Christanity - a topical subject

[Tenko]

I apologise in advance if I upset anybody here - I don't intend to but hey ho...

My daughter sings in the school choir. They were on at the local church last night (C of E with a vicar who thinks he's down wit'da kids...) so I went along. It was a full candle-lit carol service with men in frocks and everything to celebrate 400 years of the King James Bible. I'm not a religious chap, but family duties and all that...

I sat and listened to alternate hymn/reading/carol for two hours. The theme was the nativity and how people's views about it had evolved throughout time as written in various versions of the bible.

I thought the spectacle, singing, acoustics etc were wonderful, but the religious element left me feeling very odd indeed. I don't want to knock anybody's beliefs as each to their own, but the story being told sounded too unlikely to be historical fact. I found myself surrounded by 250 otherwise rational people who believe that a girl was impregnated by an angel. I couldn't understand the astrophysics bit about a star hanging above a stable either.

I'm agnostic in that I'm sure there are things out there that we will never understand, but surely the fairytale being spun by this vicar and believed by billions to be fact can't be right.

Thoughts?

[c_dug]

IMO it's all about money and power, there is no god.
____________________
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[swampy]

[GhostRider]

The fairtytale elements keep the kids distracted long enough for the priests to touch them up.

Thats really all there is to it.

GhostRider
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[oldpink]

some people feel the need to believe in a higher power that controls there destiny
churches use this to control people and force there belief's onto the poor weak minded people that believe them

like contraception the world is full of people that can't feed there family's already
and the church tells them its a sin to use contraception so they end up with more kids
that they can't feed

as to the Bollox that is Xmas and the basis for a religion (Christian)
anyone that believes that in this modern day and age
should see a shrink

oh the star in the story is believed to be a comet, some say its Halley's comet
if they had the dates wrong for the time of the story (which is highly probable)
Halley's was in the sky in the right place in December some years before

personally I don't need any belief's I detest religion with a vengeance
I blame it for about 90% of what's wrong with the world today
and how dare Cameron and his cronies try to force there Christian values on me

I actually had a debate with a minister where I used science to disprove just about every part of the bible
if you believe in evolution then you cannot believe in the bible
as its theme is god creating man when we know we evolved from apes
so the whole premise is flawed right from the start

may be a nice story (the bible) but not something you should base your life and belief's on
____________________
I have become comfortably numb

Theory & hazard 24-may 2016, CBT 8th June 2016, MOD 1 2nd Aug 2016 Mod 2 2nd-Nov 2016 - Current bike CBR 600 RR

[chris-red]

There are some people out there who believe a TDM900 is one of the best bikes ever made. Some people even believe that cold porridge is far nicer than hot.

Just because I like odd things doesn't make me an arsehole, the fact I'm an arsehole makes me an arsehole.

If it isn't harming you live and let live I say.
____________________
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[Hetzer]

Unfortunately religion is harmful. To billions.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[oldpink]

[stinkwheel]

It's a crutch for weak minds who feel they need to be told how to behave and can't cope with the idea that there isn't some higher purpose behind their existance.

There is also a large element of brainwashing and indoctrination They do like to get in there with the kiddies. Kiddies tend to believe what adults tell them. It's just wether they grow to question it or not.

I am occasionally forced to go to church and it's all I can do not to laugh out loud when, as you say, otherwise perfectly rational people carry themselves on like that.

It was even when I went to go and see the minister with Mrs. stinkwheel before our marriage (Mrs. stinkwheel does the whole church thing but I don't hold it against her). I was treated to a whole stern lecture about how I was making a promise before GOD and how that was a very serious thing with dire consequences if I were to break it. I buttoned my lip and didn't get into the whole non-interventionalist vs interventionalist argument* but he obviously believed this. I also kept my personal oppinion that a promise given and kept under threat of damnation is worthless to myself on that occasion.

I did also take the oppertunity to make and give my own vows to Mrs stinkwheel a couple of days later, freely given, in front of witnesses and without threat of damnation.

*ie. If god is prepared to punish me if I break my wedding vows, then that means he could also intervene with other aspects of our lives. That being the case, the fact that he doesn't intervene to prevent an innocent baby being starved to death by its crack-addict mother means that even if I did believe in a god, I would be incapable of giving he/she/it anything short of contempt.

If god is not prepared to punish me, it was an empty threat from a powerless mouthpiece of an abstract notion and he can go and do one.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[chris-red]

[Hetzer]

[Raffles]

[swampy]

[Frost]

Right you lot i'm the leader of this tribe and i want all the food money and women that belong to the tribe over that hill. Go get them.
What do you mean "No they've done nothing to you, why should you get killed to bring me what i want?"
*Thinks*
Right, there is an invisible man in the sky who we love and loves us back. But they hate him an he hates them. If you go murder them the invisible man will be on your side and will help you out. If you die trying then he will send you to some invisible paradise. Go get them.


That's how i figure religion was born.

[D O G]

[oldpink]

roger waters said it best "What God wants God Gets"
____________________
I have become comfortably numb

Theory & hazard 24-may 2016, CBT 8th June 2016, MOD 1 2nd Aug 2016 Mod 2 2nd-Nov 2016 - Current bike CBR 600 RR

[DrDonnyBrago]

[G]

[Robby]

[blurredman]

Did you not watch Misfits on Sunday? It explains the after life and everything.
____________________
CBT: 12/06/10, Theory: 22/09/10, Module 1: 09/11/10, Module 2: 19/01/11
Past: 1991 Honda CG125BR-J, 1992 (1980) Honda XL125S, 1996 Kawasaki GPZ500S, 1979 MZ TS150.
Current: 1973 MZ ES250/2 - 18k, 1979 Suzuki TS185ER - 10k, 1981 Honda CX500B - 91k, 1987 MZ ETZ250 (295cc) - 40k, 1989 MZ ETZ251 - 52k.

[Tenko]

Its interesting that nobody here wants to defend religion. Can I take it by that, that you lot are a godless bunch, doomed to the fires of hell and to be eternally buggered by little red men with pervert beards?

Don't get me wrong, I worked out the great con that is organised religion very early on. As a kid I lived on an army base in Germany and had to go to church once a week. Half the Regiment were on tour in NI at any one time and every month or so the 'bish' would announce a death. What got me is that he would then ask everybody to praise god and sing 'Onward Christain Soldiers'. It was all very moving but at the age of 5 I could see the hypocracy... We'd then be forced to go to Sunday School where a crusty, bad tempered old woman would make us read passages from 'modern' bibles, and if we got it wrong or questioned it we'd get a clip around the ear and no crisps...

My confusion is why otherwise rational people believe the stories in the bible when common sense tells us they can't be true. I have no problem with people believing in a higher power of some kind (who amongst us is arrogant enough to think they know everything about the universe?), what bugs me is the way organised religion uses fairytales to justify its existance!!!!

[Raffles]

Correct me if I'm wrong but it would appear that some people seem to be suggesting that Jesus was not The Messiah.
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A good loser will always be a loser.

[G]

https://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/17869_231540160688_676145688_3712397_5852519_a.jpg

[Rogerborg]

All religions, ever:

https://www.armannd.com/wp-content/uploads/touched_by_his_noodly_appendage.jpg
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[duhawkz]