50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God

[Celandine]

(01-12-2010 02:11 PM)polymerase Wrote:  I was being partly facetious and partly giving the new age religions a break in my comments. Congressman Patrick Kennedy (son of Ted Kennedy) was recently banned from receiving holy communion because he believes a woman should have the right to have an abortion. If you have ever been to a Catholic funeral or marriage there is a great way to pick out the atheists and non believers. They don't take Holy Communion. Doing this to Kennedy is a type of shunning.

It is easy to pick on the Catholic Church since they have such weird ceremonies but every religion has a type of shunning. That was where the facetious part of my other post was. Show me a religion that treats someone who has become a non believer, or worse, an atheist, the same as when they believed and I will show you a religion that is full of crap. Or that reverend can let his daughter marry an atheist. Not.

Each religion has a way of marking the believer from the nonbeliever. and:
17. Anything is better than being an atheist.

Doano about Catholics
I have a few Catholic cousins
but I never bin dare nor don dat.

But the Religion I'm presently being shunned by
doesn't take holy communion en masse.. it's selective
based upon if the individual believes they have a shot at Heaven.
The rest of us that are content to return to a renewed Earth where we'll
live on and make livable once again, don't routinely take communion. in fact
we have so few rituals and holidays that it's part of what sets us apart. we don't
even go to church! ..but instead meet in a meeting hall, and we don't have ministers.
We celebrate neither the Birth of Christ, nor our own. Our only celebration is the event
of Jesus ascending to Heaven.. The Nissan.

Personally, I sill don't put people down for heir beliefs, ...nor their lack thereof. I'm still in the
long slow process of swearing off religion.. and quite frankly, it's so ingrained in me as a human
animal thatneeds SOMETHING To Believe In, it's been 20 years ...and I still can't speak conclusively.

I've pretty much crossed the line in the sand, but I'd never bet someone else's eternal soul that I'm right.

[polymerase]

I like to talk. I like to know everything about everything. I asked. I listened. We agreed that all of us cousins who did not partake in the wafer were fallen. Pretty good sampling since as a real Catholic family I have 33 first cousins and 6 siblings. A good sampling of data that. Seemed pretty clear to me. But you could be right. My personal opinions and experiences could be very wrong.

Sure, there are Sunday morning Catholics who do not believe in the whole shtick but think they have it covered by attending church every Sunday. Do you think the pastor up there thinks you will go to heaven because you still believe in god but do not believe in the precepts of the Catholic Church? Ask him. Me thinks you are going to hell. ;-O The old ladies in the front row think so too.

But that's not me being mean since I don't believe in hell and I bet you don't either. You don't believe 22 and 23 but you sure have a thing about 20 and agree with 6 too. Just a guess.

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(01-12-2010 04:38 PM)Reboot Wrote:  

(01-12-2010 02:11 PM)polymerase Wrote:  If you have ever been to a Catholic funeral or marriage there is a great way to pick out the atheists and non believers. They don't take Holy Communion.

Wrong again, you live in a narrow tunnel made of your opinion only.

Could you razor out my quote any closer to completely miss the obvious? My point was that Patrick Kennedy was being shunned. He was being shunned by his Bishop and his church and they fully expected the congregation to shun him as he sat there not being given Holy Communion. Would it be any more obvious for Patrick to go up and kneel before his priest and the priest passes him by? I am sure as a good Catholic he goes every Sunday. It would certainly have made the news here in New England if he stopped going to church. Do you think maybe some people agree with the church? That not taking the wafer is a sign of sin? When I went to church it sure was. It meant you had not been to the confessional because it was a mortal sin to take communion with unconfessed sins on your soul. Maybe that stuff is watered down in your church. But as I said, it's too easy to make fun of the Catholic Church since they are so whacked. It's off topic.

[Alias]

Well, Mother Church could still be pretty useful.

The American Catholic church is quickly deteriorating (in a financial base sense) to like it was once was when it was a blue collar church, when it ends up largely an Hispanic church. No more doctors, lawyers, insurance guys, engineers, managers, executives, businessmen, American Irish, American Italians, etc, and certainly no more Kennedys, i.e., no mo middle and upper class white people.

Well, with that base, the church may once again return to its liberal/activist (well, except for baby killers and queers) schtick (as American Jews once were), since advancing the causes of its constituency would advance the cause of protracting its financial base. Hopefully, this might rub off on US politics, as advancing prosperity and mitigating poverty is the most effective weapon in destabilizing terrorism, nation building, stabilizing economies and other such rubbish.

I think a renewed activist American Catholic church might be a good thing.

Of course, might not, too

Ed

[Celandine]

LOL

Please doan get me started on the mackerel-snapping/bead-jiggling/idol-worshipping hypocrites!
That's what finally kilt religion for me.
I'd swear off religion altogether rather than be like those "Sunday Morning Catholics".

To us, you either believed & practiced 24/7/365 ...or not
So I chose "NOT" over living a lie.

My choice... and I made it.

As indicated earlier
it wasn't an easy choice
and it wasn't made lightly
and I can't make that choice
for anyone else, ...so I don't...

It's a shame that other people are
so quick to pull out that first stone...
Personally, one religion is like the next
I'd just as well be a follower of Islam or
embrace Buddhist Philosophy but I refuse
to be a hypocrite about whatever I believe.

If atheism is a religion as many people profess
I can't be that either, since i still have my doubts.
So I remain an agnostic leaning toward atheism as
time goes by and I see precious little proof of any God
but as liberating as it may be to no longer be fettered by
dogma I still say it's unfair to condemn anyone else as Stupid
for not being able to "Simply See the Light" over night... In my
personal experience weaning yourself away from that which you truly
believe (as oppose to just going along with, because everyone else does)
can take more doing than simple uttering the words and declaring yourself.
IMO if swearing off was that easy.. then you were never a true believer in the
first place.. and indeed SHOULD stop calling yourself A Person of Faith immediately.

LOL so it's a bit of a conundrum is it not? Is there room for a RULE #51?
...a slot for those that "Can-Quit-Anytime-They-Want-To"?
Better Yet.. the people that turn their religion on & off again when it suits their immediate purpose?
Like the pork eating Jews that drag out religion only to hide behind like a cloak to get what they want?
So where are we #52 or #53? Funny how easy it gets once you step out of the game to see it as ALL BS.

So we seem to have come full circle. You seem to be right.. AND WRONG.. it's BS but you can't expect people
to come to that conclusion and turn on a dime over night just because you say so. Pat Condell makes some good
points, but don't expect that you're not going to get a fair amount of BLOWBACK for telling people There's No Santa.

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(01-12-2010 08:05 PM)polymerase Wrote:  I like to talk. I like to know everything about everything.

What I'm saying is that you seem to be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Missing out on a really neat guy, even if you don't believe he's the Son O'God...
he was still someone pretty special...

4AM and I'm over thinking the problem
I'm going back to bed insted.

g'nite

[Celandine]

(01-13-2010 01:19 AM)Celandine Wrote:  LOL so it's a bit of a conundrum is it not? Is there room for a RULE #51?
...a slot for those that "Can-Quit-Anytime-They-Want-To"?
Better Yet.. the people that turn their religion on & off again when it suits their immediate purpose?
Like the pork eating Jews that drag out religion only to hide behind like a cloak to get what they want?
So where are we #52 or #53? Funny how easy it gets once you step out of the game to see it as ALL BS.

So we seem to have come full circle. You seem to be right.. AND WRONG.. it's BS but you can't expect people
to come to that conclusion and turn on a dime over night just because you say so. Pat Condell makes some good
points, but don't expect that you're not going to get a fair amount of BLOWBACK for telling people There's No Santa.

My God

TOTALLY O.T.
But I just Love the Song : Budapest
enjoy.
.

[polymerase]

I throw no baby, especially the baby Jesus, out with the bath water. As long as he is not calling me an apostate or calling Reboot a heretic. The bible sure does.

Santa is cool too. I did a report on Santa this year and even chased him down. I believe in him. We should be nice and not naughty. I just don't believe he actually exists.

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(01-13-2010 12:21 AM)Alias Wrote:  I think a renewed activist American Catholic church might be a good thing.

Talk to me when the American Catholic Church has cleaved itself from the Catholic Church in Rome. The church was headed in the right direction in the 60's. It had a very long way to go but at least it was moving in the right direction. Ever since the pope who only lasted a month died and we got John Paul II the church has been backpedaling. This new guy is going in full reverse which may be a good thing since it might speed up the divorce.

[Michael-Adams]

I don't go on and on condemning folks for their personal beliefs. Therefore, you sound much like those on the religious right.

[polymerase]

(01-13-2010 12:09 PM)Michael-Adams Wrote:  I don't go on and on condemning folks for their personal beliefs. Therefore, you sound much like those on the religious right.

I don't condemn people about their personal beliefs. I condemn religion for the havoc that religion causes the world. By condemning religion some people who are just minding their own business gets some mud on them. That is far better in my book than the current consensus which is to allow all religions free reign to brainwash people tax free and let them do anything they want or else we might hurt someone's feelings.

Tax them. Regulate them. Criticize them if they deserve it. What is wrong with that?

[Michael-Adams]

No, you keep ranting about people perverting religion to their own desires and there are and have been many. Religion in and of itself does not promote hatred and violence - people do.

[polymerase]

(01-13-2010 04:18 PM)Michael-Adams Wrote:  No, you keep ranting about people perverting religion to their own desires and there are and have been many. Religion in and of itself does not promote hatred and violence - people do.

Guns don't kill people - people do. I know if guns were not around people would still kill each other but much less frequently. So I protest against guns. Same with religion.

Imagine a world without guns or religion. It's not easy, you have to try, real hard.