Welcome to Gaia! ::

Here is where we will be holding the debates for the Cardinal hopefuls in the race for the Gaian Papacy. Only those running for Cardinal, myself, and those I have preordained the ability to propose questions for the debate may speak here. I will delete anything posted by anyone else. Of course all are encouraged to observe.

And with that, question number one iiiiiis:

How do you feel about the certain universality of religions? The similarities that all share and what not. How would you incorporate this concept into your Cardinalship should you win?

s**t, I can't edit. s**t.

Anyway...

How do I feel about the certain Universality of Religions?

YEAH RIGHT! Since when is there a universality between religions? They are all so differing and hate each other so much, that it would be impossible to unite them all! So, of course, the only choice is destroy them all, and make them all join the Universal Order Of Awesomness.

Wait. That is to "Guessable" for me.

I will make the Christian's dance and Marry the Gays. I will take the Jew's money. I will take away the Muslims guns. I'll entroduce every buhhdist and Hindu to Fight Club. I'll take away the Wiccan's magic wands and the pagans belief in the earth or whatever s**t they believe in.

They will all be lost and confused. They will no longer have anything to do. They might actually begin trying to help humanity through science.

Then, I will entroduce them to the Universal Order of Awesomness.

With nothing for them to share except their stance in the Order, they must unite under one.

With me as a cardinal and then Pope, I can promise these things to Gaia.

-No more Political Parties! (Who wants a party that doesn't have cake and pointy Hats?)
-No More Homosexuality Threads in the ED! (No body cares where you put your d**k!)
-A chorus of praise to all who do a good job fighting for what they believe in!( So long as it conforms to the Order!)
-An "Ask Azu- The Freakin Pope!" thread, where I will address everyones questions and or quotable statements!

AZU FOR POPE IN 05!

As has been said, the religions of the world all share various aspects, but also tend to hate each other to no end. As a Catholic with my continuous Catholic standpoint, I believe that it is possible to enter Heaven from any religion, and that they are all good religions. Catholicism merely offers extra things to help you get there. You don't need them. Unfortunately there are those who will disagree with me and say that their religion is the only way one can enter Heaven. Which would be rather unfortunate, really.

As a Gaian cardinal/Pope I would be continually dedicated to spreading the Catholic standpoint! The people must be represented! whee Not to mention I'm one of the few people on Gaia with a strong knowledge of technical theatre besides! Because that has so much to do with spirituality! And the n00bs calling themselves techies need to be taken down notches and I will TAKE THEM DOWN! w00t!

I personally believe that it is physically impossible to completely incorporate all religions together. Too many religions have conflicting beliefs. We know that most every religion runs off of either a dogmatic belief or a karmatic belief. To quote, "My karma ran over your dogma." It makes good sense. Plus, Chiristianity as a whole is very unwavering in its disagreement with the other belief systems around the world. There is an actual church, the Universal Church, I believe, where people of all religions go to. However, they have no doctrine, and really just debate their beliefs back and forth.

However, partial incorporation is possible. Taking parts of each religion and mixing them together is tough. Most religions, however, and it can be done. For example. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all believe in the same God. They just expanded the beliefs as they went along. Mixing a monotheistic dogmatic belief with a karmatic belief, such as Buddhism, is easy. You can believe that the one God controls a sense of karma over everyone, and he does let you reap what you sow, persay. Adding in a polytheistic belief makes it harder.

Here is my idea. There will be one being, powerful above all the other beings, but not Supreme. In a sense, he is the top guy, but he is not omnipotent, omniscient, etc. This satisfies, in a sense, the Atheistic beliefs because there isno Supreme Being. There are too many paradoxes to be formed from that as it were, such as "Can he make a rock he cannot lift?". The gender of this being will be nothing. The Being will be what The Being is refered to. The Being will have control over the karmatic aspects of our lives. However, since it is not omnipotent, it cannot do everything. Therefore, a crew of demigods shall be under it. These demigods, however, are really lesser incarnations of the same being. The Being himself cannot do everything without his incarnations. This satisfies 2 basic beliefs. Monotheism, as there is now a supreme being in a sense, and Hinduism, because they are different views of the same God, thus making different Gods. These demigods will have control over the affects of the karma, and control over the workings of the universe. This mixes ancient mythological beliefs, such as Greek, Roman, Norse, Aztec, Egyptian, etc.
The atheistic belief is still upheld as The Being himself is not omnipotent. As for the workings of the universe, they will be merely set up by some of the demigods, and then watched. Such as, they put the hydrogen atoms, etc., that caused the Big Bang. But they didn't make the Big Bang. This satisfies the belief of scientists AND creationists.

Personally, it is not whatI believe in. However, for the sake of Gaia, I offer this belief system to you. It is the only way I can come up with where most, if not all, beliefs are incorporated into one religion. Thank you.

(Now, Gaia wise... Punishment shall be given for pointless posts and spam in ED. Rewards will be given for exceptional posts. If you have no clothing, and post a great post, clothing shall be sent from God after much prayer. There will be no rules behind the religion. Either you believe or you don't. The one rule out of all this.

EVERYONE IS EQUAL.

But if you do stupid stuff, remember. The Being rules karma. And karma can bite you in the a**.)

In my own belief, religion is more a support than a lifestyle, failing to see why some would live and die for a cause that is usually made "for their needs", and a god(s) that may or may not exist, without even knowing what they're fighting for. I'm more openly in belief people should be in control of their own opinions and morals, and not rely so heavily on their religion to guidethem into their decision. Much like anything done within numbers, most religion tends to be a double-edged sword. Many see it as a means of controlling communities, and stopping anything people aren't comfortable with by outcry of religious backgrounding. Others look to it as an explanation for how life came to be, not trusting any other means of life-springing like evolution or pod-people (heh-ha...yeah, lame joke, I know...I just woke up about half an hour ago and found this xd ). In the most extreme, they live their very existance out through worship, praise, and offerings of soul andbody to their espective Heaven (or Hell). None of THIS is wrong, but your actions shouldn't be made by your preacher, your guild-master...heck, even your God.

My order is to be an acceptance of all religious belief, or lack thereof, with more respect towards other alternate-possible issues. Yes, that's right, there's no "good" or "evil", with exceptions of bringing harm upon another in any means, doing amoral, sickening things to childred, bigotry, and pretty much anything you yourselves have probably found "questionable" in your own religion. The question will not be "Which religion is what I can stay by?", but now "Will I accept them as a fellow human?"

I could probably explain this more clearly, but I'm actualy a bit burned-out from playing video games and doing the last of a huge essay last night...mostly the games, yes, but I was up until 4 this morning. ^_^;

Yup, and glad someone said crutch, because I was actually a bit nervous of saying it. XD

We will calmy listen to their ideals. Then, when the media has calmed around the incident, they will "Dissapear".

When they dissapear, they will be brought to our underground "lair", where we will stuff their fingers and toes with needles until they profess their faith in The Order.

If they regain faith, they will be released.

If they refuse...well..Have you ever read "The Most Dangerous Game"?

The topic of Fluffbunnies is one close to my heart. As a Wiccan, I have been accused of being a Fluffbunny. When I first started in Middle School, I'll admit I was something of a Fluffbunny. It's gotten to the point where sometimes I'm not sure I want to call myself "Wiccan" but rather simply "Pagan" just because of the negative connotations it has with Fluffbunnyism.

The problem about Fluffbunnies is not so much that they are harmful (as a whole anyway), but more they're a pain in the a** and, as I've already stated, they give other followers a bad name. I could go through a list of things that annoy me that certain Fluffbunnies have held adamantly true, but then we will be getting into a different topic altogether.

Many Fluffbunnies mature with Time. It may be they just need Life experience, to learn new things to understand what they are saying is not only untrue, but is also ridiculous. I'll be the first to admit that I do not know everything about the Gardnerian roots of Wicca, but a) I do know he is generally accepted as the founder, b) I know enough about his practices to decide that the Gardnerain path is not the one for me. Ask a Fluffbunny about Gerald Gardner and you will either be met with puzzlement as to who this man was or an outright dismissal that Wicca was around before then. Paganism, yes. Wicca/Neo-Pagan Movement, no. But I digress.

There is also the problem of those Fluffbunnies who never mature, who stand firm in their misguided beliefs. Oftentimes they are the ones who make a Faith seem odd as a whole. I would recommend kindly counseling them, showing them proof that while their intentions may be pure, they are really skewing things. This does not always work, and much patience is needed. There comes a Time when one sometimes needs to just get up and walk away. I'd like to believe that people can see the error of their own ways and that just because they claim they are following X-Faith, it does not mean they are truly adhering to X-Principles. As long as they are merely annoying and are relatively harmless, let them have their own little beliefs; enough people who are truly of their faith will shun them that perhaps they'll get the message.

As for others who do a similar thing, this gets into religious zealotry. I can't recall who originally said it, but there is a quote which says "A zealot is someone who won't change his mind and won't change the subject." This tends to be true. A lot of what would help regarding zealotry would be to have a more tolerant attitude of other faiths. Hatred breeds more hatred, intolerance breeds more intolerance. Tolerance and embracing our differences (though admittedly rather optimistic and lovey-dovey hippie-dippie) will help prevent future generations of zealots from being spawned.

As for existing ones, I think it becomes difficult. Thye have already been shunned by their own faiths and the world, and become pretty much a cult with only eachother on which to rely. Perhaps if we managed to "de-program" someone like they do with former cult-members, but this gets into an ethical dilemma as to what defines zealotry, and will said person be targetted as a betrayer, or shall they be made a martyr?

I should specify, I suppose, that when I speak of "zealotry" I am speaking of offshoots of faiths that declare not only are they the only right ones, but that they should use violence to prove to others that they are sinners. I mean extremists, violent, oppressive extremists. I do not speak of evangelicals (of all faiths, though Evangelical Christians are the ones most commonly seen by at least this e-priestess), though that does sometimes get into those who warp the original intentions of their Faith.