Religion

[MaggieXawesomeness]

The concept of infinity scares me greatly, to be honest.

[iRels]

I find I'm the opposite. I couldn't stand living on for ever and ever. That scares me, thinking that technically a million years could go by in a blink of an eye and there would still be an infinite amount of blinks left. I mean, what purpose would you have to 'live' then? Gaining knowledge would be nice, but for all of eternity? Never-ending existence? No thank you.

 

Maybe for the remainder of the universe's lifespan, though. I wanna see some aliens! And know more about the universe ;-;

 

Of course, I'd love to stay alive for quite a long time past what I would normally live. I feel very disappointed that I live in a time where virtual reality doesn't yet exist and we haven't visited any other planets, let alone other solar systems, and other fantastical stuff. I really want to see where humans go from here on in. But alas, I don't think something like living past death is remotely possible, so the void for me it is.

All I'll say is: there'd be no need to search for something else, if we were something else. Sadly, our inabilities make us unable to enjoy this world in its full potential.

[7Deadly$ins]

I prefer the concept of reincarnation to the heaven/hell thing, but I don't believe in any of them.

[A_Simple_Walnut]

... hmmmm... I think I will come back later as I seem to be too emotionally involved with the discussion at hand... no offense intended its just that I get all excited when I don't agree with someone and I can act on impulse :S

I haven't read through all the posts, but I really REALLY like how respectful everyone has been all the time

I mean there were a few times when people flared up a bit but HEY! who doesn't once in awhile!

*whispers* keep up the good wooooork!....

 

*becomes ghost/stalker/creeper thingy of thread*

 

 

[Lola-Deathblossom10]

I'll be honest, I don't necessarily believe in a 'God' but I do believe in a general power, or 'life force'. When I was younger, whenever we went to the 'Gurudwara' it was more of a chore for me. I didn't get it. As I grew older I began to ask questions but I haven't stopped believing in faith or the 'force'. I'd actually say I'm agnostic, but I'm not sure. I don't think about it much. I do love hearing other peoples views though

This thread has had quite a few interesting discussions.

[PointOfOrigin]

I'll be honest, I don't necessarily believe in a 'God' but I do believe in a general power, or 'life force'. When I was younger, whenever we went to the 'Gurudwara' it was more of a chore for me. I didn't get it. As I grew older I began to ask questions but I haven't stopped believing in faith or the 'force'. I'd actually say I'm agnostic, but I'm not sure. I don't think about it much. I do love hearing other peoples views though

This thread has had quite a few interesting discussions.

What's Gurudwara? Doesn't sound familiar to me

[vintageandroid]

What's Gurudwara? Doesn't sound familiar to me

I'm not the OP, but Wiki has answers. Short version: Sikh place of worship.

[Lola-Deathblossom10]

What's Gurudwara? Doesn't sound familiar to me

I'm Indian and there's a religion known as 'Sikkhism'. The place of worship for them is the Gurudwara

[MedievalMystic]

I kinda figure you can't be loving and condemn people to suffer eternally, myself

 

If Hitler, Stalin, serial killers, child rapists, etc, etc, burn and scream for all eternity, I'd say justice is served and I'm happy about it. > Doesn't bother me in the least.

 

I personally believe that all things will be known after you die, that the spirit does live on, and we will know all that was, and all that will be. I believe we'll each go to whatever place is best suited to us, a place that gives us eternal peace and joy, unless, of course, you're what I call 'other', which to me is pure evil. God will make sure that dragons will be in my world in the afterlife. lol

 

And if I'm wrong in my thinking, well, like someone said, you don't know anything if you just cease to exist, and oblivion isn't something to fear because you'll be...oblivious. lol

 

The thought of oblivion sucks to me. For me, it means that nothing anyone does matters a whit. You can be the nastiest scum on the planet, kill, torture, maim to your hearts content, and then....nothing. You can be the best human on the planet with the purest soul and heart, and then...nothing. That just doesn't sit well. At all.

Edited March 5, 2013 by MedievalMystic

[MysticTiger]

I've always found it odd that the bible basically said women are the reason for our downfall (Eve eating the Apple) and the Quran states that women are not allowed to "show off their adornment" (Funny enough the Quran also states that both women AND men must dress 'moderately' - something that most men don't follow but require women to do so.). In most religions, Women are either blamed for something (Eve) or required to do something that men don't have to. Is there a religion out there which either states that both genders are equal or have an equal part in a religious "downfall"? I'm just curious if that underlying sexism is in all religions or just the major ones.

 

(I'm talking about modern religions, not ones that are not practiced anymore. I know some older religions seen men are the less superior gender, worshiping women's ability to carry children.)

Edited March 5, 2013 by MysticTiger

[St. Jimmy]

The thought of oblivion sucks to me. For me, it means that nothing anyone does matters a whit. You can be the nastiest scum on the planet, kill, torture, maim to your hearts content, and then....nothing. You can be the best human on the planet with the purest soul and heart, and then...nothing. That just doesn't sit well. At all.

It's only unnerving if you believe life on earth has a meaning, as opposed to believing we're just... here.

 

Is there a religion out there which either states that both genders are equal or have an equal part in a religious "downfall"? I'm just curious if that underlying sexism is in all religions or just the major ones.

Paganism, at least the ones I've seen. There may be some forms of Paganism that aren't equal but I don't know about any of them. (Keep in mind that I'm only familiar with the ones rooted in Western culture, like Wicca and Asatru.)

[MysticTiger]

Paganism, at least the ones I've seen. There may be some forms of Paganism that aren't equal but I don't know about any of them. (Keep in mind that I'm only familiar with the ones rooted in Western culture, like Wicca and Asatru.)

Thank you! I'll have to get some information on that one. I know next to nothing about it. :3

[Kith]

Thank you! I'll have to get some information on that one. I know next to nothing about it. :3

Well, "pagan" isn't really a single religion; it's a catchall term for anything that isn't one of the major/accepted ones, so it covers a lot of different belief systems. It includes the worship of the older pantheons (Norse, Egyptian, Greek/Roman, etc) as well as the more modern New Age stuff.

[MedievalMystic]

I've always found it odd that the bible basically said women are the reason for our downfall

 

I don't tend to take everything in the bible literally. As far as I'm concerned about that issue, Adam should have had the balls to say NO. lol Maybe the lesson in that is that people should think for themselves, instead of following the leader, even when their gut tells them they're on the wrong road. I tend to interpret the bible...what I've read of it...in my own weird way.

 

 

It's only unnerving if you believe life on earth has a meaning, as opposed to believing we're just... here.

 

Yes. In my mind, our very existence has to mean something. I mean, what, we emerged out of nothing, and here we are, all by a 1 in trillion chance? I doubt it. I love scientists and their brilliant minds, but in spite of all the evidence that they present, I don't believe for one minute that a bunch of rocks exploded, everything came together just so, at just the right time, at just the exact distance needed from the sun, and BAM!, future humans are made. (obviously that's way over simpified, but you know what I mean. I hope! lol )

 

Did we, and other animals, evolve? You bet. The way I see it, we evolved because God wanted us to evolve and forsaw a need for it. Dinosaurs? God was in a really good creative mood that day, and was laughing at the thought of our future amazement.

 

I don't see God like other people seem to, especially really religious people. My neighbor is a missionary, uber religious, and I think I drive her a little mad sometimes. I don't see God as some being hovering over the planet, worried about every little move we make. God gave us brains to take care of business, and pretty much left us to sink or swim. Does that mean I think he's indifferent to us? No, I think he knows full well what's going on here. But God has an endless universe to create in, why would he hang around here all the time? I don't, not for a single second, believe we're in this vast space alone. God is the ultimate artist. He's busy. lol

 

Do I believe in 'God'? Well...sort of. I believe in....something. A force, a power, a being, whatever you'd like to call it, yeah, I think he/she/it's out there.

Edited March 5, 2013 by MedievalMystic

[PointOfOrigin]

Thanks guys! I do know about Sikkhism (not that much as I've shown). Guess I'll need to check that out.

[Vhale]

Do I believe in 'God'? Well...sort of. I believe in....something. A force, a power, a being, whatever you'd like to call it, yeah, I think he/she/it's out there.

There was a very interesting Star Trek that I caught the end up you might have liked. I'm not a big star trek fan, so I'm not sure which one exactly it was, I was just channel hopping at the time. But loosely, it was thus. They were observing a planet that had not yet been made contact with. As such, they weren't supposed to get spotted or interfere, big no no. Apparently the society there, their religion was such that they placed their dead in a pod and teleported the body off. They believed it went to a higher place.

 

Well there was an accident and instead, one of the crew members got teleported into the pod. So the society got a living breathing alien and a huge shake up of their belief in the hereafter. There was a bit of discussion with the crew about beliefs and what happens after death and them trying to fix what harm that had just done to this society. The very end of it, they discovered that somehow, where the bodies were being left at was creating a field around the planet. Kinda like our ozone layer. It was a protective field that helped the atmosphere and was some manner of energy.

 

The implication was there was an afterlife, of some sort. But the manner of being wasn't scientifically explainable. I found the whole thing rather interesting, as I do think each generation gets a bit caught up in what it thinks is true when we really know so little. We are left explaining things we just don't know about.

[prairiecrow]

The thought of oblivion sucks to me. For me, it means that nothing anyone does matters a whit. You can be the nastiest scum on the planet, kill, torture, maim to your hearts content, and then....nothing. You can be the best human on the planet with the purest soul and heart, and then...nothing. That just doesn't sit well. At all.

Which, IMO, only makes every human action all the more significant and precious -- and which makes what we do here, NOW, vitally important. If there's no "pie in the sky when you die", you're less likely to waste time, again IMO.

 

The prospect of no afterlife leads to a different sort of reverence for life, and a different sort of spirituality.

[St. Jimmy]

Thank you! I'll have to get some information on that one. I know next to nothing about it. :3

Here is a site that helped me learn about Asatru when I first converted.

 

"pie in the sky when you die"

I giggled a bit more than necessary at this.

Edited March 5, 2013 by St. Jimmy

[prairiecrow]

I giggled a bit more than necessary at this.

The line "pie in the sky when you die" comes from the song "The Preacher and the Slave", which was written in 1911.

 

In part, it says:

 

Long-haired preachers come out every night,

Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;

But when asked how 'bout something to eat

They will answer with voices so sweet:

 

Main Chorus:

 

You will eat, bye and bye,

In that glorious land above the sky;

Work and Pray, live on hay,

You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

Edited March 5, 2013 by prairiecrow

[TikindiDragon]

Here is a site that helped me learn about Asatru when I first converted.

While good in some respects, that particular site is quite lacking in others. It does not, for example, introduce any of the ancestral Gods. Nor does it explain about the Blot and the Hearth.

 

They also seem to have a somewhat peculiar hatred for Christianity, and their 'calendar' seems to include an awful lot of dates that have very little to do with the Gods, and rather a lot to do with people killed by a certain Christian King. 'm slightly put off by their suggestion that on one specific day asatruar should meditate on, effectivly, how evil Christianity is.

 

I've done a fair bit of research into Asatru, and I'm rather glad I didn't find that site first. It would have put me off totally. Personally I found the Odinic Rite website much more informative, and rather less hostile.

[High Lord November]

Yes. In my mind, our very existence has to mean something. I mean, what, we emerged out of nothing, and here we are, all by a 1 in trillion chance? I doubt it. I love scientists and their brilliant minds, but in spite of all the evidence that they present, I don't believe for one minute that a bunch of rocks exploded, everything came together just so, at just the right time, at just the exact distance needed from the sun, and BAM!, future humans are made. (obviously that's way over simpified, but you know what I mean. I hope! lol )

 

A trillion seems like a lot, but when you take a look at all the planets out there it isn't really a big number at all. The total number of planets out there is an astronomically huge number, impossible to imagine. Including roughly 14 billion years for stuff to develop in our universe (again, a time that is literally impossible to imagine), and accounting for all of the galaxies out there (and the stars the galaxies hold, and all of the planets that orbit around the stars...), I'd say that gives plenty of chance for those specific line up and life to 'randomly occur'. I'd be sorely surprised if it didn't. That's not even taking into account the possibility for life on moons and other environments! And that's just looking at what we need to survive (the necessity for liquid water, which defines the Goldilocks zone).

 

And, after all, we don't know how often life occurs in in the universe. It could be a fairly common occurrence for all we know. Or it could be really rare.

 

 

Which, IMO, only makes every human action all the more significant and precious -- and which makes what we do here, NOW, vitally important. If there's no "pie in the sky when you die", you're less likely to waste time, again IMO.

 

I agree. That thought has spurred me onto doing stuff more, lazing around less. Exercise is an example, studies is another. I only get one shot at really leaving my mark on this world, and there isn't much holding me back at the moment except myself. I might as well do my best (even although doing nothing will have the same consequences in the end, it makes me feel better to push myself to my limits).

 

I still laze around of course, just less

Edited March 5, 2013 by High Lord November

[TikindiDragon]

A trillion seems like a lot, but when you take a look at all the planets out there it isn't really a big number at all. The total number of planets out there is an astronomically huge number, impossible to imagine. Including roughly 14 billion years for stuff to develop in our universe (again, a time that is literally impossible to imagine), and accounting for all of the galaxies out there (and the stars the galaxies hold, and all of the planets that orbit around the stars...), I'd say that gives plenty of chance for those specific line up and life to 'randomly occur'. I'd be sorely surprised if it didn't. That's not even taking into account the possibility for life on moons and other environments! And that's just looking at what we need to survive (the necessity for liquid water, which defines the Goldilocks zone).

In mathematical terms the probability of abiogenesis occuring is so minimal as to be practically zero. Just sayin.

 

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

[KageSora]

If Hitler, Stalin, serial killers, child rapists, etc, etc, burn and scream for all eternity, I'd say justice is served and I'm happy about it. > Doesn't bother me in the least.

 

I personally believe that all things will be known after you die, that the spirit does live on, and we will know all that was, and all that will be. I believe we'll each go to whatever place is best suited to us, a place that gives us eternal peace and joy, unless, of course, you're what I call 'other', which to me is pure evil. God will make sure that dragons will be in my world in the afterlife. lol

 

And if I'm wrong in my thinking, well, like someone said, you don't know anything if you just cease to exist, and oblivion isn't something to fear because you'll be...oblivious. lol

 

The thought of oblivion sucks to me. For me, it means that nothing anyone does matters a whit. You can be the nastiest scum on the planet, kill, torture, maim to your hearts content, and then....nothing. You can be the best human on the planet with the purest soul and heart, and then...nothing. That just doesn't sit well. At all.

I'm all for some kind of retribution for our sins after death--but I do not believe it needs to be eternal. No crime, no matter how horrific, is an eternal crime, therefore eternal punishment is far beyond a punishment that is equal to the crime.

 

And, I really don't think there IS "pure evil" in this world. There is true darkness, but I do not think any person--no matter how much of a monster they may be--is truly pure, 100% evil. Just as I don't believe there to be a person to be pure, 100% good. To be mortal is to be both--some have more than the other in them, very few are in equal balance. But to be mortal is to be imperfect--and if we cannot be perfectly good, then neither can we be perfectly evil.

 

Even in xir own mind, the monster may be justified--from the perspective of the rest of the world xe is a true monster, a demon in the skin of a human, but I would be willing to bet that there are a good number of people out there who, at least in their own minds, were not pure evil.

 

And then you have to consider--what made them that way? Is there some sort of imbalance in their brain that prevents them from understanding how wrong their behavior is? Were they raised that way? Is it a result of some kind of illness or some drugs or injury? What caused the human to become a monster?

 

Nobody is born pure evil--evil, like good, are often learned. Some people have a stronger inherent sense of good and evil, but the finer points of both are learned things. So what, then, caused them to become that way?

 

Should they be punished eternally for their sins, when on some level they, too, were likely a victim of something?

 

 

I'm absolutely not excusing their actions--absolutely not. I just don't think that eternal punishment fits the crimes, no matter how horrific they may be.

 

 

As for nothing you do matters... I don't think that's true. If there is oblivion, then it makes life all the more important. All the more precious. We should, then, strive not to become monsters because our crimes don't matter, but to enrich our lives and the lives of those around us as best we can. To make this life enjoyable is even more important if there is no afterlife, because it's the only one we have.

 

And, as we help others, they in turn help others, who in turn help other still in an endless ripple, in such a way that, though to us imperceptible, echoes of those long gone still work in the world today.

 

I personally just live life to try and enjoy it--if I'm happy, others around me will feel that and hopefully it'll make them happy, too, and in turn those around them will feel it, etc. And, if I'm happy, I can do more to help those around me. Again, see the cycle I mentioned above. We interact with so many people each day--even if we never see them.

[St. Jimmy]

@Tikindi: Well, no site is going to be perfect. It does, however, lay down the basic beliefs which is good for just starting out.

[Syaoransbear]

My city is still debating this and I was wondering what you guys think about this.

 

I live in Canada and in our city our public bus system decided to display a very large MERRY CHRISTMAS message across the front and sides of all the buses for the entire month of december. One person, an atheist, complained about it because a public bus system is not supposed to have preference for one particular religion. Basically all the christians in the city opposed this guy and they want the Merry Christmas message to stay on the buses. When people tried to come to a compromise and say that the bus system should display rotating religious greetings for all the religious holidays that are celebrated around that time, the bus system and the christians were against this too. They want Merry Christmas and that's it, they won't come to any other compromise.

 

And I absolutely can't figure out why. I don't understand why you would choose to wish only christians good tidings and exclude others when you could wish people of all religions a happy holiday season. The only reasons I can come up with are discriminatory against other religions, or they are purely an act of defiance. Neither seem like good reasons.

 

Does anyone have any opinions about this?

Edited March 5, 2013 by Syaoransbear