Religious, yes or no.

mellowyellow said:
Religion brings comfort to millions of people and that has to be a good thing.
Click to expand...
I'm an agnostic, but I completely concur with your post. Aside from the comfort that a belief in God conveys on individuals, the church is a social institution that brings like minded people together under one roof, and if only for that reason is a great comfort to many, particularly folks our age.
 

SeaBreeze said:
No. Spent 8 yrs. in Catholic grade school when I was a kid because it was near my home, walked away from it when I started high school. I do not belong to any organized religion.
Click to expand...
Sounds exactly like me..convent from grade 4 to 10..drove half a dozen nuns insane..so parents let me go to a boy and girl school..the Catholic religion put the fear of God in us…walked away never looked back…God is good and all loving!
 
I was raised as a Presbyterian, but never got thoroughly into it. Later in life I concluded that the existence of a God as portrayed in the Bible seemed at best, unlikely. On the other hand religion has played an essential role in the evolution of humanity. Today it continues to be a source of comfort and companionship to many people, particularly the elderly. I have come to believe that to flatly state the non-existence of a God, as atheists do, is not justifiable. The universe is vast beyond our understanding, and probably always will be. I'm content to be an agnostic, but I have to confess that in some ways I am envious of those people I sometimes see filing into church.
 
ElCastor said:
I was raised as a Presbyterian, but never got thoroughly into it. Later in life I concluded that the existence of a God as portrayed in the Bible seemed at best, unlikely. On the other hand religion has played an essential role in the evolution of humanity. Today it continues to be a source of comfort and companionship to many people, particularly the elderly. I have come to believe that to flatly state the non-existence of a God, as atheists do, is not justifiable. The universe is vast beyond our understanding, and probably always will be. I'm content to be an agnostic, but I have to confess that in some ways I am envious of those people I sometimes see filing into church.
Click to expand...
Well said!
 
mellowyellow said:
View attachment 199284

The thing that bothers me about churches is the tax free side of it. Hillsong is just up the road from where I live and I was invited to come along to a service years ago and was amazed at how many $50 notes went into the deep tins (not plates) being passed around. It reminded me of a rock concert, music, lights, electric excitement, lots of hands in the air. You had to see it to believe it.
Click to expand...
That's just it free taxes and all that money for free. However, they are providing people a place to go to hangout in.
With the idea God approves. Plus they receive the all exceptance for that feel good thing that most want yet can't find anywhere else. To be excepted and a feeling of love that many don't get at home.
A acceptable place to go to within there safe system....go home feeling great.
 
Autumn72 said:
That's just it free taxes and all that money for free. However, they are providing people a place to go to hangout in.
With the idea God approves. Plus they receive the all exceptance for that feel good thing that most want yet can't find anywhere else. To be excepted and a feeling of love that many don't get at home.
A acceptable place to go to within there safe system....go home feeling great.
Click to expand...
Not just great, maybe a little bit "divine" too sometimes, or at least "divinely lucky"!(?). :)😇
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Ditto.
Click to expand...
I had a quite strange reaction from a very nice young guy at work yesterday when I tried to suggest to him some people with religious faith had great intellect, not to mention other fine qualities, (think Dr. Martin Luther-King jnr), but he took this fairly innocuous comment to mean I was trying to promote religion to him, (odd hey, just how touchy some young people can become at the merest mention of anything they believe attached to churches/religion/Christianity etc. :rolleyes:).
 
I was not raised in the church. However we believed in God. I always remember praying and talking to him through the years. I didn’t have a close relationship until approx 20 yrs ago when I got saved. That relationship grew even closer when I became involved in a recovery group due to my husband and son being addicts. I started attending that church which helped me to recover from some of my hurts and issues and have attended for 6 years. It is here that I’ve felt grace that I didn’t feel at other churches. They are not pushy at all. I am just now thinking about joining. Prior to this nothing made sense in my life. I felt as though I was in the wilderness.
 
Shero said:
"Kindness" is the theme of all religions. Trouble is those who profess to be religious or spiritual (which means the same thing) do not keep to this.
.
Click to expand...
Find the Divine within, not within a church, temple, synagogue or mosque. Religion is believing in someone else’s experiences. Spirituality is having your own experience.
 
Somewhat religious.
No church goer
I think maybe it may be OK for Sunday school for young children
I don't believe in men to be without a wife as in the catholic faith
I was brought up as a catholic
Married in another faith due to not making my man made rule of whatever at twelve one is suppose to do.
Just the same mother believed in a God and Jesus.
And for the nuns at Saint Maria Coretti's Church to be our breakfast ritual at times of need.
Good Lord their kitchen was surely, up in date compared to our home. We jade no dishwashers at all then in the mid 50s.
And they did not have to get married except to God. As I did when I was 7 white dress and veil. White knee socks and and shoes and I did not see a dishwasher brought to our house maybe if I had made my Confirmation at twelve.
Oh, well I did find one in a apartment complex even thought I wasn't looking for one. However, I was not with my husband, for he had bern husband napped by a wicked witch and so two daughters later I guess God if not Jesus must had looked down at me and felt mighty bad at my situation and decided to magically place a dishwasher for me to make it a bite easier for me.
A sure surprise even thought I never divorced him as he carried on his recipes in the nursing home with her joined at the hip until she scoped out his locker and found all his playboy mags and warned him she would turn him in if he ever returned to me. Oh maybe also she was due to have his son Michael all now living happily in Texas a town with his name isn't that so ironically weird, I get a dishwasher, he gets a whole town. Hmmm.
 
It's hard to know how many stars that there are in our galaxy. Estimates range from 100 billion to 4 hundred billion, so it's maybe somewhere in the middle. Estimates of the number of planets is about 1.6 per star, so anywhere upwards of 160 billion in our galaxy alone.

How many galaxies in the universe? That's another big number with an estimate of about 200 billion in the observable universe. If our galaxy was typical, that would mean there are about 160 x 200 billion billion planets.

Wow, this 'god' must spread itself pretty thinly to be worried about all them and any life on them. I think it's verging on arrogant to think that we're important of that anyone out there worries about us. No, it's up to us to make the best of our lives, but keep watching the skies.
 
Growing up my mom did everything imaginable to raise me in the church and I did everything possible to turn from it. In my early 30's I became pregnant and it was quite the life change for me. I started looking more into those things I once tried to avoid while growing up and at the age of 34 I rededicated my life to the Lord. I have raised my daughter in the church and she has grown to be a wonderful young 16 almost 17 year old young lady.
 
Irwin said:
For those who claim there is no evidence that god doesn't exist, that's not true. The existence of a god or anything supernatural would defy the laws of physics and other fields of science. If it were possible for a god to exist, then it would also be possible for my chair to turn into an alligator. That would be one terrifying world! :ROFLMAO: So, on one hand, there is no evidence that god exists. On the other hand, there is strong evidence that god doesn't exist. That's why I have a hard time believing in god.
Click to expand...

Yours is a common position but what you are really considering impossible is the interpreted Bible by pre-science era scholars that became denominational dogma. Nowhere in the Bible, neither in the OT or NT, does is state the three O’s, favorites of theological philosophers, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. At most it vaguely states "Almighty". Churches had great reasons to have their followers think a god had such powers as such opened up a long list of supernatural magic like things a god could do. And much of such philosophy became dogma during the Middle Ages that from which later religious leaders created all manner of self serving ideas. Consider how eternal life does not bear on the supernatural but rather may be a matter of physics of matter and energy?

Thus a race of ancient Ultimate Intelligent Entities with great though not unlimited powers or knowledge, might also possibly be able to provide eternal life, not just some supernatural being philosophers have to resort to nonsense like being on different plains of existence to consider. Also consider how if UIE exist within the universe, figuring out how to do so given billions if not trillions of years into the infinite past would have arguably been about the most important goal in a universe like ours where organic life can evolve into intelligent beings. And that such a race would have immense interest in rare blue water worlds like the Earth.
 
Just went through the 8 pages of posts. I made a post on page 3 that shows this highly science educated person's view is unlike any others on this board.

https://www.seniorforums.com/threads/religious-yes-or-no.66938/page-3#post-1949415

This web board has a majority of agnostic non church going members that are uncertain about religion or a god. Many members grew up with some level of religion but for a list of reasons left. A few found some level of religion as an adult. A few have never believed as atheists but herein have remained civil in their inputs. Others have always believed and are still a part of organized religion. And some have as adults become very spiritual without being a part of organized religion. Obviously, there is a difference between what members consider the purpose of religion with a majority seeming to equate religion as a philosophical guide to a moral spiritual life.

For others as this person, it is all about eternal life, the only possible escape from otherwise certain eternal non-existence after our physical organic body dies. What I consider by far the saddest part of our precious mortal existence as intelligent beings. There are some who lean towards if there is possible eternal life then everyone will have it regardless, some thinking everyone is saved, others that it is either heaven or hell. I can point to NT scripture pointing to the more logically probable that only those faithful receive eternal life while most of the rest simply end existence.

Most of those members exposed to the Bible and Christian denominations as well as those in the general population are familiar with various dogmas and Bible verses, however few have actually studied much of the Bible at length as it is a long, difficult, translated from ancient language document, from a list of different sources, for anyone to easily understand. Over millennia scholars have dedicated their lifetimes to doing so. Their differences reflect the difficulty of understanding and much grates against modern science that tends to show a fair amount of dogma to be indefensible nonsense much less inerrant. Before this current telecom technology era, an average person had little to no access to scholar's works. However today much of that heretofore secret work is open to anyone with a computer connected to the Internet while there are also many books. Despite such, very very few have taken advantage of those sources because the vast amount of such works is so overwhelming and people, especially seniors even with an interest have become weary of seeking. I would suggest that any that have an interest in eternal life, owe it to themselves to at least try. Of course there are plenty that have no interest in possible eternal life and have lived their lives not expecting that. The problem is where does one start?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top