Author Topic: Religion  (Read 133740 times)

pixote

  • Administrator
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 34237
  • Up with generosity!
    • yet more inanities!
Religion
« on: October 02, 2008, 10:41:18 AM »
Play nice.

pixote
« Last Edit: October 08, 2009, 02:57:23 AM by pixote »
Great  |  Near Great  |  Very Good  |  Good  |  Fair  |  Mixed  |  Middling  |  Bad

saltine

  • Administrator
  • Godfather
  • ******
  • Posts: 9800
Re: Filmspotter Confessions
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2009, 11:01:43 AM »
I skimped on my last meal before Yom Kippur so I could masturbate before sundown.  Yeah, you abstain from that too.  I had my priorities.  I swear, I think I'm a Jewish teenage boy trapped in a woman's body.

Why did I think you're Catholic?
Texan Down Under

Colleen

  • Hot Fuzz
  • Godfather
  • *
  • Posts: 5906
  • Let's be careful out there!
Re: Filmspotter Confessions
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2009, 11:05:34 AM »
Because I was raised Catholic?  Then I was agnostic but spiritual, and then I decided to explore Judaism because it seemed to philosophically match up to my own beliefs.  I'm in the (slow, fits and starts) process of conversion.


saltine

  • Administrator
  • Godfather
  • ******
  • Posts: 9800
Re: Filmspotter Confessions
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2009, 11:08:06 AM »
Because I was raised Catholic?  Then I was agnostic but spiritual, and then I decided to explore Judaism because it seemed to philosophically match up to my own beliefs.  I'm in the (slow, fits and starts) process of conversion.



Fascinating.  I guess the natural in-between step from Catholicism to Judaism is agnostic but spiritual.  Still, it's a leap.
Texan Down Under

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: Filmspotter Confessions
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2009, 11:12:52 AM »
Because I was raised Catholic?  Then I was agnostic but spiritual, and then I decided to explore Judaism because it seemed to philosophically match up to my own beliefs.  I'm in the (slow, fits and starts) process of conversion.



Fascinating.  I guess the natural in-between step from Catholicism to Judaism is agnostic but spiritual.  Still, it's a leap.

I don't think so.  For many, Catholicism is just too bound up with more recent innovaton-- historically speaking.  Judaism is much more focused on the roots of spirituality.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Colleen

  • Hot Fuzz
  • Godfather
  • *
  • Posts: 5906
  • Let's be careful out there!
Re: Filmspotter Confessions
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2009, 11:25:16 AM »
Because I was raised Catholic?  Then I was agnostic but spiritual, and then I decided to explore Judaism because it seemed to philosophically match up to my own beliefs.  I'm in the (slow, fits and starts) process of conversion.



Fascinating.  I guess the natural in-between step from Catholicism to Judaism is agnostic but spiritual.  Still, it's a leap.

I don't think so.  For many, Catholicism is just too bound up with more recent innovaton-- historically speaking.  Judaism is much more focused on the roots of spirituality.

I always was fascinated by it.  I wanted to be Jewish since I read the All of a Kind Family books when I was a little kid.  Then I found out that my great grandfather had been Jewish and converted to Catholicism several years after he and my great grandmother married.  The rabbi I'm studying with said that very often converts seem to have a Jewish relative somewhere in the family tree and it makes him think there's something to the whole notion of a "Jewish soul".

My big problem with Catholicism and most flavors of Christianity is that faith and belief aren't just all you need, it's everything.  Actions derive from belief.  I never bought big chunks of Catholic belief despite 12 years of Catholic school.  The older I got, the less believable I found any of it.

Judaism speaks to me because it's about the doing first.  I go through phases of finding it hard to believe there's any God at all and through phases of feeling a presence very strongly.  Judaism says, whatever, keep doing the commandments because it's good to the do the commandments and that's what Jews do.  And the ethical standards are very strong. 

I'm also converting Reform because they settled the whole gays being welcome or not question back in 1982 and show no signs of changing.  I got tired of trying different Christian churches only to have them do flip flops over whether and how welcome non-heterosexuals are.

And of course, growing up Catholic also means an exquisitely developed sense of guilt about almost everything.  That's easily transferred to Judaism.  Just substitute "I ate ham" for "I ate meat on Friday during Lent."  And I still get to have my old familiar vacillation between feeling guilty and then refusing to feel guilty about something I don't actually believe is wrong.  But Judaism mostly crams that into one long miserable day once a year, instead of all 365 with double helpings for Lent...

For the record, at one point when I was thinking about it and hadn't made up my mind yet, I took the Beliefnet "What religion should you be?" quiz where you answer a series of questions about your own beliefs and it tells you how they match up with various world religions.  I came out 100% Reform Jewish and in the 90s for Quaker and UU.  I came out more Sikh and more Scientologist than Catholic (32% if I recall correctly).  It wasn't the deciding factor but it was a signpost :)

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Religion
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2009, 08:37:36 PM »
Because I was raised Catholic?  Then I was agnostic but spiritual, and then I decided to explore Judaism because it seemed to philosophically match up to my own beliefs.  I'm in the (slow, fits and starts) process of conversion.



Fascinating.  I guess the natural in-between step from Catholicism to Judaism is agnostic but spiritual.  Still, it's a leap.

I don't think so.  For many, Catholicism is just too bound up with more recent innovaton-- historically speaking.  Judaism is much more focused on the roots of spirituality.

I always was fascinated by it.  I wanted to be Jewish since I read the All of a Kind Family books when I was a little kid.  Then I found out that my great grandfather had been Jewish and converted to Catholicism several years after he and my great grandmother married.  The rabbi I'm studying with said that very often converts seem to have a Jewish relative somewhere in the family tree and it makes him think there's something to the whole notion of a "Jewish soul".

My big problem with Catholicism and most flavors of Christianity is that faith and belief aren't just all you need, it's everything.  Actions derive from belief.  I never bought big chunks of Catholic belief despite 12 years of Catholic school.  The older I got, the less believable I found any of it.

Judaism speaks to me because it's about the doing first.  I go through phases of finding it hard to believe there's any God at all and through phases of feeling a presence very strongly.  Judaism says, whatever, keep doing the commandments because it's good to the do the commandments and that's what Jews do.  And the ethical standards are very strong. 

This is a clear issue in Christianity, especially since the Reformation.  But Jesus' teaching emphasizes the doing-- like, say, the Sermon on the Mount-- and most of early Christianity is about this, as clearly seen in the book of James and other early works such as Hermas, the Didache and the Letter of Barnabas.  This is why I am an Anabaptist, which emphasizes the Christian practice of discipleship-- Jesus as a lifestyle instead of just a focus of faith. 

I understand your concerns about Christianity's lack of welcome to homosexuals.  It is less that they are wishy washy than that they are schizophrenic about the issue. 
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Clovis8

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 11719
Religion
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2009, 08:56:30 PM »
Because I was raised Catholic?  Then I was agnostic but spiritual, and then I decided to explore Judaism because it seemed to philosophically match up to my own beliefs.  I'm in the (slow, fits and starts) process of conversion.



Fascinating.  I guess the natural in-between step from Catholicism to Judaism is agnostic but spiritual.  Still, it's a leap.

I don't think so.  For many, Catholicism is just too bound up with more recent innovaton-- historically speaking.  Judaism is much more focused on the roots of spirituality.

I always was fascinated by it.  I wanted to be Jewish since I read the All of a Kind Family books when I was a little kid.  Then I found out that my great grandfather had been Jewish and converted to Catholicism several years after he and my great grandmother married.  The rabbi I'm studying with said that very often converts seem to have a Jewish relative somewhere in the family tree and it makes him think there's something to the whole notion of a "Jewish soul".

My big problem with Catholicism and most flavors of Christianity is that faith and belief aren't just all you need, it's everything.  Actions derive from belief.  I never bought big chunks of Catholic belief despite 12 years of Catholic school.  The older I got, the less believable I found any of it.

Judaism speaks to me because it's about the doing first.  I go through phases of finding it hard to believe there's any God at all and through phases of feeling a presence very strongly.  Judaism says, whatever, keep doing the commandments because it's good to the do the commandments and that's what Jews do.  And the ethical standards are very strong. 

This is a clear issue in Christianity, especially since the Reformation.  But Jesus' teaching emphasizes the doing-- like, say, the Sermon on the Mount-- and most of early Christianity is about this, as clearly seen in the book of James and other early works such as Hermas, the Didache and the Letter of Barnabas.  This is why I am an Anabaptist, which emphasizes the Christian practice of discipleship-- Jesus as a lifestyle instead of just a focus of faith. 

I understand your concerns about Christianity's lack of welcome to homosexuals.  It is less that they are wishy washy than that they are schizophrenic about the issue. 


To be fair, they are not really schizophrenic or wishy-washy at all. Nearly all organized Christianity hates and detests homosexuality and thinks its a sin. I think we are letting if off the hook FAR too lightly by saying anything else. 

As for the idea of following Christ's example over faith alone, if only more Christians actually did this I would have much less problem with religion.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Religion
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2009, 09:02:08 PM »
Because I was raised Catholic?  Then I was agnostic but spiritual, and then I decided to explore Judaism because it seemed to philosophically match up to my own beliefs.  I'm in the (slow, fits and starts) process of conversion.



Fascinating.  I guess the natural in-between step from Catholicism to Judaism is agnostic but spiritual.  Still, it's a leap.

I don't think so.  For many, Catholicism is just too bound up with more recent innovaton-- historically speaking.  Judaism is much more focused on the roots of spirituality.

I always was fascinated by it.  I wanted to be Jewish since I read the All of a Kind Family books when I was a little kid.  Then I found out that my great grandfather had been Jewish and converted to Catholicism several years after he and my great grandmother married.  The rabbi I'm studying with said that very often converts seem to have a Jewish relative somewhere in the family tree and it makes him think there's something to the whole notion of a "Jewish soul".

My big problem with Catholicism and most flavors of Christianity is that faith and belief aren't just all you need, it's everything.  Actions derive from belief.  I never bought big chunks of Catholic belief despite 12 years of Catholic school.  The older I got, the less believable I found any of it.

Judaism speaks to me because it's about the doing first.  I go through phases of finding it hard to believe there's any God at all and through phases of feeling a presence very strongly.  Judaism says, whatever, keep doing the commandments because it's good to the do the commandments and that's what Jews do.  And the ethical standards are very strong. 

This is a clear issue in Christianity, especially since the Reformation.  But Jesus' teaching emphasizes the doing-- like, say, the Sermon on the Mount-- and most of early Christianity is about this, as clearly seen in the book of James and other early works such as Hermas, the Didache and the Letter of Barnabas.  This is why I am an Anabaptist, which emphasizes the Christian practice of discipleship-- Jesus as a lifestyle instead of just a focus of faith. 

I understand your concerns about Christianity's lack of welcome to homosexuals.  It is less that they are wishy washy than that they are schizophrenic about the issue. 


To be fair, they are not really schizophrenic or wishy-washy at all. Nearly all organized Christianity hates and detests homosexuality and thinks its a sin. I think we are letting if off the hook FAR too lightly by saying anything else. 

As for the idea of following Christ's example over faith alone, if only more Christians actually did this I would have much less problem with religion.

To be fair, that is completely NOT true.  There are different factions of Christianity holding to different positions.  I don't expect anyone to read the religion page, but the fact that the Lutherans, Methodists and the Episcopalians have split on this issue wasn't hidden in a corner.

I appreciate your position on Christianity.  I plan to spend my next few hours being Christ-like by calling churches hypocritical cemeteries.   ;D 
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Clovis8

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 11719
Religion
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2009, 09:09:53 PM »


To be fair, that is completely NOT true.  There are different factions of Christianity holding to different positions.  I don't expect anyone to read the religion page, but the fact that the Lutherans, Methodists and the Episcopalians have split on this issue wasn't hidden in a corner.

I appreciate your position on Christianity.  I plan to spend my next few hours being Christ-like by calling churches hypocritical cemeteries.   ;D  

This is why I said nearly all. Lutherans, Methodists and the Episcopalians make up about 200 million of the worlds 2.1 billion Christians. So I stand by my statement that the vast majority of organized religion thinks homosexuality is a sin.

Note: I say religion thinks its a sin and not religious people as many Christians go against their churches teachings on this matter. Just not enough.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2009, 09:14:37 PM by Clovis8 »