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 trendal
J♠
 
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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 I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! 
#385648 - 09/04/01 04:54 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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I was a devout Catholic. I was raised by catholic parents, went to catholic schools, and believed in catholicism. That all changed a year ago.
For reasons I have not been able to figure out, one year ago I became extremely angry with religion as a whole. I gave up catholicism. I was told that I had "strayed from the flock".
Whoever said non-believing is the easy way out did not know what they were talking about.
I now have decided that ALL religious beliefs are irrelevant. Does it really matter if I believe in God, or Jesus, or any other religious icon? Does it change who I am? Does it make me a bad person if I don't believe? Will I go to "hell" because I don't believe?
I chose to answer NO. I do believe that there is "something" out there. Some higher being who is responsible for creating the universe. But I refuse to theorize on the nature of this being. I refuse to define myself as a certain religion. I refuse to force myself to someone else's beliefs.
As I see it: faith is a gift from "god"...religion is a creation of man. Man is flawed, so any creation of man's is flawed. Thus religion is flawed. Faith, as a gift from god, is perfect.
So I choose to follow my faith, and not give in to the conformity of religion. How can any person believe in the same god? How can any person believe the same religion? Religion is just another form of segregation and conformity.
Furthermore, look at what religion has brought us. Struggle. Hate. War. Murder.
How can anyone choose to follow a system of belief that has caused so much pain and suffering in our history? If you really look at it, all wars are caused by some sort of religious difference.
I'm not exactly sure why I'm writing this. I haven't really been able to express my newfound beliefs to anyone yet. We are all island universes, and so I can never truely express my beliefs to anyone. I hope that I have at least given some of you a glimmer of what I believe in. Not so that you will change yourselves. Just so that you know my side of the story.
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"Our culture's defined by the ones least defined..." -- The Offspring
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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 drunkgoat
addict
Registered: 01/07/01
Posts: 406
Last seen: 20 years, 23 days
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#385653 - 09/04/01 05:11 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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amen borther. thats pretty much how i now feel about religion in general. i should have listened to my grandfater told me religions were parasites of humanity.
<EMBED src="https://proxy.mind-media.com/proxy.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.home.net%2Fmebar%2Fdrunkgoat.swf" quality=high wmode=transparent width=550 height=400></EMBED>
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Give a man a match and he will be warm for an hour. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
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Kid
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 07/21/00
Posts: 2,365
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#385755 - 09/04/01 07:21 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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The thing I don't like about Christianity:
If God is so mysterious that no human can comprehend him, then there's nothing we can say about God. Nothing will serve just as well as something in that case.
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jonnyshaggs420
Pooh-Bah
Registered: 08/08/00
Posts: 1,965
Loc: Mid-West
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#386340 - 09/05/01 02:13 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Organized religion SUCKS!!!!
I just beleive in what I beleive in. No pattern or organization to anything. I'm a very spiritual person, but I'm not religious.
For supplies: Dr Bluethumb
For spores: FSR
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Vote Jonnyshaggs in the next election for GOD...Its the responsible choice
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: jonnyshaggs420]
#386919 - 09/06/01 09:35 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Very well said.
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"Our culture's defined by the ones least defined..." -- The Offspring
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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Jared
Stranger
Registered: 04/22/01
Posts: 8,783
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: drunkgoat]
#387669 - 09/07/01 02:00 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Drunkgoat, I'm fuckign happy that flash movie isn't embeded. If I had to listen to you say drunkgoat over and over I'd kill you.
Namaste
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oneoverzero
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Posts: 758
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#387712 - 09/07/01 05:39 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Ok, ok, trendal. Religions are generally static in their belief systems, whereas humans are too. This is excellent for social stability. I'm somewhat personally familiar with the Catholic Church and I give it my approval, especially for preserving the Eucarist in ritual, and additionlly cycling the full context of the Bible over the passing years. I think the priests and nuns I've learned from earnestly believe in what they are doing and it is good for many people, me too. Society needs stability, that is to say, knowing how to read and write, knowing right from wrong.
To become dynamic in belief is to stand upon the static for stabilty and move into an intellecual mode of functioning until one becomes independently interrelated with everything, that is to say, to become growing from being made to grow.
Now it's your turn. Become Growing!
Eat 'em Alive and Love IT to DeathEdited by oneoverzero on 09/07/01 06:50 AM.
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Chonger
Olive grower
Registered: 09/29/00
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Loc: England
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#387714 - 09/07/01 05:43 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Pretty much my thoughts also.
Most mainstream religions are simply a security blanket for the weak minded sheep of society. The sad thing is, for most of these people, it isn't their fault.
How many adults convert to catholicism in today's day and age without any encouragement from other catholics? It must be a very low number. The only way religions like catholicism survive is through impressioning the young and open minded.
By the time they grow old they have been taught to respect authority, and they dare not to question it. They just do it, and its sad.
How can so many people resign themselves to beleiving so many things, mostly because everybody else does.
People need to start making their own minds up. Sure if you beleive everything catholicism stand for, truly, then thats great.
What incenses me a lot is questionnaires that have a tick box for your religion. They'll have christianity, catholicism, etc, no beleifs, but no box for "I have my own beliefs".
I could go on forever about this but i think you get the point.
Peace
and i couldn't awake from the nightmare that sucked me in and pulled me under
pulled me under
oh... that was so real
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than have a frontal lobotomy
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oneoverzero
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: Chonger]
#387719 - 09/07/01 06:16 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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"I have my own beliefs" has always been associated by society as: witchcraft, heresy, lunacy, etc. and the offending individual dealt with in ways I'd rather not repeat. The social immune system. Ever felt it's systematic attacks? Rather...
It begins with a personal transformation, which then becomes contagious and spreads, for example patience and kindness. Let's infect the hell out of society with Love? brought to you from Divine Inspiration Unlimited?.
Eat 'em Alive and Love IT to DeathEdited by oneoverzero on 09/07/01 07:19 AM.
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trendal
J♠
Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: oneoverzero]
#387722 - 09/07/01 06:48 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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That's the problem with religion: it promotes, however indirectly, a form of religious racism.
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"Our culture's defined by the ones least defined..." -- The Offspring
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.
But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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oneoverzero
veteran
Registered: 01/23/00
Posts: 758
Loc: Cyber Space
Last seen: 22 years, 11 months
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#387728 - 09/07/01 07:11 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Like competing football teams. "My church is better than yours"... etc. Where did they get that attidude? And churches can be socially magnetic. If it's a (+) and you're a (+) then the two are repelled. Conversly if you concede to being a (-) then... click and stick. It's like if the earth was the church and you were stuck on it what would you do? Move to Mars?!? "My planet's better than yours"... here we go again.
Eat 'em Alive and Love IT to Death
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[red]0011 0001 0010 1111 0011 0000[/red]
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aluminum_can
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Registered: 05/18/01
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#389539 - 09/09/01 04:04 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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have you ever felt like something is so right, but then again, you fell like it is so wrong? - my theory is slowly building up!!!! it is like this is the prob with everything. theres both good and bad sides to everything. they both make sense, but when you try to mix them you get a brainfart, and you just ry to forget it. the people that are all into religion must have some fear that if they dont get other peoples interest they will be punished. this idea is imbeded in them, so they have a phsycilogical problem. much like how nymphos always want to have sex, and how some acid heads get the thought that they are a glass of orange juice, and dont want to bew tipped over. how come the people that are stuck be religious dont have to go to counseling or a mental hospital???? it is because no one is going to send a religious person to get help, since the people that would be doing it fear for the same thing. it is a never endidng cycle, that no one will break, because of the fear of others opinions. there are only some things that i can figure out though, since i am the same and living the same. if i could jump into someone elses head and live there thoughts for a while and experience it through someone elkses shoes, then i could figure out almost anthing.
one plus one plus one equals three
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the little kridders of nature; they dont know that thyre ugly!
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Anonymous
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: aluminum_can]
#390026 - 09/10/01 07:20 AM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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It does seem though that a lot of people are seeking out there spirituality on a more individual basis. So even if the cycle of (hate to point it out, but primarily christian) religion doesn't break, it is shifting. My ex-girlfriend came from a head on Christian family. She bought me a book about Tao for my birthday, and was keeping it at her mom's house. They read it before I got it and where about ready to completely flip out. They made sure to tell her why it was evil (anything that teaches something that goes against something christian is Satan's work - and they really believe that) anyway, when I got the book, I also got another last minute gift from them. Another book "the guide to god". Crazy crazy crazy... and it always seemed like the entire family had a secret agenda to turn me into a christian.
Deep in the vortex I rest... clueless to time, for madness has its own circle.
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Revelation
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Registered: 08/04/01
Posts: 6,135
Loc: heart cave
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#390239 - 09/10/01 01:12 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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I don't know that I would call myself "anti-religious", i think it may be that I just haven't found the right one for me yet. I think that most religions have at least some good things to teach us that we can learn from, however the goal is to find the perfect balance between them in order to find what is true for you. Like you say, organised religion has become too much about politics.
I was not raised into any religion. Both my parents were brought up as catholics but after a while my dad became more of an agnostic and my mum an atheist. My sister who is 4 years older than me has become a catholic on her own accord. I suppose I take after my dad in that I think that "something" is there but I just haven't figured out what...So yeah, i have faith..but i'm not anti-religous.
"Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship"
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Vision_Quest
member
Registered: 08/13/01
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Re: I'm anti-religion but still have Faith! [Re: trendal]
#390297 - 09/10/01 02:11 PM (23 years, 3 months ago) |
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Religion is an atrocity. It divides people and causes wars. To try to describe the Creator in human terms is an insult to All That Is. It amazes me that people take the bible literally! Buddism is closer because it is so much more vague. Christians become/remain Christians because they like not having to think for themselvs. They like to think that they can read the bible and go to church and not have to figure out what is really going on for themselvs. To not think for yourself and take the word of a Priest (an human with emotions and other motivations to cloud his/her judgement) at face value is simply stupid.
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