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Is anyone else sick of all this BS "happiness" and "positiveness" that's so prevalent on KYM threads? Well I sure am! For this very reason, I'm starting a thread centered on religion. No rules really. Just tear each other apart, or show that you respect each others' beliefs, but that's boring as hell, so I recommend the tearing apart one.

Yes, I am a licensed douche if you were wondering.

To start you off:

Hi! I'm atheist.

Old thread about religion which went really well considering the topic, so you might end up disappointed and see this thread develop in actual normal discussion.

I personally am not someone who believes in a God, but your believes are all cool in my book. If following something greater makes you happy, go for it. The lesser parts of your religion won't ruin the image for you to me, I know they don't represent your religion entirely.

I'm happy being a faithful Catholic and if you have other religion, I'm cool.
But what really grinds my gears are the Westboro Baptist Church and similiars who are close minded idiots. Like, teaching creationism in schools, saying dinos are the devil, extortion, etc and etc.

These kind of morons make other christians/religions look bad. Just because one apple is spoiled it doesn't mean the whole basket is bad.

I believe in God, but that doesn't mean I have to hate science. Too many people (on both sides) paint a false dichotomy.

In any case, my belief comes not from any physical evidence but from within.

It's also the only solution to the psycho-philosophical hard problem of consciousness that jives with me.

If you dig up my posts from last thread, I'm still pretty much the same over this. None of the religions are exclusively right or wrong, but rather everyone has some aspect right over the greater workings of the Life, The Universe, and Everything.

I think the only thing that has changed in my thoughts is even if a supernatural afterlife system doesn't exist; Infinite Universe + Infinite Time + Infinite Cycles means that by just pure probability you have a high chance of having all your stardust rebirth you at some point. Though that just may be the point; it's been proven that God is a far more ingenious architect than many people give him credit for.

Just jumping in to say

Yes, I am a licensed douche if you were wondering.

Get on my level, OP.

And to stay on topic, pushing your beliefs on other people is just stupid.

I was raised atheist. I generally don't care much for religion as I think it just becomes an entire convoluted argument over whose belief is "true." I'm also likely the only atheist living in the state of South Carolina that isn't my dad.

Psuedo-christian-ish I guess would best describe me. I was raised in a Christian household, and though I don't go to church anymore or read the Bible, I still have a general belief in God and Jesus and stuff. I've never tried to push my beliefs on anothers though. Everyone is entitled to believe (or not believe) whatever they want. And hey, none of us know 100% what happens after death until each of us die, so maybe it will turn out like that South Park episode where God says "Sorry, Mormons was the correct answer."

I'm catholic, and I'm in a Jesuit high school, and the Jesuits teach you this:
-The Bible, specifically Genesis (the creation chapter basically) is not a science textbook and should not be treated as such.
-The bible is a combination of both history and parables and stories.
anyways, gotta agree with Bruno. people who claim that they're "Christian" but don't act like it aren't Christian

I can try though can't I? Might as well!

Christian & Muslim churches are secretly controlled by the Jews, so that the people will worship their Jewish god.

Hey, randomman mentioned my old thread! Awesome.

Anyway, I'm a Christian. Presbyterian. I'm also reformed theologically, meaning I believe in predestination, which I'm sure is offensive to a lot of people.

My stances have not changed since the last thread. I'm still an Agnostic Thiest (In laymans terms: there probably is a god, but nobody is right about him)

But what really grinds my gears are the Westboro Baptist Church and similiars who are close minded idiots.

If there's a silver lining in their existence, it's the fact that the WBC has become the to-go demonstration around world on how NOT to be a Christian.

Christians see the WBC's behavior and now know exactly what to avoid resulting in more respectful and tolerant churches

Anyway, the WBC have been fairly silent over the last year. I think it's time to stop paying any attention to them

I've always been more or less Pandeist.
The spiritual depth of that has varied over the years.

Everything is the result of random interactions which occur according to certain rules and has no prescribed purpose.

I gave up religion later last year because… well…. there are just so many contradictions in the Bible… I used to be Christian, now I'm Agnostic. TBH, I just don't care anymore. I think that if there is a god, it's not any of the gods that humans made up. Especially not the Abrahamic god. Besides, I would rather just live my life how I want instead of being worried about going to hell just for thinking that that chick over there has a nice ass.

I don't know what to believe and I don't think I ever will
I'm only 21, the fuck would I know about the mysteries of the universe and gods and love and existence and souls

Shit's crazy, man

My parents were Christian; my grandmother part of a small Buddhist/Christian group. Both Buddhism and Christianity influenced me growing up, but I consider myself fairly non-religious.

I do end up praying to Jesus when I take a test though.

I'm a firm believer in lady Azura.

I believe there is a God (or multiple Gods, but my personal headcanon goes to one God by default), but I don't follow a specific religion. My father and stepmom have in recent years rejoined the Catholic church and have become quite involved in the community. I go to church with him every once in a while, it's actually a very nice community there. It at least gets him to stop pestering me to get baptized and join the church for a short while. When it comes to what happens after death I believe there is an afterlife but I also find it a possibility that reincarnation/multiple lives could be true too. I had a friend once tell me she believed in having past lives. We spent hours talking about the concept and even though I'm not friends with this this girl anymore that concept always stuck with me.

Religion? Science?

That's my general view as a Catholic who also enjoys learning about different aspects of Science.

Born again fundamentalist Baptist.

Let the potlucks commence.

I'm an Orthodox Christian, but I don't think that everything in the Bible is 100% true. For example: Noah and the flood. The huge flood could have been a hyperbole. It's only normal for people to exaggerate. Maybe the huge apocalyptic flood that destroyed the world was just a big rainstorm that destroyed a village or two. Maybe building an ark and putting two of each animal was just Noah building a boat and rescuing farm animals with it. There can also be many metaphors in the bible. There can be a lot of personification too.

I am a glorious Nazarene.

The one true Church of Michigan.

I'm a catholic.

I was raised as a Roman Catholic, but my mindset is Agnostic.

@Bionic

Thing about the Great Flood is that the abrahamic religions were not the only ones to record one.

It seems that numerous ancient cultures have recorded a ridiculously huge flood wrecking everyones shit, in some way or another

To me that lends credence that such an event could have happened. Obviously not in the same manner as depicted. It may have been a divine thing or just another natural disaster. But all these strikingly similar stories from all over the world had to have come from somewhere.

But I agree that the bible shouldn't be considered "infallible and 100% historically accurate", not even by the most devout. One should never think that a show of faith is having to defend the accuracy of an ancient 2000 year old text written by people with far less scientific understanding than we do now. Faith is trusting in God regardless of how old the Earth is

I find it safer to consider the Bible for what it is: a collection of jewish history records written by prophets who lived with Christ by which we use to aid our understanding of Christ, rather than a codified tome of absolute order that serves as our only understanding of everything. Perceiving it as the latter leads to fanaticism

I'll believe in anything so long as it's got dragons.

You will be pleased to know that Dragons are indeed featured in the scriptures of most religions

None of these heretics praise the god emperor of mankind.

Don't listen to him, everyone! This is clearly a doppelganger created in some bizarre lab accident who is hell-bent on taking over my life! C'mon, you guys all know that I'm the real douchebag atheist on this site, right?

I'm athiest but not openly denying god i just don't believe in it and don't follow the bible.

Also Westboro Baptist Church

>2012+2
>not part of the glorious Church of Emacs
In all seriousness, I usually identify as an extremely loose buddhist (loose to the point where I am closer to an atheist in practice)

[sees this thread]
thiswon'tbepretty.jpg
Anyway, nondenominational Christian here.

Surprisingly, this is mostly just people stating their basic religious beliefs. I thought it was going to be an unbridled shitstorm.

It's mostly Christians, with a few agnostics peppered in and a Buddhist. There's lots of variety in the Christian denominations and viewpoints, but not much outside of Christianity, which is expected.

I thought there would be more rage though…

On a side note:

my only god

Might as well talk about what I believe.

I am a Christian, and fully believe in the teachings of Jesus. However, I also believe that a lot of the stories in the OT and the like are meant to be metaphorical, and not be taken too seriously. Science and religion imo, can go well together, and despite what some think, religious people shouldn't be put in the mental hospital just for believing in someone higher than us.

More than anything though, I believe that while scriptures are indeed good to follow, what truly matters is that one's belief in God helps others and makes the world a better place. It's not about whether or not the stories and teachings you follow are completely based in reality. What matters is whether or not your beliefs are making you a better person or not. If all you are going to do is just read the Bible from front to back and blindly follow what it says without thinking, or go to Church every Sunday but not show your faith in a positive manner, than you're not doing justice to the teachings of Jesus.

Why else do you think that there are so many fundamentalists who shout that everything in the Bible is true, even though it makes them out to be incredibly close-minded and the like? I believe in having a flexibility in what we believe. Like, I'm pretty sure that God doesn't want us to hate homosexuals for example. I also think that when God created the universe, he obviously didn't create it in a matter of seven 24-hour days. That's just a metaphor. In fact, recognizing what is a metaphor and not is key to how one proceeds in terms of faith. As long as one can recognize that not all the stories in the Bible are meant to be completely real-life, it makes it a lot better to follow.

As for those who ask why we follow God if the stories in the Bible paint him in not the most favorable light and stuff, my answer is that that isn't what matters. Again, while scriptures are good, if all you are going to do is base your belief on the fantastical elements and stories, you are missing the point completely. What matters, again, is making sure your belief leads you to become a better person and helps others. God gave us a brain after all. To not use it is rather insulting.

So yeah, that's what I believe. Thoughts?

I just watched this

I'll let others watch before I say my peace

@LightDragon

What matters is whether or not your beliefs are making you a better person or not. If all you are going to do is just read the Bible from front to back and blindly follow what it says without thinking, or go to Church every Sunday but not show your faith in a positive manner, than you’re not doing justice to the teachings of Jesus.

Well spoken. I applaud thee

Am i the only agnostic in here? Who thinks that life is a question to find out if god is real or not
tips fedora

M'thread

That is a damn long debate.

However it is nice, we are having friendly debates now instead, instead of 'har har, the other side thinks differently then us." shit that has been spewing around.

I may not be a Catholic like you but I sure as hell agree with your point of view about the Westboro Baptist Church. Seriously why would anyone listen to those retarded monkeys.

EDIT: I suppose since I made a comment here I have to post my belief here as well to be fair. I believe in both the supernatural and science, I believe that there are beings that we call angels, demons, faeries, and gods but they are completely alien entities then what our myths and legends say about them. I believe that there is a life after death but there is no heaven or hell awaiting us, where we go is the same place all dead humans go regardless of the virtues or sins. I also believe that humanity does possess secret abilities that most would call either psychic powers or even magic, and that it's within the laws of our universe. To make it short I believe that the supernatural is not only real but it can scientifically be proven, it's just that our current views of how the universe works just don't allow much evidence to it.

And now I'll sit back and wait for everyone here to call me crazy.

@Crow

They purposely made themselves very hard to ignore.

Remember, it was their intention to be hated and to generate lawsuits (which they could profit from). They didn't give a damn about Christianity, they only cared about their perceived "enemy"

Instead of restating my views and having another theological discussion with my amigo Mack here, I spent five minutes making this atrocity in the hopes that it makes him laugh

Well said. This is practically the exact same thing I believe.

I'm getting serious déjà vu with this thread.

If I had to stick a bunch of titles to myself, I guess I'd go with agnostic, atheist, humanist, naturalist, and probably a bunch of other words ending with 'ist'. A lot of people seem to get confused about the distinction between agnosticism and atheism, and they think that one is not believing in any particular god while the other is a full rejection of the idea that one could exist. Agnosticism is actually just the belief that certain truths about reality are either currently unknown or simply unknowable. It's entirely possible to be an agnostic Christian, which would require believing in the Biblical God but also believing that you can't say with absolute certainty that He definitely exists. I don't believe that a god exists, but I admit that I could be wrong.

I used to be a lot more militant about my lack of religious beliefs, and it was largely down to my somewhat messed-up education. I attended a seriously religious school as a teenager, where our principal would regularly speak out against evolution, big bang cosmology, gay rights, gender equality etc. We even had physics and biology teachers tell us to turn to Genesis 1 in the middle of science class. I spent years worrying about the consequences of not believing what they told me, but could never convince myself that they were speaking sense. I always found that naturalistic explanations were more satisfying. Where a naturalistic explanation for something didn't exist, I was more satisfied with accepting that something was unknown than making speculations based on religious texts or gut feelings. So while I was figuring this crap out, my school kept up its game of bullying people into their religion while spreading sexism and homophobia, and it sorta riled me up a little. It wasn't until I moved to uni and met some non-fundamentalist Christians that I realised that it's not all crazy.

As boring as it may be, my naturalistic approach to the question of whether or not a god exists also extends to other supernatural claims. I don't believe in an afterlife, or even a human soul as an entity distinct from the bundle of neurons in your head. I don't buy into ghosts, angels, demons, prophecies, spiritual healing, past-lives, psychics or magic (unless you count quantum mechanics). I'd be willing to change my mind on those matters if there was well-documented evidence for their legitimacy, but until then I remain skeptical.

Morgan Freeman is God.

Sorry for butting in and getting all "argue-y" on all of you, but…

The fact that most of you Christians choose to reject parts of the Bible just proves to me how flawed the Bible is and that it was in fact written by ancient humans instead of an all-knowing God. The Bible was supposed to be written by God himself. It was supposed to be the end-all, be-all book of knowledge that explains everything and is 100% true. You can't just pick and choose what you want to be true or not. You keep bringing up the point that it's just supposed to be a book of morals and metaphorical stories made to teach a lesson. Despite the fact that you believe that, the Bible, as I said previously, was written by God himself and was intended to be the book of the truth. Even though you may see Noah's Ark as a simple story, it was intended to be told as the truth, and you are the ones twisting its meaning. Also, if you accept all science has to offer, much of science contradicts with your religion, so you may only choose one. If you agree with Creationism and Evolution at the same time, you are kidding yourself and the Bible. You may change your mind and only choose what you want from the Bible and throw the rest away, but does God? God's word is supposed to be final. Do you really think he'd take back that gays are an abomination, premarital sex is a sin, and that you are not allowed to wear mixed fabrics? (Yes, that is a verse, look it up.) Since you reject parts of the Bible that you don't like, what do you really follow? Are you just making stuff up as you go along? If you don't follow the Bible 100%, what do you believe in anyways? Do you really believe that God would let you bend his rules just because you don't like some of them? Think about it. In reality, the fundamentalist Christians are the "real" Christians. They follow the Bible how it was meant to be followed instead of cherry-picking God's Word.

…

I just keep seeing this same argument over and over again about being a liberal Christian and how it's the "right" way to be Christian, and I wanted to bring up a very valid argument against it. I'm sick of holding my arguments back! I needed to let loose a little.

I mean no harm guys, honestly! I like all most of you guys on here as people, I'm just not a very big fan of your religious beliefs. Keep this in mind though: I actually prefer liberal Christians like you guys to the fundamentalists, but still, I wanted to put this out there.