Elder Sister Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Christian here. I'm extremely active in my church, but it's just a tool...religion is one of those things that I think sometimes is a distraction from the main idea instead of a helpful tool. Religion is a man made thing.I've had a strong belief in Christ ever since I was a kid. I used to dream about him. And he would talk to me in my dreams. I realize how crazy this sounds, but you asked. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 SB,Absolutely. I'm sure the Flying Spaghetti Monster has a deep appreciation of Isaac Newton's work. Before which, people took for granted the effort involved in staying up in the air.Unintened irony? Newton was deeply religious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dame Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I used to be christian, catholic to be precise. I came from a religious family so they influenced me. Now I a ore neutral. I am not religious anymore but I am not going to deny me past faith. I don't label myself anymore on that point. Here's a question for anyone that feels like answering. For those who are Christian, how important does it feel to you to be the denomination that you are? For example, I can envision someone who is like "I'm technically a Lutheran, but it's that I'm a Christian that is really important to me." But I can also envision people for which their particular denomination was really important either because it was what they'd grown up with and fit with their community. And then I can envision a person who has always been Christian but has switched denominations until they found the one that felt right. I suppose this same question could be extended to religions other than Christianity too. Just sort of curious which ways it can go for people of faith. Stemming of course from that there's been a little bit of this in the thread already.The practice are not the same, the belief differs in some way to. Christian is a general appelation but denomination help to understand how your faith and practice, and how was construct and what rule we follow. I would say the country you live play also a role.Another thing being christian doesn't evokes the same thing depending on the country. For exemple in France it is often used has a synonym of catholic because it is the major christian movement here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disturber of Peace Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I thought Italy, Spain, Ireland, Poland and nowdays a lot of countries in Africa and SA are all more synonimous with Catholicism than France.Edit - nvm, i misunderstood a part of your post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dame Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I thought Italy, Spain, Ireland, Poland and nowdays a lot of countries in Africa and SA are all more synonimous with Catholicism than France. France is not so religious anymore, they are a lot of musulman and atheist. But on the christian side, France is definitely catholic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Christian here. I'm extremely active in my church, but it's just a tool...religion is one of those things that I think sometimes is a distraction from the main idea instead of a helpful tool. Religion is a man made thing.I've had a strong belief in Christ ever since I was a kid. I used to dream about him. And he would talk to me in my dreams. I realize how crazy this sounds, but you asked. :) One of the other posters here actually had a really beautiful dream of Jesus. I think it might be in Mr. OJ's thread? My faith is much stronger now, without the distractions of church. I pray that you'll have a similar experience. Have you ever read the Gospel of Thomas? When I believed I found it very enlightening/inspirational. "The Kingdom of God will not come by expectation. My Father's Kingdom is already spread throughout the Earth but men do not see it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotcat Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Agnostic close to atheist. I simply see no reason to believe in a god. This is the way I'd describe myself too. I just can't find it in me to have a good enough reason to put my faith in God. I don't press my lack of belief on anyone, though i can't always say the same for others trying to push their faith on me. I come from a religious - albeit to varying degrees - family. Which has, at times, caused no end of tension. The phrases ' I can't believe a granchild/niece/relation of mine ended up a heathen child' and 'well, if you're so set on ending up in hell I'll just pray extra hard for you' got bandied about on a semi regular basis. I got pretty upset about the whole thing before I learned to tune it all out as a teenager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summah Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I'm very agnostic I don't know and I don't think I can know. However I lean towards thinking God exists, but isn't involved in the lives of every day people, only big stuff like big bang, life in the universe etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Lannister Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 A practicing sycophant of Loki :bowdown: :drool: :leaving: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 baxus, i found these words to be strangely meaningful and I agree that the nature of the human animal does drive it towards the need for explanations...thank you, well said! I guess I was due writing something meaningful on this message board after all the silly things I've written :lol: Personally, I've never understood why people believe religion and science aren't and cannot be compatible. Well, I MIGHT be wrong here, but maybe the fact that for centuries (if not milenia) scientists were actively pursued and killed, their teachings vilified and their research results destroyed by religious institutions of the time has something to do with it. Religious people have an "out" by reacting to every scientific discovery with "God works in mysterious ways" but a scientist who tries to explain his findings by saying the same would have a rather short scientific career ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueMetis Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 SB,Unintened irony? Newton was deeply religious. Which likely prevented him from making some discoveries he could have. After all why work on figuring out some of the issues with orbital mechanics when you can say "god did it." Which is essentially what he did since he believe growing instabilities in the orbit of planets would eventually require divine intervention to fix. I always wonder how much farther along we would be if people hadn't eventually tried to substitute god for a real explanation. On this thread in general, if you calling yourself an agnostic and not an atheist those are answers to different questions. Here's a good explanation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_BlauerDragon Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Have you ever read the Gospel of Thomas? When I believed I found it very enlightening/inspirational. "The Kingdom of God will not come by expectation. My Father's Kingdom is already spread throughout the Earth but men do not see it." I have not, but you are the 3rd to recommend it to me specifically. I will have to go ahead and read it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 For those who are Christian, how important does it feel to you to be the denomination that you are? Well I do not consider myself Christian, but I was raised that way, and I do sometimes still attend church (about 3x per year) despite being atheist*. I just get dragged back into singing in the choir when they're short on people for a big service. So long as the music is good, I'll keep doing it. I don't have any particular bones to pick with the church in which I was raised. As Hereward implied, Anglicans aren't a particularly believing lot, or at least they don't push it on you. Few people at my church ever talked about god; they were too reserved for that. I kind of liked the iconography, ceremony and music choices. (You can see how it's easy to get caught up in the culture of this all.) The politics of the larger Episcopalian church in the U.S. aren't terrible. I approved of the fact that the now presiding Bishop is a woman who has a PhD in Oceanography who used to fly her plane from town to town when she was bishop of Nevada. That's leadership I can get down with, even if I'm a nonbeliever. :P *I could and have attached various other descriptors to this, but whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Which likely prevented him from making some discoveries he could have. After all why work on figuring out some of the issues with orbital mechanics when you can say "god did it." Which is essentially what he did since he believe growing instabilities in the orbit of planets would eventually require divine intervention to fix. I always wonder how much farther along we would be if people hadn't eventually tried to substitute god for a real explanation. Didn't Newton lack the necessary tools to go further than he did? This idea that he just gave up seems questionable. Of course there's also the question of whether he'd have bothered studying celestial bodies if he wasn't religious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueMetis Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Didn't Newton lack the necessary tools to go further than he did? This idea that he just gave up seems questionable. Of course there's also the question of whether he'd have bothered studying celestial bodies if he wasn't religious. Maybe he wouldn't have been able to go farther, but there was a chance he could. But there is no chance going farther when your explanation is "god did it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Maybe he wouldn't have been able to go farther, but there was a chance he could. But there is no chance going farther when your explanation is "god did it." I might be off on my physics history, but my understanding was Einstein had new technology that enabled him to improve upon Newton's work. What could Newton have done in his time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueMetis Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I might be off on my physics history, but my understanding was Einstein had new technology that enabled him to improve upon Newton's work. What could Newton have done in his time? Einstein wasn't the first person to improve on Newton's work, and I'm not claiming that Newton could have advance physics 200 years. There were a lot of small improvement between Newton and Einstein. Whether Newton would have been able to discover them is impossible to say. But Newton never tried, as why bother looking for a natural explanation when you think gods going to step in to fix things? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IheartIheartTesla Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothese-la Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 C'est tellement triste que le truc qui s'appelle Einstein existe encore comme un grand nom pour les citoyens du monde. Incroyable. Pourquoi est-il triste? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Walker Texas Ranger Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Didn't Newton spend most of his time studying alchemy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.