Anyone non-religious here? Please be nice!

[Prettiest Frog]

Apologetics of any kind generally make me tune out. After the first 430 times you debunk them, it gets a little monotonous and for me it's just become easier to write people off who engage in them. Frankly, people who think there is any sort of justification for things like rape aren't the kind of people I'm interested in dealing with anyway.

 

[fowltemptress]

I've never been so immediately turned off as when my Spanish started talking about religion. I don't remember how religion came up . . . probably in some discussion about Spanish cultures . . . but for some reason it went way off track and became a Q&A about his personal beliefs. Someone asked the inevitable, "Why do good things happen to bad people?" and he had the gall to say they don't! He said bad things only happen to people who deserve them. He said good people who died violent deaths obviously weren't good, and that they were probably pedophiles or murderers at some point in their lives, but no one knew about it. I was flabbergasted at this reasoning! Babies who have violent deaths were brought up, and I thought for sure he was caught there, but no . . . he said in that situation, the sexual act that had resulted in the baby had been a perversion, or a position that wasn't sanctioned by god (or something of that sort. I forget the exact wording). I was too timid to bring it up, but luckily someone else did . . . "What about Jesus? He died a violent death." The reply to that was an ugly look and the answer, "Well, obviously that was a special situation."

The fact that there were people in that class who were nodding and saying, "Yeah, that makes sense." still makes me shudder to think about it. Because of that experience, I'm very turned off when someone says "It's god's will, he knows best," or something of that sort. All I can think about is the assumptions some apparently make about the people who fall victim to "god's will," and my brain shuts down.

 

[deb1]

There is a very interesting documentary about Westboro Baptist Church done by an english man whose name escapes me. If you can force yourself to endure the anger that this group will make you feel, it is a fascinating look into their lifes.

I bring them up because of fowltemptress's experience in Spanish class. From what I gather the Westboro Baptist Church are hyper Calvinist. That means that they believe that only a select few who Christ chose before hand are among the elect. The rest of us are h-e-ll bound regardless of our beliefs.

Anyway, at one point, the filmmaker asks one of the young women about her believes. From what I gather they believe that if something tragic happens to you then you were not one of the elect. The girl's actions and the joy that she supposes her family would feel if she was an unbeliever and died are very, very sad.

It sounds similar to your teacher's beliefs. I am not saying that he is picketing gay or soldier's funerals, just that he might have been a hyper Calvinist also

 

[deb1]

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/18280/ex-fundamentalists

Here is an interesting article about people leaving fundamentalism. It is short and really just an ad for the book but it makes some interesting points.

Those who leave punitive faiths struggle with confusion, grief, anxiety and anger, she writes in “Leaving the Fold,” an autobiography and guidebook on letting go.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
For me it's mainly "My God say that's a sin." (namely referring to interracial marriage and homosexuality) and "We'll just see about (whatever) on judgment day, hell is eagerly waiting for (whoever)."

I usually blow most religious talk off anyway, shake or nod my head when appropriate and forget about it within minutes. I'm called a good listener because of it

But today... well.... I don't know, I just couldn't shake it off knowing I was about to pay this man a good deal of money for my highly researched choice of machinery at my choice place of business. Which by the way I'm probably not going to frequent as much now just because every time I'll see him from now on I'll think about his desire for lack of choices.

I wonder how he would react if the choices were narrowed to two and his religion was not one of them.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
I had studied Spanish Culture class in college and religion has come up a time or two with some heated debates. Accusations flying around the room that the Aztecs and Mayans deserved to die because they didn't believe in our God and Jesus. When it went on, I just shut down and thinking the REAL motive of the killings of the Aztecs and Mayans were the GOLD wanted by the Spaniards, nothing more. That was THEIR GREED for wanting gold and if the Aztecs and Mayans didnt have much or had none because they may have traded wit with some other tribes, they were killed for it. I do not remember if the missionaries killed them for not following their Catholic religions. Those college students and teacher were really in a good debates why their ideals were so much better than what it did back then. It took a few class sessions to calm down and go to another subject of the Mexican cultures.

 

[redhen]

Okay..i just have to ask a question here.. Why would religious people be saying that they want the world to end? Like all the recent earthquakes are a good sign..etc.. (i've been hearing alot of this talk lately from some people that i know... something about the so called Rapture... )...
I'm confused.... how is that good that people are dying and suffering?? Wow..sometimes people scare me..
they seem so sane..yet they live in a fantasy world..

Annnnnd.... i think they they are going to get a BIG surprise if it does happen..
just saying...

 

[Reinbeau]

Because they believe their 'reward' will await them upon death. I prefer to think about and work on building heaven here on earth.

 

[MoSo]

Quote:
As a geologist, it drives me nuts to hear the recent earthquakes are a sign of anything. As far as earthquakes being "more frequent" - If you look at a table of world earthquakes in the last couple hundred years, you could have said the same thing about 15 different times, when there was a string of large, devastating earthquakes.

They come and go on our dynamic planet.

And if hearing that they are a sign from God annoys me, hearing that natural disasters are punishment makes me just have to walk away.

 

[deb1]

Quote:
this is how the end of the world beliefs were explained to me. Human nature will become more and more depraved. One day a wonderful man will appear who will bring us all peace and solve the problems in the middle east. The man will actually be the Antichrist and batting for Satan. No one will be able to buy food unless they have some sort of mark on their foreheads or palms. Anyone with that mark-even if they were trying to feed their starving children-will go to hell.

God will come back for and everyone will see him in the clouds, he will gather up his people and whisk them up to heaven. Why anyone would doubt him at this point, I don't know? Also why he wouldn't just make an announcement at this point as to what he wants humans to do, I don't know either.

Everyone left on the earth will thoroughly enjoy themselves. There is a lot about Christians suffering during this time, but how those Christians suffer when they were all taken up to heaven, I am not certain.

God comes back, has a battle and wins. Then all the people who followed the Antichrist will be thrown into hell and God will remake a perfect world.

I have friends who will sadly note that in some countries, Christians do suffer but in the same breath express joy that they don't have to worry about the end of times because they will be in heaven .