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I have lots of family and friends who are religious. Infact I was brought up a christian and went to a C of E primary school. One thing I notice a lot is how they pick and choose what they want to believe and what they don't want to believe. Is this common amongst christians and catholics in this country?
Are you still catholic if you have sex before marriage? Are you still a christian if you're gay? How can you be catholic and believe in horoscopes? Is it possible for you to believe in evolution and still be religious? Or be a big science fiction nerd? :D Or even follow a religion created by a big science fiction nerd?
I have lots of family and friends who are religious. Infact I was brought up a christian and went to a C of E primary school. One thing I notice a lot is how they pick and choose what they want to believe and what they don't want to believe. Is this common amongst christians and catholics in this country?
Are you still catholic if you have sex before marriage? Are you still a christian if you're gay? How can you be catholic and believe in horoscopes? Is it possible for you to believe in evolution and still be religious? Or be a big science fiction nerd? :D Or even follow a religion created by a big science fiction nerd?
If I do believe, what do I actually believe in? The entire contents of the bible? Which version?
In answer to your question, I've no idea. Sorry.
Ned Flanders
I dont think it's possible to follow everything to the letter. I can only assume the ideal is you follow things as closely as possible.
I'm feeling quotey today
"When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow."
Anais Nin
It's all open to interpretation and emphasis, really. Just look at the way there are different sects of Christianity and Islam.
I'll be skeptical until I see any real proof of anything, but it does still intrigue me. Documentaries on the Gnostic gospels, archaeology in the Holy Land etc can be oddly interesting...
> so I'll go no further than pointing people to
> The Brick Testament
Is there nothing that lego can't be used for, even music videos look better with it here
>
> "When we blindly adopt a famous quote, a political system, a
> literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to
> grow."
> Anais Nin (almost)
:D
hm. I think I'd have to disagree with that statement wholeheartedly. It's far too black and white for my liking. It's like saying if you adopt any set of rules that govern how society works together you are not capable of free thought, rubbish!
Religion in itself is perfectly able to sit comfortably next to free thinking and debate. Only some organised religions or parts of one organised religion are cause for concern. Certainly in the churches and religious people I have known in my life (from Methodist ministers to Jewish Rabbis and others) I have seen people who are capable of thinking for themselves and accepting that there are possibilities for their holy books to be wrong or certainly interpreted in different ways.
Yes, there are always going to be those who are fundamentally too thick headed to understand the nuances of how their holy books were written and what religion really means, I've had particularly bad experiences with Student groups that I've wound up to the point of them throwing me out (I was only there because I was intrigued how they worked), but I’ve not come across too many of these in the grand scheme of things (pun intended).
Going back to the original point – yes, it’s perfectly fine to pick and choose if you can justify why you do this. Ultimately, it’s very healthy to take a good look at the history of religions and ask why things are the way they are. To dismiss something so big because part of it doesn’t make sense is like throwing away an apple because it has a small bruise.
I knew such a person while in school (his religion is irrelevant) who frustrated me incredibly by constantly and unquestionally referring to his book of prayer at every point. He was essentially an unquestioning slave to the system instead of being his own person. The conversation would go
"So what do you think about this"
"Well the book of ... says"
"Yeah but what do you think"
It wasnt even a case of him saying "I believe this book" he simply presented passages of text as fact and thats all he could do even when a counter-point was presented. There was no room for him to grow, progress or even consider any way of life outside his book.
This is the problem, the few give the rest a bad name! At the end of the day, though, it should be up to you to ask yourself what you believe in and why. It's always healthy to question things, whatever viewpoint you have.
Blindly believing that there 100% isn't anything out there is the same as those who 100% believe the opposite without question. Assuming there is nothing out there due to lack of evidence is a more sensible option, though not my own personal belief.
People follow depending on their strength of belief in the religion and how much it encourages following certain rituals and routines daily. Some Christians follow because they believe in the concept of a Heaven, some because it's how they were brought up and others have a strong conviction all of the Bible is either true or a metaphor for something else which God caused to happen
Personally, I see it as hypocritical to follow a religion where certain passages of scripture are devoutly followed while the parts that seem very difficult to verify are passed off as metaphors and analogies. However, it's only the fanatical believers this is really an issue with
> Sounds pretty much exactly what those students were like in the
> church group at University. Honestly, they were nuts and winding
> them up was a pleasure.
Sounds like the far-left people I occasionally come into contact with at Uni!
But those sort of religious people... proclaiming something as truth due to having blind faith in it, and then evangelising, it really is the blind leading the blind.
But it isn't always funny, someone who decided to quit the fundraising work I was also involved in knew they'd have to work Saturdays, but refused to due to seventh-day adventist beliefs or something. That's just idiotic, really.
I'm proud to be a Pastafarian. Even if my Facebook profile lists Heavy Metal as my religion, as it's the nearest thing I have to a religion!