Religion? Anyone?

[Isaol-the-wolf]

art1sta2

christain i would have to say is my religion

Selene Aries

That is what I tell people all the time, that the only real devil worshipers are Christians.

I'm sorry but I think we're both devil worshipers.  

[Selene Aries]

I don't worship anything. xd I don't believe in supernatural beings, I simply enjoy the mythology around them.  

[Garek Maxwell]

Isaol-the-wolf

I'm sorry but I think we're both devil worshipers.

I would say that heavily depends upon the kind of god you worship, and this goes for all religions. If the god is an angry, fear inspiring (smites New Orleans), love punishing (hates gays), and all around evil (loves violence, weapons, harming others in the name of profit, profit over health, profit over the environment, corporations over people, everybody for them self, help only those just like you, reasoning and logic are bane of "goodness", etc) then you may just be worshiping evil. Strangely, this comes as a shock to many people. I haven't figured out why just yet, but Garek is on the case!

In other news, Supply-Side Jesus is bigger and better than ever!
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/17_franken.html
Showing in churches across the globe, be sure to catch his acts performed by clergy while you still can! heart  

[Isaol-the-wolf]

Ha, no I meant me and art1sta are both devil worshipers because we're Christians, and Selene said so.  

[WeissVicious]

Hey it wasn't just Seleane! XD  

[Garek Maxwell]

Isaol-the-wolf

Ha, no I meant me and art1sta are both devil worshipers because we're Christians, and Selene said so.

Technically I'm a Christian, I'm just not a very good with my high levels of doubt, worry, fear, and many other wonderful things brought about by ...well, frankly, other Christians. Not ALL of them...but the vast majority obviously.

So, yes, include me in that list. Just put "50%" on it, since I'm not a very good Christian.  

[Selene Aries]

Garek Maxwell

Isaol-the-wolf

Ha, no I meant me and art1sta are both devil worshipers because we're Christians, and Selene said so.

Technically I'm a Christian, I'm just not a very good with my high levels of doubt, worry, fear, and many other wonderful things brought about by ...well, frankly, other Christians. Not ALL of them...but the vast majority obviously.

So, yes, include me in that list. Just put "50%" on it, since I'm not a very good Christian.

So half of you is going to hell, the other half to heaven? Or does that just land you in limbo? Oh, maybe you'll be a ghost that haunts people.  

[WeissVicious]

In Christian, what you are is you're afflicted by Sloth...maybe  

[Garek Maxwell]

Selene Aries

So half of you is going to hell, the other half to heaven? Or does that just land you in limbo? Oh, maybe you'll be a ghost that haunts people.

I so wanna be a ghost! Then I can sit and watch TV all day in those electronic stores and never get bored! Or spy on people... Or just watch the world go by and observe the changes that occur through time, maybe pushing me into despair or bringing a smile to my face...or lack there of. I don't know what it'd be like, but having there be something, anything, after life is more comforting than nothing to me.

...Though I honestly believe that if I were to go somewhere, I'd probably go into that limbo area. I hear that's where scholars and doubters go, to reflect on things or something. It's been a long time since I even looked into that stuff. The last thing I read that got even close to that was a passage in Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. In making fun of Dante's Divine Comedy, one of the characters descends into hell. However, the further he goes the smokier it gets, so he decides to turn back and hop on his hippogryph. He then flies to the moon (made of marble) where he meets St. John the Evangelist.... I'm not kidding, it's freaking weird. It's also really funny at times, but I generally found it somewhat boring for the most part. Hard to follow. Lots and lots of characters.

WeissVicious

In Christian, what you are is you're afflicted by Sloth...maybe

Well, that depends. I still believe in helping people and doing good things for people. I still want to, even if I have religious troubles. Unfortunately, at this point, if I were to read from the bible or really work at "reviving my faith" I'd probably lose it completely. I just don't see it getting stronger from that. There are other things that may help it, but forcing it just isn't going to work.

I also have some issues with this, regarding the difference between doing "good" because your religion tells you to and doing good for the sake of doing it. Doing it because of the religion often implies and is done with the attitude of "You best be glad my religion tells me I HAVE to do this, otherwise you wouldn't get any help!". Or something to that effect that presents the idea that if they weren't told to do this they wouldn't have spent one second to help you or someone else. On the flip side, doing nice things for others for the sake of it seems more in line with teachings in the first place... Or maybe I'm just strange... I'm somewhat rambling too.  

[WeissVicious]

I believe the notions of what is good and evil is trivial. There has never been a definition of what makes things good or evil. Universally, who are we to judge the difference?

"There never was such a thing as Good and Evil, there only has been Choices"  

[Selene Aries]

All morals are relative.  

[Garek Maxwell]

WeissVicious

I believe the notions of what is good and evil is trivial. There has never been a definition of what makes things good or evil. Universally, who are we to judge the difference?

"There never was such a thing as Good and Evil, there only has been Choices"

That's fine too, though I think there are some universal things that are beneficial that are associated with good, though they are usually in moderation. Certain universal human emotions like love and compassion, and just plain helping each other out when experiencing difficulties.

Surely life would be far more enjoyable and less hard if people just stopped hating and started loving. It sounds corny, but honestly, fantasy or reality, people often flock to the idea. It's just plain more desirable than the cruelty often experienced in life. sad  

[WeissVicious]

Humans are just too complicated =/

why couldn't we be simple, like ants?  

[Garek Maxwell]

WeissVicious

Humans are just too complicated =/

why couldn't we be simple, like ants?

I think we're at the point where it's all very confusing..at least to me.

On one hand, I agree, we're way too complicated. People are sometimes crazy as hell and make no sense, and other times they just don't follow any patterns...or perhaps think.

On the other, there is some levels of sameness and oneness. Why else would humans unite behind abstract ideas likes nations? There's also a ...well...I had to google for it and search through my audio recordings from a past class, but it did show an essential oneness in everyone. It's Edward Steichen's Family of Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_of_Man
http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/archives_highlights_06_1955
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Man-Edward-Steichen/dp/0810961695
Links if you're interested in reading about it. It was just an exhibition showing a bunch of photographs of people all around the world in various settings of human experience. Love, death, growing up, etc... It spans all sorts of cultures and people. It's not a ground breaking research project, it doesn't make life easier, it doesn't do anything than show we're not that different from each other.

However, as I learned in my class too, this universal humanism is more of a "modernist" view, and ...well, "post-modernism" is the new word used to describe the world today.
http://metanarrative.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/pomdsm.jpg
That illustrates it pretty well too. My teacher gave a handy table to help describe the differences, but the main one that applies here is just "diversity". ...unfortunately, just like the idea of "sameness", this also has a negative side.

I'm way way way off topic, and I could continue, but I thought it might be better to end here before I keep going off on something totally unrelated to religion. sweatdrop  

[[-Erik-]]

WeissVicious

Humans are just too complicated =/

why couldn't we be simple, like ants?

Ants are really boring :l