The big debate on EMC ( religious one )

Pretty sure it was me who said Catholic bible first I think.

Lets keep it civil please. (generic statement to all )

THIS....

This is something I can get behind. We need to start the first church of EMC. With clergy, commandments, and sound apologetics.

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Now, on to the topic.

I've seen people talking about christianity as the dominating religion in America. There are a couple things that people fail to realize when they claim this. Yes, as a whole, christianity might be the dominating religion. However, in terms of the census takers, poll collectors, and the like, christianity encompasses many different religions into that clump. Usually, these polls bring your different denominations of protestantism (Southern Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Evangelicals, Presbyterians, National Baptists of America, Pentacostals, Episcopals, and many many MANY more), Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehova's Witnesses, and Orthodox Christian.

Each sect of christianity may not see the other as truly being christian..... but that's how you get your 70% of America is christian.

How did America become predominately christian? Simply put, to quote Sir Winston Churchill, "History is written by the victors." Up until the last 100-200 years, christianity was primarily spread through conquest, much like islam is trying to do now in the Middle East.

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My biggest question for Islams...


Yes, this is a joke used. But I seriously wonder this.

Same arguement can be made towards christianity. If Jesus preached tolerance and love, how do you explain groups like the Westboro Baptists?

Most ignorant thing I have ever heard.

I can answer that I think

They aren't the the best examples for Christianity ( as the Crusades weren't either ). As Jesus warned us "Beware of false prophets" so they are some of those false prophets.

.... and that exact thing can be applied to islamic extremists.

How so?

If the majority of Muslims truly believed what the extremists believe and what some people seem to think all Muslims believe...we'd all be screwed.

Once you try to prove one thing or another right/wrong about any religion, then you have just proven that you don't understand what you preach. Religion/spiritualism revolves around belief. Beliefs cannot be right or wrong. Someone else's beliefs are not wrong because they do not align with your beliefs. Someone else's beliefs are not right because you agree with them.

Discussion is fantastic, so long as one understands the background of what they are talking about.

That is all.

For now.

Okay. So one thing straight:

There is no such thing as on or off topic in this thread. It was posted in the miscellaneous forum for a reason. The title and original post specify it being no more than a debate about religion. Politics are welcome wherever religion is as the two are permanently intertwined in an equal relationship, each one heavily affects the other. So don't tell people to stay on topic unless there is some specification that I'm missing, or you made the thread. =P

Anyways, I plan to speak my mind on the following topic: religion. There will be some politics mixed in hence my last statement.

So, should religion be allowed to be expressed on EMC?

That is entirely up to Aikar. He is the owner of the private entity whom is called "Starlis, LLC." EMC is the property of that completely private entity, and it so happens that he is both the CEO and owns 100% of the shares. (Along with max of course because that's how marriage works =3) This means that he has entire control over what can happen. I will leave that at that.
Now if I were Aikar, I would likely have a set of rules no different than his regarding religion and political opinions. Everyone deserves to express their opinion and as long as they can do it in a calm, mature way then we can have discussions. I'm not quite sure who I'm quoting here, but "A discussion is an intelligent exchange of information, an argument is a set of insults being thrown back and forth."
I probably butchered that quote really bad as far as accuracy goes, but you all get the point. And I know for a fact that after being a member for 3+ years that we have a community that is capable of acting mature enough for said discussions.

I personally am a catholic. I may not agree with every detail about everything that the church says, but I certainly fall into the catholic range. I believe that no single religion or interpretation of past events has the "afterlife" (for lack of a better term) or any Divine beings quite right. Some are more accurate than others, but no one "religion," as man has called it, is 100% correct about anything.

Some also call Muslims terrorists. Simple over-generalization.

When you use the term "Christian" are you referring to the Eastern Orthodox Church?

America has no correlation with Christianity. Although (the last time I heard) about 3/4 of the United States is some form of Christian. No source there, I'm not sure where I heard that or if it is even reliable... But anyways like I was saying I appreciate your patriotism but there is a difference between patriotic and slightly ignorant. I am not trying to insult you or your opinions in any way, but to be honest the United States has done some pretty horrible things and made some bad decisions since it has been created. The United States Washington helped create is a completely different thing than what it has turned into. I'm sure you can think of plenty of relevant examples as to why we aren't perfect off the top of your head in ten seconds flat. We're not perfect. We're human. When we strive for perfection we only get further from it.

Also wrong. Take a look at the apostles/nicene creed. (Pretty sure I spelled that wrong lol) but basically they define what someone who calls themselves catholic believes. I only mildly disagree with a single phrase in his statement.

Man, what are they teaching you all about us these days >.> when I took my class on the religions of the world it tried to define every person who was religious as a fool (and I'm pretty sure that they got sued for it lol) Anyways, as a catholic I don't believe that Mary was chosen for her freedom from sin, I believe that she was created specifically for the purpose of having no sin so that she could be pure enough to bear the child of an infinite God. It takes a lot I'd imagine. I'd like to throw in a few of the immature jokes that get used in my youth group but there is no need for this, haha. And second off I sincerely ask that you use the phrase "I believe" before coining any one faith "wrong." Just a polite suggestion. I believe that Peter was the first pope, as the pope is the head of the church. Jesus is not the head of the church as the church is the group of people that are 1. NOT divine, and 2. NOT perfect. Jesus does not fall into either category. So he is not considered the "leader" of our group as he is above that. The pope serves the purpose of a representative to the rest of the world in the name of the group of Christians who call themselves part of the "One apostolic, Roman Catholic Church."

Again, not quite true.
Personally, I don't like any of the King James versions as they are using an outdated form of the language the original scriptures were translated from.
Anyways, as a catholic I believe that purgatory is a place of waiting/cleansing if you will, you can't go from "zero to hero." I'm not sure how it all works in the end, no one does, as no one but Jesus is God to me =P Humans are finite so we cannot possibly hope to understand the infinite being that is my god. Who knows, God might even just be telling us to get along and afterwards he will bring everyone to heaven. Or maybe the opposite. There will never be a way to know except dying and I don't plan on doing that for a long time.

Some people do stupid things. The Israeli government had little control over that situation. And you should also be careful about what you call biased or unbiased, as every news source is going to be biased in some way or another. You can't stop that. You just have to determine what kind of news you like to hear. I don't pay attention to some news because they only give you the shit that comes out of the world, they paint a bad picture of humanity. Sorry about the language but I feel that it was appropriate in that sentence. Anyways, news sources are a business and they want as many people viewing the ads they show as possible so they can make the most money. So they are going to give you every story that is even remotely interesting, and unfortunately lots of those fall into the "shit that comes out of the world" as previously stated, category. It is sad but true.

I am on page three as far as quotes go as I am writing this, right as I flipped pages another one appeared... >.>

*lel*

That doesn't mean that you have an excuse to do whatever you want. God still wants us to get along, hence from Jesus "love thy neighbor…"

Please stop being ignorant. This thread is not a discussion about what's the correct interpretation of a few thousand year old Hebrew scrolls, it is a discussion about religion in general. So please refrain from comments such as that.

Same deal as the last one.
Although I am going to put up a bit of a fight here... The one that is right would most likely be the most recently translated one, and that would not be any of the three you listed.

I agree with ww2fan there.

So as of the time that I loaded page four that is all that I wish to respond to for now... If you are going to respond to me please do so in a polite, informed manner as not to offend anyone.

That's a composite image.

I read through most of this. There seems to be many people that believe that anyone that calls themselves christian or catholic share a similar or even the same views. The freedom of religion stems from the idea that you cannot limit thought. No matter what banner you throw on your religion it is impossible to explain to another fully how it is that YOU believe.

I am a christian. I believe that Christ was sent here to save us from the sins we were committing at the time. The nation of abraham, the jews. That is who he was here to cleanse the sins of. Again, in my opinion and I'm as much christian as the next person that claims such. In revelations the end times are spoken of. God will bring everyone to heaven and everyone else will be taken into him.

I see God as the base Conscience. We are all just an extension of God. Jesus even refers to himself as "A" god and to all men as gods. This isn't elaborated on by many people because it confuses the idea of monotheism to the societal constructs of how monotheism should be viewed today. Even with gods, several gods as even Jesus speaks of there is still only one "I am." If you think about the statement "I am" it is without fail the only true statement anyone can make. Literally everything is else is correlative speculation.

I AM christian. Many christians would say that I am not just after professing this quick little bit about what I believe and say that I am misinterpreting what is written or what should be. The point is moot because to me, they are misunderstanding.

To the original topic. I see no reason that religion should be censored in EMC. Experiencing and being exposed to others views and ideas be it political, religious or social is something that gives us more experience in those realms and will make us wiser to our own decisions about our reality and what we would have it be. I also see no reason that one religion should be favored since there, to me, is no such thing as a true organized religion. Social communities under the banner of a similar name perhaps. However religion, personal views and beliefs are unique to every one of us.

Edit: as far as being anti-american, most of my views and beliefs are very deeply anti-american. I do not support the Government of the United States of America in any capacity other than that of fear. The only support the USA gets out of me is by force, period. I have no allegiance to any man but only God.

See, that is a common misconception. While a belief in itself is not tangible, it can not be right or wrong. However, the foundation that belief is based upon, CAN be.

For an example, people still do, in 2015, believe that the world is flat. While the fact that they believe that may not be wrong, the fact that the world is flat... is wrong.

I believe that the views and beliefs of each Catholic depend on their origin and their church as a whole. One thing said does not speak for all Catholics.

Yeah, Voyager 1 did take many images of the solar system for the big family portrait that Carl Sagan worked so hard for on the Voyager imaging team. So it would be a composite image (and from the few wavelengths of light they probably used and combined also). However I used snip tool to get that image from the internet, so the physical file itself is just an image. Lol. Here is our planetary family composite portrait everyone.

It all depends how you define belief. The way I see it, someone might say that they believe that the world is flat, but that doesn't make it a belief. That just means that they are using the word belief incorrectly. A belief/faith, as I have seen it defined, is something not founded on or proven with fact. many of what people claim to be beliefs can in fact be proven/disproved with facts, which makes it not a belief.

Which is what you BELIEVE and very well could be wrong. There are many thought experiments you can do to prove the world is not flat but I have seen many physical experiments that would seemingly prove the world IS flat. I have never seen conclusive evidence in my life of 27 years that prove the world is or is not flat. Which brings us back to what jkjkjk said: Someone else's beliefs are not right because you agree with them.

This requires you to define facts. "Facts" are indeed beliefs.

Espousing that the majority of the world believes a fact is right because they can prove it to themselves nearly infinite times out of infinity(never infinity out of infinity) doesn't make something TRUE. Facts are not TRUTHS. they are accepted norms in our socially constructed reality that allow us to better communicate ideas with one another.