Deleted
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God
Jul 15, 2012 10:41:09 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2012 10:41:09 GMT 1
Today being Sunday it feels to me like a special day. It just happens to be the way I was brought up and it won't go away...
I very rarely attend church anymore, still less read the bible, but it still won't go away...
So much will it not go away that I find myself on this forum and elsewhere alluding to God here and there, now and then. People may prefer that I don't.
I thought that I'd start this thread so that I can 'dump' any such references here. And keep other threads uncluttered.
Other forum members are of course welcome to do the same. Those with anti feelings are just as welcome.
I've posted this in Lifestyle because I see it as a lifestyle choice like any other. It's certainly not everyone's choice so it need not be forced upon them anymore...
annon
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God
Jul 15, 2012 11:05:07 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2012 11:05:07 GMT 1
I attended a Church of England Junior school,we were taken to church for all the christian festivals,also I used to go to Sunday school and was very friendly with the lovely nuns in the convent which was near the school. In my teens I had a brief period of church attendance at a Baptist church with a school friend and ¨ was saved¨. I still think of Sunday as being a special day,one to be quiet in, but over the years have come to the conclusion that belief in god is akin to belief in fairies.There is something faintly ridiculous in praying to, and believing in an imaginary invisible being on the basis of a book of stories. There is a great deal of wickedness done in the name of a ¨God¨ also a deal of kindness. I have known people purporting to be Christians,who have been the nastiest ,most mean spirited of folk,but also some who have been the opposite.I suppose a small part of me would like to think there is an all caring creator,my brain says not.
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Deleted
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God
Jul 15, 2012 12:06:00 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2012 12:06:00 GMT 1
It seems we've had very similar upbringings, Britchick, and reached very similar conclusions...
I don't believe in The Big Book of Fairy Tales either, not in a literal sense.
Nor am I able to imagine an all-powerful Creator, in a logical sense.
They still exert a positive influence though, even though I can't understand how. It's a 'feely' thing and I just leave it at that.
At a more mundane level, it's probably the hypocrasy of the parishoners that put me off going to church. There are some really nasty, smug people out there which bring out of me a sense of hate, and I don't want to feel hate for anyone or anything, so I avoid them. Compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, yes, hate, never.
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God
Jul 15, 2012 13:08:33 GMT 1
Post by JohnP on Jul 15, 2012 13:08:33 GMT 1
I was baptised a Catholic and attended Catholic schools till the age of 11. I was not given a choice when it comes to religion, like most of us it was chosen by my parents. Looking back I consider that I was more or less brainwashed in those early years until my mid teens when I started to question what I had been taught and develop my own opinions and values.
One of the very first things I was taught was that God has no beginning and no end. This very statement is beyond human comprehension so down to blind faith. As a generally law abiding citizen all my life, the law being loosely based on the ten commandments, I would consider myself to be a Christian, but I am no longer a churchgoer except for weddings and funerals.
The final end of my belief in God as such was when I lost my dear wife to Cancer. Having nursed her and watched her destroyed slowly and painfully by this terrible disease convinced me that if there is a God he is not on the side of decent honest people and I don't think anyone will ever convince me otherwise. You have to deal with what you are dealt and live by your wits and experience. Help in this life comes from friends and other compassionate human beings, not from some superior being who may or may not watch over us. When you look at the suffering of millions of people on this planet due to famine, terror, war and evil, Can you really believe in some superior being looking over us? For me the answer is a resounding NO, but I don't believe in preaching to others or being preached to by them.
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Post by tinkerbell on Jul 15, 2012 14:48:57 GMT 1
If it comforts people to think there is a god then fine.I don't and can live happily in that belief.
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God
Jul 15, 2012 16:23:02 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2012 16:23:02 GMT 1
JohnP, I can recall in the religious teaching I had,that god gave us free will,so basically it´s down to us that there is an awful lot of misery in the world!!!! How this is supposed to pan out when,in your case you lost your loved one in awful circumstances,no one had control over that, or when children are hit by dreadful diseases.To me it´s a lot of baloney, I can see how some people turn to the big fairy in the sky at times of death or illness for comfort though,I can imagine that thinking you have something beyond misery is a great reassurance. Who knows maybe I will one day!
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newport
I'm settling in nicely
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God
Jul 15, 2012 16:37:34 GMT 1
Post by newport on Jul 15, 2012 16:37:34 GMT 1
It's sad to think that at the end of the day when they screw the lid down that's it all the struggle and worry and for what? as others have said believing in a after life gives comfort to many, and may your god be with you (courtesy of Dave Allen )
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God
Jul 15, 2012 17:26:43 GMT 1
Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2012 17:26:43 GMT 1
Yep, Britchick, a load of baloney that people still take something from, particularly at difficult times.
And newport, thanks for the Dave Allen quote...
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newport
I'm settling in nicely
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Post by newport on Jul 15, 2012 19:19:59 GMT 1
sorry i miss quoted Dave Allen but to make up for it -
A man goes to heaven, and St Peter shows him around. They go past one room, and the man asks: "Who are all those people in there?" "They are the Methodists," says St Peter. They pass another room, and the man asks the same question. "They are the Anglicans," says St Peter. As they're approaching the next room, St Peter says: "Take your shoes off and tiptoe by as quietly as you can." "Why, who's in there?" asks the man. "The Catholics," says St Peter, "and they think that they're the only ones up here."
"Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you."
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God
Jul 15, 2012 21:24:07 GMT 1
Post by <-Rinky-Dink-> on Jul 15, 2012 21:24:07 GMT 1
I don't believe in the big book of fairy tales either. I don't go to church because, as others have stated, I can't stomach the hypocrasy of it all. However, there is something in me that believes in a higher being. I can't describe it and I can't explain why... it is just something that seems right for me. As far as I can see there will always be wars and unrest in the name of religiion unless we can somehow get rid of all the different religions around the world and just accept, if it pleases, that their is one higher being ... who his sons were, or who his profits were are irrelevant. Well, for what it's worth, that's my two penny worth!
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