Have you ever been to church?

[don't let's]

anything unnecessary is useless, this is the outline of my harshly mechanistic worldview

Drugs

[Hippopo]

Jeez, just let the poor guy be. Whatever makes you a better person isn't exactly condemnable

He's the one that started the discourse. Haha.

And yeah, striving to be a better person is great, but having absolute moral authority is troublesome.  Most Christians claim to have this.

[snoorkel]

Drugs

piss

[Socks]

Do you understand that I was saying what Christianity is supposed to be about? I even said pretty much those exact words in my first response to one of your posts in this thread. Add to this that you yourself were talking about some its beliefs.

Also, all of humanity is stained red, not just the religious parts or people of it. And I am fully aware of some of the atrocities committed under the banner of the Christian religion.

And do you have some sort of a problem that Christianity has these teachings that I mentioned in it? Are you opposed to it having them in it? Because you seem to try to denounce it or try to find some way to invalidate them whenever I bring those things up.

I don't need you or anyone else to tell me what Christianity is about or ought to be. I don't care for it. But you can't deny your humanity. And that is the difference between the truth and a lie--the testament of time. My point and grievance is that a moral allegorical story has been packaged and sold as a lifestyle, history and present day fact. With emphasis to the message only after the teachings have been accepted. This is not only a travesty, but obvious foolishness. If something is natural then it is real, and needs nothing but a medium and a subject to transcend. That is why evolution, for example, as an idea and as a practice, does not need an organization or worship to exist and be known--to have an effect--when it is legitimate.

[don't let's]

I don't need you or anyone else to tell me what Christianity is about or ought to be. I don't care for it. But you can't deny your humanity. And that is the difference between the truth and a lie--the testament of time. My point and grievance is that a moral allegorical story has been packaged and sold as a lifestyle, history and present day fact. With emphasis to the message only after the teachings have been accepted. This is not only a travesty, but obvious foolishness. If something is natural then it is real, and needs nothing but a medium and a subject to transcend. That is why evolution, for example, as an idea and as a practice, does not need an organization or worship to exist and be known--to have an effect--when it is legitimate.

Then why not just say that outright to begin with instead of saying that you "can't understand" or mocking other people and their beliefs?

And yes it is foolishness for somebody to accept something without looking into it and studying it first. But not everybody does this. And not every church puts the "emphasis to the message only after the teachings have been accepted". You know everybody is different and has their own differences.

[Socks]

I did not mock anyone and I still cannot understand how people are able and willing to accept a lie so that they may be able to have a compromised truth. That is sad. If you believed more in yourself, this would be a non issue.

[don't let's]

I did not mock anyone and I still cannot understand how people are able and willing to accept a lie so that they may be able to have a compromised truth. That is sad. If you believed more in yourself, this would be a non issue.

Because they have found and/or believed it to not be a lie. Just like pretty much any other thing. Though there are those who abuse the religion and use it for their own gain and maliciously manipulate others with it. And you'll probably say everybody does this and denounce everything about it because of it.

[Socks]

Because they have found and/or believed it to not be a lie.

I'm sorry, I just can't get over this statement. It's impossible to find something that does not exist. But as we have seen repeatedly, many people still insist that absence of proof is not proof of absence. The underlying theory here is fundamental. So even if in a certain case Christianity and or religion has 'worked' in a person's life--per that perspective-- it does not and cannot change my opinion of it. I am much more inclined to credit the individual, and view the religious aspect as an inconsequential placebo.

[don't let's]

I'm not saying it should change your opinion of it and I'm not trying to change your opinion of it. But your first observations of it in this thread weren't giving the whole story so I was adding to it.

[??????]

when i was younger i used to detest the church
after goofing off and playing tag in the churches here i've grown to admire their architecture

so i like going to churches at night with no one but myself and practicing saints
as for the practices themselves, i sometimes attend them

i like strengthening their connection with their 'god'
i've always found it slightly humorous--someone godless helping someone else be engulfed by their beliefs

i don't know why anyone would try to dismiss their beliefs
it's almost nearly impossible to change them anyways, so why not help them*~~**~~

[Socks]

I'm not saying it should change your opinion of it and I'm not trying to change your opinion of it. But your first observations of it in this thread weren't giving the whole story so I adding to it.

It's funny because until tonight I had never thought of you in this context. And yet I have treated you as one human should another, before and after. Doesn't that say everything? 

[don't let's]

It's funny because until tonight I had never thought of you in this context. And yet I have treated you as one human should another, before and after. Doesn't that say everything? 

And that's fine and good. And I'm not going to say that it's wrong, or you're wrong because you didn't use Christianity or religion to do this or be able to do this or learn/know how to do this. And I'm not saying it's impossible to be good without religion because it is possible. And it's fine for people to be decent humans without religion too. 

And not every religious person just uses religion as a means to be a good person or to stay a good person either. There definitely are some that do, but not everybody does. (I know somebody somewhere would have gotten that out of the first paragraph and focused on that. I'm sure if anybody here would have done that though.)

[Mando Pandango]

Yes for a lot of my life, but we pretty much left after the whole child molesting scandal. One of our priests ended up getting arrested. Also the answer is no, thankfully.

My mom is still fairly religious and so is my dad to an extent, I think. All of my religious influence was positive in my eyes, and nobody in my church's community seemed to spew hate like some groups do. I really think it was actually a positive experience for me, even if I don't believe in it all that much anymore.

I have a few close friends who are still very strong Christians, and they're a couple of the nicest people I know. I'll go to their church youth group from time to time because even when the religious message is removed, the values and lessons they teach are definitely something worth taking away.

So basically I got lucky because none of the Christians I know are assholes so it didn't fuck me up.

[Mando Pandango]

also that was a really long and serious post for me

brb dick jokes

[Hensa]

Ive been going to the same church, practically every Sunday since i was about 2 years old.

I went to every VBS(vacation bible school) when i was a child and i also went to sunday school.

I went to a few christian based private schools growing up which also had various Chapel Times, and entire classes devoted to studying the bible.

Ive been in BSF(Bible Study Fellowship). its a sort of bible study after school, in the evenings.

Ive been to about 3 different youth groups, one of which was just called youth group to make parents believe it was safe. (it was actually they place where i had my first lesbian experience lol)

After highschool, i went to a His Hill Bible School. Its a sort of post-highschool, pre-college thing. I lived there and I devoted an entire year to it, which meant i spent 7 hours a day learning about the bible and or doing christian based volunteer work in the community.

and yet, i draw furry porn. how curious.