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Okay, this is something I want to try. I'll move it to the special interest topic when everyone has had a chance to see it.

I'd like to talk about religious beleifs. This purely out of curiosity and is meant to be RESPECTFUL. I think this could be something we would all enjoy. I'm serious about the respect. If you even come close to being mean or hurtful I'll delete your post and you could face a ban, so don't test me.

I'm interested to know what others think of certain religious and philisophical topics. I'll post something to get us started, and follow the rules below. I know this can get sensative, so if it gets out of hand I'll delete the topic, and that will be the end of it.

RULES
1. Be RESPECTFUL of people and their opinions Don't tell anyone they are wrong or stupid. You aren't an all knowing deity, so you don't know for sure your right. Just don't be jerks. I can't stress this enough.
2. Be open minded and thoughtful when you read/respond. I want this to be an open exchange of ideas.
3. Be RESPECTFUL. I'm not kidding.
4. Don't try to convert people. I'd like to think we're an understanding group here, so we'll listen to your ideas, but there's no need to get all evangialistic on people.
5. Your welcome to take this to the PMs to discuss in more detail certain topics you find interesting with a particular person. THis doesn't mean you can PM them and tell them off, or ridicule them. If I find out that happens your banned.
6. Be RESPECTFUL

I believe that religion is a very iffy topic. It's all in how one looks at it. Personally, I believe very firmly in the idea that God can communicate to us through dreams, then again I believe that any little thing can be considered a message from God if you look at it at the right angle.
Only recently have I begun to go to church again, and a Catholic one at that. It's been almost two years since I stepped foot in a church, and to start going regularly is REALLY saying something for me. I'm the first one to take a satirical look at religion in general, maybe because I look at things so many different ways, but I'll try to keep my little disrespectful remarks to myself. Just so you know though, despite my sarcasm towards belief systems (mostly directed at Christianity as an institution, not as a faith) I am very firm in my beliefs. I pretty much incorporate every religion in to my belief system, so the idea of communication, through dreams or otherwise, isn't all that far fetched to me. There's definitely something out there, whether its my interpretation or not, there's something there, and I really don't think that it would just slap us here on this tiny a** rock and expect us to not need guidance.

Wow so much to respond to....

I think Orbic is right about the institution of Christianity being messed up. I'm more of a "pure faith" believer.

As for the evolution thing, I believe along the same lines as Chaos. I keep hearing the question, "if there was no death in Eden, what did carnivores eat?" Ny boyfriend has this radical theory that before the fall things tended to a higher state of energy and now they tend to a lower state, so now carnivore have to eat when before they just sort of created their own energy. But God knew that the fall would happen so equipped them with the ability to hunt, and prey with the ability to run or fight. So since the fall there has been evolution, or at least so I think.

As for loving or not loving us, I definitely don't think God (I say God, for my own benefit, whatever it is or they are can be left up to your own interpretation.) hates us by any means. If you've ever had a hobby that deals with creating something like art or poetry, you'll follow this line of reasoning well. I think that God has those He likes better than others. In fact in the Bible there's a verse that I don't quite remember having to do with God's admission that he favors one over another. So I think there are those He creates that he likes and those He's apathetic about. Just like my anime, some charries I really like, some I'm not so fond of. But I don't really think He hates any humans that don't hate Him.

As for letting us just go on without guidance, A British Author once said, "God is like the king of Egypt and people are like rats on a boat. THe king built the boat, but if it sinks, he won't bother to catch and save the rats." I think that is wholey wrong. I couldn't imagine that a deity so powerful and great would stretch his will to make a world, then do nothing to maintain or help it.

So, this is sort of related. Today it was raining when I was ready to walk home. When I left this morning it was sunny so I didn't take an umbrella. Its a fifteen/ twenty minute walk. Someone I was with was clutching her umbrella and she felt bad that I would have to talk on wihtout her help to keep me dry. It sort of hit me that I like to walk in the rain. I feel like it cleans the world, almost like a baptism. Besides, to me it is a way to feel GOd's power on your own skin. God created everything, but you don't notice the air unless it blows. Yet you can't ignore the feeling of rain, so to me walking in the rain is a way to be close to GOd. Besides, I could either moan, complain, and be miserable, or I can embrace and enjoy the walk in the wet weather.

I know of a few people like that. They're the best one to joke about religion with because they simply don't care.
I have an atheist friend who says 'If humans can't live moral lives without religion then we don't deserve to exist in the first place.' I get what he means in the sense that why should we behave a certain way only because someone ELSE is watching us? That still doesn't diverge me from my more religious path though, it just allows me to respect it more and look at it from a different angle.
And to Chaos, I've long since found that one's view on religion is always strange, no matter what you believe. Think about it (and this is where I'm going to get a tad bit sarcastic, so don't think I'm REALLY attacking a religion) We have brought ourselves to a point where we believe that a bearded man is living in the clouds watching over us every second of every day, and although he will not hesitate to condemn you to hell for violating the ten things he doesn't want you to do, he still loves you. That's a tad bit hypocritical and also odd for us to believe in such a thing. But the thing is, we DO believe in it. And when you look at it in a more serious light, it is a truly beautiful thing (and not just Christianity, but Islam, Hindu, Buddhism, Sikhism, and all that other good religious stuff). Every person views religion from a tad different angle, so there really isn't a "strange" view of religion (take it from the guy who believes in Pagan gods right next to the Christian one ^_^)

I have a personal belief that those religions that promote the idea of praying and celebrating faith as a community withdraws from faith itself. To have faith is to believe in something with all your heart, not just becasue someone else tells you or pressures you into believing something. I openly praise those who worship together and celebrate each individuals faith with others, but from personal experience, I have seen a lot of dictating of religious doctrines.

When I was a child, I was raised as a Christian. I was taught that there was a heaven and hell. If I was a good little girl, I would go to heaven. If I was bad and turned my back on Jesus, even though he would still love me, I would suffer for my sins in hell. With my mind so young and maleable, I was being frightened into believing that that certain branch of Christianity was right, all others were wrong, and that if I didn't believe them, I would go to hell because I had turned my back on God's true path. I'm not saying that this is how Christianity around the world works, even if that is my opinion. That was just my personal experience growing up at a church in my hometown.

Because of my family and their situation, I stopped going to church after I was 6, and did not return until I was 13. It was then that I was able to realize what they tried doing to me as a child, and I resented it. I've researched many religions, both in and out of school, and have found many different doctrines full of understanding and love, but no religion has appealed to me.

Like I stated earlier, I feel that most congregations take away an individual's right to a personal relationship with their god and it instills their society's beliefs instead. I personally believe that there is one supreme being, but that they have no gender. If anything, I see my God as a woman. Perhaps if you research the ideas of the Mother Goddess from Paganism and Wiccan religions, that might come close. I also believe in animism. The real definition from it's Latin counterpart means the belief in souls, but the modern use is the belief that all living things have spirits.

There are many things in this world that cannot be proven, no matter how many times you hear someone say "I'm sure there's a scientific explanation for that." There are STILL things that science and religion cannot prove, only giving us ideas or theories. I believe in a world of cause and effect. However, the cause is not always apparent. I believe that there are people out there who hear and see things others cannot. I do believe that since energy can neither be destroyed or created, that such things (perhaps you call them ghosts) gather energy to show themselves to us. Where does that energy that exists in us go when our cells die? I believe in something like and "after" life, but I don't associate it with the idea of Heaven.

Sorry for writing so much. There's a lot more I'd like to talk about, but I should probably give you guys a break.

I agree with you on the community of faith thing Seori. I think having faith as a group is a good thing, its when members of the groups start skewing things to their liking that upsets me. I've always wanted to start my own denomination, and base it around only the big things of Christianity. The point of it would be that as long as you ge tthe important things right, who cares if your opinions differ, you can still come together to celebrate faith. I call it the denomationless denomination.

I was raised similarly, I think that forcing those ideas on a child it just curel. It is scary to a young mind to think you've got to get it right or go to hell. I like the idea of teaching a child the big stuff and letting them ask questions about the rest of it. I think if you are allowed to explore your beliefs in an open safe environment, that will only make your beliefs that much stronger.

I haven't been baptised chaos, but I don't think I'll go to hell for it. I think you've got the right idea to. As long as you have a sense of what's right and wrong and follow that, I don't think much more should be asked of you.

[don't worry about writing too much, I think by the nature of the topic there will be a lot of reading and replying in long bits.}

I agree. I find that my worship is more for me than for God. And I agree that you can't force your beliefs on someone. You can openly discuss, but unless a person is willing to believe the same thing there is no point in harrassing them.

I was ridiculed for not being baptised when I was younger too. I just ignored it. I know my relationship with God, and it doesn't matter that others say about it.

Trying to understand the will and reasoning of something greater than you is pretty much pointless. Its like a goldfish trying to understand calculus, they just don't have the brain power for it. I figure if I've got it about right, like C+ level, I'm still passing aren't I?

Heck, I'm religious, and I love good Jesus jokes. But they have to be like tasteful, the cruel ones just aren't worth my time.