Religion thread

[sfx1999]

I was wondering what religion people are. So, I've started a thread.

I am Presbyterian. I do not necessarily believe in everything my church believes in, though.

I wish I had some photos of my church. It has an old feeling to it. The problem is that it is about to go out of business. The minister is a little to evangelical for the congregation.

[HangFire]

This could spiral into stupidity like most political and religious debates, but ah well.

I'm of no particular religion. I try to keep an open mind, and I'd honestly like to believe in a 'god' or some other greater good or divine plan, but its difficult to convince myself of it.

I'm not neccessarily athiest, I can't say that God does not exist, I don't know that. I figure a life of sin followed by a deathbed repentence is the best way to go .

[sfx1999]

I don't think it will turn into a flamewar, unless there are some really religious people that are going to show up out of the blue.

[TruB]

none believer..
but i do believe that religion serve a perpose..

[stefanhendriks]

i find religion an interesting subject. I am not religious, but i do not believe in 'nothing' or in a predefined existance you can read from books or hear by people telling it. I do believe there is more between life and death as between heaven and earth...

Personally i have experienced things that make me 'fear' life of what it will bring to me; i have had long talks about this with PMB. As i'm also a fan of The Matrix and tried for fun comparing the 'theories' presented there into real life. It actually is not that hard to say, it is possible!

Lets just say, everything has the basic definitions of:
action->reaction

this is a fact, for everything in the entire universe. Meaning, when the universe started (assuming it started!), it started with a set of 'conditions' (that triggered it). Now, these action/reactions where the base for all actions/reactions going on right now. Even the fact that i am typing this, is because of an reaction/action based principle. Meaning, that everything that i have lived through was logically to be explained, and everything that will be coming in the future will be 'predictable'.

If you try to see the bigger picture, this means nobody lives their life as they 'want to'. Because even the very things in your brains are based upon action/reaction, etc etc etc.

Now, about religion, i see it as a way to explain what is not really explainable through logic. And people try to make it 'logical' for them in some sort of form.

I have read very cool stuff about religions, like there is (was?) a trend going on where people started mini-religions, ie, every person has its own religion and its widely accepted. You can see lots of churges run out empty because the people do not 'fit in'. As with many things, you cannot generalize people, so you cannot generalize religion either.

See, its such a big subject, i can talk about this for hours and hours....

[von Ryan]

Well, if you ask me, I'll say I'm catholic, but I don't really "follow" the religion... I don't go to sunday services, I haven't confessed my sins for a long time...

I think I identify myself more with the "baroque man filosofy". As you know, the filosophy of the baroque age was Carpe Diem. It emphasizes the brevity of life, and tells you to enjoy it before it's too late. The baroque man followed that filosophy, but he soon repented himself of his sins, and he made something to "make up" for those sins, like donating money, cattle, etc. for the church, among other things.

So, I think I'm pretty much like that, but I just repent my sins, I don't donate money or stuff for the church... Just not my thing, you know... 9_9

P.S.=Keep in mind that I studied Brazilian and Portuguese literature, the baroque thingie may be different in other cultures...

[biohazerd87]

i would say that we should stay away from threads like these... personaly i don't care but you know how people are with religion... and we don't want newcomers to become upset with BU cause of what we said etc... this is just my opinion but i have no control over this

[dead bwoy]

My religion is music!
You may say, "That's not a religion!"
Here's where I searched the web for a definition of the word "religion." I found that this word is one of the most difficult to define. Check out all these definitions:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...efine:religion
This article says it best:

from: http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQ...ef_problem.htm
Academic literature is filled with attempts to describe what religion is and many of those attempts are very unhelpful. Definitions of religion tend to suffer from one of two problems: they are either too narrow and exclude many of the belief systems which most people will agree are religious, or they are too vague and ambiguous, leading one to conclude that just about any and everything is actually a religion.

(religious conviction, religious faith): Form of spirituality that involves meditation, prayer, and/or churchgoing.
www.hcrc.org/diction/r.html
This definition actually accepts me and my relationship with music as a religion, whereas many definitions do not.

[sfx1999]

Steafan Hendriks, I've heard of that in philosophy.

Every cause has an effect, therefore there must be a first cause.

There are other ones I can't remember at the moment. The thing that always made my mind explode was what caused the first cause.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

I am anarchist, hence atheist.