Hands up 'Who goes to church?'

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Capt Lightning said:
Religious belief and church attendance (or not) seems to depend a lot on your parents... Philip Larkin put it beautifully...

They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were ****ed up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

I was dragged to church by parents who could never explain why they or I should go. You simply had to because they had to... They weren't the thinking type.
My own children were never baptised or taken to church, and they never showed any desire to go. I strongly suspect that church and its rituals were in many cases designed to preserve the elite status of the clergy and keep the 'commoners' in their place.
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Your post is deep. I respect the way you feel and in my opinion, I agree with some of what you stated. I went to church with my mom a few times as a little girl.. as I became an adult, I visited different churches with friends..some churches I will not visit again..some were ok. Now at 60 I have always had a personal relationship with God.. I can thank him and praise him where ever I am.. in my house, in the car, etc. I took my daughter to church a few times but I allowed her to make the decision as to if she wanted to continue to go. She did not..however, she attended a Christian College. I agree, we teach our children what was taught to us. However as adults we gain more knowledge and pass it on to our children.
 

My parents weren’t/ aren’t the least bit religious and never instilled the fear of God on us which I’m thankful for. They instilled the fear of them which was enough. They made us go to Sunday School since it was considered free child care. It was easier than being home with them in our younger years. Later they went away on weekends; sometimes I went to church but it was my own choice and I enjoyed it back then.
 
toffee said:
Last time I went was my sisters funeral' few years now -never been keen on weddings -
and so i dont really go unless really called too...i have nothing against the church' i do
find them rather calming when iam in there ...

So do go often especially on a Sunday ' or did you stop attending for a reason .
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Greeting 😇
Some people go to church on holidays, and weddings but a funeral is not the end of life, but a new beginning just like a wedding, so the church is what I want to be For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."
 
TheWordIsOne said:
Greeting 😇
Some people go to church on holidays, and weddings but a funeral is not the end of life, but a new beginning just like a wedding, so the church is what I want to be For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."
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Fine if you wish to believe that to be true. I hope when I die that is it end of the story I have no wish of an afterlife, especially one with the Biblical god if it exists.
 
oldman said:
The fiddle player looks like the same girl that plays for Jeff Lynee (ELO).

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This is Rosie Langley. Her sister, Amy also played in ELO as a cello (?) player. ELO would use a different lead violinist from time to time depending on who was available during their concerts.
 
Rojo said:
Joel Olsteen and those like him, are scammers. The Bible does address tithing though. It is to be used to support the church, workers and ministries.
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Read the Bible very carefully...tithing was ONLY the Israelites. The non-Israelite members of their households did not. Grain, oil, goats etc. were given to the temple. They NEVER gave money even though money existed.

The one and ONLY time Abraham gave a tithe was 10% of the spoils that he had taken from his enemies that he destroyed. HE did this ONE time only to thank God for him winning the fight..

There were grain/oil/sheep/goat tithes also taken to some of their festivals (I don't recall which ones and it is to late to look it up) they would bring it as a sacrifice but then after the ceremony they would eat it during the feast. It was just a big celebration meal. They were told if the location was very far away from their home they would just take enough money with them to PURCHASE the food items for the tithe when they arrived at the feast location. (They did not give the money!)

Tithes were NOT given of their yearly Gross like it is taught in the churches. It was 10% of the INCREASE from the previous year. Think of like our pay raises. If you got a pay raise 0f $3000 for 2019 you would tithe 10% of the $3000 Increase. JUST the one time, that one year, that you got that raise. You would not tithe on that 3K every year until you died. And you did Not tithe 10% of your 60K income.

In their terms...they had 200 sheep at the end of 2018. At end of 2019 they had 190 sheep left over after some died, traded some for money and they fed their family sheep all year long. So even though several sheep were born that year there was no increase. NO tithe required.
At the end of 2020 after some died, they traded some for money and fed their family sheep all year they had 290 sheep. They tithed 10% of the 100 sheep increase. The same applied to vats of oil and bushels of grain etc.

The 10% of our GROSS income EVERY year is a scam to support deacons, bishops, priests , popes, reverends, preachers, fathers, evangelists, the church support staff, expensive cathedrals and church buildings, that sit empty 90% of the time, because clergy only want to make a speech 1 or 2 times a week instead of get a real job.
 
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Interesting, Homeschoolie. This is not something I have heard about before. Human nature being what it is, I can envisage some sharp practices developing to minimise the religious obligation. I hope I am wrong about this.

Interestingly our bible study class recently looked at the story of Zaccheus and at his formula for putting things right. Righteousness does seem to be directly connected to social justice or as we say in OZ, everyone having a fair go.
 
pleinmont said:
It should be a crime for people to proselytise.
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The various versions of Christian religions are the only ones who proselytize....

Jews, (not sure if Messianic Jews do or not), Satanists, Buddhists, New Agers, Pagans, Deists, Wiccans, American Indians, Hindus, Jains, Shinto, Taoism, Krishna's, Druids and the numerous other spiritual beliefs never do. They are totally happy and content. No need to try to dominate, oppress and control the world with what they believe.

The Abrahamic religions are blackmailed/oppressed with fear of hell and fear of pissing off their deity so he wont answer their prayers if they don't. So they do. They have no choice. Others in these religions are arrogant and think they are superior and they must save all the lesser folks!

Jim Jones, Ghana, drink the cool aid or else, pops into my head whenever I think about this.
 
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions
For educational and enlightenment purposes read this list. Really read it and think about it. If you will, you will see how fascinating it is.

No wonder the world is in a mess. This many beliefs. They ALL can't be right. But they ALL can be wrong!
Each and every one was started by a person. The originator of Scientology openly admitted he needed some way to make a living and noticed the leaders of religions were wealthy. He summized that to get rich just start a religion. He did, and he did!

When you get way down the list it has some of the most recent and most fascinating ones.
Humm... God-Building, Church of Divine Science, Wiccan Christianity, Yoga, Kabbalah and so many others.

UPDATE: Love this list. So many intriguing and interesting beliefs.
I read the list and down towards the bottom is this:
The Prince Philip Movement is a religious sect followed by the Kastom people around Yaohnanen village on the southern island of Tanna in Vanuatu. It is a cargo cult of the Yaohnanen tribe, who believe that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort to Queen Elizabeth II, is a divine being.
 
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Grampa Don said:
I don't think folks having strange beliefs makes them bad people. Misled or confused maybe. I once worked with a guy who was a Jehovah's Witness, and he was very likable. He did invite me to one of his meetings once, but when I declined he never brought it up again.

Like I wrote, my Grandparents were devout Mormons. My Granddad did missionary duty. A lot of people think they're a cult, and the book of Mormon is pretty hard to swallow. I've read some of it. But, you won't meet nicer people than my relatives on my Dad's side.

I'm not really religious at all. But hey, if you dance around a bonfire at night yelling boojah boojah and worship snakes, and it makes you happy, we can still be friends.

Don
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I had an Aunt that was a Jehova witness... She was born a Roman Catholic but decided she liked the (Witness's)….I still loved her...
My Dad would visit his Sister, but he told her when he brings his kids to visit he didn't want her to engage in (Silly Talk) when the kids
are around...
Her husband (second husband) was born in another country, we never could understand him....He would take out his wine and ask us
if we want a drink...My Dad always got mad, cause we were under the age to drink alcohol....My Dad had 5 sister's and 4 brother's....
Most were Roman Catholic....
 
Homeschoolie said:
Nooo...you are blessed or lucky... or you DO something to keep religious proselytizing and threatening you with hell away .... Hang garlic around your neck? Carry a spike and hammer?
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I answer the door when a religious person or whatever they are....I telll them I'm not interested..."That's All"....close the door or don't answer the door....It seems we haven't seen people come around anymore....Don't know why!!!
 
Post 136 & 140
Christian's are under an obligation to proselytize- quickly tell them your not interested.
(as you did.)
 
peppermint said:
I answer the door when a religious person or whatever they are....I telll them I'm not interested..."That's All"....close the door or don't answer the door....It seems we haven't seen people come around anymore....Don't know why!!!
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Pretty much nobody does door-to-door stuff anymore here, probably because people nowdays will not open their doors to anyone they don't know.
 
TheWordIsOne said:
Hello
Why do you feel this way who hurt you?
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I was brought up to believe in the highly unpleasant, 'you must be born again or burn in hell' dogma. I even did the 'born again' thing when I was 11. But throughout my teenage years the doubts grew far too many to ignore, I lost my faith by the time I was 19. Besides which, many of the extreme Christians I knew, who believed in that nonsense, were not good people. I have read the Bible many times over the years and the more I read the more convinced I am that it is a work of fiction. I sincerely hope that is true, the god character is evil. :mad:
 
pleinmont said:
I have read the Bible many times over the years and the more I read the more convinced I am that it is a work of fiction. I sincerely hope that is true, the god character is evil. :mad:
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I could have written this. Most "Christians" I know never read the bible. They keep quoting the same few phrases and ignore the rest. There is no point trying to have a discussion with them.
 
rkunsaw said:
I could have written this. Most "Christians" I know never read the bible. They keep quoting the same few phrases and ignore the rest. There is no point trying to have a discussion with them.
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They are lazy and live in constant fear. They just quote over and over what the guy standing in front or the TV show idiot or one of the million Xian books being written (with just the opinion of the author and rehashing the same ole stuff) preached at them over and over.
If they would read the Nag Hammadi/dead sea scrolls, the at least 130 earliest Xian, Gnostic, Jewish, Essenes etc writings they would know the truth. Opening eyes, minds and ears is taught to be doubt... doubt is their worst enemy because those who think a real thought of their own will suffer for doing so. This is the definition of a Cult.
 
Homeschoolie said:
They are lazy and live in constant fear. They just quote over and over what the guy standing in front or the TV show idiot or one of the million Xian books being written (with just the opinion of the author and rehashing the same ole stuff) preached at them over and over.
If they would read the Nag Hammadi/dead sea scrolls, the at least 130 earliest Xian, Gnostic, Jewish, Essenes etc writings they would know the truth. Opening eyes, minds and ears is taught to be doubt... doubt is their worst enemy because those who think a real thought of their own will suffer for doing so. This is the definition of a Cult.
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Or to quote Senator Daniel Moynihan:
"Ideological certainty easily degenerates into an insistence upon ignorance."
 
pleinmont said:
I have read the Bible many times over the years and the more I read the more convinced I am that it is a work of fiction. I sincerely hope that is true, the god character is evil. :mad:
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You are not alone. Those who have read the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Sanskrit etc. writings we now have and compared every writing we have from ancient times with the current bible translations have come to the same conclusion.

When using the original bible words used in other languages, and their meaning then and now, if there is a spiritual entity that is the "good guy" it isn't the Bible God. The bible god and satan are the same guy. In addition, Satan did not show up as the evil dude until late in the game. The ancient Jews also did not believe in or teach Satan or heaven or hell until late in the game. Each "rewrite" changed drastically.

Which makes a lot more sense when you look at all of the hate, bellowing, blustering, bragging and threats spewing from bible god. And mans attempt to make god a good guy with Bible 2.0.
 

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