Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm a Christian, but I don't believe in the religion (hang in here with me.)
For thousands of years, the Catholic church has been altering things to fit their needs, to make them come out as the good guys. They used to kill off scientist because they could explain things that the church couldn't, like why it would rain. (sorry, it's a little more complex than angels crying and all that nonsense)

Any one here ever read Angles and Demons by Dan Brown? That has a ton of it in there. The Aluminati (sp?) Were said to be satanic, but in reality were scientist. My history teacher often says that you only get the winners side of the story. So whose to say that the goths, barbarians, etc. were really bad people? That's just the way they were portrayed by their conquerors. Ok, little off topic here.

I personally believe in one supreme deity (in my case being God) having created the universe. For me, the idea that all of our lives aren't just some freak accident and have meaning has an appeal. Some people may say that makes me a pathetic wussy whose crying for a reason behind life, but the alternative is like your parents saying "we didn't really want a kid, you just happened." ouch.

I also believe that all believers of any religion, are essentially worshiping the same being, just different ways (props to the Hindu for that, they say the same thing) The commonalities between religions are just too similar.

Even in the Baptist church (where I go) there's sexism and 'clicks' that if you're in, you have a better chance of getting into heaven, which is bull. So yes, I believe in God, just not the church.

Did anyone read all of that? I realize it was rather lenghty, sorry sweatdrop
But if anyone wants to discuss it furhter, feel free to PM me.

I think that nobody worships the same god.

obviously, I didn't mean to come off like he's all knowing or anything, but the point still goes that the church has been manipulating things for hunderds of years to make them come out like the good guys.

Hehe, I laughed them down the street....

Ha, I went to Catholic school too, but mine was ALL GIRLS (BOO!!!!). What is it with Catholic schools turning out these uber-liberal athiests/agnostics/against-the-mainstream thinkers (I think that was blurry enough not to offend anyone.)? I find it so odd that many of my Catholic friends who went to public school are now far more religious than almost anyone I went to high school with. Oh, and yes, mandatory mass sucked. I always had a test right after it and with the mass, there went my study period. Oh, and they served some sort of apple wine instead of red grape wine that tasted like priest piss. Anyways...

I really think Christianity is one of the few truly close-minded religions out there (Islam is pretty close and Shintoism is up there too). If ANYTHING AT ALL disagrees with the bible, no matter how much fact is behind it, it is automatically thrown out as "wrong" and "evil." The church leaves no room for interpretation and that's one of the many, many reasons I no longer belong to it.

When it comes to Creationism versus Evolution.... let's take a look at my last sentence. Did anyone notice the "versus" between the two theories? You see, that's a product of the church. Evolution does not totally conflict with the creation story in the bible, as long as one it able to think figuratively, not literally. Both theories can converge and live together in a drunken euphoria. So why does the church need that "versus?" Why must the two theories duke it out in a match to the death?

I think it's simply because the church fears loss of power and, with evolution as part of a person's belief, they fear they will lose some of that that person's faith to science. However, by totally refuting scientific research that holds far more truth than a bible story proven by... nothing, the church pushes followers away. Followers have to choose between science and religion, thereby forcing people to either think logically or deny base fact. It's sad that the church can't integrate both theories and therefore keep hold of little Agnostic Catholic-school children for a few years longer.

i hate it when people dont except reason and argument and they wont even listen to what you have to say. they just walk off saying something along the lines of 'evolution's bollocks, everyone knows that god created people....' or something..

at least thats not as bad as the boy who once said to me 'of course black and jewish people are a different species from me' argh!!!!

the full hindu belief system.

These are quite funny.
They seem to have quite a knack for saying these types of things, don't they?