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Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

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Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

joecct said:
Join the Ordnariate. Then we'd REALLY have something in common. :)

But I don't think there are any parishes near you.
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I know both of our churches place emphasis on the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. I know at Grace, our sermons last about 15 minutes, while Communion is the Main Event.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
You make your own god. Sorry, he does not exist.
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Without Divine Retribution, what keeps people on the straight and narrow?

No heaven or hell means that you can live your life free of repercussions. If you can get away with it, you're good.

Belief in a Supreme Judge means that you have somebody watching over all that you do and you have to answer for it.

Of course, God has a sense of humor. If you're Willie Tulloch, you'd get the surprise of your life that after being an lifelong atheist, you get to meet the Fellow who gives you a pat on the back and bids you enter into the Kingdom you honestly denied.

If you're a liar, cheat, and a thief, you may get a different reception.
 
MissThundercat said:
I know both of our churches place emphasis on the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. I know at Grace, our sermons last about 15 minutes, while Communion is the Main Event.
Click to expand...
Are you High Church or Low Church? High Church is Catholic lite (with better music). Low Church is more Protestant (with better music).

My oldest son and his family belong to the Ordnariate parish in Baltimore. The pastor and his wife have 9 kids. 6 were born while he was Episcopalian. 3 since he swam the Tiber. They're great people. The parish is growing with many young families.

When I attend Mass up there, it reminds me of what Mass should have become after V2. Tallis, Byrd, Palestrina, de Victoria and the great Catholic composers prior to the 70s, sung by a choir with professional musicians.
 
Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

joecct said:
Without Divine Retribution, what keeps people on the straight and narrow?

No heaven or hell means that you can live your life free of repercussions. If you can get away with it, you're good.

Belief in a Supreme Judge means that you have somebody watching over all that you do and you have to answer for it.

Of course, God has a sense of humor. If you're Willie Tulloch, you'd get the surprise of your life that after being an lifelong atheist, you get to meet the Fellow who gives you a pat on the back and bids you enter into the Kingdom you honestly denied.

If you're a liar, cheat, and a thief, you may get a different reception.
Click to expand...
Is this a serious post? Taking it as serious makes me baffled. I was taught morals, ethics, right from wrong by two people who think church is an evil entity that is a cult or possibly worse. They definitely don't behave because they are afraid of Divine Retribution. My moral compass is internal and even if I didn't believe (I do- brought myself to church) I would be constrained by my sense of right and wrong.

Do you really only do things because the Big Guy is watching?
 
Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

It's time again for the wisdom of Douglas Adams
“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.”
Click to expand...
 
Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

joecct said:
Without Divine Retribution, what keeps people on the straight and narrow?

No heaven or hell means that you can live your life free of repercussions. If you can get away with it, you're good.

Belief in a Supreme Judge means that you have somebody watching over all that you do and you have to answer for it.

Of course, God has a sense of humor. If you're Willie Tulloch, you'd get the surprise of your life that after being an lifelong atheist, you get to meet the Fellow who gives you a pat on the back and bids you enter into the Kingdom you honestly denied.

If you're a liar, cheat, and a thief, you may get a different reception.
Click to expand...

leswp1 said:
Is this a serious post? Taking it as serious makes me baffled.
Click to expand...

Yeah--give that a voice or journalistic form, and it's Onion material. Joe's gotta be trolling the weed patch.
 
Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

joecct said:
Without Divine Retribution, what keeps people on the straight and narrow?

No heaven or hell means that you can live your life free of repercussions. If you can get away with it, you're good.
Click to expand...

The entire point of morality is it's voluntary. We are radically free -- the full responsibility is on us. We are exactly as good as we decide to be. "Heaven" and "hell" are the world we make, right here on Earth, through our decisions.

I can sort of understand someone who invents a Divine Policeman to keep him in line. But I can't understand being proud of it. You are saying you don't have the personal strength to create and hold to your own ethical system.

Be better.

Human beings have brought something new into Nature: with us ethics and morals enter into reality. They are "arbitrary" in that they are a human invention; as far as we know they are not anywhere else in nature (though we've seen so little of the universe that's a tremendously egotistical thought).

Language, law, aesthetics, morality. All invented by humans. But yet all "real" at the very least in the Jamesian sense that "whatever works is real."

It's essential to hold some sort of cooperative, non-self-destructive morality yet the vast majority of people aren't able to conceive of this as an abstraction, so we invented religions to "bring it down to Earth." What else is the story of Jesus than taking a hifalutin abstraction (God) and making it tangible and physical so people can relate to it (His Son)?

And it works! Well, sort of. Believers still do awful things and justify them, and religious leaders are masterful at making excuses for themselves why they don't actually follow religious dictates, but for the most part religions all say the same thing and it's pretty positive:

1. The Golden Rule
2. Help the weak against the strong
3. There's more to life than self-interest

Is there anybody who can disagree on those 3 things? Yet none of them are in Nature. They came from human imagination and they've caught on which.... great!
 
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Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

joecct said:
Are you High Church or Low Church? High Church is Catholic lite (with better music). Low Church is more Protestant (with better music).

My oldest son and his family belong to the Ordnariate parish in Baltimore. The pastor and his wife have 9 kids. 6 were born while he was Episcopalian. 3 since he swam the Tiber. They're great people. The parish is growing with many young families.

When I attend Mass up there, it reminds me of what Mass should have become after V2. Tallis, Byrd, Palestrina, de Victoria and the great Catholic composers prior to the 70s, sung by a choir with professional musicians.
Click to expand...

Grace is High Church. We follow the liturgy and it changes with the time of year; right now, we're going through Pentecost.
 
Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

unofan said:
Not being a *******?

If the only thing keeping you honest is a fear of hell, that says a whole lot about you.
Click to expand...

i'm not sure if Joe is serious or this is some attempt at trolling us. My gut says he's serious, but maybe I've fallen for the bait and he's really great at trolling?
 
Kepler said:
1. The Golden Rule
2. Help the weak against the strong
3. There's more to life than self-interest

Is there anybody who can disagree on those 3 things?
Click to expand...

President Trump isn’t following... can you put these in pictures featuring Brer Rabbit and a Tar Baby? And draw a picture of how big of a stack would be in it for him?
 
Re: Religion Thread: We Could Say a Prayer

At least my morality doesn't tell me to bail on my current city. I'm going to stay and try to make my patch of grass a nicer place to live.
 
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