Religion

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Religion

Postby south carmain » Sat Jan 14, 2017 1:47 pm

I'm curious about what beliefs you guys have, what are your views on other beliefs and overall how spiritual you are and also your reasons for believing in what you do.

You can just write about you personal story or answer some of the following questions for inspiration:

Is there a God/Gods?

If you believe in God/Gods why do you choose to do so?

If you believe in a singular god do you think the Abrahamic beliefs portray accurately his nature?

If yes which Abrahamic religion do you believe to portray his nature most accurately and why?

If no then which alternative do you think portrays him best and why?

If you believe in multiple gods which belief system do you follow and why do you think it's a better alternative to the other sets of beliefs?

If you believe in no gods at all why do you choose not to?

If you're an agnostic what is stopping you from either believing in one side or the other?

What are your views on Judaism, Christianity and Islam?

What are your views on Hinduism and Buddhism?

What are your views on other spiritual beliefs such as Bahais, Zoroastrianism etc?

What are your views on Atheists, Agnostics?
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Re: Religion

Postby Monkei » Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:24 pm

south carmain wrote:Is there a God/Gods?


Short answer: No. But I'd like to hear your definition of "God". Human-like being, something that created us and judges us? No. That shit is ridiculous.

If you believe in no gods at all why do you choose not to?


Well, it's not really a choice to me. I find the whole concept of believing pretty nonsensical. To me believing means liking the thought of something and choosing to view it as real - I can't do that when logic tells me otherwise, tells me how religions and myths most likely came to be and everything. About ten years ago I began seeing through all that religious bullshit - and that's not really something you can unsee.

What are your views on Judaism, Christianity and Islam?


People can do and think what they want, as long as it's not causing anyone harm. Don't really have the time to delve into what harm and what good these religions bring right now.

What are your views on Hinduism and Buddhism?
What are your views on other spiritual beliefs such as Bahais, Zoroastrianism etc?


Don't know enough about Hinduism. Buddhism always seemed kinda attractive to me. I think it teaches some cool things, but in the end it's all still to spiritual for me. I'm not a spiritual person, I think there's no reason or purpose or whatever for anything. Matter of fact I don't even think that we really exist. That person each one of us thinks he is is not really there, from a zoomed out perspective.
Don't know anything about the latter two beliefs I'm afraid. Gonna look them up later!

What are your views on Atheists, Agnostics?


I'm skipping this for now as I have to get off the train and smartphone in a couple minutes. Might elaborate on whatever seems worthy of it later though!

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Re: Religion

Postby Ziming » Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:55 pm

Religions are simply a man-made societal control mechanism. Spiritualism is also a man-made construct. Not for the control of other men, however, but for enlightenment of the inner self. The topics of religion/spiritualism do still fascinate me as I'm often watching videos related to it and those that question our reality.

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Re: Religion

Postby AnimeGamer183 » Sat Jan 14, 2017 3:29 pm

is for smart people that are winners. 8)
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Re: Religion

Postby Sonikku » Sat Jan 14, 2017 7:14 pm

Athiest myself. I do not begrudge people for their faith however. Life is hard and the belief that there's something wonderful waiting for you at the end if you just hang in there is a very comforting thought, regardless as for whether or not that belief is well founded. Perhaps in a weary world even false hope is better than no hope. An unjust society is perhaps more palatable if one can hold onto the belief that the wicked that have wronged them that they are otherwise powerless to do anything about will one day get their just desserts from a so called higher power. I personally will not attach myself to any faith however, the acts people are able to justify and rationalize in the name of their faith is reprehensible to me.

People kill in the name of their faith. Then there are those in our own country that allow faith to break their family apart. I weep for people like this. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.1131431 Religion seems to me to chiefly be a form of control over man. It promotes a herd mentality that can persuade otherwise sensible people to do extremely insensible things. It can contribute to important issues like economic policy being drowned out by social issues and people getting butt hurt over the concept of two men getting married, to the point where they can feel as though their very way of life is under some kind of ruthless attack.

Some religions have inadvertently helped to keep myths alive such as the idea that a woman's place is to listen while a man's role to lead. Religion has been a large factor in sexual repression in societies that has fostered no ends of misery for people in one way or another. Holy books would appear so hypocritical from one passage to the next that you could probably justify almost any view imaginable with the right verses. Condone slavery? Heck, even the Bible has passages advocating it. More power to people that can make sense of all of these things and keep it all straight while simultaneously not hurting or alienating people. For myself though, I think I can live without.

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Re: Religion

Postby ShenGCH » Sun Jan 15, 2017 1:42 am

I don't believe in any kind of god or follow religion in any form, so I am, by definition, an atheist, though I don't identify as an atheist - you know, the "FUCK RELIGION!!!" type you find in YouTube comments, for example - because I see atheism as something of a religion in itself. I'm just not a believer. The reason why: religion has simply never appealed, nor made any sense, to me. Even as a child, hearing the stories about Jesus doing this and that, elephant-headed gods, some dude finding golden plates in a forest, or whatever else; it all just made me think 'Wait, what?...' because it made zero sense in my mind, while classmates who were followers of those religions would lap it all up as if it actually happened and they'd seen it with their very own eyes... and not just because this is what they've been told since the day they were born and would have been chastised for believing otherwise. I used to be completely anti-religion during my angsty teenage years - a mirror image of the aforementioned YouTube comments-like people - but, having grown up a fuck-tonne since then, I'm nowhere near as volatile as I once was, but I still refuse to believe what can only be considered nonsense in today's context, and I'm not afraid to point out my problems with it either.

If anyone can prove otherwise, then fair enough, but they simply can't, and that's because there isn't a single shred of evidence in support of there being a god or higher power of any kind. By that token, there isn't any evidence proving god doesn't exist either, but then you have to ask yourself: if there really were an all-knowing, all-seeing, benevolent power, why would they allow such suffering, misery, and injustice to occur in their world, committed by those created in the very image, and acting on behalf, of the aforementioned power? The get-out-of-jail-free card with this argument is that it's all about keeping the faith in something that may or may not actually be there, and only when we finally leave this world will we know. Well, I'm sorry, but I prefer to keep faith in things that do exist or may exist at some point in the future, such as the cure for cancer, no more wars, economic stability, incredible technological advances, and things in my personal life. I try to be the best possible person I can be, not because I fear I'll go to Hell if I behave otherwise, but because it's in my nature. I didn't need to refer to a holy book in order to be who I am.

Religious texts are not proof of god - they're proof humans are creative beings, and at a time when science was in its nascent stages, humans wanted to know how everything came to be, and thus it was deducted that it must have been something so great and incomprehensibly divine that it couldn't possibly exist within our plane. Hence, religion and worship came to be. Isn't it funny how the majority of these religions popped up in ancient times, but the events/occurrences leading to their creation, and that which fills their books, never happen nowadays? Where's the burning bush? Where's the dude turning loaves into fishes? Where are the half human, half [insert animal here] gods hanging out? If someone were to claim to have been spoken to by god in this day and age, they'd be psychologically evaluated and put on medication. We've come a long way since the days before science was able to give us answers.

Religion... it's just a big football team, isn't it? "My god created the universe!" "No, my god created the universe!" "NO! My god created the universe and here's how it happened!" I fully respect peoples' faiths and their right to believe in whatever they wish, just as long as they don't have the audacity to tell unbelievers the way they're living their lives is wrong because they don't subscribe to <insert god here>, but let's be logical here: if one person believes in one god and another believes in a different god, and so on and so forth, and everyone from all sides are steadfastly denying the existence of the other's respective god and praising their own as the true creator of the universe, extolling their values and virtues with closed ears, just who is in the right exactly? If there are twenty gods for twenty different religions, and the believers in each of those accept only theirs as true, what value does that hold? What does that honestly say about the validity of faith as a whole? Is one out of twenty of them correct when they all believe they're correct? Are none of them correct? It just doesn't make sense to me and, in all honesty, I don't see how it could make sense to anyone.

Same goes for the extremist atheist types; they're just as bad. As for those who don't believe in evolution and other such occurrences with near-watertight evidence behind them? Well, they're lost causes, quite honestly. Religion is the first bastion of the lost and hopeless; if someone is down on their luck, what better way to help them than to tell them their misery was predetermined, but so long as they worship something that may or may not actually be out there, and spend their lives in servitude to this almighty sky person - and, of course, make the occasional monetary donation - they'll be fine. That's not exploitative or manipulative at all. Funny how so many people seem to 'find Jesus' when they're given a life sentence and sent to prison, too, isn't it? LORD, IT'S A MIRACLE!

Religion is irrelevant in this day and age, but the god-fearing are so scared about what might happen to them - not to mention how it will affect their relationships with friends and family - should they abandon their faith they wouldn't dare question it. It's quite sad, really.

(I overdid it, didn't I?...)

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Re: Religion

Postby Mr. Frozen » Sun Jan 15, 2017 6:04 am

Believing in God and reaping the potential infinite benefits of doing so is the most pragmatic solution, but belief in itself is irrational. One can convince themselves to believe in irrational things, though. I have yet to find a way to convince myself to believe in that irrational thing.

If you take this question seriously then I would suggest looking into philosophy since the existence of God has been discussed constantly for thousands of years in the area. I'll probably talk more about this later. Until then I'll attach these videos from PBS's crashcourse Philosophy videos which I completely haven't even watched and only scrubbed through. I am assuming are decent introductions to the subject, since I think some of their other videos on other subjects I know a but more about are pretty good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmTsS5x ... NkMybYIHKR

I think they talk about religion from #9 to #15. Also, shoutout to my favorite barrel living, public masturbatin', emperor dissin' philosopher, Diogenes.

Image

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Re: Religion

Postby MiTT3NZ » Sun Jan 15, 2017 6:39 am

I hope God kills you all then turns round n goes "lol, jk, I don't even exist!"
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Re: Religion

Postby south carmain » Sun Jan 15, 2017 3:08 pm

So in short the majority of you believe that you're too intelligent to believe in a creator?
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Re: Religion

Postby MiTT3NZ » Sun Jan 15, 2017 4:31 pm

It's a bit of a difficult one tbh. Noel Gallagher was given the title of God-Like Genius, so if there's no God, what is he? Will the term have to be changed to Noel-Like Genius? And if so who is Noel comparable to for his own title? It's all very confusing.
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Re: Religion

Postby south carmain » Sun Jan 15, 2017 4:47 pm

Noel means christmas in French and since christ is a part of the trinity that would just be going in circles.

Unless if we're talking about santa then I guess he's basically got yellow pages amount of knowledge
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Re: Religion

Postby sand4fish » Sun Jan 15, 2017 6:55 pm

south carmain wrote: So in short the majority of you believe that you're too intelligent to believe in a creator?


I used to be a Christian in my youth for a couple of years. And I quit not because I thought I learned too much science, but I understood back then that it would mean a lifestyle commitment toward your fellow community and be an exemplary representative of that religion to the rest of the world. It was simply too time consuming and restrictive to what I wanted to experience in life, and I couldn't just settle for fixed set of values and beliefs for the rest of my remaining time on this planet. For what's worth, my time being a Christian was interesting enough just for the sake of reflecting on the nature of good and perfection given that our God can have lapses of rage and murderous intent, to bizarre stuff like the deal with humans possibly coexisting with dinosaurs and apparently acceptable incest in passages of the Bible in contrast to what it's deemed to be a sin today.

For the OP's main question, yes, I do believe in a superior being because it is just too interesting (albeit ridiculous to some) to wonder if we are all constructs of someone's playground or even made of 0 and 1s. Might be even possible we are seeds planted by an alien civilization given how far we came to progress compared to other nature's creations. But anyway I simply don't care to worship God or have faith when He is that cryptic, and risk excluding or discriminating other human beings in my life (because if you are not with me you are with them mentality).
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Re: Religion

Postby south carmain » Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:07 pm

sand4fish wrote:
south carmain wrote: So in short the majority of you believe that you're too intelligent to believe in a creator?


I used to be a Christian in my youth for a couple of years. And I quit not because I thought I learned too much science, but I understood back then that it would mean a lifestyle commitment toward your fellow community and be an exemplary representative of that religion to the rest of the world. It was simply too time consuming and restrictive to what I wanted to experience in life, and I couldn't just settle for fixed set of values and beliefs for the rest of my remaining time on this planet. For what's worth, my time being a Christian was interesting enough just for the sake of reflecting on the nature of good and perfection given that our God can have lapses of rage and murderous intent, to bizarre stuff like the deal with humans possibly coexisting with dinosaurs and apparently acceptable incest in passages of the Bible in contrast to what it's deemed to be a sin today.

For the OP's main question, yes, I do believe in a superior being because it is just too interesting (albeit ridiculous to some) to wonder if we are all constructs of someone's playground or even made of 0 and 1s. Might be even possible we are seeds planted by an alien civilization given how far we came to progress compared to other nature's creations. But anyway I simply don't care to worship God or have faith when He is that cryptic, and risk excluding or discriminating other human beings in my life (because if you are not with me you are with them mentality).

That's interesting. Can you go further in to detail about those things you refer to in the bible that you find shocking?
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Re: Religion

Postby sand4fish » Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:01 pm

south carmain wrote: That's interesting. Can you go further in to detail about those things you refer to in the bible that you find shocking?


About God's rage, I recall the origin of the words sodomy and sodomize coming in reference to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah where men would often rape other men (or angels, not sure) and God obliterated the entire city as retribution. The destruction of Babylon is another popular account where men looked to defy God. At the time I wondered how God judge some redeemable of salvation and others not. What kind of criteria does he have? If he has also negative emotions like we do like anger and sadness, is Control the only difference between men and god?

As for incest, well, since Earth was supposed to be built in a week, and Adam and Eve the only humans personally made by God since the beginning, I guess to populate the planet it must have taken very little genetic variation to make it happen. There were passages in the bible of a father and his daughters travelling and resting in a cave or something, and later founding a small village that would turn into a city.

I can't name Bible figures or passages out of my head right now, but I can come back to the topic if I do remember.
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Re: Religion

Postby south carmain » Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:16 pm

sand4fish wrote:
south carmain wrote: That's interesting. Can you go further in to detail about those things you refer to in the bible that you find shocking?


About God's rage, I recall the origin of the words sodomy and sodomize coming in reference to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah where men would often rape other men (or angels, not sure) and God obliterated the entire city as retribution. The destruction of Babylon is another popular account where men looked to defy God. At the time I wondered how God judge some redeemable of salvation and others not. What kind of criteria does he have? If he has also negative emotions like we do like anger and sadness, is Control the only difference between men and god?

the Criteria is rather simple as far as Christian theology goes, we are all sinners therefore we all deserve the wrath of god and none deserve to enter paradise, but out of love Jesus was sent to earth to sacrifice himself to take upon himself the wrath of god and absolve us of our sins that we may be purified and enter paradise which is a place of perfection therefore no one who hasn't been cleansed by the blood of Christ may enter as they are still "dirty" by sin.

That's the short version anyway but of course you really need to study in detail both the old and new testament to understand the full picture as it's a very deep philosophical concept.

As for incest, well, since Earth was supposed to be built in a week, and Adam and Eve the only humans personally made by God since the beginning, I guess to populate the planet it must have taken very little genetic variation to make it happen.

Fair enough, I guess that's what most likely happened according to the texts.
There were passages of a father and daughters travelling and resting in a cave or something and later founding a small village that would turn into a city.

Ah yes the daughters of Lot. Although I can understand how this is shocking not everything in the bible is actually there as a good example or as something ordained by god but rather to teach a moral lesson or simply there for historical reasons. In this particular case it tells the story of the origin of the Ammonite people who were later enemies of the Israelites and Pagans with rather barbaric practices.
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