God

[Bannanachair]

Purring's complaints about her church made me curious - does our community believe that there is a god? This theological debate does not encompass who god and/or the gods is/are nor what they believe to be right; rather, simply whether a being akin to our perceptions of god exist.

[Bannanachair]

The results inspired in me the name of a sitcom. "Two Heathens and an Atheist".

[Deleted]

I'm agnostic, and believe either one is equally possible

[Dex]

I believe in multiple gods that my fucked-up, delusional, high-functioning autism and slightly sociopathic brain has concocted. I worship them in the realms of my mind.

[llama]

no choice for agnostics?

[Bannanachair]

Feb 21, 2017 9:42:50 GMT -4 llama said:

no choice for agnostics?

Most people lean slightly one way or another even if they are "agnostic". If you don't know what you believe, analyze your actions and see if you behave as if there's a god that gives a shit one way or the other, then vote that way.

[Τι κοιτάς ρε]

Where's the option for "I really couldn't care less, I'm just focused on enjoying life"?

[Tikobe]

I'm probably the only one here who voted for God, but yeah. I'm a believer in the christian faith. Don't ask me what church because I don't believe in any of them, catholic or protestant, and don't ask me why, it's complicated and stupid, but yeah, I'm a firm believer in God.

[Bannanachair]

Mar 11, 2017 1:40:43 GMT -4 Tikobe said:

I'm probably the only one here who voted for God, but yeah. I'm a believer in the christian faith. Don't ask me what church because I don't believe in any of them, catholic or protestant, and don't ask me why, it's complicated and stupid, but yeah, I'm a firm believer in God.

There's many more denominations than just protestantism and catholicism - look up the Gnostic, Cathar, Arian, Waldensian and Miaphysite churches for some historic ones that generally ended pretty violently, or the Eastern Orthodox church if you want something Christian, well-established yet not Roman/Protestant.

EDIT: I know that the Ethiopian, Armenian and Malankara churches are all Miaphysite churches and that the Waldensian church survived in a niche population and now considers itself a branch of Calvinism (despite predating John Calvin by at least 400 years), but neither of those can be considered particularly mainstream churches in America. And I also know that some argue that Gnosticism isn't actually Christianity, and that Catharism is just a branch of Gnosticism. Religion is complicated.

[Sébastien]

I believe that there is a spirit that works on a grander scale that no human can openly perceive and that no matter how hard we try to imagine the deity, we will never be able to come to a successful conclusion and //perfect// image/description that would accurately describe this divine idol.

[eloos]

god is not real and all religion does is cause conflict and other problems in our society for no reason whatsoever

[Tikobe]

Mar 11, 2017 19:21:27 GMT -4 eloos said:

god is not real and all religion does is cause conflict and other problems in our society for no reason whatsoever

Look, I'm fine with the belief that god is not real. I consider myself rational enough to understand the argument.

However, what I dislike about this is that you acknowledge only the negative aspects of religion. Believe it or not, everything is bad for us, just like it is good. But just because cars kill people though, does that mean we should hate all cars? People are killed by cacti, but that's not reason to hate a god dang cactus. There are benefits, just as there are faults, to religion and the refusal to acknowledge them is frankly, put in the best term possible, childish.

[eloos]

Mar 12, 2017 0:42:51 GMT -4 Tikobe said:

Mar 11, 2017 19:21:27 GMT -4 eloos said:

god is not real and all religion does is cause conflict and other problems in our society for no reason whatsoever

Look, I'm fine with the belief that god is not real. I consider myself rational enough to understand the argument.

However, what I dislike about this is that you acknowledge only the negative aspects of religion. Believe it or not, everything is bad for us, just like it is good. But just because cars kill people though, does that mean we should hate all cars? People are killed by cacti, but that's not reason to hate a god dang cactus. There are benefits, just as there are faults, to religion and the refusal to acknowledge them is frankly, put in the best term possible, childish.

thats what you should expect when you deal with a childish person

[Deleted]

Religion has helped, and it has hurt. People have cut off heads in the name of religion, but people have also saved lives in the name of religion. There's more than one side to everything.

[Bannanachair]

Everything that the average American thinks of when they think of Christianity is mostly just America's own particular brand of Christianity. I've heard people refer to institutions like the Westboro Baptist Church and other groups of the sort as "Radical Christian Extremism" in an attempt to draw parallels with ISIS, Al Qaeda, etc., which are "Radical Islamic Extremism" according to Trump. If you argue that ISIS and Al Qaeda are not representative of the majority of Islam (which they are not) then you should also hopefully be able to concede that America's "extremist" Christianity is not representative of the majority of Christianity.

Unless the conflict that you're talking about is the Crusades, in which case, yeah, the religion of a few hundred years ago was pretty bloody violent, but people were constantly at war with one another anyway back then so if they didn't have religion as a scapegoat to start a war they'd make up some other excuse.

[Lien]

Personally, I am a Christian and Pastafarian, but I believe that all religions and non-religions are valid, with a few exceptions.

[Dex]

Mar 12, 2017 0:42:51 GMT -4 Tikobe said:

Mar 11, 2017 19:21:27 GMT -4 eloos said:

god is not real and all religion does is cause conflict and other problems in our society for no reason whatsoever

Look, I'm fine with the belief that god is not real. I consider myself rational enough to understand the argument.

However, what I dislike about this is that you acknowledge only the negative aspects of religion. Believe it or not, everything is bad for us, just like it is good. But just because cars kill people though, does that mean we should hate all cars? People are killed by cacti, but that's not reason to hate a god dang cactus. There are benefits, just as there are faults, to religion and the refusal to acknowledge them is frankly, put in the best term possible, childish.

I'm killing you first when the interdimensional rapture comes.

[Death]

Mar 12, 2017 4:06:24 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Everything that the average American thinks of when they think of Christianity is mostly just America's own particular brand of Christianity. I've heard people refer to institutions like the Westboro Baptist Church and other groups of the sort as "Radical Christian Extremism" in an attempt to draw parallels with ISIS, Al Qaeda, etc., which are "Radical Islamic Extremism" according to Trump. If you argue that ISIS and Al Qaeda are not representative of the majority of Islam (which they are not) then you should also hopefully be able to concede that America's "extremist" Christianity is not representative of the majority of Christianity.

Unless the conflict that you're talking about is the Crusades, in which case, yeah, the religion of a few hundred years ago was pretty bloody violent, but people were constantly at war with one another anyway back then so if they didn't have religion as a scapegoat to start a war they'd make up some other excuse.

SPOILER: Click to show

[hygenisthygenist]

v me and this thread v

[Death]

Mar 13, 2017 18:57:16 GMT -4 hygenisthygenist said:

v me and this thread v

SPOILER: Click to show

[MrStilts]

I personally think religion's a bunch of malarkey, but I'd never say that it doesn't have its moments. One event that I'm sorely disappointed doesn't get mentioned more often is the Christmas truce of 1914.

[Sébastien]

I personally think religion's a bunch of malarkey, but I'd never say that it doesn't have its moments. One event that I'm sorely disappointed doesn't get mentioned more often is the Christmas truce of 1914.

It's because, during that time, it wasn't a miracle, aside for it being on Christmas. It wasn't uncommon for Allied Powers and Central Powers to declare agreements across trenches to recover wounded or dead. As well as in other areas of the trenches, there was a Gentleman's Agreement that it was forbidden to shoot a man exercising, sleeping, or worked in sight of the enemy. Although the Great War incorporated chemical warfare and inhumane tactics of war, it was still when men of whatever country still held themselves up with dignity and weren't completely barbaric.

This all changed in World War II under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's regime.

[Bannanachair]

Mar 15, 2017 15:40:20 GMT -4 Sébastien said:

I personally think religion's a bunch of malarkey, but I'd never say that it doesn't have its moments. One event that I'm sorely disappointed doesn't get mentioned more often is the Christmas truce of 1914.

It's because, during that time, it wasn't a miracle, aside for it being on Christmas. It wasn't uncommon for Allied Powers and Central Powers to declare agreements across trenches to recover wounded or dead. As well as in other areas of the trenches, there was a Gentleman's Agreement that it was forbidden to shoot a man exercising, sleeping, or worked in sight of the enemy. Although the Great War incorporated chemical warfare and inhumane tactics of war, it was still when men of whatever country still held themselves up with dignity and weren't completely barbaric.

This all changed in World War II under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's regime.

Don't give Hitler too much credit for this one; if I'm not mistaken, all the years of living in the trenches turned formerly gentleman soldiers into unremorseful killers who only wanted to go home and see their families again alive. The Christmas Truce was one of the last times in all of history, including WWI, where people on opposing sides of a war could be friends.

[Duck14]

Mar 19, 2017 6:44:36 GMT -4 Bannanachair said:

Mar 15, 2017 15:40:20 GMT -4 Sébastien said:

It's because, during that time, it wasn't a miracle, aside for it being on Christmas. It wasn't uncommon for Allied Powers and Central Powers to declare agreements across trenches to recover wounded or dead. As well as in other areas of the trenches, there was a Gentleman's Agreement that it was forbidden to shoot a man exercising, sleeping, or worked in sight of the enemy. Although the Great War incorporated chemical warfare and inhumane tactics of war, it was still when men of whatever country still held themselves up with dignity and weren't completely barbaric.

This all changed in World War II under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's regime.

Don't give Hitler too much credit for this one; if I'm not mistaken, all the years of living in the trenches turned formerly gentleman soldiers into unremorseful killers who only wanted to go home and see their families again alive. The Christmas Truce was one of the last times in all of history, including WWI, where people on opposing sides of a war could be friends.

Yeah, that's true but let's not forget the role of conscription in all of this, though it may not have been massively influential to this phenomenon. It's not that soldiers have become barbaric, it's that they are actual soldiers now, heavily trained in their profession which has grown both technologically and in the skill of the individual. Yeah, there were some actual soldiers back in WWI but let's not discount the fact that thousands fought because they were told to and many had little to no experience in battle. They were thrust into battle and so it's only natural that they would relish the chance at a break in conflict.  

Now weaponry has grown beyond the capacity of allowing either side to communicate as they once did but we can't blame that on the individual soldier. We shouldn't demonise them as barbaric because they're seeing out their jobs. I'm sure many (not all) would love the opportunity to resolve their differences with the opposing side with dignity. The problem is our ideologies are so far apart from our opponents of the last few proper conflicts. There wasn't so much difference between the Allies and Axis on the individual level back then so there was a level of understanding.

[gwebster2]

DEUS VULT