Religion

[Red Giant]

Go.

[Razor]

Let people believe what they want, as long as they don't go hurting others as a result of it.

[Red Giant]

Let people believe what they want, as long as they don't go hurting others as a result of it.

So is a belief that entails harming others is inherently less valid than one that does not?

What is hurt? If I hurt someone on earth to save them from hell, is that not good?

[Razor]

Oh I don't care about the religion themselves since nobody can prove a damn thing, why worry about it?
Just don't kill the next guy and everything is fine.

[fruckert]

I second that notion

[Red Giant]

BUT what if I believe that, say, if I don't cut off my kid's arm, he'll go to hell? Is that fine?! IS IT?!

[fruckert]

May I ask why you brought this topic into being?
While I think of a way to phrase my thoughts?

[Red Giant]

May I ask why you brought this topic into being?
While I think of a way to phrase my thoughts?

Why not?

I ain't gotta explain myself to nobody

[fruckert]

Okay: Slightly complex and hypocritical beliefs follow

I believe that if something does not make logical sense, then it's crap, and I am not going to take it seriously

Zealots can go to hell, for all I care

I do not believe in a (singular!) higher power...I simply don't think that one being, no matter how high and mighty It is, can rule over all of existence...there's probably more than one god. However, I also don't believe that existence is just a coincidence

If your belief tells you that you have to do something that you disagree with, yet you do it anyway, your an idiot

Morality is a human invention, but should be followed anyways

I believe that if there is a god, then he probably doesn't want you worshiping and sacrificing in his name

After I think more through, I'm gonna add more

[Archem]

Believe what you will, but do it for the teachings, not the history lesson. All legitimate religions preach moral rights, like not causing harm to others and helping your fellow man. These are the only parts that are consistently endorsed and the only parts that are always true. If you're in it for the history, or for the promise of what's to come (virgins, reincarnation, paradise after death), then you're not doing it right. Since there's no way to prove what's right after life, then do what we know is right already.

[Dominicy]

Oh hell, everyone else is taking it seriously.  Why not?

MONOLOGUE GO-GO!

In my earlier years here, back when these sorts of topics were rampant, I'd usually mention being a Christian and going on my way, not exactly wanting to see the wholly ugly results to saying that - particularly in the way I had so poorly worded the statement.  Those were my earlier years, though, I've changed alot and, to some extent and would say I can trust the vastest majority of the members to hear me out if I take care this time around to be a bit more careful with my words.

I'm still a Christian - whether or not I can say "still" I'm hardly even sure.  I was off the mark for the last who-the-hell can say amount of time.  I was force-fed what I heard from bigoted internet preachers, and when they were through injecting me with their hate-bile I'd come back, lapping at their feet for more.  Since that time I've bothered to read the Texts that are alegedly my own Holy Book, and duly did what I could adjusting myself.  The more I realized how very wrong I was all along, the more and more I hated myself.  A crisis of faith later, and I've loosely recovered.

My question, however, is: Even if what I believe isn't true, what harm has it done?  And I'm speaking what Jesus spoke himself, mind you - I'm not afraid to admit that what wars weren't caused by gross misuse and misinterpretation of Scripture were justified by it, almost universally.  I've been made into a pacifist, both physically and, to some measure mentally.  I've learned to look past my own limitations for forgiveness and see that people the people I fought so often against were just as human as I was.  And likely most importantly to those of you, an atheist and agnostic majority, fresh with the imprints of Bible-bashing from all angles, I've learned to keep my beliefs where they belong.

I used to be afraid of admitting that I masturbated in the past - rest assured I'm still afraid of admitting to a few of my... bizarre fetishes, to put it mildly.  It was an on-again-off-again relationship, violating myself.  Hell, I remember lecturing myself in how I need to cut the addiction it had become - some once or twice a week.  Rest assured, a visit to 4Chan some few years later straightened my perspective on just how supposedly addicted I was.  I can't say when I finally stopped - not long after I started, I'm sure of that much.  The thought only recently occured to me after sifting through threads on /b/ with Fredrik (Red Fox).

They were discussing religion, as they so often do.  The usual idiotic arguments of both sides were brought to light.  "You don't really believe what you say."  Hitler was a Christian, Stalin was an atheist, Stalin didn't kill in the name of atheism - hell, I even saw "Stalin was an atheist, but the Russians were Christians" used as evidence of religion being evil - I won't say it's not.  All of that rot.  Then, unfortunately briefly someone obviously dubbed Anonymous posted, stating that he was a Christian, but the collective beliefs of the religion were corrupted and twisted into something they weren't before.  Amongst what he was supposedly correcting was that masturbating was not a sin.  While I personally found alot more evidence that it WAS a sin - lust is adultery in your mind and all that - it did get me to thinking: Even if it wasn't a sin, was it an "artificial sin" for lack of a better word?  If I had convinced myself that it was a transgression of God's law to listen to Metallic music, for example (an irritatingly contriversial subject.) and I did any way, what was I doing, if not proving my own disobedience?  My conclusion is this: whether or not masturbation in and of itself is a sin, I had convinced myself that it was.  Literally committing an imaginary sin, but with the same consequence.

Then there's the gigantic split. "Is evolution true?"  I doubt I have to detail that any further.  Who the hell gives a damn if it is or isn't?!  Advances in the study of evolution - 'theory' or no - is saving ten-fold the lives Creation has.  What does it matter if it's true or not?  It's doing good for society.  Leave the evolutionists to their work, and pull your head out of your *** - there are more important matters than "DID I REALLY COME FROM A MONKEY!?".  Damn!

I don't know what's waiting after death - if anything.  I suppose all I can do for now is cross my fingers, hold on tight, and - since I love that series that shall go on nameless so damn much, I'll say it - grab my crucifix.

Just a few things I wanted to tell somebody and everybody.  Whether or not it even bears a semblance of what we were originally talking about, I don't even remember any more.  Enjoy.

Right, hope you're happy, by the way.  The effort I put into writing this could have been used adding two more pages to my book.  Bastards. ;_;

[fruckert]

That's not what I said

[Dominicy]

That's not what I said

Bahahahahaha

[fruckert]

What?
It isn't

[HobomasterXXX]

I honestly cant see how people believe all this, but it doesnt harm me, so let them believe.