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Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

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Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

Trump is about as close to the Anti-Christ as you can get if you read the warning of what one is. Then we have the warning that the 'Believers' will be gullible

No surprise. The least Christian people have always been the ones who put their Christianity on blast.
 
If God is all powerful and all knowing, why would he let someone spit in his face if he didn't like it? I think he's got a kinky side.
One theory on the question of free will is that God figured people would just be boring without it. So He granted free will in order to kick back and watch the shenanigans. Some people end up hating the freedom and becoming bitter because hardship comes with it; others embrace it and use it to seek after truth.
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

One theory on the question of free will...

This is the crux of the matter. If one doesn't auto believe that God is controlling everything it starts to make more sense. Its not just kinda free will. Its all free will.

A good part of praying for wrong doing is a personal admission. Its not that you are suddenly in the clear for the things you did in the past...its that it makes you a better person going forward. If going forward you are not sinning, then you'll be more at peace with yourself and in essence, God forgives you. You still may feel guilt etc from past actions...that is a price for past wrong doings.

If you keep sinning and are Christian, deep down you know its wrong and in all likelihood, you will feel pain/guilt - the pain resulting from knowing you did wrong - and in essence, you won't be forgiven until you stop sinning. Its pretty straightforward.
 
This is the crux of the matter. If one doesn't auto believe that God is controlling everything it starts to make more sense. Its not just kinda free will. Its all free will.

A good part of praying for wrong doing is a personal admission. Its not that you are suddenly in the clear for the things you did in the past...its that it makes you a better person going forward. If going forward you are not sinning, then you'll be more at peace with yourself and in essence, God forgives you. You still may feel guilt etc from past actions...that is a price for past wrong doings.

If you keep sinning and are Christian, deep down you know its wrong and in all likelihood, you will feel pain/guilt - the pain resulting from knowing you did wrong - and in essence, you won't be forgiven until you stop sinning. Its pretty straightforward.

I don’t quite understand the last paragraph.
Sounds very bleak to me—for virtually everyone.
 
I don’t quite understand the last paragraph.
Sounds very bleak to me—for virtually everyone.

Well yeah - but we are all sinners. Even Peter, who was given the keys of the kingdom, denied Christ 3x - even when he believed Jesus to be the Son of God. But, he asked forgiveness and was pardoned.

Judas, who betrayed Him, knew nothing but despair and killed himself. If he had come to the cross and asked to be forgiven, he would have.

That is why a Catholic priests are the most powerful persons on the planet. With words of absolution, a good confession, and promise of repentance, anyone can have their sins forgiven and be saved from eternal ****ation. Not one world leader can do that.
 
Kind of sad:

I work at a Tyson Foods plant, and it's pretty diverse. I've been wearing tights and carrying a purse to work, and no judgement. Came out to the HR manager, was hugged, and was given blessing to wear makeup at work.

Meanwhile, my family and more vocal Christian friends: silence was deafening, my former best friend told me I was "confused," and my aunt said I was no longer family.

I'll be okay.
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

Kind of sad:

I work at a Tyson Foods plant, and it's pretty diverse. I've been wearing tights and carrying a purse to work, and no judgement. Came out to the HR manager, was hugged, and was given blessing to wear makeup at work.

Meanwhile, my family and more vocal Christian friends: silence was deafening, my former best friend told me I was "confused," and my aunt said I was no longer family.

I'll be okay.

Your family, those close to you have more invested in the person they thought you were. They have known you the longest so they had more time to build an idea of who you were/were going to be in their head. You have changed the rules and 'killed' the person they thought they knew. Some people do well with change. People who are closer to you have their own thoughts, hopes and dreams of who you are/should be. When that changes they not only have to adjust to your new definition of who you are, they have to adjust to losing the things they were hoping for, they took for granted or thought they appreciated. Have sat on the other side of an exam table and watched people mourn for the hopes, dreams, what they thought was going to happen and the person they thought they knew in the same way they would mourn a death. It is painful for the person who has come out but it is also painful for the people on the other side. Some of them handle it with more grace than others.

Take home message here is you cannot change them. You can only control how you respond. This is going to sound weird but try to have compassion for them even if they are nasty. They are going to mourn. Some of them will try to get back what they think they have lost. Those things are natural human responses. Life is too short. You are never going to make everyone happy. You are you. If you change the rules some people won't want to play the game anymore. If they leave the ice then play with the players who are left.
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

Take home message here is you cannot change them. You can only control how you respond. This is going to sound weird but try to have compassion for them even if they are nasty. They are going to mourn. Some of them will try to get back what they think they have lost. Those things are natural human responses. Life is too short. You are never going to make everyone happy. You are you. If you change the rules some people won't want to play the game anymore. If they leave the ice then play with the players who are left.

These are very good words.

I'd add that you can't change them but you can change how you carry them in your heart. If you let their blindness create wormwood in your heart, that harms you. You have freed yourself to be who you are, and that is wonderful. Now free yourself to not let them infect you with their fear and petty hatred.
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

Good to see Tony Perkins has tracked down what causes sexual harassment.

Tony Perkins, radio host and president of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council, blamed the military’s acceptance of gay and transgender service members for creating “moral confusion” that cost a two-star general his job.

During yesterday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Perkins commented on a USA Today report that a two-star Army general had been fired after an investigation revealed he had sent inappropriate “****” text messages to the wife of a soldier. Naturally, Perkins used the story to continue pushing his anti-LGBTQ agenda.

“I think this is wrong, but who says it’s wrong? The military code of conduct? True, but that also said that homosexuality is wrong, but that prohibition is no longer being enforced. In fact, people are punished for not celebrating homosexuality,” Perkins said. “Same was true of transgenderism.”

Perkins went on to say that the officer’s conduct was not wrong because it violated the military code of conduct, but instead because it “violates the moral law of the creator,” which Perkins says is instilled in every human being by God.

When society gives an immoral policy like accepting LGBTQ people into the military a “green light,” Perkins claimed, it creates the kind of “moral confusion” that can lead a military officer to make sexual advances on a married woman.
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

In fact, people are punished for not celebrating homosexuality,” Perkins said. “Same was true of transgenderism.”

More White Male Christian oppression. It's everywhere.
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

The anti faith crowd is big on saying faith is irrational (just channeling their inner Rush Limbaugh to get there). New science shows that's not true.

Here's an interesting article that asks the question 'is atheism rational?' The outcome is that we can't know...but it does show a relationship between atheists and deficiencies.

https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/2014/01/28/atheism-irrational/

The study its based on...

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0036880
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

A preacher calls atheism deficient because of a study done on autistic people and their faith? Got it. Next.

I call religion deficient because I've been attending Mass regularly over the past couple months. I listen to and read Biblical passages, stories of people being killed for wearing the wrong garb to a master's wedding feast, and priests trying to explain the allegorical nature of our subservience to the OG. Yeah...
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

I just wish they wouldn't lie and obsfucate. Plenty of valuable human creations are irrational: art, literature, baseball, porn. Well, maybe not porn, which inarguably has a profoundly solid functionalist value, but the rest are all enjoyable and fulfilling human activities. Religion should proudly recognize it is one of them and promote itself as an aid to flourishing.

But none of these other recreations pretends to be rational. Poetry doesn't pretend to be mathematics, painting doesn't pretend to be physics, playwriting doesn't pretend to be history.

Ferchrissakes, we all know these things are not "real" in the sense of empirical reality, but they are also quite valuable and an important part of being human. Nobody is threatening your cute little belief system by pointing out it's another artifact of human creativity. Hamlet is far, far more profound -- more "true" -- than anything in any scripture ever scribbled, and it moves millions of people to the depth of their being, but they don't pretend that it's a documentary.

It doesn't matter that religion is not a fact. It is a social fact, and that's what drives human behavior. That should be enough. You don't have to lie.
 
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Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

The anti faith crowd is big on saying faith is irrational (just channeling their inner Rush Limbaugh to get there)

:rolleyes:

A preacher calls atheism deficient because of a study done on autistic people and their faith? Got it. Next.

I call religion deficient because I've been attending Mass regularly over the past couple months. I listen to and read Biblical passages, stories of people being killed for wearing the wrong garb to a master's wedding feast, and priests trying to explain the allegorical nature of our subservience to the OG. Yeah...

Catholics aren't Xtians, dude. The real Xtians have been telling me so for years.
 
Re: Religion Thread: ...and suddenly, everyone's a theology scholar

Plenty of valuable human creations are irrational: art, literature, baseball, porn. Well, maybe not porn, which inarguably has a profoundly solid functionalist value, but the rest are all enjoyable and fulfilling human activities. Religion should proudly recognize it is one of them and promote itself as an aid to flourishing.

But none of these other recreations pretends to be rational. Poetry doesn't pretend to be mathematics, painting doesn't pretend to be physics, playwriting doesn't pretend to be history.

You appear to be missing the point. The author didn't say that irrational was bad...that's your interpretation. It is only pointed out that those with faith are often assumed to be irrational - and that is inferred to mean flawed. The author is just looking at atheism with the same pov by which atheists are evaluating faith.

'Atheism, however, has not received much attention. I suspect this is due to the following: the vast majority of those who work on these topics are atheists or agnostics who view religious belief as false and even bizarre. Given this assumption, the project of psychological explanations of religion is to explain how otherwise rational people could hold obviously false beliefs. Unlike religious belief, their own beliefs (agnosticism or atheism), so the narrative goes, are products of coolly rational reflection—the triumph of reason over superstition. The project then is to seek out the malfunction that produces religious belief; atheism gets a free pass.'
 
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