Religion

[ColdZer0]

Ironically enough, arranged from birth (or early childhood). Pria had never met her husband to be and it was a secret kept from her by her family until she was of age (18 I beleive). She (in the mean time) had met this great guy at a family event. He was charming and funny and she really liked him. He liked her too, but they had to keep their feelings on the down-low because they were in pre-arranged marriages. Imagine Pria's surprise when she found out the guy her family had bethrothed her too was the same man she had a crush on for years!! They are very happily married and have a gorgeous baby girl now. (We call her Nundeni or "little turtle")

[Connery]

Ironically enough, arranged from birth (or early childhood).  Pria had never met her husband to be and it was a secret kept from her by her family until she was of age (18 I beleive).  She (in the mean time) had met this great guy at a family event.  He was charming and funny and she really liked him.  He liked her too, but they had to keep their feelings on the down-low because they were in pre-arranged marriages.  Imagine Pria's surprise when she found out the guy her family had bethrothed her too was the same man she had a crush on for years!!  They are very happily married and have a gorgeous baby girl now.  (We call her Nundeni or "little turtle")

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Wow. That's...damn freaky.

[PlasticMag]

Wouldn't that be like marrying a cousin?

[ColdZer0]

Wow.  That's...damn freaky.

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Yes, it really was. You can imagine how relieved she (and we her friends) were to discover who it was. She had (as Indian tradition dictates) gone to live with her inlaws. When she tried to become pregnant they were horribly abusive to her telling her that it was her fault she lost the baby. It was so stressful she became sick and moved back to KC with her family, a year later she became pregnant and had a healthy baby girl.

 

Sometimes tradition is a good thing, and in othe situations a little modernity is best.

[Xaccers]

Just remembered I passed a car on the way home from work with a bumper sticker on it which said:

"Witches: Not just for burning"

[Night_raven]

Just remembered I passed a car on the way home from work with a bumper sticker on it which said:

"Witches: Not just for burning"

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anyway, i personally dont belive in any religion as to straighten my view out its now used to start unnessasary wars, i mean fair enough back in the early 18th to late 19th centuary religion played a massive part in people's lives but now a days it has little or no effect at all. the jews on the other hand were persecuted because of their religion and also race, dont forget hitler wanted a pure race of ariyans and this too led to the slaughter of hundreds of jews.

 

As for arranged marriges, there are some circumstances which i think its right and there are others which i think are not alrght.

 

Night_raven

[rizzo]

anyway, i personally dont belive in any religion as to straighten my view out its now used to start unnessasary wars, i mean fair enough back in the early 18th to late 19th centuary religion played a massive part in people's lives but now a days it has little or no effect at all. the jews on the other hand were persecuted because of their religion and also race, dont forget hitler wanted a pure race of ariyans and this too led to the slaughter of hundreds of jews.

 

 

 

 

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Remember though that God works in mysterious ways. Just because it feels like you don't need God, it doesn't mean that He isn't there. Some people think that 'God works in mysterios ways' is just a get-out clause for religious people when they don't know why things happened, but i like to think of it the other way, as a way of trying to understand why some things happened. If you take a step back, and think about it objectively, there really is a place for God in the modern world, and in my opinion we have definately not 'superceded God'...

 

As for the holocaust, anti-semetism wasn't exactly a new concept in Europe- if religion didn't exist, I'm sure Hitler would have found a new scape-goat...

[Desolation mkII]

He would probably blamed it on polish imigrants as many of the jews were.

[rizzo]

My point is that religion didn't necessarily play any part in the holocaust. Hitler simply adopted anti-semitism as a policy because of his experiences in Vienna as a young man, it wasn't an unknown concept in Europe, and because he needed a scape-goat for the reasons why Germany was so weak at the time.

 

Using the second world war as an example of religious tensions resulting in war is wrong in my opinion.

[Hardcore_Mitsuko]

Best bumper sticker ever: "Witches do it in circles"

 

If you don't get it, it refers to the magick circle, which is the name for the energy field around a witch's ritual working space.

 

I recently wrote a philosophy essay with the title "Can the existence of God be reconciled with the existence of evil?" when the God in question is the typical omnipotent God of the Chrstian faith, ie. all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good. My conclusion was no, at least not in the current form as Omnipotence is contradictory. In my conclusion I explained that it makes more sense (to me, at least) to have a pantheon of Gods, similar to the Greeks, Egyptians or anyone else you care to think of; all of these Gods and Goddesses have their own strengths and weaknesses and fill their own niche in the grand scheme of the pantheon.

 

I'm currently a Wiccan, witch and pagan, though I was raised in a Catholic family. I discovered Wicca when I was 13, and thankfully my fdamily have supported me wholeheartedly and have never discouraged me from doing what makes me happy.

 

I've done some reasearch into Satanism, and it makes me laugh sometimes. Some parts of Anton Szandor Lavey's writing are just ludicrously funny. However, I get the feeling that occassionally Lavey intended it to be that way; I read an interview with a card carrying Satanist and he said that Lavey must be giggling in his grave at the people who follow his rituals and teachings to the letter, such as the ritual designed for becoming a werewolf. I kid you not. They're the ones I find funny, the people who take it so seriously and expect the "Hollywood" Satanism someone mentioned earlier. And what makes it even funnier for me, is that I used to go out with someone like that.

 

As for anti-semitism, read The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. It's not a new concept.

[rizzo]

Did you assess the 'best of all possible worlds' theory in your essay?

[Hardcore_Mitsuko]

Did you assess the 'best of all possible worlds' theory in your essay?

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No, what's that?

[rizzo]

No, what's that?

 

Basically that the world we live in is the best of all possible worlds. Let us suppose God exists. He could make any world He wanted, and He chose to make this one. Now we could draw some basic conclusions from this knowledge-

 

- God is evil, as there is evil in the world

- God is not omnipotent as he does not have the power to stop evil

- God does not exist

- God has made the best of all possible worlds.

 

The world we live in allows evil. That is apparent, but it also allows the capacity for love and goodness. As humans, we have a choice between good and evil, and thus the world we live in is a world, a universe, that allows choice. A world with choice is the best of all possible worlds. A world where we can make a concsious decision between two different pairs of socks, or between good and evil is the best of all possible worlds and it is the world we live in today.

 

If God did not allow the existence of evil, then he would have to intervene every time a human tried to commit an evil act. By intervening and stopping this act, He would take away our freedom of choice. What would be the point of choosing to do evil if od would stop it? In effect, we would be robots, only allowed to do one thing. Is that a world you would like to live in?

 

Therefore, we can conclude that the existence of evil is necessary and that without it we wouldn't be human, as we wouldn't have a choice. God has made the best of all possible worlds for us to live in.

 

However, this is not a complete theory, like all the other theories which try to prove (and disprove) the existence of God. There are some setbacks-

-The 'best of all possible worlds' does not prove that God exists, the world could have happened like this by chance.

-It does not prove that God is still here, he could have made the world and gone.

- It does not explain natural disasters.

 

I may not have explained that too well, I'm doing it from memory. But it's an interesting theory none the less, much food for thought

[jay bee]

I've done some reasearch into Satanism, and it makes me laugh sometimes. Some parts of Anton Szandor Lavey's writing are just ludicrously funny. However, I get the feeling that occassionally Lavey intended it to be that way; I read an interview with a card carrying Satanist and he said that Lavey must be giggling in his grave at the people who follow his rituals and teachings to the letter, such as the ritual designed for becoming a werewolf. I kid you not. They're the ones I find funny, the people who take it so seriously and expect the "Hollywood" Satanism someone mentioned earlier. And what makes it even funnier for me, is that I used to go out with someone like that.

 

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Yeah! Thats what I found when I read the satanic bible. I did find that most of it was surprisingly down to earth, it seemed basically like a handbook for living with no remorse, and why you should do so (just with some pretty hilarious bits in there for the extremists).

[PlasticMag]

How 'bout this little triangle based on the assumption that God is benevolent:

 

If God is omnipresent and omnicient and omnipotent, there is no free choice because God controls our lives by virtue of his being all-knowing/powerful and all-present, leaving no room for true free will as God controls our lives for the better.

 

If God does NOT control our lives, then he is either omnicient or omnipotent, and not both, because if he were then there would be no free will.

 

Accordingly, if God is omniscient, he can be either omnipotent or omnipresent, because how else could you explain the evils in the world. God knowing the dangers in life and the strife, yet not acting on them, is not benevolence.

 

Sadly, I'm not the best at explaining it in textual form, and of course the theory is predicated upon a belief in a god and said god being both masculine and benevolent.

[jay bee]

How 'bout this little triangle based on the assumption that God is benevolent:

 

If God is omnipresent and omnicient and omnipotent, there is no free choice because God controls our lives by virtue of his being all-knowing/powerful and all-present, leaving no room for true free will as God controls our lives for the better.

 

If God does NOT control our lives, then he is either omnicient or omnipotent, and not both, because if he were then there would be no free will.

 

Accordingly, if God is omniscient, he can be either omnipotent or omnipresent, because how else could you explain the evils in the world. God knowing the dangers in life and the strife, yet not acting on them, is not benevolence.

 

Sadly, I'm not the best at explaining it in textual form, and of course the theory is predicated upon a belief in a god and said god being both masculine and benevolent.

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Well actually not necessarily, god could well be all powerful and all knowing, but just chooses to not *fruitcage* with free will though he could if he wanted to?

[PlasticMag]

Then is he still benevolent?

[rizzo]

precisely Jay bee- is benevolence not allowing evil? Or is it giving humans that choice to do what they want? In my opinion, the taking away of free will is not benevolence, and the granting of it is. Therefore, God is benevolant

[jay bee]

precisely Jay bee- is benevolence not allowing evil? Or is it giving humans that choice to do what they want? In my opinion, the taking away of free will is not benevolence, and the granting of it is. Therefore, God is benevolant

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exactamondo! And the whole 'cruel to be kind' thing comes into it doesnt it

[PlasticMag]

But if gives free will, is he still all-present and all-powerful?

 

Logic dictates that if those two are true, and God is benevolent, then why are there issues in the world? Would a truly benevolent God merely be 'cruel to be kind?' What purpose would it serve?

[rizzo]

God is all-powerful and all-seeing and all everything. There are issues in the world because God chose to give humans free will and conscious thought, the one thing that distinguishes us clearly from animals. There are issues in the world because humans have created those issues. For God to intervene would mean our free will would no longer exist. As he is benevolent, then he chooses to give us free will over him sheparding us and dictating what should happen.

[jay bee]

God is all-powerful and all-seeing and all everything. There are issues in the world because God chose to give humans free will and conscious thought, the one thing that distinguishes us clearly from animals. There are issues in the world because humans have created those issues. For God to intervene would mean our free will would no longer exist. As he is benevolent, then he chooses to give us free will over him sheparding us and dictating what should happen.

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exactly

[PlasticMag]

That makes no sense. Is free will more important than human survival? That logic implies that we AREN'T better than animals, because if god made us to be better than animals, wouldn't we be also more sancrosant? Apparently not, since we're allowed to run free and savage, kind of like, well, ANIMALS.

 

And how do we know animals don't have free will or concious thought? That's full of holes... Is the life of a mouse pre-determined? Can it not conciously decide, based on what it's learned, to avoid a mousetrap?

[Sledge]

Is free will more important than human survival? Let's see: would you rather die as a result of your own actions, or live in a prison where every action you take, no matter how small, is dictated by someone else?

Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.

Words to live by?

 

[Joss]

Being a CofE christian i believe in complete and utter tolerance for all religions and beliefs. The only exceptions would be devil worship (practised by the depressed or just plain weird) and any belief that actively involves causing harm to another human being (such as those nutjobs who were allegedly importing children for ritual sacrifice).

However, i think that sometimes religion is taken too far and that some people hide behind religion so that they can carry out violent and evil acts (ie; suicide bombers and the 9/11 terrorists), in the end they only alienate the non-violent followers of their religion.