Religion?

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

For me its the process of discovering your moral compass and how to use it.

Once I found mine it was easy to sense what the work was.

And when I knew what work needed doing I sensed I needed the right tools and stuff to do the work.

The work is out there to do. You dont gotta do it. And the odds are good that youll be scourged and chastised if you do. This example comes to mind:

In 1820 my ancestor, a preacher, was asked to buy a woman out of slavery to prevent her sale and transport from Kentucky to Louisiana. My ancestor got the $300 and bought the woman. He then emancipated her. The Methodist Church then tossed him into ecclesiastical court charged with owning a slave. There was a trial. At the trial the prosecutor had plenty of evidence against my ancestor. When the time came for my ancestor to defend himself he rose and confirmed that he had bought a slave and violated the church's canon. He said to the court, I BECAME A PREACHER TO DO GOOD, CUZ THATS WHAT GOD WANTS ME TO DO. And he sat down.

 

[Dianthus]

I was raised Catholic.

Whether it was a function of the faith or of the individual instructors I had, my Catholic school wasn't prepared to discuss the many questions I had. Nuns and priests said that is was simply a matter of faith and I had to believe.

I'm not so good at that.

I came to believe that we are not physical beings who look for spiritual comfort and fulfillment; rather, we are spiritual beings with a physical manifestation to care for and keep healthy.

In my view, the need for love and compassion is paramount. We are all interconnected and deserving of the same happiness. That said, I don't try to save the world or proselytize.

I believe in balance, for the world and in myself.

The Dalai Lama said it for me, when he said: If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.

 

[Licia]

Corpus Christi mystic: mind, body, soul -- ever flawed. Lucifer and legion I view as advesaries, but killing Cain is not on my to do list. My beliefs are not rooted in fear, prejudice or opression.

Serpent tongue? You betcha.

I lack the capacity for hate; however, I will bring wrath to bullies. I chew faces for the meek, downtrodden and outcast; they are my weakness. Puppetmasters beware. Others have no reason to fear me.

Human judgements? Rubber and glue dynamic.

 

[topace]

Another belief of mine:

Don't get mad, just get even.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

A god in wrath
Was beating a man;
He cuffed him loudly
With thunderous blows
That rang and rolled over the earth.
All people came running.
The man screamed and struggled,
And bit madly at the feet of the god.
The people cried,
"Ah, what a wicked man!"
And --
"Ah, what a redoubtable god!"

Stephen Crane (from Black Riders and Other Lines)

 

[Tyro999]

I've found the ignore poster switch, but is there an ignore thread switch?

 

[Hubs_in_hose]

Thank you to each of you that have shared your thoughts. I had hoped that we could keep this thread civil and so far it has been just that. I think that many of us have shared similar experiences and have decided to develop our own belief system--based with or without church teachings.

 

[SevenSquared]

Well Hubs, I can say that you're certainly not alone. My mum was is a devout Christian and she took me to church every week when I was a kid and encouraged me to get involved in all kinds of other church activities.

When I got older I started to question aspects of the church, the bible and even religion and faith in general. I could tell my mum was a little hurt, but fortunately she has always encouraged me to have my own thoughts and opinions. Although I had many doubts about aspects of Christianity and I stopped going to church when I was about 15, I was probably about 19 before I really self-identified as an atheist. I have still never openly discussed it with my mum, although I make no secret of it and have it listed on my Facebook page, which she can see.

I guess that's the trouble with religion, it tends to have a viral aspect. Parents in religious communities feel like failures if their children rebel from the church, so they will do anything in their power to prevent it from happening. Children feel they are letting down their parents if they question the church. People who live in certain places may even be largely excluded from the community if they do not follow their religion, so they will often get sucked in just to feel a sense of belonging. I guess in many ways it is like soccer fandom, the only difference being that I don't think any actual wars have been fought over whether QPR's second goal in their 2-1 win over Fulham was offside.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I've found the ignore poster switch, but is there an ignore thread switch?

Are you receiving this thread against your wishes? If so, contact Manu so he can find out how it works and patent the process.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You can toss a kid into a public school and get no guarantee that she'll be an iota better off at the end of 12 years. In fact, she's about as likely to be molested, bullied, corrupted, and pregnant as educated.

I expect folks to turn against public schools as they have organized religion.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I expect folks will continue to try to dump what should be their own responsibilities onto the shoulders of others.

 

[Athalia]

Interesting thread, and remarkably free of fire and brimstone. Of course, I would expect that of writers of erotica, who are on the fast lane to Hell anyway, according to most faiths.

I was raised in a liberal Jewish environment (went to synagogue regularly but didn't keep kosher, etc.). When I moved to England, I started exploring other faiths, and was very involved with an Anglican man and attended services with him regularly. Since then, I've flirted with Buddhism, Islam, Scientology, and a few other religions, but the most comfortable I've been is with the Society of Friends (aka Quakers), who are far more accepting of people living their own lives than other sects are.

In all my spiritual travels, I've come to one realization: The people to fear are the ones who rely on a book (Torah, Quran, King James Bible) for their spiritual compass, and say "You can't do that/believe that/think that, because it says so right here." They scare me, because they can't be reasoned with.

 

[topace]

You can toss a kid into a public school and get no guarantee that she'll be an iota better off at the end of 12 years. In fact, she's about as likely to be molested, bullied, corrupted, and pregnant as educated.

I expect folks to turn against public schools as they have organized religion.

I'm already against public schools, being home-schooled myself. Best thing that ever happened during my school years was to be pulled out of the public school system to be taught by my parents!

 

[PennLady]

I'm already against public schools, being home-schooled myself. Best thing that ever happened during my school years was to be pulled out of the public school system to be taught by my parents!

I'm glad that worked for you, but that doesn't work for everyone. I don't think I'd be a good home-school teacher, and we have a good school system, so I'm happy to send my kids there. That's a big generalization about the public school system. I mean, I know there's a range of quality in the US and assume the same holds true fro Canada.

 

[Hubs_in_hose]

I'm glad that worked for you, but that doesn't work for everyone. I don't think I'd be a good home-school teacher, and we have a good school system, so I'm happy to send my kids there. That's a big generalization about the public school system. I mean, I know there's a range of quality in the US and assume the same holds true fro Canada.

There is a vast difference in public schools from area to area. My kids are in a GREAT school district here in the DFW 'burbs. I would feel like I was abusing my children if I had to move back to Arkansas. It took my daughter almost two years to catch up to her grade when we moved here (she was in third grade). She went from being one of the brightest kids in her class to the middle of the pack. Now she is taking AP classes in High School and getting all A's, but it was a severe adjustment she had to make. We were lucky that the boy started school here, so he wouldn't have to make the adjustment. He is among his class leaders.

 

[topace]

I'm glad that worked for you, but that doesn't work for everyone. I don't think I'd be a good home-school teacher, and we have a good school system, so I'm happy to send my kids there. That's a big generalization about the public school system. I mean, I know there's a range of quality in the US and assume the same holds true fro Canada.

I hate to say this, but Mom rarely taught me. She just did a bit of grading, until she got a computer program called Switched On Schoolhouse, and after grade 10, I did my own grading.

 

[Thefamiliar]

Lol how did religion become school?

My beliefs are far to vast to try to go into here. My family is christian, I refused to keep going to church at the age of twelve. My belief about God has changed drastically through the years.

I have dabbled and researched many religions and cultures over the years, all of them are from the same basic principles. It doesn't honestly matter what you claim. I have not baptized my kids, but taught them about all beliefs, so they can be true to themselves.

I believe in everything and nothing, in truth its too abstract to even have a name. Lol

To live in religious dictation is to limit what is possible. I dont wish to limit myself or my children.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There is a vast difference in public schools from area to area. My kids are in a GREAT school district here in the DFW 'burbs. I would feel like I was abusing my children if I had to move back to Arkansas. It took my daughter almost two years to catch up to her grade when we moved here (she was in third grade). She went from being one of the brightest kids in her class to the middle of the pack. Now she is taking AP classes in High School and getting all A's, but it was a severe adjustment she had to make. We were lucky that the boy started school here, so he wouldn't have to make the adjustment. He is among his class leaders.

Here in Schlub County we enroll every Nigga in AP courses, and the passing rate is about 10% for everyone, but all get an A for the courses...for their courage. They just dont get any college credits. Something like 80% of all students recently failed the statewide assessment tests, so the state board met and lowered the passing scores till 80% passed.

 

[fifty5]

When I was very young, my mum took me to Anglican services. I noticed my dad didn't attend, so I asked him why not. I can't remember his exact words, but do remember his opinion, "I believe in Christianity but not in 'Churchianity'.

When I was just a little older, I wondered why God allowed dogs to piss against church and graveyard walls. Dogs didn't seem to me to fit the religious picture that all men could go to the devil in their own way (or to have faith, believe and be saved), so why let them piss on consecrated ground?

I was sent to a Methodist boarding school. Some of the sermons made sense, others didn't. I started to wonder whether it wasn't religion that made (some) people good and others bad.

Eventually, "I grew to be a man." Some religious leaders seemed to me to be good men - they preached what Jesus (and Mohamed) seemed to me to say: to be - and do - good to all men.

Somewhat later I started to consider science: a belief system that relies on reproducible experimental results. It seemed to me that if natural law meant that any body released would fall to the earth, with an acceleration that followed Newton's laws (plus many, many other Physical and Chemical laws, notwithstanding Einstein's developments) then God - who might possibly have created the Universe - had also decided that He couldn't interfere with the Universe he had created. Maybe by His own decision, but He wasn't omnipotent.

What followed from that was that if He wasn't all powerful, why would all seeing matter? Omnipresent was irrelevant. Maybe He was the original Creator, but after that He'd abdicated all responsibility for His creation.

That was when I moved from agnosticism to atheism and humanism. If He doesn't care to intervene, but I do, isn't Humanism a more rational philosophy?

Most recently, the LHC has found evidence of the Higgs' Boson - the God particle that gives mass to all other particles.

Unlike any religion, science is based on scepticism about what we (the human race) believe in. Newton was good. Einstein rejected that, with evidence - and so on.

A lot of what all, or at least most, religions believe is good. Some of it, while maybe valid for the time they were laid down, is not. Given my own Christian background, the question I'll ask is: was it right to burn Joan of Arc. I'm sure other faiths can come up with similar questions.

The hypocratic (sp) oath to, 'do no harm' doesn't depend on religion, it is just human morality, which seems to me to be better than any God-given text.

I'll readily admit the crutch that religious faith can be to individuals, but I still ask how often that belief is not a crutch, but a broken reed.

 

[1sickbastard]

I was, like many, raised in a semi-christian household (mom devout, dad agnostic), and made to attend church regularly until I was 15 and no longer living at home on a regular basis.

Since then, I've spent a good deal of study on religions in general and christianity in particular. I left the church and gave up my religion to hold onto my faith, such as it is. As I am now, I find agnosticism the only rational course, meaning literally, 'one who does not know'.

The only people who can say for sure whether God (regarless of one's individual concept of such) exists or not are the dead.

And they ain't talking.

Additionally, I find that one's cosmos is just as infinite or just as small as one's mind will allow. The universe I try to live in is one of infinite possibilities.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

When I was very young, my mum took me to Anglican services. I noticed my dad didn't attend, so I asked him why not. I can't remember his exact words, but do remember his opinion, "I believe in Christianity but not in 'Churchianity'.

When I was just a little older, I wondered why God allowed dogs to piss against church and graveyard walls. Dogs didn't seem to me to fit the religious picture that all men could go to the devil in their own way (or to have faith, believe and be saved), so why let them piss on consecrated ground?

I was sent to a Methodist boarding school. Some of the sermons made sense, others didn't. I started to wonder whether it wasn't religion that made (some) people good and others bad.

Eventually, "I grew to be a man." Some religious leaders seemed to me to be good men - they preached what Jesus (and Mohamed) seemed to me to say: to be - and do - good to all men.

Somewhat later I started to consider science: a belief system that relies on reproducible experimental results. It seemed to me that if natural law meant that any body released would fall to the earth, with an acceleration that followed Newton's laws (plus many, many other Physical and Chemical laws, notwithstanding Einstein's developments) then God - who might possibly have created the Universe - had also decided that He couldn't interfere with the Universe he had created. Maybe by His own decision, but He wasn't omnipotent.

What followed from that was that if He wasn't all powerful, why would all seeing matter? Omnipresent was irrelevant. Maybe He was the original Creator, but after that He'd abdicated all responsibility for His creation.

That was when I moved from agnosticism to atheism and humanism. If He doesn't care to intervene, but I do, isn't Humanism a more rational philosophy?

Most recently, the LHC has found evidence of the Higgs' Boson - the God particle that gives mass to all other particles.

Unlike any religion, science is based on scepticism about what we (the human race) believe in. Newton was good. Einstein rejected that, with evidence - and so on.

A lot of what all, or at least most, religions believe is good. Some of it, while maybe valid for the time they were laid down, is not. Given my own Christian background, the question I'll ask is: was it right to burn Joan of Arc. I'm sure other faiths can come up with similar questions.

The hypocratic (sp) oath to, 'do no harm' doesn't depend on religion, it is just human morality, which seems to me to be better than any God-given text.

I'll readily admit the crutch that religious faith can be to individuals, but I still ask how often that belief is not a crutch, but a broken reed.

Dear Pollyanna
The fucking scientists press their thumbs upon the scales doncha know.

 

[LadyVer]

I was, like many, raised in a semi-christian household (mom devout, dad agnostic), and made to attend church regularly until I was 15 and no longer living at home on a regular basis.

Since then, I've spent a good deal of study on religions in general and christianity in particular. I left the church and gave up my religion to hold onto my faith, such as it is. As I am now, I find agnosticism the only rational course, meaning literally, 'one who does not know'.

The only people who can say for sure whether God (regarless of one's individual concept of such) exists or not are the dead.

And they ain't talking.

Additionally, I find that one's cosmos is just as infinite or just as small as one's mind will allow. The universe I try to live in is one of infinite possibilities.

Good post, 1SB

 

[wistfall1]

For anyone who needs to know the facts

A series of stories that are related to the truth about religion here:

http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=1307212&page=submissions

These are all set as being about lesbians and severely affected by churches, and many who just wish to know how it all came to be as it is.

Hope this helps anyone interested in knowing. The stories begin with The Devil's Gateway, and at the end of it there is an extensive bibliography that has none of those "Me too" books that are churchy "witness" types.

w

 

[sr71plt]

The only people who can say for sure whether God (regarless of one's individual concept of such) exists or not are the dead.

You break consistency (and maybe reveal an underlining belief) when you post this. A true agnostic wouldn't take for granted that the dead were sentient. That's a basic--and important--Christian belief.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

From a Greek

The 'Dear Polyanna' post made me smile. That's funny to me.

Ok. Time to hold your ears I guess since you're all so cool about this stuff. And I preface my remarks by offering that even the atheists make crystal clear sense here to me when to me, normally, they're just as nutty as the extremist believers.

But what if god - a being similar to you and me - created us and we are still as young children, who really don't have the right to directly see and communicate with he/she or them, as yet...

Just go with me on this for a second. Don't worry about 'eternal' and 'unchanging' versus 'mortal' and 'changing' for a moment.

Yet after awhile we start to 'grow up' and stop accepting childish things and start to think properly for ourselves... All the same, have we thought yet 'PROPERLY' enough, to meet face-to-face with some person (assuming as I have here, that such a person exists) of limitless knowledge understanding and power... Do we intend to ask this person for some extra benefit that we cannot ourselves attain on our own, using what powers we already have?

What do we really intend to do with the fact or the incident , if ever we were to actually encounter 'god?' Sensible people will acknowledge the limitations of humans as 'god within ourselves;' for there are many things we cannot do. Even though there are some we do virtually as gods. We love as gods. Or we can do.

Someone who is ageless, sees time beyond time itself, penetrates to what is consciousness in Mankind and in human individuals, sees the (human) story of unfolded (human) causes and subsequent effects - one cannot scold this person for the deaths plagues and sufferings of only a single lifetime. One might ask 'why.' Only to be convinced at last of the reality of evil.

A Satanist is not evil, nor does he do evil. An atheist is not against god, so long as he can stick his fingers into god's open wounds himself, scientifically. God must smile at all of this.

But in another way god does not smile. Anyone in the birthing suite knows that life is a very serious and a risky matter. Anyone in the dying room knows that death is not a serious matter at all once it arrives.

Life therefore, and living, is paramount, and serious, and plangent, and precious while you have it, yet dispensable to god and cheap by his standards and returnable as well. Maybe too one day man shall return life from a testube. But living itself, is another thing. Living, the art of it, the depth of it, the power of it, the ineffability of its potential - is so vast as to be a transcendent thing and a part of god himself. In this living we live and we breathe and we have our whole being.

Do not say therefore 'there is no god.' We are in god every living second. Or we are not, at all; that is the meaning of the saying 'let the dead bury themselves.'

But now reduce god down to the size of a man, and place him in front of your face. He will not strike you neither will he harm you. But he will convince you that in the life of mortal man is the reality and presence of evil. But that it shall pass away and be no more. Because what is good is about what you do or fail to do, and evil similarly about what you do. But suffering is a part of evil things.

Evil passes away because when men grow up they choose to stop practicing evil.

And when they grow up, they see god. And god is not one but many, male, female, indiscernible spirits, palpable spirits, machines of uncalculable advancement, things beyond today's understanding and comprehension. But they are all of one mind, and never is there enmity or jealousy between them but ever love only.

Man - that is someone from Mankind - can grow to become a god. And many have. And possibly, all will. But not for a very very very long time.

Let us turn now, to the sexual behaviours of the gods and their stories both of the past and of the futures yet to come...