What religon are you?

Originally posted by iceofspades
That reminds me of a thought I had about God. He claims to give you free will and it is your choice whether or not to love him. However, if you don't love him you'll go to hell. It's like he's saying "I'm not going to make you do what I want to do...buuuuut if you don't do what I want you to do, you'll go through eternal pain and torture." Sounds sliiightly loaded to me.

[edit on 29-6-2004 by iceofspades]

Ice- two points here:

1) This is what God said according to some anonymous writter how many thousand years ago? I propose that this is not what God said but what some MAN said that God said. If this truly is the word of God then it should be evident to all people, in all places, at all times and never change. I don't think that scrap of paper (which isn't even the original by the way) can be relied on for eternal truth. The eternal truths of life come directly to every single human being in the same manner so that no man is held above the rest and has some "secret line directly to God". Don't look for Gods laws in books written by man, look for them in the place God himself wrote them....in the laws of Nature, Science and Mathmatics. Yes, you may need help from other men to understand them but once you do you will se they are the only laws that are true, eternal and without error so they must be from God.

2) As harsh as it seems - it sounds like parenting to me....to a point. My kids are not robots, they are able to make their own decisions. However, there are rules in my house and if they do not follow the rules they will be punished and they will hate it! But the difference here is, they are punished temporarily to help them learn something, not eternally thrown into a lake of fire. What parent (and according to these dusty texts God is our Father) whould throw their child into a lake of fire? No matter what they do, I could not do such a thing to my children. Could you?

Originally posted by badkitty
What parent (and according to these dusty texts God is our Father) whould throw their child into a lake of fire? No matter what they do, I could not do such a thing to my children. Could you?

This is what I tell my friends alot that are super-Christian and always say that if I dont convert to their religion, I wont be saved. THen I ask them, say you die before me, and while youre chilling with God, will you just sit there and let me be thrown into eternal pain?

It usually pulls at the heartstrings.

I am Jedi, though I won't call myself that, that is my spiritual belief. Might as well add to the tally right?

I'm Christian. Don't belong to any particular denomination.

I've no clue to be honest, I believe in a God type figure, yet I believe all religions are mostly correct. So much more to this life than I'll ever fully understand.

I follow the 'make it up as you go along' theory. most everything proffered sounds like ridiculous bull#, so until someone can show me some convincing evidence, i say forget it all and have a richly interesting and good time. You only live once as far as i can see.

Originally posted by Lysergic
I've no clue to be honest, I believe in a God type figure, yet I believe all religions are mostly correct. So much more to this life than I'll ever fully understand.

I agree. Everybody has the same basic idea, the only difference between them are the details. Thats why it hurts me so much when I see people of different religions feuding.

...I am a Lutheran Christian. I go to church pretty much every other Sunday. It's good to just get away from the stress of the world and worship sometimes.


w00t.

[STAY COOL)
-prophetmike

mike- I hear alot of lutheran churches are going "community church" style and getting bands, having youth nights, etc. is this true where you are?

The main reason I left Christianity was because it just didn't click with me; I felt there were too many holes and inconsistancies to work properly in my mind.

There is the Argument Of Evil: If God is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good then why is there evil?

I've never felt I've gotten a square answer on this, St. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and the other Catholic philosophers never gave me a satisfactory response, and I hate the fundamentalist answer of Satan. If God is all-powerful and all-good he could just unmake Satan and end all of that evil foolishness.

There is the issue of Free-Will vs. Determinism: If God is all knowing is free-will an illusion?

I've always wanted to punch Calvin, too bad I was born too late for it.

There is the question Does God Create Morality?

Before the destruction of Soddam and Gamora (which was a lession about how people treat the poor not about homosexuality!) God came down as a person and David bartered with him to save the cities. If God created morality can he do wrong? he seemed to want to destroy the cities out of anger, which would have been an immoral act.


These are just a few of my ideas regarding a very few of the many questions that lead me away from the Catholic Church. I also have great problems with the current teachings of many (not all) Christians that abortion, homosexuality, pre-marital sex and other things are wrong, but I believe that a religion should be judged by the dogma and teachings, not the humans that follow it.

Blessed Be
~Astral

RELIGION: Christian
DENOMINATION: United Church Of Christ

For those of you wondering what UCC is, it's basically an even more relaxed version of the Lutheran church. You're baptised as a baby, confirmed as an early teen, communion is taken only on special occasions (and only AFTER you've been confirmed), and confessions are between you & God.
It is VERY tolerant of all viewpoints, the only requirement is that you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior. My church creates very much of a community/family atmosphere where picnics and get-togethers are very common and community involvement is encouraged. It's a VERY low pressure environment.
www.ucc.org

I am Lutheran. Evangelical to be specific.

Originally posted by Homer Jay
RELIGION: Christian
DENOMINATION: United Church Of Christ

For those of you wondering what UCC is, it's basically an even more relaxed version of the Lutheran church. You're baptised as a baby, confirmed as an early teen, communion is taken only on special occasions (and only AFTER you've been confirmed), and confessions are between you & God.
It is VERY tolerant of all viewpoints, the only requirement is that you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior. My church creates very much of a community/family atmosphere where picnics and get-togethers are very common and community involvement is encouraged. It's a VERY low pressure environment.
www.ucc.org

It sounds like you are describing the Community Cult..wait CHURCH in my town. Hahaa...Im only kidding, dont get worked up. But if I said I believed in Jesus, thats all I have to do?

Whats the point of a church?

Originally posted by Scat
Whats the point of a church?

Although I don't attend church any longer, I used to so I will offer my opinion here.

Churches are above all a great way to meet new people. The church I attended would often times have conventions, parties, get togethers, etc. Where everyone that wanted to could come hang out, talk, and run whatever activity was planned. It wasn't like some secret meeting where people congregated to talk about the best ways to convert people, it was just friendly general conversation and fun. I made alot of good friends there.

The downside to churces, in my opinion, are some of the teachings that are preached in it. But that is just my opinion and I'm not going to argue about. You live your life the way you want and I'll live mine the way I want. That is my mantra. If I die and find myself in an eternal hell than so be it - "Thats the way the cookie crumbles".

My own cross breed of Native American Shamanism and Wicca. I also have a few other pagan spices thrown in for good measure.

I myself am Agnostic, i'm not yet convinced either ways but I do tend to lean towards Theism although that raises another issue. Monotheism or Polytheism? so many different choices, so many headaches.

Hmm... I was baptized Catholic, raised Protestant... my mom is born again (although she and my father are, forgive spelling, oscabawis of the Ojibwa tribe)...

But what does that make me?

I've been different things, trying to find myself... ranging from Satanism to Hinduism... but right now, all I can honestly say is that I am probably a Kabalist who believes in the Sumerian way of religion.

sooth- could you elaborate your personal beliefs? that sounds like quite an interesting mix!