Just because some Irish people hate protestants doesn't mean all do, same with other religious stuff too... not all Islamic people want the west to be obliterated, not all Christians want gene therapy/technology prohibited, not all Christians disapprove of evolution or natural selection (I don't... the Bible is a book ffs! Written by people too, not by God, nor Jesus either ).

The Dark Ages occurred basically because IMHO the Church was corrupt then and may still be now... I'm yet to see what benefits it brings to the world.

God is for everyone and I think it's bullpoop that you *have* to go to Church and *have* to do other 'Christian' things, which may or may not really 'Christian' anyway. Where in the bible does it state the need for communion, the need to sing particular songs and the need to follow other 'rules' of a religious ceremony?

Last time I checked God's up there and all you have to do is talk to him and that's true for most if not all religions, except when there's more than one God to talk to Hehe... not sure what to do in that case!

No faith justifies killing, people will find the meanings they want in whatever they listen to, read, experience etc...

I reckon I could twist Dimmu around and get out a positive message... somehow

I don't believe in an Evil God (Satan), but I *think* I do believe in a good God

For all I know I could believe in Allah, God, Jesus... or all at once What matters IMHO with religion is that you're heart and mind is in the right place, basically you're a good person which is basically what God wants you to be like anyway. (Unless you're a Satanist I suppose )

Do I have a very flexible belief system? Yeah, I guess so... it's at odds with the 'established' religions but do I care? No! Why? Because it works for me. I don't claim to have invented some new religion, I simply ignore the bullshit and go straight to the point - ie. The core idea of a benevolent creator.

Bah... got many more years (I freakin hope so ) to think about this stuff... I should stop worrying/bothering about it now o.o

I'm not really 'aiming' this post at anyone... just voicing my thoughts.

[Blazingmonga]

I'm not really 'aiming' this post at anyone... just voicing my thoughts.

I am glad that you felt able to voice these thoughts, and well voiced they were too. Kudos!

I don't believe in an Evil God (Satan), but I *think* I do believe in a good God

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesnt teh book say that Satan is alredy locked up to his cell in hell? And isn't it that good God that creates infinite amount of souls ands the sends a vast majority of them to suffer for all eternity?

One of the reasons why I can't accept christianity.

Like I care what somebody who has no tolerance of anyone elses beliefs thinks.

Sorry to go back a few pages., but i cant allow that. Dawkins is very tolerant of other peoples beliefs. If anything its religious intolerence and ignorance he's fighting against. Just look at nothern ireland??? Where's the tolerance for protestants?

When do beliefs ever justify murder?

I didn't ever say beliefs justify murder. I just said let people to their own religion. Fundamentalists are what shouldn't be allowed. And actually the fighting in the North of Ireland is the Catholics being oppressed by the Protestants, if you're playing the blame game. And I can say that from an outsider perspective, because it's never affected me.

Anyway. Religion is a matter of freedom of beliefs. But if it's taken too far, like anything, it's a bad thing. If it affects somebody elses life, it's a bad thing. But taking away that right to freedom of thought would be a bad thing. You're always going to get loonatickies, in every field of perception. There's those who enjoy.. for example.. drinking. But when they drink too much, they might harm other people. But do you suggest we just ban everything that could be taken too far? I'm pro choice. I may have my own opinions, but I couldn't in all fairness deny someone else the right to a different one. I can't emphasise enough, if somebody can prove or disprove a God for me, I'll completely disband all my current beliefs.

[Keeker]

Well I watched that BBC Panorama documentary on the Scientologists earlier this evening.

Dear oh dear oh dear. Most unpleasant lot.

[youtube]hxqR5NPhtLI[/youtube]
This is kind of relevant to the topic. The reporter is some crazy bastard.. It was on the Irish news today.
[youtube]WA5VsSF6FZA&NR=1[/youtube]
This is the unedited version or something.

Seeing as my other post won't work, I'll have to explain the last one in a new one. *D'oh*
[youtube]hxqR5NPhtLI[/youtube]
This is kind of relevant to the topic. The reporter is some crazy bastard.. It was on the Irish news today.

[Keeker]

Seeing as my other post won't work, I'll have to explain the last one in a new one. *D'oh*
[youtube]hxqR5NPhtLI[/youtube]
This is kind of relevant to the topic. The reporter is some crazy bastard.. It was on the Irish news today.

You had to see the whole programme to realise why he lost the plot. The Scientologists followed and filmed him wherever he went - they call it "Fair Game." They do not tolerate any form of criticism. But yes, he shouldn't have cracked like that.. played into their hands too nicely. I saw the YouTube thing as well - it was on the news here today too. The news people did say go watch the whole documentary to see it in context. So I did, and I understand why he might have cracked. He did apologise. Pity they didn't apologise for what they'd been doing first though.

Well I watched that BBC Panorama documentary on the Scientologists earlier this evening.

Dear oh dear oh dear. Most unpleasant lot.

What was the name of the documentary? I'm really interested in watching it and I have BBC America..so hoping it will air on there.

My beliefs : There's something there, I'm just not sure what yet.

My good new post I did got deleted

Anyway... what it basically said was don't interpret the bible literally, it's an old old book written back when 'shock & awe' worked best for getting the message across.

For example, ever wonder why dragons get such a bad rap in the book of revelations?

The Romans were invading 'the holy land' around the time the book of revelations was being written, guess what they had on their banners? A red dragon!

At the time that analogy was great cause people knew how 'evil' the roman empire was, nowadays a good substitute for the Romans could be... Al Qaeda? America? (:P) I really dunno... but I don't exactly see the Welsh trying to take over the world

I hope this summary communicates over my thoughts well enough o.o

PS. Thanks for the kudos Blazingmonga!

PPS.

Kivenkantaja: As I said, I don't really believe the bible. BUT, do I believe that there's probably some evil demon that lives in a pit of hell? It's not so far fetched if I'm willing to believe there's a heaven or similar 'afterlife'. I know for sure I don't want to burn in some fiery pit for all eternity...

And also, I think you are referring to revelations right? And how only some people go to heaven or something like that? Well... maybe most of the world really does get corrupted by Satan when or if he comes back and takes over the world as revelations predicts, in which case then it could make sense that only a small amount of people go to heaven.

... ooor again it could be a case of over exaggeration, misinterpretation or just a stuff up due to the people who wrote the bible misunderstanding what God told them. Keep in mind, PEOPLE (ie. us) wrote the bible, not God nor Jesus and Allah didn't write the Koran either!

Basing your view of Christianity on a book is IMHO wrong because Christianity isn't just about some book, same with Islam or Judaism. Heck, even basing a view of Satanism on the Satanic Bible is wrong because again, it wasn't written by Satan either

*hopes he explained his thoughts well enough* >.<

God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Gave rock and roll to everyone (oh yeah)
God gave rock and roll to you, gave rock and roll to you
Put it in the soul of everyone.

oh god i hate them so much...

Sab puts the emo in demolish

Basing your view of Christianity on a book is IMHO wrong because Christianity isn't just about some book, same with Islam or Judaism. Heck, even basing a view of Satanism on the Satanic Bible is wrong because again, it wasn't written by Satan either

*hopes he explained his thoughts well enough* >.<

The way people follow the bible defines what type of Christian they are. That, or the organisation they belong to. When you give your religious view a name you must base it on some book. <--Never say never. There are exceptions. I know.

All I said was that I don't, no I won't, believe in heaven and hell. Creating a person and then sending it to suffer for all eternity because it failed to follow the 10 commandments is wrong. It is. Sorry but it is. Hard to believe? It is wrong. There I said it. It's wrong. I apologize if I insulted someone by this.

BTW: Sirius, I really like your way of thinking. Are you Christian? If yes, what type?

As someone once put it, there are things EVERYONE knows NOT to do It's like... common sense. Except of course the problem is common sense isn't that common

As a result, many of us unknowingly follow the 10 commandments even if we're NOT Christian

However... again, they come from a book

If someone murders someone else, do they go to hell? Not necessarily... depends if they repent. Jesus forgave the other two criminals that were on the crosses with him.

Basically, Jesus overrides the 10 commandments. Theoretically you could be a mass murder and still go to heaven, as crazy as it sounds...

HOWEVER, maybe with say... Judaism or Islam, you HAVE to obey the commandments because they have no 'Jesus equivalent'. I'm not sure on that... Christianity is my 'speciality' because I went to a Christian school Not because my family is religious, but just because it was a nice school. However school didn't make me religious... far from it in fact.

Kivenkantaja:
I wish I could say "I'm a ******" and leave it at that but I can't...

I feel like I'm a Christian in some ways (belief in God) but I don't know even if I do believe in the Christian God as such

For example, I do believe in evolution and maybe even the big bang. After all, 7 days to God could be billions of years How do we not know he intended evolution to occur? And NO I do *NOT* refer to "intelligent design!!!" Maybe God *did* 'prod' things along but he didn't exactly pull us out of dirt, IMHO. Although we are admittedly an 'interesting' race in some ways in that we have evolved amazingly differently from the rest of this planet's life forms.