how often do you go to mass/church?
- Thread starter SBTNW
- Start date
Just curious - but are you an objectivist by any chance?
Just asking. Don't have to answer that if you don't want to
cheers,
I feel like your baiting me into something here.
I do believe the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or "rational self-interest" and that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights.
Although I would hesitate to label myself as a believer in a single type of philosophy such as objectivism. Like most people I believe in a mixture of ideologies. None of which are religious.
S
sputnikgirl
Guest
My parents are both traditional Catholics - my mom has a big Irish Catholic family. My dad didn't used to go to church that much, but he's gotten more religious as he's gotten older. I'm a mixed bag as far as religion goes. I study Buddhist texts, and practice some Buddhist meditations, but the church I attend the most regularly is unitarian/universalist. I also go to the Catholic church on occasion. I agree with most Shinto principles and try to live out those principles in my daily life, so I guess I could be considered a practicing Shintoist too.
S
sputnikgirl
Guest
^It's a natural reaction to thanatos.
Philbert
Banned
It's amusing to see how "religion" and God are usually lumped together, so when someone rejects religion they just throw out the baby with the bathwater.
God has nothing to do with religion, except where the sect's ordained salesmen use God to sell their particular system.
Have a problem with human logic being applied to spiritual experience? Reject the belief system...men create, propound, and perpetuate religion and if it doesn't fit move on.
God in whatever form is beyond the physical realm, and is deep within everyone's inner core of self. Or...if you feel the spirit, let it move you. Don't ask Reverend Headuphisass what the true path to enlightenment is.
Roughneck can explain that in better terms than I can, but realise this...wasting your time worrying about the illogic inherent in a belief system created by weak, lost, and confused men will keep you from finding your own personal peace. There is something beyond mere phsical reality, and opening yourself to awareness of what lies beyond your own immediate personal (and limited) experience can take you to a better and stronger place.
Calm in the face of adversity is not always found in personal strength, sometimes outside support can bring you through the worst shit...ask anyone who has had a near-death moment, or has seen things that can destroy most anyone's rationality ; there is something else beyond just who you are and what you know that transcends the immediate physical world, and it isn't something that can be put in a few neat phrases or an elequent philisophical treatise...this is often described as "God".
I like Conan the Barbarian's philosophy ...Crom put us here, now we're on our own. Crom doesn't care if we live or die, that's up to us to do what we need to do to get by.
Sounds about right...:2 cents:
God has nothing to do with religion, except where the sect's ordained salesmen use God to sell their particular system.
Have a problem with human logic being applied to spiritual experience? Reject the belief system...men create, propound, and perpetuate religion and if it doesn't fit move on.
God in whatever form is beyond the physical realm, and is deep within everyone's inner core of self. Or...if you feel the spirit, let it move you. Don't ask Reverend Headuphisass what the true path to enlightenment is.
Roughneck can explain that in better terms than I can, but realise this...wasting your time worrying about the illogic inherent in a belief system created by weak, lost, and confused men will keep you from finding your own personal peace. There is something beyond mere phsical reality, and opening yourself to awareness of what lies beyond your own immediate personal (and limited) experience can take you to a better and stronger place.
Calm in the face of adversity is not always found in personal strength, sometimes outside support can bring you through the worst shit...ask anyone who has had a near-death moment, or has seen things that can destroy most anyone's rationality ; there is something else beyond just who you are and what you know that transcends the immediate physical world, and it isn't something that can be put in a few neat phrases or an elequent philisophical treatise...this is often described as "God".
I like Conan the Barbarian's philosophy ...Crom put us here, now we're on our own. Crom doesn't care if we live or die, that's up to us to do what we need to do to get by.
Sounds about right...:2 cents:
^ Good read, that post. You caught my interest right with the first line. I believe in God but don't follow any religion. I've long felt that these things are independent of each other. After some intriguing reading, you blew me away with the Conan quote, which I had never heard of before. That quote sums up almost exactly how I feel about God; I believe that he created all, set it in motion and just sat back and let it go without any interference. This belief allows me to be comfortable with my scientific mind, most notably a belief in evolution.
To answer the thread's question, I usually go to Catholic church once or twice a year, as my mother works for the church and is religious. I go to make her happy.
To answer the thread's question, I usually go to Catholic church once or twice a year, as my mother works for the church and is religious. I go to make her happy.
^^ & ^^^
My Church believes just what you described: God put things in motion, and usually doesn't interfere. What people do is their decision, or free agency. Basically, people are put on Earth to prove whether or not they are worthy of entering one of God's Kingdoms. If they choose to follow a path of righteousness, in the end they will be found worthy to enter one of His Kingdoms, according to their level of righteousness. If a person is found to be unworthy of entering one of God's Kingdoms, he doesn't necessarily go to Hell, he goes to eternally roam in a place that is deprived of the light of God. Only the real scum (murderers, rapists, pedophiles) enter into Hell.
To answer the question, I stopped going to Church about 4 years ago, but that doesn't mean I stopped believing in my faith. The problem with that is that, according to my own beliefs, I'm not going to be found worthy to enter any of God's Kingdoms due to the choices I have made in my life.
My Church believes just what you described: God put things in motion, and usually doesn't interfere. What people do is their decision, or free agency. Basically, people are put on Earth to prove whether or not they are worthy of entering one of God's Kingdoms. If they choose to follow a path of righteousness, in the end they will be found worthy to enter one of His Kingdoms, according to their level of righteousness. If a person is found to be unworthy of entering one of God's Kingdoms, he doesn't necessarily go to Hell, he goes to eternally roam in a place that is deprived of the light of God. Only the real scum (murderers, rapists, pedophiles) enter into Hell.
To answer the question, I stopped going to Church about 4 years ago, but that doesn't mean I stopped believing in my faith. The problem with that is that, according to my own beliefs, I'm not going to be found worthy to enter any of God's Kingdoms due to the choices I have made in my life.
I only go if someone asks me to go with them.
when I was a kid I went all the time, I didn't understand it and I frequently fell asleep.
despite my upbringing, I lost my faith in religion at a pretty young age, I'm talking like 8 or 9.
I can remember it very vividly, it was when a family member told me that evolution is wrong. I was shocked. I had thought that God created the universe and the way that it functioned was through scientific process. There was never any conflict between the two in my mind until that point. From then on, when religion told me what I knew to be true was false, it was forever contradictory to my beliefs.
a few years ago I started going to a bible study group for college kids. I wanted to meet new people and give them a chance to see that I wasn't the hell-bound enemy that they thought I was. I found the bible to be very relatable and contain a lot of truth, and my own interpretation of it was very much different from theirs. it was a good experience, I often posed questions that reexamined what they had been told and I hope that I got them to think and maybe see things from a different perspective.
So I don't see any need to go to church, but it doesn't bother me. I think that most of the world religions perhaps started out right, but they lost the point somewhere along the way.
when I was a kid I went all the time, I didn't understand it and I frequently fell asleep.
despite my upbringing, I lost my faith in religion at a pretty young age, I'm talking like 8 or 9.
I can remember it very vividly, it was when a family member told me that evolution is wrong. I was shocked. I had thought that God created the universe and the way that it functioned was through scientific process. There was never any conflict between the two in my mind until that point. From then on, when religion told me what I knew to be true was false, it was forever contradictory to my beliefs.
a few years ago I started going to a bible study group for college kids. I wanted to meet new people and give them a chance to see that I wasn't the hell-bound enemy that they thought I was. I found the bible to be very relatable and contain a lot of truth, and my own interpretation of it was very much different from theirs. it was a good experience, I often posed questions that reexamined what they had been told and I hope that I got them to think and maybe see things from a different perspective.
So I don't see any need to go to church, but it doesn't bother me. I think that most of the world religions perhaps started out right, but they lost the point somewhere along the way.
With "certain company" I do, because I like to go into those confession cubicles (don't know how they're called...).
I was brought up to go to church too. Then I grew up and realized that those morals and values you just mentioned don't even come from religious teachings. They come from a long evolutionary history of altruistic behavior. Humans benefit from altruism and from following certain "moral" guidelines.(As do other species like chimps and gorrillas) Therefore, "morals and values" still exist in the absence of religion. And children can still be taught right from wrong without being brainwashed into believing that there is a supernatural diety in the sky that watches their every move and knows their every thought. And if you break his rules then he condemns you to be burned, tortured and tormented in hell for all eternity.
If we did follow the "morals and values" that are written in the Bible literally then someone like yourself, who does porn, would be stoned to death. And that would suck because you are awesome IMO.
I agree with the first paragraph, except your view of how it is God who does those burnings, etc...man does these things, acting as sanctimonious as they are corrupt.
But, for some like me, being left outside an organized system of belief ends up not making us stronger, but even more without a foundation.
I was baptized Roman Catholic and am now intently re-connecting. Maybe this is because of how dangerous the military is (I'm joining the Navy). Yet, I also think that I lack a foundation with which to form a solid belief system of my own. I envy those who can.
Before I was only going to church when somebody died that I know, I only did that to comfort the family of the departed. little did i knew that when my dad died, and the whole church was full of people, how comforting it was.
Right now, I go at least once a year, out of respect for my father. Though it is not to pray, I don't believe in a supreme being or whatever.
Right now, I go at least once a year, out of respect for my father. Though it is not to pray, I don't believe in a supreme being or whatever.
I'm a Pagan,
I believe in Hecate,
mainly because I know a hot babe who does.
on my deathbed i will pray
to the gods and the angels
like a pagan to anyone
who will take me to heaven .
I believe in Hecate,
mainly because I know a hot babe who does.
on my deathbed i will pray
to the gods and the angels
like a pagan to anyone
who will take me to heaven .
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