Religion can predict what happens if you sin

I wish I shared your excitement but I just don't. This topic isn't really about people's feelings or personal journeys to me. You align yourself with one position or another and I'm not really interested in hearing more from people with your viewpoint.

i don't think we're using the same definition of ”predict”

Please relax I like science too

Denominational churches tend to differ a lot between congregations, socio- economic and geographic differences tend to affect the prevailing theological attitudes of a church, though surprisingly I have found, in the three different uniting churches I have been a part of (with fairly different populations) that there is still the same range between the more fundamentalist (Jesus came to save sinners' souls, repent and he shall have eternal life. The focus of Christian faith should be spreading the good news of the gospel, that Jesus died for all), and the more progressive (we need to re-examine our historical texts in light if new information and be open to different ideas about god as we come to understand our universe as a very different place to the ancient Hebrews and Early church. The focus of faith should be physical action in the areas of social justice and caring for the vulnerable because it is what Jesus himself called his followers to do).

I don't mind not really belonging anywhere in particular but I do enjoy knowing that whatever my beliefs are, the people I worship with are open minded enough to listen to my thoughts and give them consideration.

Well that's ok...but I was actually asking to hear more about yours?

That's the whole thing, my opinion isn't unique. Just get on catholicanswers or whatever if you want to know what I consider sound theology

i'm relaxed. but your statement is not demonstrably true within the context i was using

Are you becoming Catholic, or have you converted?

I was trying to be funny

I feel like you may be engaging in wilful obfuscation as a way to entertain yourself and maybe others as well...I love theology so much though, I don't care...I'll take the bait and run with it anyway.

I'm still working on that

I'm really not trying to be shady

You really think Catholic doctrine is sound? I tried converting, but stuff like transubstantiation and a consequently 'closed' table at communion kinda trips me up. There's too much 'extra' stuff - their stances on homosexuality and reproductive technologies are too strict for me, too.

Intrestin

But...you're good with it?

Where do you read your theologically informed conversations...?

vixnix, all I really care about is the chickens.

Why is that?

We had four hens a couple if years ago when we lived in our own place. We loved them, they were beautiful birds. Cheeky.

man you really want to tell us about your religion

How is theology different than fairyology

Seems like a really dumb discussion to have when there's no evidence whatsoever to support anyone's position on anything when it comes to God.

God is made of cheese

Yeah it's true, I do. I want to talk about it...it's one of my current obsessions...

It's a discussion about the nature of the universe. Whether it was created by some kind of sentient force or not. It's true that there is no way to verify claims about this, not in an exhaustive way. But because it's such an old discussion, it's interesting (to me anyway) to look back over a few thousand years of human discussion about spirituality and see the progression or development of our ideas, as a species. Theology kept progressing after the empirical method developed. A discussion about fairies might be similarly interesting, if there was a history of human believers in fairies, whose ideas about their relationship to the workings of the universe had progressed over time. I actually don't know if there have been such communities and f there are records of their thoughts, the way we are fortunate to have a written record like we do in the Abrahamic tradition.

maybe i didn't read it correctly, but i believe he was mainly upset about atheist trying to prove that god doesn't exist, which they then fail at. (and not about atheists not believing in god.)

i have no idea who this dawkins guy is. but i'd call myself an atheist, and i don't need to be called agnostic.
i don't believe in god. or any god. atheist.
re: elph: "i don't know for sure"? i don't fucking care. people who do believe in a god, can't know for sure either, but it's not like they build that possibility into their life, is it?

I can see that. Like just being interested in the history of it, but it's still like anything you make up about God as far as we know is just as likely to be true as what the most studied theologian believes.

I strongly agree with the "I don't fucking care" sentiment. When I was like 14 I loved Dawkins and was a strong atheist and RELIGION IS EVIL and all that. But then you grow up and you're like who the fuck cares?

ermehgerd we're terking abert gerd

i don't care about the fact that i can't know for sure. that the existence of a god can't be proven either way.

i wouldn't say that i absolutely don't care about religion at all.

It's just logical to say that technically you can't KNOW there is no God and you can't KNOW there is a God, and therefore everyone should be agnostic. There's no evidence either way and really could never be because of the nature of the concept of God.

But we all have beliefs about it based on our lives and our views of the universe. It is my belief that God does not exist, but I am agnostic about that belief. Most theists I know say it is their belief that there is a god of some sort but they aren't absolutely certain either.

I describe myself as an atheist but if pushed for a stricter definition about it will say I am an agnostic atheist

edit: there's plenty of evidence in favor of science and zero from faith, smartguy