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| Thread: the HC's necessary religion thread |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 · «PREV |
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ohforfsake
Promising
Legendary Hero
Initiate
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posted April 22, 2010 11:41 PM |
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Quote:
Buddhism and the Greek religion both believe in things beyond the material world - for example, souls.
For making sense of a statement such as there's no such thing as soul in the material world, I think a definition of souls and material world would be in order here.
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Living time backwards
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Keksimaton
Promising
Supreme Hero
Talk to the hand
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posted April 23, 2010 10:29 AM |
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My definition is logical. Spirit as in the mind or soul or inner life and Spirituality as in taking care of the mind, soul, inner life and bringing a feeling of coherence and purposefullness in life.
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted April 23, 2010 03:50 PM |
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Quote:
1) how do you let Religion affect your day to day life. friends, work, family, etc, etc.
Sometimes I have discussions with my friends about religion, and a few times with my parents and my little sister (her best friends happens to be christian, and in my opinion against her own will).
Most of my friends are against religion and neither of my parents are religious though my dad has read the bible (as a book) and my mother wishes to read the Koran to understand Islam better since Islam is such a huge deal in the modern world.
In my class we have one really religious girl and we think she is fanatic. She thinks homosexuality is a disease and only freaks get it (NOBODY agreed with her at all) and like I said is almost fanatic about what the bible says. Thing is that she is a pretty stupid and unintelligent girl... One of her arguments why God existed was because in our timeline Year 0 is the birth of Jesus...
I have never gone to a church if it was not for a wedding or something like that. And even then I don't see anything religious about a wedding etc. It's just a beautiful, symbolic and traditional thing nowdays. In school we skipped religion because our teacher thought it was stupid and unnescessary, I did not quite agree... I think its a big deal atm.
2) How did you choose you're religion, and if you didn't, are there any others that you admire or respect?
The only "religion" I have an understanding for is Buddhism. Buddhism doesn't have thousands of supernatural stuff and I could easily see people going to buddhism for the spiritual calm stuff like meditation etc to just go away from or many times stressful life.
The religion I least like, though I have nothing against it, is Judaism but thats just because Israel is so mean against the palestinians and the general superior attitude against the palestinians there.
3) How does religion affect you're oppinions, politics, and social ideals?
Religion has nothing to do with politics here anymore. The only religious party here, the "Christian Democrats", are VERY small. Though I do think that religious schools should not be allowed though schools should learn the kids about all major religions and not only christianity (fortunaly, we studied all of them in my school).
I dont really know about social ideals. Overall, religion doesnt affect my life much though I still like to think about it. I still can not understand why people dedicate their lifes to stuff that I personally see as made-up tools to control people.
It is still a very interesting thing to talk and chat about.
4) How do you think you're religion has contributed towards getting society where it is today?
Very hard to say since I have no idea how the development of the Swedish society would have gone if we had not been introduced to christiany and a way from our old (cool) Norse faith.
I think the norse faith would have faded out eventually any way and that there was no way to avoid us getting converted into christians and then now few people are religious here
I do not think christianity is responsible for most of the "moral laws" we have today. Such laws should be based upon social science in my opinion.
5) what do you think we did before religion?
What? We have always had religion. It is a natural thing. We used to need it, it helped us to evolve. But now we don't need religion anymore. We have other ways to strengthen the society now.
Okay we were monkeys before we started worshipping rocks.
6) where would you place your religion?
Atheism. Though obviously I cannot say that I know divine things do not exist, but I could say that I am 99.99999999999999999% sure that we just live in a normal world and are responsible for our own actions.
7)What is your current religion?
Isn't this the same as above or did I misunderstand? 
8) what is your definition of religion? not using wikipedia or googling it, your own words to decribe it, please.
My definition of religion is of a concept naturally made by humans to originally strengthen the early societies and than later to be used to control people and fill gaps that have not been covered by science. I mean the old greeks knew the world was round. Than those religious people came and said "Zomg world is flat and hell is underneath it! Don't sail to far or you will fall off" and than people believed in that for like over a thousand years...
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Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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OmegaDestroyer
Hero of Order
Fox or Chicken?
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posted April 23, 2010 04:59 PM |
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The things I do to avoid drafting complaints and speaking with clients.
1) How do you let Religion affect your day to day life, friends, work, family, etc, etc.
It usually only comes into play at work when I'm dealing with one of the best interest factors for children or when I pray to be able to effectively represent my clients. As to my day-to-day life, it really doesn't come up a whole lot. I know where my friends stand on various religious issues and unless there is something interesting going on in the news regarding religion, we usually discuss other matters. Pretty much the same with my family. We do have conversations about faith but those are fairly infrequent. I get disgusted in the news when I hear that people are using religion for the wrong reasons, such as protesting against LGBT rights at funerals, or when people go out of their way to mock others for their religious beliefs, calling them "ignorant" or "illogical." Both are completely unproductive and immature.
2) How did you choose you're religion, and if you didn't, are there any others that you admire or respect?
I didn't really choose it. I've been a Presbyterian all my life. I've looked into other possibilities, like Buddhism, but don't really feel like swapping one set of tenants for another at this point. I should elaborate. I pray to God but don't really follow the tenants of Presbyterianism nor agree that it's correct. If I were to convert to Buddhism, I'd still pray to God and just have another set of tenants I would most likely ignore. Plus the culinary limitations would annoy me.
3) How does religion affect you're opinions, politics, and social ideals?
I believe religion is a great thing when it is used properly: to provide a way for similar minded people to worship peacefully. I loathe when religion is used as a weapon. It completely misses the point at that level. As to religion in politics, I don't want religion forced upon anyone in a school setting. Period. If it's part of an elective course or a parochial school, fine. Other than that, the courts have said it is to stay out, and I agree with that decision. Additionally, if it's part of a factor in a court proceeding, such as the best interest factors in a child custody dispute, I have no problems with it. As to social ideals, if religion is used to help people and advance the greater good, I'm happy. Again, if it is used as a weapon, to gather power, or to spread fear, there is no need for it.
4) How do you think you're religion has contributed towards getting society where it is today?
Despite the fierce opposition to the idea by some, my nation was founded on religious ideas that have been prevalent to this very day. If you are thinking on a more global scale, look at some of the past atrocities, such as the Holocaust and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Both of those have had profound impacts on modern society and will continue to do so for centuries to come.
5) What do you think we did before religion?
We pondered the same questions that we ask ourselves in religion. Why are we here? Why do bad things happen to good people? What happens when we die?
6) Where would you place your religion?
My specific denomination is dying. It's not very ritualistic, which seems to be more appealing to some these days. Within 50 years, I imagine it will mostly be replaced or absorbed.
7)What is your current religion?
Presbyterianism.
8) What is your definition of religion? not using Wikipedia or googling it, your own words to describe it, please.
Religion is a complicated system of individual beliefs and social interaction. At its best, it gives people hope and a way to cope with an increasingly chaotic world, as well as allowing like-minded individuals to develop a sense of community. At its worst, it is abused and used to fulfill a secular agenda, both as a sword and as a shield.
*sigh* Work beckons. Unreasonable people need to get divorce. The 149 specific items of the marriage just aren't going to divide themselves up! 
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The giant has awakened
You drink my blood and drown
Wrath and raving I will not stop
You'll never take me down
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bixie
Promising
Legendary Hero
my common sense is tingling!
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posted April 24, 2010 10:08 AM |
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xerox and omegadestroyer, thank you for you're posts. It's good to know that there are sensible people in this world, of which I am not.
btw, just a quick point, there's a short video about a study that was... rather interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRY4AbS6Lgc For those who feel offended by the video, don't shoot the messenger, and take it up with the new scientist magazine, or better, make you're own study, get it peer reviewed, and create a rebuttal to the scientific community.
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Love, Laugh, Learn, Live.
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Shyranis
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted May 16, 2010 12:34 AM |
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I have some questions just out of curiousity for Elodin. I don't want to look at other sources and would rather get the information directly from an adherent of his faith.
Elodin, you don't have to answer these questions but I imagine they would be easy enough to answer anyway.
Does your denomination believe, worship or respect saints?
If so does it recognize the new saints canonized by the Catholic church?
Does it have its own saints?
Just curious as all of the various denominations and splinter groups of Christianity have a different way of looking at things and it helps to understand =)
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Youtube has terminated my account without reason.
Please express why it should be reinstated on
Twitter.
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Elodin
Promising
Legendary Hero
Free Thinker
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posted May 24, 2010 01:39 AM |
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Short answer, no, the Catholic idea of saints can be found nowhere in the Bible. The Bible calls every true Christian a saint.
I am not participating in the thread for reasons stated on April 15, 2010 09:45 AM. I would be happy to answer your questions in greater detail in a thread where the only moderators are the OSM moderators.
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Revelation
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Shares
Supreme Hero
I am. Thusly I am.
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posted May 24, 2010 12:42 PM |
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So now let's bring a new subject!
What has religion contributed with to society? Good and bad, and I don't want a list of historical events. Then describe that event and say what you think that has led to today and point and something that EXISTS today.
Yeah, I guess this is to Europe and North America as usual, though I'd like to hear from people from everywhere and of all religions, though it would also be useful to know what your religion is.
So:
Religion has always united people. Wether that is a good or bad thing is arguable, though I would say that it has led to countless bad things society might not be as centralized with cities and countries. Still I think that people would have managed that on their own hands. Even without bigger religions people have managed to create cities, even empires/kingdoms. The thing that is really discussable is wether Christianity have contributed in a good way by helping, uniting and educating people or if the killing of people that were different have removed more ideas(yes) and knowledge than they have added.
The Christian Church did in the middle ages constantly kill people. The burning of witches are very renowned for example. Still the Christian Church did, at the same time, educate people and spread knowledge of healing, reading, math, latin and of course religion and ethics. Maybe those of the priests that taught other people would have done so wether the church existed or not? Then surely they did not add much knowledge, and removed a lot.
I would also like to point out three things about religion. There are usually three steps/parts to it.
1) The actual religion. What the bible says for example. What the very core of their values and beliefs say! People read or hear this and move on to the next step. This a very subtle part of a religion, and is often ignored later on by the church (for example, a key value of christianity is that you just don't kill people! The church then adds: Unless it's in a war or self defence or something).
2) The individual religion. Most religious things can be interpreted different. The fact that there are several branches of Christianity that say that they follow the bible is proof of this. People with similar interpretations can move on! This is hard to refer to.
3) The organization, often called the church when talking about Western Religion. This is also when an official history starts to shape. There are probably a lot of events in the bible related to Christianity that aren't in it, so an organization claims dominion and sort it out. Usually under the claim of divine guidance (true or not doesn't really matter). I will usually refer to this as the church. Most eastern religions have small divided organizations of religion.
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GrayFace
Promising
Known Hero
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posted June 01, 2010 11:30 AM |
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Edited by GrayFace at 12:03, 01 Jun 2010.
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7) What is your current religion?
In short, my religion/philosophy is optimism, belief that the world isn't too bad for me. I believe in life after death, but don't believe in Hell or other such things.
1) How do you let Religion affect your day to day life. friends, work, family, etc, etc.
Mine helps me feel better, care less of bad things and focus more on what I like. The side effect is that it doesn't help me fight with my lazyness, while many other religions do help with that, I think.
As for my family, all my family members are Christians of Russian Orthodox church, although not strict - they don't keep fasts etc. I was also christened when I was young. The only impacts it has on my life is that we celebrate Christian holidays and mother puts a cross on my neck on important events (like exams), she worries less this way.
2) How did you choose your religion, and if you didn't, are there any others that you admire or respect?
I guess I was a Christian when I studied in school from 2nd to some other grade I don't remember. Before that period I didn't realy care, after that period I didn't believe. The turning point to my current 'religion'/philosophy was 9th grade at school. Then it slowly formed into what it is now. Among religions I respect Russian Orthodox church the most. Not that I know much about other religions
3) How does religion affect your opinions, politics, and social ideals?
I don't know. It does, but principles do most effect.
4) How do you think your religion has contributed towards getting society where it is today?
Mine obviously didn't effect it. Effect of Russian Orthodox Church was pretty good, I think. The church stopped messing much with politics pretty early and didn't provoke hatred to other religions.
5) What do you think we did before religion?
We were learning to speak, developing language at that time I suspect a religion appeared as soon as the language was powerful enough.
I propose this addition to rules:
Don't repeat yourself (in same or other words), except when it's really needed (e.g. for someone who didn't read you old post). If you do repeat your words, say so and say why you do it, if the reason isn't obvious.
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