Where do you stand when it comes to religion?

[Nadai]

I have a question about religion specifically for Christians. There is only one Bible but why is it that there are so many denominations? I have asked this question myself and seems like I can't find a satisfying answer.

I believe that some Christians began to branch off because different people believed in different things. Some chose to take every part of the Bible literally while others would pick and choose what to believe. There is only one bible, but there are different versions. Some Christians have NKJV some use NIV some use KJV... there are also Christians who read a different type of Bible that includes extra books that were originally left out when the Bible was first put together because the church chose to leave them out... There is a gay version of the Bible and there is also a Demonic version of the Bible as well... I've never read these versions, but from what I've been taught the demonic version just has a different Revelations where Satan wins and the Gay Bible is the same as well except the parts that speak against homosexuality... Different people just chose to accept different parts of the Bible so they branched off and found others that believed the same parts of the Bible as they did.

 

[Amy_lewis_143]

I am actually Wiccan. I was raised Catholic but I just don't agree with a lot of their points of view. To me, if there are men and women why would there not be a God AND a Goddess? It is also nature based which I am into.

I quite like paganism and wicca, im still learning alot about it and its history though. ^___^

 

[LegendofJoe]

I enjoyed reading Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon, but if you want a hard-nosed history, then you might like
Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon. He is a British author who writes about many things Celtic.
He considers Wicca a revived religion, but a lot of it as it is structured today is the product of Gerald Gardiner back in the 1950's.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Wow, I never heard of a gay Bible.
The demonic Bible is probably Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible.
It actually has hardly anything to do with the Bible, it is just the precepts of modern Satanism in book form.

 

[Amy_lewis_143]

Wow, I never heard of a gay Bible.
The demonic Bible is probably Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible.
It actually has hardly anything to do with the Bible, it is just the precepts of modern Satanism in book form.

I have the ritual companion, i thought i was buying the satanic bible, but i picked up the wrong thing. I havent got around to reading it yet anyway, but my friend read the Anton LaVey's bible and she said it was certainly interesting. I only managed to look at a few pages of it, but from what i saw, it was firstly just names of all the 'demons' and then i forgot the rest. From what ive read from people who have read it, they say the satanic bible is pretty selfish, all about number one. Its quite interesting, i prefer theistic satanism though, to read about.

 

[lilith_morningstar]

I get into arguements with my fiance about the nephliem, the beings of angel and man.........so lets focus on that anyone wanna share there view points of that subject?

 

[TheLoreman]

Well I was raised a Roman Catholic. But I don't really keep up with it. I'd like to think there's some higher power up there and in control of things but at the same time, I sort of revel in the notion of things being in random disarray. I think I prefer not to be able to understand it all -- it just feels more epic and profound that way. When humanity claims to comprehend God it sort of diminishes the notion of the Divine, at least for me anyway...

 

[RLynn]

I have a question about religion specifically for Christians. There is only one Bible but why is it that there are so many denominations? I have asked this question myself and seems like I can't find a satisfying answer.

The Devil wanted to make Christianity look bad, so he fragmented it. Somehow denominations evolve out of theological nitpicking, I suppose. The whole sordid scenario doesn't make Christianity very appealing, quite the contrary.

 

[LegendofJoe]

The Devil wanted to make Christianity look bad, so he fragmented it. Somehow denominations evolve out of theological nitpicking, I suppose. The whole sordid scenario doesn't make Christianity very appealing, quite the contrary.

This is one of the reasons I have trouble with seeing the Bible as the word of God.
If God knows all things, and he knew that so many interpretations could be made from his book, then why didn't he make it
so much simpler and straight forward.
Even the simplest commandment:" Thou shalt not kill" is argued over. Does this mean that war is okay as long as you do not commit murder?
Some people I am sure would feel that any type of killing is murder.
The old Testament seems to condemn homosexuality, but the new Testament says nothing about it.
Does this mean Jesus would have accepted it? Who the **** knows?

 

[RLynn]

The ancient Hebrews were not only against homosexuality but also coitus interruptus, sodomy (even between men and women), and, I believe, masturbation. Since they wanted to increase their population, what was considered a waste of "seed" in non-procreative activities was condemned. They ascribed such regulation of sexual activity to God, since that made the laws absolute. In New Testament times the Jews had pretty much lost hope of any significant political clout, so there was not so much emphasis on increasing their numbers.

The notion of the Bible as the inerrant word of God is an anachronism which amounts to bibliolatry. There are obvious errors all over what we know as the Bible, and the concept of any sort of inerrant original manuscript of the entire book is a fantasy for which there is not the slightest shred of evidence.

 

[Myrddin]

Even the simplest commandment:" Thou shalt not kill" is argued over. Does this mean that war is okay as long as you do not commit murder?
Some people I am sure would feel that any type of killing is murder.

War is never okay.

Murder, I believe, is when one knowingly, intentionally, and purposely kills someone. There are some instances in which killing is not murder, such as in self defense or in defense of another. In these cases it is usually an accident or otherwise the only available move.

 

[RLynn]

I get into arguements with my fiance about the nephliem, the beings of angel and man.........so lets focus on that anyone wanna share there view points of that subject?

I have always been fascinated with the Nephilim. I think the concept may have some obscure historical basis, but I am skeptical about the Biblical account. I would be interested in your opinions and those of your fiancé.

 

[CuriousAlice]

I was raised religious but I have not believed in any type of deity since I was 8 years old and got in trouble for questioning a Sunday school teacher. I guess that makes me an atheist.

 

[LegendofJoe]

I was raised religious but I have not believed in any type of deity since I was 8 years old and got in trouble for questioning a Sunday school teacher. I guess that makes me an atheist.

Good for you. so am I.

 

[Rhonda Tharp]

I was raised religious but I have not believed in any type of deity since I was 8 years old and got in trouble for questioning a Sunday school teacher. I guess that makes me an atheist.

Haha, I got kicked out of one Sunday school class for asking if Adam and Eve had belly buttons...

 

[LegendofJoe]

There is a great book by the skeptic Martin Gardner called Did Adam and Eve have Navels.
It is a collection of essays for the critical thinker.

 

[Rhonda Tharp]

There is a great book by the skeptic Martin Gardner called Did Adam and Eve have Navels.
It is a collection of essays for the critical thinker.

OMG, that's awesome. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[RLynn]

Once someone asked the belly button question in one of my Sunday school classes. The teacher just smiled and said that the Bible doesn't say, but that in his opinion, they didn't have one. I was brought up in a rather mild religious environment (Moravian). I drifted away from Christianity for philosophical reasons, not as a reaction to unpleasant personal experiences.

 

[Rhonda Tharp]

I was a "literal" child, especially in Sunday school. I drifted away from Christianity in my early 20's when I was in college. I was struggling with the patriarchal aspects of Christianity, and began learning about other religions and cultures for comparative reasons, but then realized I loved learning about other religions and cultures just for the sake of learning. As Joseph Campbell put it, "I'm still on my journey."

 

[LegendofJoe]

Yeah, me too. Long pain-in-the-ass journey though!
I have read quite a bit of religious literature myself.
The entire Bible, Koran, Baghavad-Gita, Dummapada.
None of them impressed me enough to be a follower though.
So far I have adopted John Allen Paulos' Yeah-ist religion.
In his book Irreligion he describes it as:
The best i have been able to come up with is the "Yeah-ist" religion, whose response to the intracacy, beauty, and mystery of the world is a simple affirmation and acceptance, "Yeah". This minimalist "Yeah-ist" religion is consistant with more complex religions (but not with the "Nah" religion) and with an irreligious ethics and a liberating, self-mediated stance toward life and its stories.