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What religion do you associate yourself with?


kollision
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1. What were you born into?

2. What are you now?

3. What made you change? (if you did)

4. What are your ideas on religions in general?

 

Lets try and not debate here, just speak your mind. If you have a question, feel free to ask. No, "My religion (or lack thereof) is right, yours is wrong" deal. You personally know that your faith is right therefore don't try and change others, because they are in the same position as you.

 

Heres my stuff:

 

 

1. I was born into a Trinitarian Christian home. I say Trinitarian because there are Unitarian Christians that do not believe that Jesus is God and the Trinity ideas.

 

2. I am a Muslim. I don't belong to any sects such as Sunni or Shia. I just live as a Muslim (submitter in Arabic) and read various religious literature but the Quran is what matches my belief. I also consider myself Christian because I believe in what Christ taught (just not a lot of things in the New Testament) as well as other religions that fall in line with believing in One God. I personally refer to them as Muslims as well because in the Qu'ran and more importantly myself, if they submit themselves to God and not their own personal desires, then they are the same no matter if it's labelled under a certain name.

 

I don't view Muhammed as greater than Jesus or the other way around. Some Muslims do this but I do not agree with it. I just worship God and leave it at that. I have respect for them, but thats it.

 

I also believe that if you are born into a religion, that isn't really your religion. I think that it is sort of brain washing because they have no choice to go on their own path. If I ever had kids, I would teach them my beliefs but never force it on them. I would have them do their own search for God, as it is their own journey to undertake.

 

3. Without getting into much detail (because I don't want to come across as I stated at the top) I changed because even as a Christian I had a lot of questions in regards to the Trinity and stuff like that. A lot of my beliefs fell in line with Islam before I even researched what Islam was. Also Islam talks about animals and stuff. They are from God, and will return to God when all ends. Islam even says that the animals worship God, while some people do. It even says that they have their own mode of prayer, while we do not know. Something I really agreed with before converting, and now I am at peace with my belief of that.

 

4. My ideas of religion in general is power. With religion, you can gain control of others and control their thinking. What you say goes basically. I think religion is man made and they group their beliefs into something and others group their beliefs into something else. I really do not believe in the concept of religion, just in God.

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1.Raised in episcopal church till sometime when parents switched to a methodist church in the town they live in.

 

2. Have been an atheist for about a decade, and dont see that changing. I do believe there can be ghosts and UFOs though. They have nothing to do with god IMO.

 

3. Around 5th grade I realized I felt nothing from church and had just been going through the motions. Later became aware that the people I encountered at church were very shallow and were just keeping up appearances on sunday. I didnt want to be a part of a community of fakes. I also developed a strong sense of self and figured I did not need anyone but myself, I am the only one I can count on. Also no fire and brimstone sermons, gotta love that stuff cuz they are like death metal songs.

 

4. I hope practitioners get what they are looking for from their religion, and I hope that these people that are religious do great things for others. My only problem religion is not even with religion itself but with the people that say they are one thing then do something opposite of what they should believe....like Christian politicans that start wars and make taxes (murder and theft). However religions are so ambiguous you can justify anything with them which is an idea I got from a lecture on terrorism (there have even been buddhist terrorists). I feel the religions themselves all serve the same purpose(s) and none is better than the other. Some of the religious tenets I have incorporated into my life or at least some of my beliefs are in common with different religions. These are just a matter of who I have made myself to be, not a matter of dogma from some institution.

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1. What were you born into?

2. What are you now?

3. What made you change? (if you did)

4. What are your ideas on religions in general?

 

 

1. Catholicism

2. no idea...

3. personal reasons. Let "God" judge me not other humans.

4. religion used for the purposes of helping others and bettering oneself is fine. but religion used for greed, and power is wrong.

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1. What were you born into?

2. What are you now?

3. What made you change? (if you did)

4. What are your ideas on religions in general?

 

1. nothing

2. I am not practicing it, but buddhism is just wonderful to me.

3. I actually didn't change, but I would never choose any religion, because I really don't believe that there is a God or that I have to live my life in a way just because it is written in a book.

4. Not to offend anyone, but any religion (I mean one with a God or a book to live for) sucks.

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1. What were you born into?
2. What are you now?
3. What made you change? (if you did)
4. What are your ideas on religions in general? 

 

  1. Roman Catholic
  2. A street head
  3. i didn't get touched up by the priest
  4. i look upon all religions/followers with equal disdain

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Let's try to keep our distastes of other religions with ourselves and not on this board please? I already mentioned that. Have respect for others beliefs if you want respect for yourself. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it. I don't want any fights erupting here.

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But what do we do if our complaint is a key answer to one of your questions?

 

Not you College, I was talking about Jza. Cracking jokes and being informal. If you got something to say, just take Nobbi's approach besides saying "sucks". It's ok to express your beliefs, but don't be informal about it. There are other people on this board, not just ourself, so we should show discretion and have respect for others who may be reading. We would like the same, so lets treat it the same as well.

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1. Atheist

2. Atheist

3. N/A

4. I have to agree with Jza. Maybe not equal disdain (Budhism can be pretty cool) but Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism have a huge amount to answer for.

 

jonathan

 

Answer for? What do you mean?

 

greed, oppression, persecution, war, ethnic cleansing, discrimination - i can give you examples for every religion if needs be.

this is ignoring the fact that every one is ideologically similar, its just a case of 'brand preference'.

 

jonathan

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while fundamentals within the religions often have good intentions, followers of them often commit acts that are less than desireable to be a better "insert generic religion name here" and those that preach/hold positions of power within said religions are all too often guilty of using their followers faith as a tool or even teaching ignorance.

 

although i'm anti krishna/buddhist/hindi equally as much as any of the other religions

 

 

the only one i like is rastafari because they make pre-tense about it, they're openly hating on whites and gays...which is just kinda funny on one level.... even though i'm white and a shitload of my friends and colleagues are gay.

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1. Atheist

2. Atheist

3. N/A

4. I have to agree with Jza. Maybe not equal disdain (Budhism can be pretty cool) but Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism have a huge amount to answer for.

 

jonathan

 

Answer for? What do you mean?

 

greed, oppression, persecution, war, ethnic cleansing, discrimination - i can give you examples for every religion if needs be.

this is ignoring the fact that every one is ideologically similar, its just a case of 'brand preference'.

 

jonathan

 

It's the people that corrupts it, not necessarily the religion itself. If you are to use these as examples, this should apply to everyone and not religion, but the person that claims to follow it.

 

It's like if Vegans were to become greedy or the other things you put. Vegan isn't what is wrong, but the people that claim it and mess up the name. Some vegans or animal rights people would say this to the ALF and other organizations of the kind (I aint denouncing the ALF, just giving an example). So it's not necessarily the organization or religion, just the people that make it up.

 

Veganism and Animal Rights is looked down upon for several reasons, one of them being the one I just mentioned to you. Also how some vegans are stuck up, judgemental, etc.

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it mat be the people that corrupt it and not the religion, but all religions are rather dependent on having people as members to sustain their existence

so they're immediately tied into that...

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it mat be the people that corrupt it and not the religion, but all religions are rather dependent on having people as members to sustain their existence

so they're immediately tied into that...

 

How are religions dependant on having people to sustain their existance? This would be the same with Veganism since without people to join it, there would be no veganism.

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it may be the people that corrupt it and not the religion, but all religions are rather dependent on having people as members to sustain their existence

so they're immediately tied into that...

 

How are religions dependant on having people to sustain their existance? This would be the same with Veganism since without people to join it, there would be no veganism.

 

 

 

exactly. without vegans there would be no veganism,

 

therefore the behavioural problems and tendencies of humankind are implicit within any religion.

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exactly. without vegans there would be no veganism,

 

therefore the behavioural problems and tendencies of humankind are implicit within any religion.

 

Are you saying that Veganism is a religion? Or like religion?

 

So any problems within the Vegan or Animal Rights community (ie: ALF or whatever), can be attributed back the Veganism or Animal Rights itself? That's what you seemed to imply in regards to religion if I understood correctly.

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what i'm saying is that any movement/organisation is reliant on having human members for itself to exist...

 

Therefore the same problems that are present within humans (greed etc) will manifest themselves within the organisation to some degree, even if systems are in place to deal with them.

 

 

 

therefore human like behaviours are part and parcel of any religion.

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what i'm saying is that any movement/organisation is reliant on having human members for itself to exist...

 

Therefore the same problems that are present within humans (greed etc) will manifest themselves within the organisation to some degree, even if systems are in place to deal with them.

 

 

 

therefore human like behaviours are part and parcel of any religion.

 

Ah ok gotcha. So it does apply to everything. Not religion specifically.

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no, but religions seem to bring oit to the surface more illustriously...

 

 

possibly because they've been around longer, allowing problems to develop/advance more.

 

and possibly because religions have more of a focus on problematic behaviours/dictating "correct" intentions and behaviours than other similar sized organisations do.

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1. What were you born into?

2. What are you now?

3. What made you change? (if you did)

4. What are your ideas on religions in general?

 

1) Baptist. Not sure if there's any other specification to that....not Southern Baptist, just regular Christian Baptist

2)Not practicing any religion. Still go to the same church I grew up in for Christmas Eve services, that's about it.

3)I hated being forced to go; I always felt like my parents forced their religion on me. So, I pretty much abandoned it, and haven't felt any pressing need to replace it as of yet.

4)To be quite honest, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about religion. About a year and a half ago I had an experience that made me pause, and the person with who I shared this experience agreed that it was the one time we both stopped and thought "Wow, that was God" acting in our lives. But for the most part, religion seems like something that people 'need' to help them cope with life, to help them find answers, etc. I prefer to look within myself as opposed to a religion when I need to puzzle through things. I don't deny the possibility of God. I don't claim to know God exists, I won't say that God doesn't exist. However, religion just isn't something that currently has a place in my life.

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no, but religions seem to bring oit to the surface more illustriously...

 

 

possibly because they've been around longer, allowing problems to develop/advance more.

 

and possibly because religions have more of a focus on problematic behaviours/dictating "correct" intentions and behaviours than other similar sized organisations do.

 

Ah ok thanks for the clarification. I get you now.

 

But for the most part, religion seems like something that people 'need' to help them cope with life, to help them find answers, etc.

 

I feel the same way in regards to a lot of people turning to it for that reason alone.

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Kollision, this is a tricky subject but I will nevertheless answer your questions. To make things easier, I think that we should just reply to the initial questions. I hope no one will be offended by my post.

 

1. What were you born into?

2. What are you now?

3. What made you change? (if you did)

4. What are your ideas on religions in general?

 

 

1. I was born into Roman Catholicism like the majority of Italians.

 

2. I don't think I can define my views within any particular category, some people may say I'm an atheist, others an agnostic.

 

3. My parents were your average Italian catholic , they did it because they sort of believe but more because over there it's the norm. As far as I can remember, I was never interested in going to church and only took the communion once, my first one. Growning up, I learned more about "my" religion and now to me they seem to be more like a criminal organization then a benevolent faith. The Vatican shaped my country in ways that are difficult to decribe unless you live there. I truly dislike their message and ideology: they're just men, corrupted, wealthy when they preach to be humble and, above all, narrow minded. They're always behind time and, in my opinion, only change their views when is inevitable. Their history with regards to women, other faiths, gays and human rights should be more than enough to keep people away from following this religion. In Italy, they're involved in politics on the count that they represent the Italian people as 90% of them have been babtised and therefore are considered catholic forever. I'm no longer "registred" a catholic and I urge to do the same to anyone who feel the Vatican doesn't represent them anymore. People that believe in this religion should not ignore their past and in my view should keep their faith and the Vatican separeted.

 

4. I'm sure every religion has interesting points, but I feel that this is due more to common sense than to the work of some superior being. Looking at human history, I feel that religions (by religions I mean organized religions) are more a problem than a solution. I strongly believe that faith should be something personal and therefore kept away from any form of control instructed by people who lived centuries ago.

 

This is a complicated matter which is difficult to explain, I overall feel that what I've just written should be enough to give you and other members a feel of where I stand.

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Cristian, there was no offense mate. It was just your opinion on things and it is ok. Thanks for sharing. I have heard a lot of what you mentioned from other Catholics, but the person was gay and still a Catholic.

 

Are Italians considered Orthodox Catholic? Well the majority that is.

Edited by kollision
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there have been some interesting developments in the catholic church, with the vatican endorsing darwin/creationism in response to the idiocy of "intelligent design" that's being pushed by american christians.

 

and also the ordination of a priest who is married.

 

although that's more of a one off to spite the anglicans as he was formerly an anglican...minister?

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