Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

[joecct]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

The Devil and Whittaker Chambers

https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/fi...taker-chambers

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

People remembering us, using our idioms, which we largely took from our parents, is not an afterlife as befitting a thread for religion. The tangential entanglement is, as kids say on the rink these days, weak sauce.

I thought "Thanatopsis" was required reading in secondary school....

and doesn't a religion that includes reincarnation count as a "religion"?

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Roger Ebert's blog, while he was alive, was great reading.

He wrote many times about how Alcoholics Anonymous saved his life and his career.

He also wrote about his atheism.

He found a way to reconcile the two quite neatly.

http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-jou...m-an-alcoholic

I find on YouTube that there are many videos attacking A.A. for being a cult, a religion, or a delusion. There are very few videos promoting A.A., although the program has many, many times more members than critics. A.A. has a saying: "We grow through attraction, not promotion." If you want A.A., it is there. That's how I feel. If you have problems with it, don't come. Is it a "religion?" The first three Steps are,

* Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.

* Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

* Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

The God word. The critics never quote the words "as we understood God." Nobody in A.A. cares how you understand him, and would never tell you how you should understand him. .... The important thing is not how you define a Higher Power. The important thing is that you don't consider yourself to be your own Higher Power, because your own best thinking found your bottom for you.

In another blog post, he re-emphasizes that for him, step 3 was "a Higher Power as you understand it [italics were in original]."

[St. Clown]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

I thought "Thanatopsis" was required reading in secondary school....

and doesn't a religion that includes reincarnation count as a "religion"?

I've never even heard of Thanatopsis until just now.

In no way, shape or form, did you come anywhere close to reincarnation. Having a legacy, no matter its root, is not reincarnation nor proof of an afterlife. It's simply showing that people have remembered your work, be it a singular deed or event, or a culmination of events.

[5mn_Major]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

The Devil and Whittaker Chambers

https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/fi...taker-chambers

Some feel that you can't believe in God if you don't believe in the devil in hard form. I tend towards disagreeing. That's because one or the other (God/devil) could be less concrete; Indeed, God Him/Herself doesn't seem to be physically substantive. But when some try to make the devil too substantive, I believe Christians get themselves or faith into trouble.

When some in faith project the devil on situations, they do so because see a right and wrong aspect to an outcome. Often there is in fact from every human moral aspect known...a right and wrong side to that outcome. However, sometimes its not that clear...as in its opinion...and so the projection of the devil results in at best a 'greater than thou' attitude and at worst it causes the person to be totally ostrasized. Hence even if its not a hard concept, the devil has played its role of discrediting the Word just by its mere existence.

[leswp1]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Off current topic but on thread topic- I have gone to 3 different church denominations this summer. So interesting that all, even although they are not connected, are focusing on the same way of looking at the lectionary readings or approaching things. It is like someone has a master list for how to interpret things. All of them are now focusing on inviting thru action rather than being welcoming. All of them are telling me to use God as the focus (like a bullseye) rather than me as a focus. All are preaching the focus of outreach rather than being insular (not in political terms but inviting people in).

It is like they have all gone to the same seminar on what to talk about. It isn't even like they all agree on some of the same tenets. Must be some new research that the upper echelons are reading.

The Unitarian in me is still fascinated by the sociology of faith

[LynahFan]

Some feel that you can't believe in God if you don't believe in the devil in hard form. I tend towards disagreeing.

I'm shocked - *shocked* - that you would cherry-pick the good while ignoring the bad...

[FreshFish]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Some feel that you can't believe in God if you don't believe in the devil in hard form. I tend towards disagreeing. That's because one or the other (God/devil) could be less concrete; Indeed, God Him/Herself doesn't seem to be physically substantive. But when some try to make the devil too substantive, I believe Christians get themselves or faith into trouble.

When some in faith project the devil on situations, they do so because see a right and wrong aspect to an outcome. Often there is in fact from every human moral aspect known...a right and wrong side to that outcome. However, sometimes its not that clear...as in its opinion...and so the projection of the devil results in at best a 'greater than thou' attitude and at worst it causes the person to be totally ostrasized. Hence even if its not a hard concept, the devil has played its role of discrediting the Word just by its mere existence.

It's been said that the most insidious thing the Devil has ever done is to trick people into believing that He does not exist.

I'm not quite sure I'd go that far; evil seems to be a uniquely human trait.

I do like the quote that goes something like "The only thing necessary for the triumph of Evil is that good people merely watch and do nothing about it."

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

It's been said that the most insidious thing the Devil has ever done is to trick people into believing that He does not exist.

Yes it has. By Keyser Söze.

[joecct]

Off current topic but on thread topic- I have gone to 3 different church denominations this summer. So interesting that all, even although they are not connected, are focusing on the same way of looking at the lectionary readings or approaching things. It is like someone has a master list for how to interpret things. All of them are now focusing on inviting thru action rather than being welcoming. All of them are telling me to use God as the focus (like a bullseye) rather than me as a focus. All are preaching the focus of outreach rather than being insular (not in political terms but inviting people in).

It is like they have all gone to the same seminar on what to talk about. It isn't even like they all agree on some of the same tenets. Must be some new research that the upper echelons are reading.

The Unitarian in me is still fascinated by the sociology of faith

Les - try an Anglican Ordnariate.

[burd]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Yes it has. By Keyser Söze.

Must spread.

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Another tie for best evidence for gods.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

All are preaching the focus of outreach rather than being insular (not in political terms but inviting people in).

It's just smart marketing at a time when a lot of megachurches have turned their worship services into Christian rock concerts about hope-y change-yness, in an obvious bid to appeal more to the young. Unless you had the misfortune of being born in Utah or the rural parts of the country, no one under the age of 40 wants to play dress up every Sunday morning at 8 AM, and listen to an old white guy babble on about the wicked gays and the evils of pre-martial sex.

[leswp1]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

It's just smart marketing at a time when a lot of megachurches have turned their worship services into Christian rock concerts about hope-y change-yness, in an obvious bid to appeal more to the young. Unless you had the misfortune of being born in Utah or the rural parts of the country, no one under the age of 40 wants to play dress up every Sunday morning at 8 AM, and listen to an old white guy babble on about the wicked gays and the evils of pre-martial sex.

3 dif pastors- 2 women, 1 younger guy. That must explain it.

My Synod doesn't babble about either of those to issues. They must be slackin'

[Kepler]

Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...

Off current topic but on thread topic- I have gone to 3 different church denominations this summer. So interesting that all, even although they are not connected, are focusing on the same way of looking at the lectionary readings or approaching things. It is like someone has a master list for how to interpret things. All of them are now focusing on inviting thru action rather than being welcoming. All of them are telling me to use God as the focus (like a bullseye) rather than me as a focus. All are preaching the focus of outreach rather than being insular (not in political terms but inviting people in).

It is like they have all gone to the same seminar on what to talk about. It isn't even like they all agree on some of the same tenets. Must be some new research that the upper echelons are reading.

The Unitarian in me is still fascinated by the sociology of faith

Same phenomenon, different context: a few years ago everybody in hockey started talking about "the process." I don't remember where I first heard it, maybe a Mike Schafer press conference, but from the moment I first heard somebody use the term to the moment when it was omnipresent was seemingly instant. Certainly there was some selective perception, but even so I found it striking. I wondered whether some book came out, or a Scotty Bowman type started it, but it was just as you say -- as if they did a "Norman coordinate" and then everybody was uploaded with the patch.