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10-03-2009, 17:39
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#11 |
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Long Island Iced Tea
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 107
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People are free to follow whatever religion they choose, however I personally find it offensive when people knock on my door in order to speak to me about their religion.
I find it very difficult to see past the hypocrisy of religion, the Catholic church being a prime example, the leader, a former member of the Nazi youth, sitting in one of the worlds most opulent palaces, eating and drinking the finest produce money can buy, surround by priceless artefacts and works of art. Then there is the billions in cash and property that is under it's control. Every so often the Pope then has the audacity to stand up and talk about poverty. |
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10-03-2009, 19:25
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#12 |
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Dr Cocktapuss
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Seven Sizzles
Posts: 1,044
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Apathetic agnostic.
IMO there is insufficient evidence to suggest the existence or non-existence of God/a God/any being of that nature, but whether there is or not simply doesn't hold any interest to me. Pheebs I know what you mean about sermons and suchlike, I grimace whenever attending religious weddings where you are basically thanking God for everything, asking God to look after you etc - er hang on, the reason we got this far is because we did it with the support and help of each other and our friends and families, not some supernatural being making things happen for us. Really annoys me for some reason but there we go.
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Last edited by Rich_L; 10-03-2009 at 19:27. |
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10-03-2009, 19:30
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#13 | |
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Vodka Martini
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Exeter
Posts: 753
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Quote:
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10-03-2009, 20:57
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Preparing more tumbleweed
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 6,038
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Most folks here will know how I feel about this stuff, but as we've got a fair few new people...
I'm an active, passionately believing, God worshipping Christian. I was initially raised mostly outside of the church, did sunday school for a little while but that was it. Started regularly attending a church when we moved to Sussex, probably around 88-89, so I'd have been 8 or 9. Sang in the choir for many years. The church never did "it" for me. It's dull, heavy on the liturgy (structured lines and responses) and old hymns. Musically old hymns can be very beautiful, but lyrically they never worked for me. Consider how many books you read from 19th century and earlier that have any relevance to modern life? I can't think of many. Is it any wonder the hymns from that era don't connect with us of this day and age? When I was 17 a local Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base started running an evening of worship and teaching once a month which my youth group decided to try. My jaw hit the floor within 5 minutes. Gone were musty old hymns and cheesy Graham Kedrick specials from the early 80s that my church had an obsession with (I dislike "Shine Jesus Shine" with a passion) The team leading the worship consisted of drummer, bassist, electric guitar, acoustic and vocalists. They were singing songs written only the year before, songs with meaningful lyrics, catchy melodies and so on. They left time in the worship slots for the spirit to move. Songs would repeat sections as it felt right at that very moment in time, not however it was rehearsed. It was.. enjoyable. Fun. Engaging. Personal. Then a young guy named Karl Tinnion got up to speak (off the top of my head he's only about 5 years older than me), and he spoke for an hour. Not once did I even look at my watch. He was captivating, speaking solidly on biblical concepts mixing seamlessly modern and relevant anecdotes about all sorts of stuff. Instead of boring theological studies or vague current affairs stuff he was talking about every day faith. Living life as a Christian. No condemnation, nothing about "You're a sinner, you're all going to die and be condemned to hell unless you repent" blah blah blah blah. Over the next 6 months he, and a couple of guest speakers, carefully took the bible and with the use of entire chapters stripped apart most of my preconceptions about faith and rebuilt it on solid biblical ground. Since then my faith has come on leaps and bounds, I've been out on outreaches to strange places and met many wonderful people. My faith has changed from a fairly passive intellectual thing to a dynamic interaction with very real Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer. I've experienced stuff even my naturally sceptical mind struggles to rationalise, and seen witness to the amazing things occurring in this world because people of faith go out trusting God to lead them. I switched away from a dry and boring church and moved on to a church that is part of the New Frontiers group of churches, a church that avoids liturgy and bland unfeeling recitation, and instead provides deep, meaningful and relevant teaching on a weekly basis. A church that is about living your faith day to day, not paying lip service. "The greatest single cause of atheism today is Christians that acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable" From being just a cog in a worship machine, I've become a core part of worship teams either as the leader or as the guitarist. Leading sounds like it's an easy job but it's not like Pop Idol or any such. From a rough count a few months back I figured I know somewhere over 500 songs written in the last decade or two, if not precisely then well enough to be able to start them until the projectionist finds the words for everyone. Leading worship is an interactive process. Part of my mind is focused on the guitar and playing it, part of it is focused on technical aspects of singing, part is focused on the congregation's interaction and the rest is focused on actually Worshiping God and listening to the Holy Spirit. There is a world of noticeable difference between one who does listen to the Holy Spirit and one who doesn't, between one who is performing and one who is worshiping. Quote:
Christianity Explored looks pretty interesting, fairly similar concept to Alpha courses but with a little less focus on the Holy Spirit (whom I consider to be a very important part of faith and whom the traditional church tends to marginalise) but slightly more emphasis on other aspects of faith. Which is good  I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions about stuff that comes up I'd love to try and help you work through them if you'd like. Same applies to anyone else, if you genuinely have questions about Christianity I'm always happy to try and help people explore the subject.
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Mal: Define "interesting"? Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die"? |
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10-03-2009, 21:07
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#15 |
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The Last Airbender
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Pigmopad
Posts: 11,915
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I'm in the same camp as most of you guys. Don't believe and find most of it very hypocritical as a lot of people seem to take what they want from the bible and ignore what they don't like. Having said that, each to their own, I'd certainly not think much different about a believer.
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10-03-2009, 21:17
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#16 |
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Vodka Martini
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 833
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We're just animals AFAIC, who just so happen to be more intelligent than the other animals on the planet... unfortunately for them.
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10-03-2009, 21:17
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#17 |
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Penelope Pitstop
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 4,426
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Just to stick my oar in and offer a different perspective to the Christian/Atheist split we have at the moment.....
I'm Pagan/ Wiccan and have been since I was about 17. I was brought up fairly methodist as we had a Minister in the family, and quite religious grandparents, but as soon as I realised Church wasn't just somewhere to go and sing, I gave up. I never could grasp the concept of 'God' and never received a suitable explanation. I promised myself that if I could have 'proof' of a religious concept then I would follow that religion. I tried a mild form of Satanism for a year, but never really had my heart in it because you still need to believe in the Christian God, and I couldn't get my head around it. When I discovered Paganism and Wicca, I realised I had been following it all my life really. Many of the concepts and beliefs were those that had been in the back of my mind during my childhood and teenage years. I can quite easily see how Nature and Energy make things the way they are, and basically it just answered a lot of my questions. One of our very few rules is that we don't shove it down people's necks though, so although I might occasionally say something people consider strange, (like saying 'Happy New Year' at midnight on Hallowe'en), I wont ever say my religion is best, and you should follow it. It works for me and I stick to my beliefs, but some people don't/wont/can't believe and that's their choice at the end of the day.
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10-03-2009, 22:20
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#18 |
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Long Island Iced Tea
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 107
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Aren't most religions fundamentally the same, modified by various religions to suit there views?
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10-03-2009, 23:43
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Preparing more tumbleweed
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 6,038
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Some of the fundamentals are common amongst them, general ideas about right and wrong, but the particulars can be very different in fundamental ways. Christianity is the only religion that preaches Grace as it's primary tenet, both received and given. Where most of the other religions demand obedience, Christianity hopes for it. You should be doing good out of a love for God in all his forms rather than because you have to. I can dig a bit into the scripture for this if you'd like. Unfortunately bigots and zealots have a habit of forgetting that core fundamental aspect of the Christian faith, preaching hatred and intolerance instead :-/
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Mal: Define "interesting"? Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die"? |
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10-03-2009, 23:55
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#20 | |
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Long Island Iced Tea
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 107
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I think there could very well be some form of super power above us that started everything... but not in human form!! Soooo. Tonight. I am going to a Christianity Explored church course. I'm intrigued now by what they have to say. I don't think I will be contributing a lot to the evening but I'm certainly going to listen and try and absorb the logic in the Christian belief. 
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