I'm a Xobelist. I worship my own weiner and make a nightly sacrifice of lotion and seed :lol:
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No, sir, it's not. You have written from your heart, and written what I bet a lot of people feel, myself included.Originally posted by rickcharles606Comment
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Is it against the religion of Xobelism to waste liquid kids?? If it is, you may have to forgive yourself!Originally posted by Xobeloot
As for my post being crap. In my head it sounded like crap, and I had/have a TON more to say about religion, or my lack thereof. I don't write very well and the voice in my head doesn't speak very well, so we make a shitty team, LMAO.
You were right about one thing, it was from my heart. So, thanks....
group hug?? Xobe's in the middle!Comment
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Everything I post is crap.Comment
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Yeah, nice post Rick. I held out on answering this question, but it's interesting to hear everyone's points of view. I am an atheist. Since the dawn of mankind we have wondered where we come from, and within every culture can be found creation myths and legends to help answer such questions.
Over time such myths and legends have of course changed, reemerged, been adapted and modified, and in more recent times (recorded history) have evolved to serve much wider purposes of cultural and political significance. The function of the earliest priests across a wide range of religious traditions was to redistribute meat and goods during feasts. The original Hindu Brahmin caste and Jewish Rabbis provided the role of sacrificing animals during select religious ceremonies (holidays) to provide both wealth (food) and moral guidance (religious doctrine) to early societies. Religion also served other practical purposes, as can be seen with the Jewish and Muslim abomination of pork: it is simply not cost-effective to raise pigs in the middle east, although it used to be; with time and overpopulation, deforestation occurred in this region, and since pigs need to wallow and have shade, it became necessary for an authoritative ban on such practices. Also with the Hindu worship of cows: Cattle are more valuable alive in an agrarian economy where the most efficient way to till a field is by using cow-power than they are dead as a source of food.
In any case, all this rambling is to say that religious thought has worked very well within the human framework up until recently in our history. I think religion is one of the most fascinating aspects of the human condition, and I enjoy learning as much as I can about the various traditions that have evolved and emerged over the centuries, and why. For example, Christianity emerged from Judaism at a time when people in Israel were enduring political oppression at the hands of Romans. Buddhism emerged from Hinduism as an alternative to the oppressive caste system. Etc. Okay I've said enough. Diarrhea of the mouth, to be sure.
My final thought is that yes, it does not make sense that we are just here, for no fathomable purpose. But to me, that's just the way it is. What is the alternative? If a creator had an ultimate goal in mind for humans, what could it possibly be other than to serve and thank the Lord? That would make us the focus and ultimate end-goal of creating life in the Universe, and I don't see that as holding a single drop of plausibility. I believe humans and all life exist simply because we can... that sure seems to be the case for May Flies, which are alive for 1 day each year to reproduce and lay eggs for next year. They exist to reproduce, because they can. They thrive. So do we, and so does life itself. But I'm young, and I am fully aware that my understanding of the world has a long way to go, and I'm open to achieving a vastly different realization. I wish I believed in God. It's a comforting thought, to believe the answers that our cultures have provided us to this most difficult question. If anyone is still reading this, may I politely suggest that you may have something better to do. At the moment, I do not. I love this forum. And snus.Comment
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I was raised a dyed-in-the-wool Southern Baptist, but over the last ten or fifteen years I became increasingly dismayed with the rising preponderance of their deeply flawed eschatology, namely pre-millennial dispensationalism.
Though there is much doctrine that I would agree with in the Reformed/Calvinist confessions, I and my family are now Lutherans of the Missouri Synod and hold that the Holy Scriptures are the inspired and inerrant Word of God and the entire Book of Concord is a faithful and true exposition of said Word.Comment
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Well, where do I start? I am confused about my mortality as I suppose most average person would be.
I try to start from the beginning. Why is there matter? What is the point of there being matter and where does it come from? Then why is there life, life forming as single-celled organisms and then organizing to much more complex forms? Then why did life evolve to the point where the animal was aware of his/her own existence and mortality? Evolution makes sense, but I think at the same time that the evolution of man to become aware of his own mortality would be a hindrance to his survival in some aspects. This may have been just a by-product of the increased intelligence of the human. To ramble on further: I don't completely understand the concept of being placed in physical/matter form, die, and then become a "spiritual form" that exists to worship God. At the same time, the idea of having free-will, to chose and seek out the love and respect of God makes a lot of sense. Hell, if I was an all-powerful being would I want to make a bunch of entities that would automatically worship me because I made them so? Therefore, the idea of making beings aware of their own mortality and have them seek for a reason for their existence makes sense while not extensively intruding (or swaying their decisions) upon their lives. Yet, there are a lot of written accounts that God did make himself known (this could be considered myth as well if you want). If there is not a God, then we formed and evolved to live and be tortured with the fact that we will die and no longer exist (what an exciting form of evolution!!!!). If there is not a God then we are only participating in the redistribution of matter. We eat in one place, shit and piss in a different place, and then die in another (with a big fat pris under your lip of course). It is hard for me to fathom that all matter can exist, man can evolve to realizing his own mortality, and that we just evolved to shit and piss somewhere besides where we gather our food. Yet that might be the case, but I don't go for it. To end my post: I am Catholic. I have a hard time believing everything that the Catholic church teaches. Organized religions are imperfect. The Catholic church has had many problems along the way. I remain Catholic because I was born into Catholicism and it makes as much sense as any other organized religion. The "Catholic-light" community could serve me just as well if I had been part of it. The thing I see failing many religions is their lack of what I would call eternal truths. What I mean by this is that if something was immoral a thousand years ago, it should still be immoral today. Cultural relativism is a slippery slope that no religion should try to be a part of yet there are many that do. I think that this is where a lot of organized religions tend to get into trouble.
Cheers. I need to go shit and piss now.Comment
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Not part of any established religion.
Monotheist
Do not pray through proxy's such a jesus or anyone else, talk directly to God, no idol worshipping, no god before him etc.Comment
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That's similar to my beliefs only I talk directly to Zod.Comment
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I am intirested in this "Zod", and I would like to sign up for your newsletter :lol:Originally posted by jamesstew
Zod/Quetzalcoatl 2012!!!!!Comment
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I would guess (of course I don't know) that my religious faith resembles Sage's. If I have to label myself, it would be as an "ultraliberal Christian."
The "ultraliberal" qualifier is necessary, since I can't stand the religious right, nor do I like the Catholic obsession with weird sexual prohibitions.Comment
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I know some folks like you. Even though I'm an Atheist, I get along with them because we have similar political views. In matter of fact, I know a lot of Christian Anarchists. They tend to be younger, but they know what they're talking about!Originally posted by MultinicComment
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I don't mind atheists either, as long as they are not the type that resemble Mormons in their zeal (Richard Dawkins is a good example). Having said that, however, I don't think that religious dogmatism should legitimize rejecting scientific findings. On the other hand, alleged scientific "truth" is always something that may turn out to be mistaken in the future as well. So while I believe in God, I don't think any human can say that they "know" what God is, or even that he (she? it?) exists. It's called religious faith, not religious knowledge. So the reason I'm still prepared to call myself a Christian is 1, an inituitive belief in the existence of God, and 2, a moral intuition that accords with (positive, liberal) Christianity better than other religions (love, tolerance, forgiveness etc.) Sure, Buddhism seems reasonable too, but I find it difficult to be enthusiastic about "non-attachment" and the "vanity of all human endeavors" (I only read a couple of books about Buddhism, so I wouldn't claim that I have a lot of knowledge about that particular religion).
Snusjus, I don't know what your political views are, but my first political priorities are civil liberties, peace, and a decentralized version of democracy. So, no, I did not like Bush at all.Comment
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Great thread, guys! Very interesting thoughts (and Jason, those cards are too funny!).
I was raised by a very scientific minded father and have as long as I can remember considered myself an atheist. I find the answers and theories provided by rational science, philosophy and cultural criticism to be quite enough for me, and I have abselutely no room in my understanding of life for a god like being of any kind.
When I was younger I was really passionate about this, and everytime I met a believer I did my very best to shake his beliefs. But as I've become older I've softened a bit up, today I fully accept that people choose a religious perspective on life - as long as they keep it as a private practice (the deal being: I don't preach to them and they don't preach to me).
I still find religion in general to be one of the worst plaques that ever hit our species, and I strongly support a secular state (and no, I don't consider religious people sick ... it's just a metaphor :P ).
It's not really that big an issue here in Denmark. The Danish church have been almost completely abandoned for decades, only the elderly still comes there, and now many Danes simply consider themselfes 'kulturkristne' (cultural christian), meaning that they still respect the fact that huge parts of their history (and therefore also their life) is strongly influenced by the church - they've just more or less abandoned the rituals, apart from the big four; babtism, confirmation, wedding and funeral. But even these are being ditched more and more. At the same time we see a progress in the work of atheistic societies, today it is fx. possible to be buried in a beautiful and airy Danish forest instead of a little square in a packed graveyard. The church's death-monopol has been broken ...
The strongest believers here should be found in the muslim population and in the various pseudo-christian cults in the backwoods. Oh, and let's not forget about nutty Scientology who used to have (and actually may still have?) their European headquarters here in Copenhagen.
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