New Style of Intro

Discussion in 'Faith & Religion' started by Bobby Cole, Jan 22, 2015.

  1. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    A new forum and a new topic calls for new introductions dealing with belief in God. (In my most humble opinion)
    So, to get started, most people on the forums know me as "preacherbob," but I really like just plain "Bobby."
    In my Christian career I was more of a teacher/preacher as opposed to the standard preacher types with the teacher part as a secondary calling.

    As to the denomination, I have been called a Baptist (by ordination) and by the way I lecture I fell into a strange catagory (called by some) a, "Bapticost." It's kind of frightening really to think that a pentacost could get along with a baptist, but I do accept the description with some semblance of grace. In actuality I prefer to be known as a non-denominationalist and forget about the pretenses.

    I hope folks will give me a little break because I will rarely use the word "religion." I hate the word with a passion and will inevitably call everything by "such and such, belief," rather than the round house version I mentioned. Practically anything that a person does or believes in can all be called some sort of religion and who am I to doubt it. Even people who bomb things and rape women say they have a religion but for the life of me I cannot determine which god is in charge of those things. So, when someone says,"I'm religious" it tells me that there is some god in that persons life but very little else. It's like a person who says they like pizza but doesn't say what kind of pizza. All I know is you like to eat. What do you prefer on a pizza? What do you not like on a pizza? It's hard to invite you to a pizza party if I do not know what kind of pizza you like.

    Hopefully, this little intro might give you folks something to talk about and maybe even encourage you to introduce yourself so we can get to know each other a little better. In the mean time......God Bless
     
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  2. Allie Seay

    Allie Seay Veteran Member
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    Hello Bobby.
    I'm Allie and I absolutely agree with you that the word "religion" hardly begins to describe what I think of as a way of life enjoyed by those who go through it alongside the spirit of their beloved creator God; and so, it's impossible for me to wrap up an ongoing relationship with such a skimpy word, broad though it may seem to some in certain contexts.
    After all, even atheism might well be called a "religion"--just not by atheists themselves.:)
    I get, as well, the term "bapticostal", as the church next door to me, which is the one I attend, used to have the word "baptist" on it's sign. One day I noticed that there was a new sign and I asked a neighbor about it. She argued with me saying that there was no such thing and that the same sign as had always stood there still did.
    The next day she called me and said, "You're right. They changed the sign."
    Then she proceeded to tell me about one certain woman who kicked up a fuss about how she didn't think the church was truly all that much "baptist" and it appeared to her it had a much greater leaning towards being pentecostal. Well, that didn't really hurt anyone's feelings. The pastor just allowed as he could go with that and changed the sign so that the name of the church became simply "Trinity Praise Center" with no denominational name set forth at all.
    The fussy woman left and everyone else has been just as happy as they always had been.
    I think the woman was right, though; and the church does lean just a bit towards being pentecostal.
    Anyway, I'm glad to be here and look forward to getting to know you and all the others who happen along.
    And God bless you, too.
     
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  3. Fredrick Jones

    Fredrick Jones Veteran Member
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    Religion is anything where you believe in something that can not be proven. Athiests can not prove there is not god. A lot of athiests seem to have a hatred for religion and can be more annoying then fundamentalists.

    As long as the other person isn't bothering me I don't care what he believes in.
     
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  4. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Actually Fredrick, there are roughly 4,200 recognized religions being practiced in this wonderful world of ours.
    Literally anything that becomes part of a belief system regarding an agreeing group of people can be called a religion. Vegans have a belief system in which anything that even remotely comes from an animal is not healthy to eat. ergo: it can be called a religion. They don't but indeed if someone wanted to put a religious label on it they could. The Hindi have over 300 gods and each one of them constitutes an individual religion but the whole is Hindi......the Hindi religion.

    The thing about this topic is it can be a provable or a seemingly non-provable belief system and cannot be defined by any strict perameters. The belief in a "higher power" ie: your cat, wife, the broom in the corner, your mail person, ect can all be called the dreaded "R" word. It is part of your personal belief system and an object of faith. And, oh yes, the lack of a belief in a higher power is also a religion.......atheism. The "ism" at the end of a word means, "belief in." ergo: belief in no god.

    And yes,in part, Fredrick, I agree with you about others leaving you and I alone. It's just that when someone shoots up a school room full of kids in the name of a religion.......I get really bugged! I even get really angry when someone blows up an abortion center in the name of my personal God. That guy is religious yes, but a religious nut who is definitely not Christian and deserves whatever humanity should place upon his shoulders. These are just some thoughts that might help others in their own quest for ................I ain't gonna say that word! God Bless ya Fredrick!!
     
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  5. Michelle Stevens

    Michelle Stevens Veteran Member
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    I tend to avoid discussing religion because there have been far too many atrocities committed by extremists claiming to represent an entire religion, in the process giving a lot of good people a bad name.

    I observe the major religious holidays of my faith, more out of a sense of tradition than any real belief. I actually regard myself as an agnostic because I can't understand how God (if he exists) could allow some of the terrible things that happen in the world. Yet a part of me envies religious people for the comfort that their faith brings them.
     
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  6. Betty Johnstone

    Betty Johnstone Veteran Member
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    I am not a religious person although I was brought up Roman Catholic. I consider myself to be a good person and helpful to others but don't do it because of faith or any "religion". I do, however, commend anyone with faith in a God and am very open to listening to others talk about their beliefs as long as they aren't pushed on me.
     
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  7. Michelle Stevens

    Michelle Stevens Veteran Member
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    I have no problem with listening to what others say as long as they aren't too pushy. Thankfully I don't often meet people who try to push their views on me. I actually believe it's better to be a good person because that's what you feel is right rather than because a religion dictates what you do or don't do. Some religious people aren't really as good as they seem either.
     
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  8. Val Carey

    Val Carey Veteran Member
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    I share those views. No problem with what religion a person associates with as long as they keep it private.

    I'll state my case up front.
    I do have an interest in religion per se. Strictly from the puzzling aspect that perfectly normal and intelligent people feel they need it to function. That is something that I struggle to understand.
    I am an atheist. A real one, that simply doesn't need any supernatural causes to explain anything to do with my life or with the Universe at large. It all makes perfect sense to me without it.

    I'm not a frothing convert from some religion that disappointed me. I too detest those kind of 'atheists'.
    I simply never had a religion. Ever.
    Religion was a trivial peripheral part of society that had no impact on our family life at all other than for weddings and funerals and Church had no more meaning than did a Post Office. It was a place of business visited only when a transaction was necessary.

    We never said grace or any of that stuff. My mother read me Bible stories, as mothers did back then, however I never knew that there was supposed to be a difference between those stories or Grimms' or Aesop's. I was somewhat amazed to learn in later years that other people believed they were real, yet the others weren't.
    I was apparently baptised, also as it was the done thing and merely in ritual to fill in the registration papers rather than in belief.

    I was though taught ethics!. i.e. the difference between right and wrong, and sociably acceptable behavior versus savagery, from well before I can remember.
    I was better behaved than most of the kids I associated with irrespective of their 'religious upbringings'.
    Ethics made sense to me, the concept had been explained to me, thoroughly and logically.
    Apparently their Biblical parables didn't cut through to their understanding of what the lessons were trying to impart. Too much 'wrapping' on the ethical message and they missed the point of it, saw them only as a 'story,' and behaved accordingly.

    BTW: No, that quip in a previous post that 'atheism is a religion' is dead wrong. At least in my case. To me it is simply the ability to lead a good and ethical life without the need of supernatural supervision.
    What exactly is wrong with that?

    I don't want to murder people who need to refer to divine text books to enable them to make ethical decisions. Why would they take the view that I am 'evil' because I view ethics as a perfectly normal, and human, philosophy based upon rational thought?

    The basic rules and tenets upon which many religions were originally founded are nothing more than well thought out ethics. People over time have come to focus on the fables and tinselling of the rules to make them more palatable, or saleable, and now seem to be missing the essential reason of the existence of their 'religion' in the first place.

    e.g. The giving of gifts at Christmas is a lovely tradition and a good lesson in both giving and in gratitude. But does it need Santa to do that?
    Or Jesus? Really?
    Think about the real meaning of it which predated both of them. A midwinter time to gather together and take stock and share what people had left over with those less endowed with supplies to see them through the rest of the season. It was a time of kindness and giving which sprang from a necessity to share to ensure survival of the clan, nothing more. And let's face it, it really needs nothing more.
    We still need that ethical practice of sharing to survive as a species.

    Does the ethical thinking that allows human society and civilization to survive and prosper need martyrs and prophets and gruesome threats and mythical creative beings to enable our psyches to grasp those simple principles? I personally don't see any need for the 'packaging' at all.

    But it does fascinate me why others can't make those simple ethical decisions merely because they are right decisions, and instead need to refer to "what would ...insert deity here.... do?".
    Why can't they think and decide for themselves? Why don't they instinctively know what is the right way to live? Why do they need to be threatened with hellfire and brimstone if they don't toe the 'religious' line?
    Does that indicate that all 'religious people' are evil at heart and have to be constantly beaten back into line? Really? I don't think that either.
    So why the need for those 'tinselled up beliefs' at all???


    That was a little intense for a first foray onto the forum perhaps, but it really is a subject rarely raised on general forums and piqued my interest.
    I'll try and be a little more laidback in future. :rolleyes:;)
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Why on earth would someone have to keep quiet about their faith. Just as those who have no faith are quite free to express their non-beliefs, so then should those of faith be free to express whatever it is that they believe in.

    I understand that you don't, but think of this. If you believed that you knew something that had the power to keep others from having to suffer for eternity, what kind of a person would you be if you kept it to yourself?
     
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  10. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It amazes me that we have so many people that want to come into the religious thread, just for the point of saying they don't believe in God.
    If a topic interests you, then join in on the discussion; but when you have no interest in discussing religious viewpoints, and don't even like the topic; why bother to make a post just to say you are against something ? ? Or to tell someone it is fine if you believe in God; but don't talk about it ? (even though it is a thread to talk about God)
    If we had a thread on a forum about learning how to perform rap music; and I am sure not interested in learning that; I would simply not post in that topic, and leave it to people that do want to talk about rap music.
    Even though religion is a "hot button" topic, it doesn't make any sense to me to just post in a thread to say you are against it. No one here is trying to "push religion" on anyone as far as I can see.
    Live and let live.....
     
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  11. Val Carey

    Val Carey Veteran Member
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    I noticed that atheists were denigrated and presumed that made it okay to state my case opposing that view? It appears not.

    But okay, fine. If religion is too delicate to brook any outside views I'll just leave you to it. Knock yourselves out. Just leave we 'atheists' out of it if you forbid any input beyond your own beliefs okay???

    Tch, and stop confusing us by inferring that we are somehow included in your discussions by being mentioned, and yet obviously ... not. :cool:
     
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  12. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Actually, that is not what I was trying to express. I think that people should be able to believe---or NOT believe--in God. I don't like having religion pushed on me, and I do believe in God. I just don't see not being able to discuss things without having it become a battle of what is right or wrong to believe.
    Be welcome here, Val. Say your piece. But do expect those who do have a belief in God to defend their right to that belief; just as you defend your right not to believe.
    I am sure that a "Val Cary" will liven up the forum tremendously ! So swing your hatchet; just don't chop any heads, Val.......
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Perhaps I missed it but, until it was suggested that people of faith should keep it to themselves, I didn't see anyone suggesting that those without faith should keep quiet about it. In most cases, I am inclined to leave it up to the person who begins a thread to determine whether something is on-topic or off-topic. I don't read anything in the opening post that would suggest that someone couldn't say that they didn't believe in God, but I am quite sure that the reverse wasn't true.

    A larger degree of tolerance is to be expected in the "Hot Button Issues" section, but let's be extra careful to disagree with civility and a degree of respect for one another. I am a believer. Just what I believe, I'll probably bring up at some later date, but my beliefs only trump yours if I prove to be right in the end, but I doubt we'll be discussing that here.
     
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  14. Val Carey

    Val Carey Veteran Member
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    Ken, sorry not ignoring you just failed to notice your post.
    Could I just explain that my view of 'having the power to keep others from having to suffer for eternity' is why I'm endeavouring to explain that there is no eternity question to consider. My 'belief' is that we are no more aware of our death than we are of our impending conception.

    It is simply a crying tragedy to me that so many waste the only life they are sure of by inflicting deprivation and suffering upon themselves as though that will buy them a ticket to a better seat in the next one.
    Revel in the life you have! Appreciate it! Live this one to the best of your ability and with the best intentions and care for others as you can and you will be free of any fears awaiting in the 'afterlife'. I don't believe there is one but others are perfectly entitled to think so. But why make it all sooooo hard?

    But, I don't go door to door nor 'preach' from a soap box about my views on life and death. That's what 'religions' do.
    I only respond when others denigrate my 'atheist' practice of living by a code of ethics alone as 'evil'. I really do resent that.

    If you don't see where I'm coming from on that point that then maybe you're not thinking about it hard enough.
     
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  15. Allie Seay

    Allie Seay Veteran Member
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    Hi Val, welcome to the club. I see this isn't going to be your favorite forum, or at least not your favorite thread; but there are plenty of others to choose from. I know you'll find some you enjoy.

    Hi also to Frederick, Michelle and Betty, none of whom I had met until now.

    I think we each can meet and greet and make the most out of seniors only. It promises to be engaging.
    And fun!
    Hey! We're big kids now.:)
     
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