So what happened to religion discussion?

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I come back to the escapist now and then but spend months at a time out of the loop. I notice Religion and Politics seem to have been replaced by 'Current Events' with seemingly nowhere to discuss religion....

I think that'd be a real shame if we've decided not to discuss religion here. I think I owe my current religious beliefs to the great discussions we've had in the past here. The strict rules about discussing ideas and not attacking others led to some really well structured intelligent arguments I think from all sides.

 

[Satinavian]

There have been religious threads in Off-Topic since the reorganistion.

Not that there ever was such a demand to discuss religion.

 

[Agema]

As above. Religion is now appropriate to Off-Topic, it's just not really been a hot topic since the old days, when there were a few more people itching to weigh in against Islam.

 

[Seanchaidh]

I think other issues have eclipsed religion in the popular consciousness. Dunking on creationists is kind of passe. United States imperialism overshadows anything to do with Islam. Oligarchy is a more salient target.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

United States imperialism overshadows anything to do with Islam.

United States imperialism could easily be called Christian imperialism too I think but that's a whole can of worms. I fear christians more than muslims since the oligarchies of most of the militarily powerful nations are a bunch of christians. Christians have the armies, the money and the nukes(besides pakistan).

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I'm pretty sure the oligarchs are agnostics who just utilize religion to exert control, rather than actual literal christians lol. Kinda like how the muslim terrorist leader isn't putting on a suicide vest but leaves it to the young kids off the slums while he enjoys all the haram goodness the infidels can come up with.

 

[SupahEwok]

There hasn't been any decent religious threads on here for at least 4 years, and even past that it was mostly dumb, surface level stuff. The college atheist vs the Christian fundie tier of religious debate is like high school debate team at best, and usually is more like smug pricks on one side having a slap fight with smug pricks on the other side. I can't remember the last good thread approaching religious and spiritual topics with nuance.

 

[Hawki]

United States imperialism could easily be called Christian imperialism too I think but that's a whole can of worms. I fear christians more than muslims since the oligarchies of most of the militarily powerful nations are a bunch of christians. Christians have the armies, the money and the nukes(besides pakistan).

India/Israel/North Korea/China: Am I a joke to you?

Also, while I'm irreligious, I'll point out that Christians are much better at separating church from state than Muslim countries.

 

[Saint of M]

United States imperialism overshadows anything to do with Islam.

United States imperialism could easily be called Christian imperialism too I think but that's a whole can of worms. I fear christians more than muslims since the oligarchies of most of the militarily powerful nations are a bunch of christians. Christians have the armies, the money and the nukes(besides pakistan).

Christian imperialism has been a thing since Christians stopped being fed to lions or turned into living candles for night parties (Nero actually did the latter, the former doesn't have strong evidence other than that faith was a crime and feeding criminals to the wild animals was good wholesome family fun).

In most cases using it was "Gods will" as an excuse was done by a people deliberately with kept ignorant of their faith's own tenets that were ignored for the sake of glory. Lets put it this way: The most successful of the Crusades never saw the middle east, and ended seeing several christian cities looted and or burned to the ground by their rivals (such as Constantinople at one point).

Other times it was an excuse for the God they actually worshiped: Gold. Talking about the conquistadores in their lust for gold is on par with Jim Sterling talking about the Triple A video game industry: They didn't want some of the gold/money; they wanted all of it! So much so, as Overly Sarcastic Productions points out, they ignored the much more valuable Platinum because they never saw it before and didn't know its own value, instead going with what they knew.


Even today, how many of my fellow Christians can say they actualy know what's in the actual bible? When was the last time they cracked it open. Its been about 4 months, but that's only because I just got done reading some historial books on my branch of it, and now back on Book of Mormon.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

United States imperialism overshadows anything to do with Islam.

United States imperialism could easily be called Christian imperialism too I think but that's a whole can of worms. I fear christians more than muslims since the oligarchies of most of the militarily powerful nations are a bunch of christians. Christians have the armies, the money and the nukes(besides pakistan).

Christian imperialism has been a thing since Christians stopped being fed to lions or turned into living candles for night parties (Nero actually did the latter, the former doesn't have strong evidence other than that faith was a crime and feeding criminals to the wild animals was good wholesome family fun).

In most cases using it was "Gods will" as an excuse was done by a people deliberately with kept ignorant of their faith's own tenets that were ignored for the sake of glory. Lets put it this way: The most successful of the Crusades never saw the middle east, and ended seeing several christian cities looted and or burned to the ground by their rivals (such as Constantinople at one point).

Other times it was an excuse for the God they actually worshiped: Gold. Talking about the conquistadores in their lust for gold is on par with Jim Sterling talking about the Triple A video game industry: They didn't want some of the gold/money; they wanted all of it! So much so, as Overly Sarcastic Productions points out, they ignored the much more valuable Platinum because they never saw it before and didn't know its own value, instead going with what they knew.


Even today, how many of my fellow Christians can say they actualy know what's in the actual bible? When was the last time they cracked it open. Its been about 4 months, but that's only because I just got done reading some historial books on my branch of it, and now back on Book of Mormon.

Due to a good 8 years of mandatory religious studies growing up I am pretty well versed in the bible and christianity despite being agnostic and when I see all those weird "christian" things they do in america I just find it funny and curious. Like, the singing in black churches for one. If you sung in a Greek Orthodox church you'd be slapped by a very angry priest. You're supposed to be quiet and respectful cause you're a guest in god's house according to the myths, if you ABSOLUTELY have to speak, you wanna do it in a reverent whispering tone like you're in the movies and nobody else is talking, but more fearful, if that makes sense. Even if you walk near a church you're supposed to be this type of reverent, not just inside it, it's all very deliciously sacrilegious when you have people singing in a church in way that is only enhanced by the ignorance fueling it all.

I think it's fair to distinguish all the weird protestant stuff from Christianity because to me they are as odd and different as Mormonism is to protestants.

Now, of course, not all of us have the benefit of the actual original new testament being written in our tongue like Greek folks do, but you'd THINK that if you believed the word of god was in that book you'd study the language rather than rely on shoddy translations from random folks.

But no, people rely on English language bibles and think it's accurate when if you told them to watch a Spanish-dubbed episode of south park they'd be bewildered lol.


I remember during one of my Japanese courses in college there was this classmate (I think he had military experience or something) who said something to the effect of "english is god's language" during a discussion of dubs vs subs (gotta give it to the guy, that's an original pro-dub argument) and I was like "dude, you know that the bible was written in greek and you're just reading a translation, right? if there's any such language it'd be greek not english, are you gonna watch greek dubbed anime now? cause I have and it's pretty good on the censorship angle, at least better than usa dubs lol" and he couldn't wrap his head around english not being the main christian language. This is what you get when you mix ethnocentrism and patriotism with religious. Fervent, pro-dub ignorance.

 

[Saint of M]

United States imperialism overshadows anything to do with Islam.

United States imperialism could easily be called Christian imperialism too I think but that's a whole can of worms. I fear christians more than muslims since the oligarchies of most of the militarily powerful nations are a bunch of christians. Christians have the armies, the money and the nukes(besides pakistan).

Christian imperialism has been a thing since Christians stopped being fed to lions or turned into living candles for night parties (Nero actually did the latter, the former doesn't have strong evidence other than that faith was a crime and feeding criminals to the wild animals was good wholesome family fun).

In most cases using it was "Gods will" as an excuse was done by a people deliberately with kept ignorant of their faith's own tenets that were ignored for the sake of glory. Lets put it this way: The most successful of the Crusades never saw the middle east, and ended seeing several christian cities looted and or burned to the ground by their rivals (such as Constantinople at one point).

Other times it was an excuse for the God they actually worshiped: Gold. Talking about the conquistadores in their lust for gold is on par with Jim Sterling talking about the Triple A video game industry: They didn't want some of the gold/money; they wanted all of it! So much so, as Overly Sarcastic Productions points out, they ignored the much more valuable Platinum because they never saw it before and didn't know its own value, instead going with what they knew.


Even today, how many of my fellow Christians can say they actualy know what's in the actual bible? When was the last time they cracked it open. Its been about 4 months, but that's only because I just got done reading some historial books on my branch of it, and now back on Book of Mormon.

Due to a good 8 years of mandatory religious studies growing up I am pretty well versed in the bible and christianity despite being agnostic and when I see all those weird "christian" things they do in america I just find it funny and curious. Like, the singing in black churches for one. If you sung in a Greek Orthodox church you'd be slapped by a very angry priest. You're supposed to be quiet and respectful cause you're a guest in god's house according to the myths, if you ABSOLUTELY have to speak, you wanna do it in a reverent whispering tone like you're in the movies and nobody else is talking, but more fearful, if that makes sense. Even if you walk near a church you're supposed to be this type of reverent, not just inside it, it's all very deliciously sacrilegious when you have people singing in a church in way that is only enhanced by the ignorance fueling it all.

I think it's fair to distinguish all the weird protestant stuff from Christianity because to me they are as odd and different as Mormonism is to protestants.

Now, of course, not all of us have the benefit of the actual original new testament being written in our tongue like Greek folks do, but you'd THINK that if you believed the word of god was in that book you'd study the language rather than rely on shoddy translations from random folks.

But no, people rely on English language bibles and think it's accurate when if you told them to watch a Spanish-dubbed episode of south park they'd be bewildered lol.


I remember during one of my Japanese courses in college there was this classmate (I think he had military experience or something) who said something to the effect of "english is god's language" during a discussion of dubs vs subs (gotta give it to the guy, that's an original pro-dub argument) and I was like "dude, you know that the bible was written in greek and you're just reading a translation, right? if there's any such language it'd be greek not english, are you gonna watch greek dubbed anime now? cause I have and it's pretty good on the censorship angle, at least better than usa dubs lol" and he couldn't wrap his head around english not being the main christian language. This is what you get when you mix ethnocentrism and patriotism with religious. Fervent, pro-dub ignorance.

Its been a while since we had a good sub vs dub debate. Need to get some popcorn for this one.

Back on religion, shouldn't it be Hebrew for God's language? Not English or Greek? (somehow I think I made some of my Jewish family smile somewhere).

 

[Thaluikhain]

Back on religion, shouldn't it be Hebrew for God's language? Not English or Greek? (somehow I think I made some of my Jewish family smile somewhere).

Oh, there's an argument. I might throw my hat in for Latin, myself.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Hey if Man came from Africa like science proves maybe it should be an African language...

United States imperialism overshadows anything to do with Islam.

United States imperialism could easily be called Christian imperialism too I think but that's a whole can of worms. I fear christians more than muslims since the oligarchies of most of the militarily powerful nations are a bunch of christians. Christians have the armies, the money and the nukes(besides pakistan).

Christian imperialism has been a thing since Christians stopped being fed to lions or turned into living candles for night parties (Nero actually did the latter, the former doesn't have strong evidence other than that faith was a crime and feeding criminals to the wild animals was good wholesome family fun).

In most cases using it was "Gods will" as an excuse was done by a people deliberately with kept ignorant of their faith's own tenets that were ignored for the sake of glory. Lets put it this way: The most successful of the Crusades never saw the middle east, and ended seeing several christian cities looted and or burned to the ground by their rivals (such as Constantinople at one point).

Other times it was an excuse for the God they actually worshiped: Gold. Talking about the conquistadores in their lust for gold is on par with Jim Sterling talking about the Triple A video game industry: They didn't want some of the gold/money; they wanted all of it! So much so, as Overly Sarcastic Productions points out, they ignored the much more valuable Platinum because they never saw it before and didn't know its own value, instead going with what they knew.


Even today, how many of my fellow Christians can say they actualy know what's in the actual bible? When was the last time they cracked it open. Its been about 4 months, but that's only because I just got done reading some historial books on my branch of it, and now back on Book of Mormon.

Due to a good 8 years of mandatory religious studies growing up I am pretty well versed in the bible and christianity despite being agnostic and when I see all those weird "christian" things they do in america I just find it funny and curious. Like, the singing in black churches for one. If you sung in a Greek Orthodox church you'd be slapped by a very angry priest. You're supposed to be quiet and respectful cause you're a guest in god's house according to the myths, if you ABSOLUTELY have to speak, you wanna do it in a reverent whispering tone like you're in the movies and nobody else is talking, but more fearful, if that makes sense. Even if you walk near a church you're supposed to be this type of reverent, not just inside it, it's all very deliciously sacrilegious when you have people singing in a church in way that is only enhanced by the ignorance fueling it all.

I think it's fair to distinguish all the weird protestant stuff from Christianity because to me they are as odd and different as Mormonism is to protestants.

Now, of course, not all of us have the benefit of the actual original new testament being written in our tongue like Greek folks do, but you'd THINK that if you believed the word of god was in that book you'd study the language rather than rely on shoddy translations from random folks.

But no, people rely on English language bibles and think it's accurate when if you told them to watch a Spanish-dubbed episode of south park they'd be bewildered lol.


I remember during one of my Japanese courses in college there was this classmate (I think he had military experience or something) who said something to the effect of "english is god's language" during a discussion of dubs vs subs (gotta give it to the guy, that's an original pro-dub argument) and I was like "dude, you know that the bible was written in greek and you're just reading a translation, right? if there's any such language it'd be greek not english, are you gonna watch greek dubbed anime now? cause I have and it's pretty good on the censorship angle, at least better than usa dubs lol" and he couldn't wrap his head around english not being the main christian language. This is what you get when you mix ethnocentrism and patriotism with religious. Fervent, pro-dub ignorance.

Heh, I was raised with pentacostal and protestant. The worship and big crazy prayer stuff is the normal christianity to me. When I still believed I believed in the God that you sang to and made a big noise about in church, and that would perform miracles in church. I remember being genuinely shocked to find out there were churches that were quiet and nobody would lay hands on you because they didn't expect miracles or ever even speak in tongues. People falling over from prayer to be healed, the lot.

Part of why I lost my faith is finding out the two churches I went to both knew about and covered up for a pedophile 'prophet' and my question was 'Why doesn't God strike them down for sinning in his prescence like in the bible'? Because I believed in miracles happening, like I expected worms to just start eating them like King Herod.