Are you religious?

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ComedyPilot

ComedyPilot

Secret Lemonade Drinker
It was not my intention to troll, but to show a topic that is often discussed in the 'other place' can be done here in the cafe without the usual suspects resorting to name calling, mud-slinging and flouncing.

8 pages proves me right.

Smug...?

Moi?
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
I
8 pages proves me right.

Really? You've had simplistic assertions, people disparaging other people's beliefs, flouncing and much more. In other words, no different.

But clearly you have a need to believe in the perfection of the Café despite all evidence to the contrary, and who am I to disabuse you of that faith... :tongue:
 

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
On the question, my answer is that I don't know. It depends how you define religious. There are people on this thread who appear to be born-again Christians who claim not to be religious who I would say are the very definition of conventionally religious. There are people who demonstrate a different idea of religion (I don't mean a different denomination or named religion), just a different idea of how to be in the world. I'd just call that ethics, but I've had enough enlightening discussions in the past (in CA&D as it happens) to realise that the idea of religion for some people can be what I would call ethics, and a religious life is simply another way to describing a good life that follows a certain disciplined path, whether or not that includes anything supernatural or belief in any being or process whose existence cannot be demonstrated satisfactorily to others. So, I try to follow a path, I try to live wisely in the world. I'm not very good at this and I don't live up to my standards. I'm learning from and with my 3-year old son, I think, how one can live better. We've both got a long way to go.
 

Rev

Active Member
Location
Bradford
I try not to confuse religious followers with the religions they claim to follow. I consider most religions to be at heart frameworks of self improvement through personal disciplines, tools if you will to make us better happier people. Tools in the hands of wise men (and women) can do great good. Consider the scalpel in the hands of the surgeon saving lives. The same scalpel in the hands of a idiot could take life and do great damage. I don't blame the scalpel/tool but the man who wields it.
I personally have found Buddhism to make the most sense to me and I am a Buddhist. I am a very crap Buddhist and the harmful mistakes I make are mine alone and not due to, but in spite of my religious affiliations. :angel:
 

Rev

Active Member
Location
Bradford
Relatively a Buddhist can own a bike, although he should not become either attached or averted to it, as ultimately there is no Buddhist to own a bike, as the self is illusory and of course relatively transitory!
It is known as the two truths.
So the simple answer is yes and no!
:hyper:
 

gavroche

Getting old but not past it
Location
North Wales
Why is it that nations justify their war by saying: " we have god on our side". Have they had a meeting with him? It is the biggest con that have ever been invented.
 

PaulSecteur

No longer a Specialized fanboy
Religion is like football. In itself its OK, but it seems to attract the wrong sort of people.
 
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byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
Raised a Methodist I was coerced into taking religions instruction by the Minister as I was a Scout Leader. The more I heard the less I believed. Then at Teacher Training College I sat through a series of 'Comparative Religion' lectures offered by the RE department (Made up of two Happy Clappy Christians.) which left me with a deeply felt Atheism. I have, since 1970 described myself as a devout atheist and life experience has convinced me that religion is a disease which has afflicted humanity for far too long. Too much death and suffering has been inflicted on people for far too long to convince me that what little good religions do the good is far outweighed by the bad, and not by a little.
 

Maz

Guru
I've just come back from church :angel:
I like churches! I've prayed in a church and the vicar was fine with it. I've prayed in a synagogue, too, again not a problem. I've even prayed in the field in my avatar, that was a bit damp, though. I'd just cycled from Leicester to Cambridge and it had been raining. :rain:
 

The Jogger

Legendary Member
Location
Spain
I try not to confuse religious followers with the religions they claim to follow. I consider most religions to be at heart frameworks of self improvement through personal disciplines, tools if you will to make us better happier people. Tools in the hands of wise men (and women) can do great good. Consider the scalpel in the hands of the surgeon saving lives. The same scalpel in the hands of a idiot could take life and do great damage. I don't blame the scalpel/tool but the man who wields it.
I personally have found Buddhism to make the most sense to me and I am a Buddhist. I am a very crap Buddhist and the harmful mistakes I make are mine alone and not due to, but in spite of my religious affiliations. :angel:

Buddhism is my choice, I sometimes attend Chithurst Monastery were they hold a guided meditation. I would like to get into it a lot more but there isn't enough hours in the day at the minute.
 
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Primal Scream

Get your rocks off
Really? Unlike socialism for example. A nice atheist ideology that in no way was about controlling the population... :rolleyes:

Or our current consumer culture? Get them blinded on consumption so they don't worry about the s*** we're doing right in front of them.

"Religion being the opiate of the masses" was a rather second rate platitude when Marx first wrote it and the adage hasn't got any better with age.
Never knew that, socialism is an atheist ideology, I thought that was communism.
 
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