenly end, was it too weak to survive beyond the Fall of Rome? This is certainly one possibility as the religions Islam and Christianity entered into a period of violence and aggression that still persists to this day.

I don't know what to believe, but I believe I don't know, but I can speculate many theories, and I know what cannot be, I know what does not make sense, and I believe there are still many possiblities.